A little more Christmas

This is a little dark, but I thought I put it up here anyhow.

Silent Blog... Now with words!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas eve started with a nativity put on by the children of the church that we've been attending.  Julia was a shepherd.  Grant was the innkeeper.  He had two lines and performed them with conviction.  There was NO room at the inn!
This was the first Christmas that we've attended at our new church, and as you know, each church approaches things in their own way, so when they handed out candles to the adults and Glow sticks to the children, the kids hadn't been pre-warned about proper glow stick/church behavior.  For a brief moment, Grant and Julia turned "Silent Night" into "Star Wars Revenge".  Well... they did look like mini light sabers, so what's a kid to do.  They were much better behaved when I traded my candle for one of their glow sticks.  The responsibility of holding an actual flame calmed them down.  

This was the scene in the car on our way home.  Mini light sabers swinging all over the place.

Grant and Julia modeling their Christmas eve jammies.

Here Quincy is checking out her gift from Julia, Christmasopoly. 

Julia is holding up the gift that Quincy made for her, a little sock doll.

This may be one of Kevin's favorite gifts... chips ahoy and cream soda from Quincy.

An erector set to keep Grant busy.

Quincy playing with Julia's lap harp, the worlds easiest instrument.  We've all taken turns with it and found that we are all amazing musicians!

Grant and Julia had grown out of their old bikes so new ones were in order.  Rather than putting them beside the tree, we hid them elsewhere.  

After all the presents were opened, I looked at Grant and sternly reminded him that he didn't get his chores done earlier and needed to finish the laundry.  His face dropped.  "But it's Christmas!", he said.

"But there's laundry to do and you didn't get it done yesterday.", I replied. 

He shuffled off to the laundry room, opened the door and stood there trying to figure out how to get past the bike to empty the dryer.  I could practically hear his confusion.  It wasn't until I started laughing that the light bulb went off and he said, "OH!!! a bike!!" and started laughing at himself!

I love that kid.

A Day Out

Yesterday, the boys went to a football game (Navy lost :o( ), Quincy stayed home and wrapped presents while watching a silly Christmas movie on Lifetime, and Julia and I went skating.

This was Julia's first time on skates, but she did great!

She didn't spend all of her time on the wall. She managed to get around people and skate on her own quite a bit and only fell down five times!

(She was counting, I wasn't.)

I haven't been skating in years, so I was a little worried that I wouldn't remember, but it does come back to you. I used Julia as an excuse to stay near the wall at first, but I soon found my skating feet and did quite well. Now, if only I had my own skates, those rentals were a little pinchy!

After skating, we went out for hot chocolate and chicken noodle soup, then we visited this lovely gingerbread house display. I think Julia came home with some ideas for next year.

The messiness of Christmas

Sometimes even the messiness of Christmas can be pretty.

Bits and bobs left over from present wrapping, little children covered in sugary icing, craft tables full of scraps and string, these things can be beautiful if you look at them in the right light.

Don't let the little messes stress you out this Christmas.

Christmas Crafts

I found a tutorial for this project a couple of weeks ago over at That Artist Woman's blog. I loved the look of it and didn't find it too intimidating, so we decided to give it a try. I was so involve in the project that I forgot to take pictures until mine was done.

Quincy decided that mixed media wasn't her thing and used the cut out shapes as templates for her to trace, then she painted Mary, Joseph and Jesus onto the picture.

Julia's and Grant's

Quincy's and Mine!

It was a nice break from the norm and lots and lots of fun.

A special thanks to That Artist Woman for posting the tutorial.

Gingerbread houses that complete themselves

I have never really liked making gingerbread houses, but I somehow started this tradition at my house. If we didn't make them, the kids would be disappointed. Fortunately, they are getting old enough that they can do most of it on their own. Quincy helped with some of the harder parts and I just took pictures and offered encouragement as they worked. Yay!!

Holiday Happenings

So many, many fun things to take part in at this time of year.

Here's just a glimpse of what we've been doing this week.

