Capturing Christmas

When we took our boys shopping a couple of weeks ago at the dollar store it was a lot of fun to see what they chose for each other and also what they chose for us. Brett couldn't wait for me to open my presents from my boys. My older boys picked the perfect gift... Milky Way chocolate bars (my favorite). Smiley picked out a candy necklace for me.

I think I'll wear it to church on Sunday just in case I get hungry.

At the dollar store Giggles picked out a toy motorcycle for Smiley thinking that Smiley would love it. Unfortunately, come Christmas morning, Smiley opened the present and tossed it aside saying he hated it because it had purple on it.

This happens all too often. That moment when your child opens a present and says something like, "that's not what I wanted," or "I didn't ask for that!" and you remember that you forgot to have

THE TALK

Where you remind your kids to be polite no matter what you get. So on the way to grandma's house after opening presents at home we had THE TALK in the car.

Then Sheriff opened his present from his grandma. I managed to capture the look on Sheriff's face when he opened his present from his grandma and grandpa. Keep in mind that he wasn't rude. He opened the wrapping paper and discovered this...

I saw the look on his face as he showed me what he got for Christmas. He didn't say anything and I was confused momentarily as I wondered why Roxy and John gave him Christmas lights. Then a light when on in my head and I smiled and said, "open the box."

He opened the box and to his surprise (and I'm sure relief) he discovered an iTunes gift card.

April was not as fortunate as Sheriff however. Her present didn't have a surprising happy ending. Her morning started out weird and ended weird. You're welcome! Her first present of the morning was a purple... well, we're not sure WHAT it is.

And thanks to the string pull I made sure that her day ended with another weird creature for her to take home (I'm sure she'll prank me with it later).

Of course April did not forget me. She found a hideous nutcracker at the D.I. to bring horror to my Christmas morning as well as a musical sock monkey that my kids can't help but activate every time they pass him. Thanks April!

So hopefully next year I will remember to have THE TALK before Christmas morning. I also hope I can find suitable friends for the purple and gold monsters. :)

Related to Ebenezer Scrooge?

The last few weeks Brett has been groaning about the approach of Christmas. Not like I have been groaning about the approach of Christmas. I wish I had more time to get ready. I LOVE Christmas. I love the lights, the music, the smell of cookies (and the taste of cookies), and I especially love to watch my kids open their presents on Christmas morning.

I think perhaps that is where my husband and I differ. He has been dreading Christmas morning probably BECAUSE of the presents. I am instruction-challenged which in essence means I can't put things together. My seven-year old can read and follow instructions with more ease and skill than I can. No exaggeration. I'm serious.

So with four boys and all their toys and accompanying instructions I suppose that Christmas morning becomes somewhat of an instruction overload and therefore a nightmare for him as boys clamor for immediate help from the only parent who can give it.

Last night Brett said to me, "we need to do my family history." I gave him a strange look because I know for a fact that his grandmother has already done extensive family history in his family. I didn't quite understand what he meant. He elaborated. "I'm pretty sure I must be related to Ebenezer Scrooge."

I laughed. "You know he's a fictional character right?" I replied.

Still... I had better look through the toys a second time and make sure there aren't too complicated or I might have a revolt on my hands come Christmas morning.

I Survived... Did you?

Despite our two hour wait for Santa we survived to tell the tale. That's how I feel about much of 2010. I survived. I'm much more hopeful about 2011 though. My sisters keep trying to convince me that turning 40 is great but I still hated it. It didn't help that the other week I had someone ask me when they saw me with my foster-daughter if I was a grandma. What?!? Thanks a lot! I hate 40. (for those of you who didn't hear the news... our foster-daughter who left in March of last year returned to us on December 9th - Yeah!!!!)

Despite a two-week intestinal flu during the month of December I managed to pull everything together at the last minute and recovery in time for Christmas. That was a relief not only for present buying and wrapping but also in time to enjoy Christmas dinner. It would have been a tragedy to miss the turkey, gravy and best of all... my sister's stuffing!

