musings of a christmas elf

I LOVE Christmas.  I love everything about it.  I love decorating and buying gifts for people.  I love all of the family events that occur around the time of Christmas; this years events were gingerbread men at the Gaylord Hotel, driving to look at lights, crafting, baking, and going to see Santa.  However, my favorite day is actually Christmas Eve.  I love how quiet it is since we've finished buying, wrapping, decorating, and baking.  I love the focus on Jesus.  I LOVE Christmas Eve service.

My first Christmas Eve service memories were my friend Brent singing "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" year after year.  I still think of him as I hear that song. As we got older, my youth group friends and I would always sit in the balcony and exchange gifts and would wait until midnight to say "Merry Christmas."  After B. and were in high school, we would go to his service at 7, then go to our friend Pam's house for a party and then on to my church at 11.  I don't remember many of the services though I do remember one particular service at B's church where it was silent prayer after each bible verse.  We prayed silently for sooo long that Brandon's mom leaned over and said, "I have cancer and i"m praying for my hangnail."  It was a sign of a service too long. hehe

Since moving to our home, our Christmas Eve services haven't been the same.  One year we went to the late service and got there 30 minutes early like you have to do at our home churches and we were practically alone and in the front row.  It just wasn't the same with out all of the family and friends.  After A. was born we tried the family service and got there on time.  We sat outside of the sanctuary where people had to keep going in front of us to get to the bathroom... 30ish times.  We couldn't hear anything and we didn't know any of the kids... we didn't get any closer to God from that service.

This year, was a whole new experience.  A. was in the service this year.  She was a shepherd.  According to her, there were too many girls that wanted to be angels and there weren't enough wings.  So, she got a pink shepherd shirt. She wanted to know her name.  I tried to find some names int he bible though surprisingly, I couldn't really find any, even Joseph's brothers weren't named.  Anyway, I finally just settled on some random biblical names that she didn't know.  She was Typhus.

 She was an adorable Typhus.

She was a scared to death, I don't want to wear my head piece, Typhus.  

Then, she turned into a I'm so comfortable up here, I'm going to sit down and take off my shoes Typhus. 

I was a proud mama, tearing up at the "Happy Birthday Jesus song,  that was thanking the Lord for putting us in this church. 

Only in America

We went to go see Santa a few days ago.  Not only did we go see him, but we went to Bass Pro Shops at the closest outlet mall.  Now, are you picturing the type of people that were also vising such a fine establishment?

We got there at about 4:57.  3 minutes before Santa was taking his hour long break for dinner.  We were told that we had to wait until he got back.  But, the family behind us that happened to be large and rather scary looking that were ALL wearing their Ravens jerseys did make the cut.  Apparently, one of them worked there...

We were left with 1 hour to kill before A. could climb on Santa's lap.  A. and B. had a blast.  Here are a few of their great adventures...

there just are no words for this picture

 K. and I quietly obliged them.

About 5:40, I left all of the fun to go stand in line again.  This time, the line was about 15 people deep.  It wasn't too bad but I'm glad the kids weren't standing with me.  Here are my observations...

1. A lady standing in front of me on facebook the ENTIRE time as her daughter proceeded to pull the entire display of camouflage onsies off of the shelf.

2. A shelf full of antifreeze surrounding the play area so that when A. came up she immediately ran over to the pretty pink liquid and tried to open it.

3. A woman that brought 2 different dresses for her child to wear.  I guess, she was going to force her child up there 2 times.  Said child proceeded to run around and cry the entire time and her mother was literally chasing her down the women's clothing aisle.  I don't think that she got her into either of the dresses as she missed her turn.

4. 3 teenagers who went to sit on his lap. They all wanted Kinects.

Now, on to the good...
1. A little boy who write his letter to Santa that said something like, "I want my family to get what they want and be happy."


2. My sweet little girl that was so brave that she walked right up to Santa and sat down.  She asked for Charlie Brown "night nights" and for her brother to have a good day.

Here is A. dropping her letter to Santa in the box. 

 Merry Christmas!!!

mixed messages

We've tried really hard to make this Christmas about Jesus but, we also think it's fun to make believe.  So Santa definitely has a presence.  It's a smaller presence than in most homes, but he is still here never the less.  We have read the true birth of Jesus almost every night.  My child, now has a fear of Herod.  I think she is the only child ever that before she goes to bed asks if there are monsters, ghosts, or King Herod.  Here is a brief conversation that she had tonight as Daddy was putting her to bed.
A. Are you sure that there are no ghostes, monsters, scary things, or things that go like this (she then stretches out her eyes like in imitation of an Asian person)?  -- side note: I have no idea if she is really saying she is scared of Asians and if she is, I have no idea why--

B. I promise you are safe, go to sleep.

A. Does King Herod know where I live?  Is he coming?

B. He isn't coming, he died a long time ago and he lived very far away.

A. Did he live in the north pole?

B. No, that's Santa

A. Oh, because that is really far away too.

The first clue

Maybe the first clue should have been how quiet that it was as A. was playing by herself...

