Christmas Day

So this year Leah, Andrew, and Abi all knew the truth about Santa Claus. Leah found out a couple years ago, and this year we one day just decided to talk to Andrew and Abi about it. (Jacob was there but he is still too young to really know what we were talking about.) Andrew said he had already figured it out anyway, and Abi really didn't have much of a reaction. They were almost kind of excited that they knew something that a lot of their friends didn't know and they had a chance to be "sneaky" and keep a secret. And we were relieved that we could make the focus of Christmas more on Jesus' birth. 

Of course, we still gave them each one big gift from Santa, and we still put out cookies for him and played along but it was so much easier putting the gifts out not having to worry about using the right wrapping paper or handwriting to disguise Santa. There was still so much magic on Christmas morning when the kids woke up to this. This year we let them all sleep downstairs together, so they could get up and play in the morning and have access to the bathroom without seeing any surprises. They all seemed to fall asleep rather quickly and we didn't really get up and get started until around 8:20am. 

Of course, the opening is always mass chaos. They usually tear right through, occasionally stopping to see everyone else's gift or to let Brett or I open one, but usually they go, go, go.

Abi's request of Santa was an 18" American Girl doll. She got a smaller one last year and has really proven that she can take care of it and plays with it often. So we decided it was a worthy gift. She has really enjoyed dressing it and carrying it around and playing with it.

Andrew usually asks for XBox Games, and this year he got Halo. It is a bit of a mature game, but he genuinely wanted something that he could play as a 2-player game with his Dad. He has several other games that are designed for older kids, but he doesn't seem to be bothered by them, so long as his time is monitored on the games. He does love his XBox!

Jacob didn't really ask for anything specific from Santa, so he got a Paw Patrol pup with its car that he didn't already have. He almost has a whole collection of Paw Patrol pups with cars! And to feed the obsession, Aunt Karen sent him a giant, life-sized Paw Patrol tower with working parts that really had a wow factor for opening on Christmas morning! 

Jacob also added to his collection of bear counters and peg puzzles (which he calls "tall bears" because he usually plays with them together with the bear counters and they are matching colors).

Andrew got a How to Drain Your Dragon book he'd been admiring-- sort of an encyclopedia for dragons, another hobby of his. And he got some army men and army vehicles, which he can often be found lining around his room in the early mornings before school.

For some reason Jacob had also requested a Woody doll. I don't even know that he's really seen the Toy Story movie, but we managed to find an inexpensive Woody doll and Buzz to go along with him, and he acted as if that was exactly what he wanted!

We had a hard time finding Leah's request from Santa. She had chosen two different Barbie dolls that she wanted. Neither of them were less than $60 on Amazon, which is way too much for a doll. Perhaps we waited too long. Regardless, I found one of them used on Ebay and bought it, telling her the caveat that we would buy her a new one when the price went down later. I could tell she was a bit disappointed, but she is mature enough to understand how it works and she said she got plenty of other good stuff. Aunt Karen even sent some flashy new clothes!

Among Abi's other gifts were plenty of LOL dolls (her current favorite obsession-- they come with tons of tiny accessories) and clothes for her baby dolls.

Leah also requested this Lucky Fortune Collector Case. I didn't really get the attraction to it. It looks like a giant fortune cookie with some hidden jewelry inside, but she really was surprised she got it.

I always love the quiet playing of toys and the relaxed pace of Christmas Day after the gifts are all opened. It's interesting to see the things they choose to play with first and how they choose to use them. They do sometimes get a bit overwhelmed and want to just do things they're used to doing but that's understandable. May they never lose the wonder of Christmas morning!

Christmas Traditions

While last year we had at least three different "cookie decorating" parties, this year we didn't have a single one, although we had plenty of treats to eat! We ended up making our cookies for Santa two days before Christmas, just for tradition sake!

Somehow we always manage to pull together our Christmas outfits, and this year was really last minute! A friend even had to pick Leah up a dress at the mall for us when the one I ordered didn't fit. It was close! We pulled it together and managed to take some great Christmas Eve photos by our tree.

This particular 4-year-old was extremely excited about Christmas and was very wiggly. I don't know how this picture ended up not blurry, but it may be the only one!

Abi and Leah both had a stomach virus on Christmas Eve and the day before. They were still feeling a bit queasy for the Christmas Eve service at church, so the smiles may be a bit forced. It's no fun being sick when there's so many good treats to eat and fun things to do, but thankfully they were both feeling okay on Christmas Day.

 I sang with the choir at the Christmas Eve service again this year, but managed to steal a few photos
of the kids singing. Even Jacob got to participate this year-- he may not have sung (at least not on the stage-- he sang the songs at home!) but he stood there and looked cute with his hands down his pants. :)

Christmas Time is Near...

This year it seems like we cut back on a lot of our usual Christmas "busy" ness in order to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Both Andrew and Leah have discovered the truth about Santa and that makes it easier to spend less time doing secular Christmas traditions and more time focusing on Christ. We still had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories.

We love going to get our tree the day after Thanksgiving. We have been to the same tree farm for years now. Funny story: this year we got there about an hour before they opened. When we pulled up we saw a bunch of cars, including a news truck. They let us still look at the trees, but later we found out that the governor of Vermont was there at that time picking out a tree for the State House (yes, the farm is 3 hours south of the capital-- it must be that good!). We didn't see him, but it was still exciting that we were in the same place.

We got our tree home and had our snack lunch with pizza dip and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas while we decorated.

Jacob was excited he found a stocking with his name on it. He has really gotten in to the Christmas spirit this year!

And the finished product!

Everyone got new Christmas jammies and we put them on to watch The Polar Express with hot chocolate. (Why does it seem like many of our traditions are centered around movies? :)

Not Christmas-related, but the reason we didn't go see Santa come in to town on the 1st Saturday of December like we usually do: Andrew got his high red belt in taekwando. This is the last belt color before black, which he is on track to get this year in June!

We went with the kids from AWANA at church to go caroling at a few area nursing homes. The kids love it and I think the residents enjoy it, although we usually only stay a few minutes. At least the staff always seem very appreciative and we get lots of smiles.

We were given, as a gift, some tickets to go see the movie Frozen 2 when it came to Middlebury. Leah, especially was so excited, but everyone else was too. We even got free popcorn. It is a rare treat, since movies are so expensive! We happened to go when Santa was there, so we got a quick photo. No one was crying! They didn't really sit with him, either, but at least we saw him.

After Jacob finished his two giant bowls of popcorn, he declared, "I'm bored" and proceeded to get up and play with his toy cars. There were a few other people in the theater, but he was quiet enough and we were in the front row, so he didn't seem to bother anyone. Everyone else loved the movie-- including mom & dad!

This year we found a gingerbread kit that made an entire town. It had four smaller houses, so each of the kids could make their own. We always build them ahead of time so all they have to do is choose what candy they want to put on it. Their goal is usually to put as much candy on as they can, and then eat the rest!

Snowy November

We had an especially cold & blustery November this year. I think schools were closed at least twice and we missed a couple activities due to snowy road conditions. Of course the kids are always excited to get out in it, at least the first few times. This year even Jacob enjoys it! And he'll go out without me there! He might even enjoy it the most out of all the kids.

Besides snow, we also celebrated Brett's birthday in November. He wanted a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. I took the challenge and it was amazing!

 And of course, our annual Thanksgiving dinner at home around our own table. Brett cooked a delicious turkey again as we watched the parade and played games. We like to keep it low key!