Two of my kids confessed that this was the "best Christmas ever!" It really was a great Christmas.



Any Christmas is great when my sister and her family come to stay with us. I dread the day when her kids grow old enough to have families of their own and when she will decide to stay home and have Christmas with them at her house. I am already trying to convince my nephews now that when they get married they will definitely still want to come to my house for Christmas because that is TRADITION.

Thank goodness I did all my shopping for the string pull before I got sick. The string pull is our family Christmas game where you pull on a string and you never know what you will find in the bag on the other end of the string.
It could be something good like a bag of Ghiardelli chocolates or something silly like a pink hat from the dollar store.
It could even be money in an envelope. We had a lot of fun with the string pull this year with Pirate gear, an army hat and Franken-monkey making appearances.


My sister was supposed to end up with the Franken-monkey yet somehow with all of the trading at the end of the string pull it went home with my mother-in-law to go in her arcade "claw" machine with lots of other stuffed animals that she received for Christmas this year.

Unfortunately my boys went over to their grandma's and played the claw machine and as luck would have it Sheriff used the claw and pulled Franken-monkey out. (it wasn't really luck because he REALLY wanted the Franken-monkey). So much for my evil plan. It bit me in the you-know-what.

Of course we mustn't forget the current sock monkey war going on between April and myself. You already know about Franken-monkey but I also gave her a whole sock monkey ensemble and another sock monkey tied onto the outside of a gift bag for her and Drew. That makes a total of 5 sock monkeys for Christmas this year. April gave me a sock monkey candy jar and two candy dishes but of course she also hid a sock monkey reindeer and sock monkey on my tree at the beginning of December so that also takes her up to 5. Rats! It is a tie. Of course I hid one of her sock monkeys in her backpacks to take home when she left so that gives me 6! Yeah!!!!! She vows she will get me back. I believe it.





The best part of Christmas this year though was not the presents but to have our little foster-daughter back with us. She went back to her birth-father in March and in December she returned. Of course as foster parenting goes we don't count on it being permanent but we are enjoying her company while we have it. She is a beautiful 2-year-old now with a strong personality and our boys continue to shower her with love and attention. She, in turn, entertains them and gives them hugs and smiles. So although it was rough going for us for most of 2010 as we missed her terribly, it ended on a positive note to have her back at the end. Our Christmas gift.

More Christmas Traditions

As December races by we have already experienced two more of our favorite holiday traditions.

My sister and I love attending the Festival of Trees each year on bid night and marveling at how much people bid on the various items from centerpieces to gingerbread houses to small, medium and large trees. We gasp in delight

(and sometimes shock)





at the items on display and every so often we place a bid. This year's shocker items:



Although truth be told I didn't think anyone would buy them and so I went back during the week to see if one was still available so I could purchase it for my sister to put under the tree for her for Christmas. Can you believe they were both SOLD? Go figure. I guess there really IS a market for trolls and bikini frogs. Who knew?

Most of the time we are outbid but once in a blue moon we come out the winner. This year I won a robot:


(if you are asking yourself "why would she buy a robot???? it was for Brett... I know my husband well.)

I also bought a gingerbread house for the extended family Christmas Eve dinner:

My boys love making their own gingerbread houses at grandma's. They went there this past Thursday. They enjoyed spaghetti dinner, decorated a graham cracker house (while sampling some of the candies just to be sure they were the right choices) and watched a Christmas movie with popcorn and pop. They were sufficiently stuffed and Giggles even complained of a tummy ache so I know he helped himself to plenty of treats along the way while I shopped for Christmas items. The result:




Thanks to Grandma the kids will be well supplied with treats for the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas.

Tree trimming

I just don't know how we will make it until Christmas. The boys are already sooooo excited and it isn't even December 1st. That is probably my fault. I made the mistake of putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. What was I thinking? I was thinking... hey, take advantage of the fact that Brett has the day off. Have him get all the Christmas stuff out so you can put the tree up and decorate the house.