Maybe the first clue should have been the beeping that signals that the refrigerator/ freezer door was left open

Maybe the first clue was that I heard A. tell baby Bella that her lunch was ready soon.

But, I was so happy that A. was playing by herself and letting me get some cleaning done that I didn't go check. See, A. is not an independent player.  She needs others and usually needs adults.  I'm sure this is a product of being in daycare since 10 weeks, being the first born, and having a mother that had such mother's guilt that I spent all my time away from work playing on the floor with her.  Now, I'm only working only 2.5 days and we've gotten rid of the cleaning lady.  So, independent play is a skill that I"m trying to foster. 

Well, maybe some ground rules are necessary...

As it turns out, I was organizing and putting away the toys from our first Christmas gift exchange (a beautiful chore to have to do, but a chore none the less) and A. was setting up an ice cream party for her dolls.  She used a spoon and put a scoop (really only a spoonful) in her toy dishes for each of her dolls.  I believe there were about 10 dolls each with their own bowls.  Now, the next step, she had to eat it for them, obviously.  When I asked her about it later, she said, "I didn't want to leave a melty mess"  Again, obviously...

The best part, I came down to this part of the party.  

She was washing and drying the dishes all by herself.  Gotta love her!!

Lucy

Who is Lucy?

Well, Lucy is anything and everything according to my 3 year old.  She names every doll, fish, and car Lucy.  Here are some of my favorite Lucy's.

1. the elf on a shelf at her school.  I asked her if everyone else calls the elf "Lucy".  She said no, only her.  The others call it Elf.  I guess that is not nearly creative enough for her.

2. The elephants that we say on our way to get a Christmas tree.  Both of them.

3. The 2 stuffed dogs that she alternates taking with her to sleep with at school.

4. Every fish in our aquarium.  But, surprisingly, the fish that we saw at Bass Pro Shops were named Carlisle.

5. Any dog that we pass on the street.

6. The eye doctor that will be checking her eyes next week.

7. The ENT that will be checking K.'s ears next week.

8. Probably all of you that read this blog.

Are you happy?

"Are you happy?"  I must hear this about 25-30 times daily.  A. asks this every time she thinks she has done something wrong.  Here are some from the past 2 days...
1. We are at the dinner table and A. decides to take the bottle that she has made for baby and put it into her glass of milk.  B. has thoroughly explained water displacement theory (seriously) to her several times.  But surprisingly, it seems a little over her head.  "Are you happy, Mommy?" 

2. 5 minutes later after we have cleaned up and gotten her a new glass of milk, A. falls off her chair onto the floor.  Her milk goes with her.  "Are you happy, Mommy?"

3. A. is making macaroni and cheese for baby which includes water in 2 tupperware containers with a few macaroni noodles.  She is dumping one container into the other because, obviously, that is necessary when making macaroni for your doll.  She dumps the entire container on the floor.  "Are you happy, Mommy?"  She then says, "I bet Daddy won't be happy, he hates wet feet."  -- true statement as wet feet are one of B.'s greatest displeasures in life.

4. We are getting ready to go to school this morning and A. would rather play with the dog and with K. than put her shoes on.  "Are you happy, Mommy." 

She sometimes takes this to the next level.  "Mommy, you're not happy, you have those lines between your eye brows."  I guess she knows "the look" though it apparently isn't very effective.

My answers are kind of difficult.  Yes, I am happy because in the grand scheme of things, I don't really care about spilled milk or shoes in a timely manner.  But, usually, she is asking the question because she knows what she is doing is not the best idea.  I tried explaining happy and frustrated at the same time but just like water displacement theory, this seems a bit over her head.  So, for now, we'll go with the simple answer of "no" and then turn my back and laugh.

How can you not be happy with these two cuties as your kids?

 

that face

Nature vs. nurture?

K. 9 months

A. 10 months

Why did both of my kids make this crazy face? 