Grant and Quincy had a piano recital in the local mall right in front of the Sears. The piano was placed right between the escalators, so people were going up and down, passing by while they shopped. It was a noisy, but fun and unique experience for them.

Later that day, Dan took the kids to the neighborhood's annual "sleigh" ride. The horses toted them around while teens from the high school chorus led them in singing Christmas songs. I was told they even took requests.

On Sunday, Julia and I stood in front of our neighbor's house waiting for Santa to come by on the firetruck. Boy! Is Santa ever noisy! Because we were first on his route, he took the time to get off of the truck and visit with the girls. After that, he climbed up to the top of the truck and completed his rounds from up there.

When I was little, Santa would come by our house on a firetruck. I remember that he gave out HUGE candy canes. This Santa let the girls pick from his bag, so Julia scored a reese's cup, which (in her world) is even better than a candy cane.

Julia's word of the day

MOMENTUM

This picture is about momentum because when you throw a bowling ball the harder you throw it, the more momentum it has. If it has a lot of momentum it goes really fast and hits all the pins. (As long as you throw it in the right direction.)

One time, on my very last turn, a little kid in the other lane accidentally threw his ball into my lane and hit a pin! I was very disappointed that he took my last turn, but at least he hit a pin down and didn't throw it into the gutter.

-Julia

The Burgermeister is Back!

"As is proper! "

No Christmas is complete at our house without the Burgermeister. He's one of our favorite Christmas villains, up there with the Heat Miser, Mr. Freeze and, of course, Scrooge. Those guys are fun too, but none of them get quoted as often as Herr Burgermeister Meisterburger.

You are obviously a nonconformist and a rebel!

"Toys are hereby declared illegal, immoral, unlawful AND anyone found with a toy in his possession will be placed under arrest and thrown in the dungeon. "
I know... not exactly cheery, but Santa outsmarts him every time and the burgermeister rule doesn't last forever. :o)





"Ooooooouuuuuuu, I've been bamboozled! "

Country of the Day - China

Grant's Country of the Day is:
China!

Editor's note (aka Mom): For a couple of weeks, Grant has been finding the country of the day by spinning the globe and letting his finger fall randomly on a country. Afterward, he looks up the flag and sets it as our computer's backdrop. I suggested that he blog it, so here it is.

Julia has plans in the works for a word of the day.

A Quick Snapshot

We've been keeping ourselves pretty busy here with all the Christmas preparations. I've finally broken out Beth's sewing machine and it has been holding up well. (I'm always afraid that they'll break... I'm terrible on sewing machines.) I've made some headway on all the handmade Christmas gifts and feel pretty good about it, but there are a couple of big projects still hanging over my head. Hopefully, I'll be able to get those done soon. (Crossing fingers!) I haven't had much time to take pictures, so Julia has taken over. This is what she sees...

Lots and lots of me at the sewing machine. (This is a little sneak peek for one of you.)

We went to Cracker Barrel the other day and Julia found these snowman glasses to add to our collection.

Our miniature Christmas village. Grant and Julia take turns setting it up differently every day.

Christmas thoughts

The kids were so excited when the tree went up that they spent many hours taking pictures of their favorite ornaments. Unfortunately, most of the pics were too blurry to share.

My tree is a mish mosh of everything and anything that can be put on a tree. Baby shoes, pretty package toppers, old handmade ornaments from my childhood and the kids, souveniers from our travels... a regular time capsule of our lives. Whenever we take out the ornaments, it becomes a trip down memory lane.

I used to stress so much when the kids wanted to help decorate. Everything had to go in just the right place and heaven forbid if they put two of the same ornaments next to each other! Over the last couple of years, I've noticed that I've mellowed quite a bit about all that. This year, they did most of the decorating for me. That was nice. If I really didn't like where something was, it could always be moved and the kids have figured out some of the do's and don'ts. I still reserve the right to be the only one to hang icicles and they have to be straight!

Look! It's my favorite decoration!