With all the wildness I am seeing in my kids I am seriously reconsidering my decision. Next year I'm thinking the tree will go up December 24th.

That being said, decorating the tree has become a favorite tradition in our home. I'm not sure why the boys get so excited about it but they do. Maybe they love seeing the ornaments they have made in years past being put on the tree, or the fact that they actually get to touch something that is named "decoration" (in our home the word decoration is synonymous with DON'T TOUCH!).
Our tree is not a fancy tree but a hodge podge mixture of decorations from my childhood, gifts from neighbors, and ornaments the boys have made.

But when the tree is trimmed we all stand back and admire its beauty and take pride in our work.

I take pride in the fact that we made it through the process without any bloody noses or time outs. Whew! Now if I can only get all of the stockings finished in time for Christmas....

Surviving the Holidays

Yes I managed to make it through Christmas and New Years'. The kids had a blast opening presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.


They were also able to dig into the Gingerbread house that I had purchased at a fundraiser. The size of the gingerbread house had all of kids eyes popping out of their heads (we had a big family dinner on Christmas Eve). I think they had more fun breaking it apart than eating though and it made a huge mess.
I might rethink buying the biggest house idea and go for something smaller with lots of candy on it. Food for thought.

We missed my sister and her family as she was sick with a deadly sinus infection. Can sinus infections be deadly? If not deadly then at least voice changing as she sounded like a man when we spoke on the phone. They were sorely missed for Christmas but she and her husband still made it up a few days later for which I'm grateful.

Now I just have to survive the kids being off-track after all the Christmas hype.

Help!!!!

New Traditions

Christmas is full of traditions and this year is no exception. We decorated our tree as soon as was socially acceptable. We visited Santa to tell him all of our wishes for Christmas gifts. We have made neighbor treats and delivered most of them. We are in the process of watching every Christmas special imaginable (and enjoying the neighbor treats delivered to us).

This year I'm hoping I have started a new tradition... we'll see how it goes. My sister and I went to The Festival of Trees and after bidding and failing to obtain a few items (one I lost by $5.00 in silent auction). I moved on to the gingerbread section of the festival and got this wild idea to buy a GIGANTIC gingerbread house. To my surprise I won the bid. I wish I had a picture of the house but I failed to bring a camera with a charged battery with me to the festival... and in my wisdom I decided to keep the huge gingerbread house at my mother-in-law's house.

Having the house at her place inspired her, however, to revive her tradition of making graham cracker houses with the grandkids. My kids went over on Monday night and this is what they have to show for their efforts....

Merry Christmas!!

My Christmas miracle was that I didn't have to take my four year old to get stitches for his lip.  The day before Christmas was full of boys fighting with each other.  Three weeks of being off-track and too much time together with too many snow storms is a toxic combination.  I could hear something going on downstairs but was 5 seconds too late in intervening when the wailing began.  My four-year old came upstairs with blood coming out of his lip and accusing the six-year old of kicking him in the face.  When asked why he did it??? the reply.... "because he wouldn't play with me".  Do you think he wants to play with you NOW????? 

But Christmas morning dawned and the fighting had ceased.  Excitement had set in as boys opened presents, 

we had our traditional steak breakfast, 

then as I prepared to put the turkey in the oven...in horror I discovered I had 3 inches of tin foil left but my faithful friend was willing to lend.  I gave Brett the task to get it from next door but when he looked out the window at the blizzard he palmed it off on his oldest son who didn't make it to the end of the truck before returning to the warm house.  

So Brett had to go anyways...

Brett received a traditional remote control toy from his dad, 

the car got stuck in our driveway when we got home...

some kids got stuck too...

Brett cleaned off the driveway...

and was horrified to discover that he would have to do it again!!!

The next day the boys took advantage of all the snow and their snowman kit while I went into the doctor to see if my nagging sore throat was strep.  No strep but we ended up with a cute snowman.