St. Nick

Last year A. was just starting to "get" Christmas.  She knew it was a special time of year and was excited on Christmas morning.  This year, she is into it.  But, I am happy to say that she does realize that it is Jesus's birthday and her favorite Christmas thing to do is use her nativity to act out the story while I read the Christmas Story.  Last year was also our first year that we had a St. Nick's Day party.  To me, this romantic idea will let the kids know that Santa is around at Christmas time because he celebrated Jesus by giving gifts to those in need.  Over the years, he has made it his mission to give to everyone and spread God's love, just like we should.

Well, like I said, its somewhat a romantic idea for a kid to comprehend.  I spent time researching on www.stnicholascenter.org and found an abundance of traditions from different countries.  So, here was my vision of the party on Dec 6. 
1. Our friends down the street would come over and we would make "letter" cookies -- a German st. Nicholas tradition
2. We would eat a pork chop recipe that I alwo found on that website and talk about how it was food that the real st.Nicholas used to eat
3. We would read a book about the real Santa (I recommend Saint Nicholas by Julie Stiegemeyer because the rest are too old for the preschoolers)
4. We would play a game of pass the parcel aka hot potato and the winner would share the gift just like St. Nicholas would.

Here is how the night went...
1. Only one of the kiddos was interested in baking with me, the rest wanted to play with toys that we have out year round.

2. I did read the story but with about a billion "A. are you listening" throughout because she was so happy to have all of her friends that she couldn't listen (she has since read it about 13 times and I think gets the point)
3. Only A. would eat the food as it wasn't exactly kid friendly.  Though the other parents and I enjoyed it
4. We never played the game so we played it after the party.  After an obviously rigged game where A. was really confused as to why you did not want to keep the present in your lap, she reluctantly gave us each some disgusting candy that I did eat to rove a point though lets put it on the record that tootsie rolls and dots are disgusting.

So, overall, I think they all had a good time playing with their friends.  We'll keep trying on the love one another. 

9 months

My little man is now 9 months old.  He is still the most laid back baby ever.  He laughs and smiles most of the day except when A. is trying to hold him.  He is fantastic and in to everything.  Here are a few of his favorite things...

waving "hello", "good bye", "haven't seen you in a few minutes", "I'm happy"... He pretty much waves 24/7

power cords.  I think that he remembers where they are from day to day.  I am CONSTANTLY chasing him away from power cords.

Its a good thing the love of cords came at the same time as Christmas.  It makes life really easy.  hehe  Don't worry, before you call CPS, I removed him from the cord immediately after the picture

A., though he doesn't like to be held by his sister, he follows her around all day. 

I don't have pictures of these other things but...
Dog food- I think I chase him away from the dog bowl at least 15 x while I'm making dinner.  That doesn't count the other meals or the other times he is ... awake
Balloons- My dad had a mylar balloon for his birthday and K. crawled with it attached to his back for hours/ days.
 Food- my boy eats and eats and eats.  He now eats whatever we do, we just cut it up in small pieces. he even eats more adult foods... hummus, chicken stew, spaghetti, edamame.  He has eclectic taste.  However, he was only in the 25% for weight.

Things he does not like....
car seat
coats
being held to he can't crawl
lying on his back.  It is practically a magic trick to get his diaper changed.

K., I love to be your mom!! You have brought me so much happiness!!

carrying on

When B. was growing up, his mom made his advent calendar by stringing candy onto numbered ribbons and placing them in his stocking.  Christmas Eve was always a small toy.  Apparently, as b. got older, his mom said it was too much work to attach numbers to the end of each ribbon so she stopped adding them; there was then just ribbons and candy.  According to B. it was better that way.  Well, since this was our first year, we decided to do the labels.  By we, I mean that A. and I started as a team and she finished about 4 or 5 and then got bored so I finished the rest.  But, the tradition was started.  Now, someone just remind me not to have a fire in the fireplace so we don't have melted chocolate all over the stockings!

adding candy to ribbons

we had to use reese's cups and pink, green, and blue ribbon.  Her only requests

the best part, dumping the candy into the stocking

adding stickers onto the number tags

the finished product

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the polygamist

My little one is still in a marriage phase.  She has been talking about marrying daddy for weeks now.  So, today, she dressed up, made her bouquet, and surprised Daddy when he got home from work.  She could NOT wait until he got home.  Finally, he got here and she ran upstairs to get her beautiful white dress (courtesy of my 5th grade teacher, Ms. Moore) before he knew what was happening.  Here is my little bride surprising her daddy 

Her fantastic daddy then went upstairs and got on his groom clothes.  Here is their ceremony

She then wanted a party.  It was a movie party where they toasted and then watched the movie of the wedding on the computer.  Brandon had red wine, A. had grape juice.  A. didn't spill on her white dress.  B. spilled on his suit.  You can't take him anywhere, even his wedding to a 3 year old.