Sunday, December 24, 2017

Christmas Eve!


We spent most of the day at my parents' house, celebrating Christmas.

Juanito and Houston both missed the entire celebration, which was really disappointing for both of them. Houston tried really hard to believe that he wasn't sick (I kept asking him, "But are you SURE you feel good? I don't want to get people sick!) and went to church with us and went to my parents' house and took the family picture and then said, "I think i should go home." So that was sad.

The rest of us had fun opening presents and playing games and eating food and talking about all kinds of random stuff, as families tend to do. It was loud and chaotic and a bit overstimulating at times, but completely fun and happy.

And now i'm going to brag for a moment. The kids draw names to exchange presents, and Katrina got Gabriella, who loves horses and has a brand new room with lots of blank walls. So Katrina drew two horses that are so, so great, which go along with a painting that Juanito did.


Katrina, Zane, and i got home at 10:30ish and found a note from Houston on the door saying, "Wake me up when you get home, please!" So we all went up to tell him what presents he had gotten and to see how he was feeling. And he was feeling much, much better, so they all begged to open their presents of Christmas pajamas - we always open the pajamas the night before Christmas so they can wear them and wake up in their nice new jammies.

A couple of months ago, Katrina and i were walking through the store and she saw a unicorn pajama, which she immediately fell in love with and begged to get. I refused because i am mean, but then went back later (and then again to a different location because they didn't have anymore left) and bought it. And then we went back to the same store a few weeks ago and they didn't have any and she was mightily disappointed.

And so, when she opened her pajama, she was so, so, so happy. She ran and put it on and then exclaimed, "I love it SO MUCH!" and then flung herself in my lap and cried and cried because she was so happy. Awwwww.

Also, Zane has Gryffindor pajamas, complete with a robe, and Houston got some with a weeping angel, which is terrifying from the back.

 

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Two sleeps until Christmas!


On Thursday, we celebrated Christmas with Beth! Juanito made a whole delicious dinner for us - ham and mashed potatoes and corn and maybe some other delicious food. Beth brought crackers (the British kind, not the kind you eat), and we had fun all getting to do those. We opened presents. One of the presents Beth gave Houston is a tiny "finger hand," which Houston absolutely loves, and ever since he opened it, he's been going around petting people with it and trying to freak them out. We ate cake and pie and just generally had a really good time. Yay for good friends!


And speaking of good friends! Today we traveled to Lansing, where we met up with Karen D. and Amiya! They're at Karen's brother's house this weekend in Ann Arbor, so it was convenient for both of us to drive to the midway point and hang out. Yay!! We met at a pet store and walked around there for a while, then went to an old used bookstore for a while, and then got lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall-type place. We figured it would be more fun for all of the kids to be not just sitting at a table for the entire time.

Amiya is absolutely adorable. Adorable! She is super smiley and engaging and so, so cute. All of us just love her (and Karen!).


We usually open our stockings on Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve, of course, because Adam came before Eve), and since we weren't going to be home tonight, we opened them in the afternoon. A couple of months ago, all three kids were like, "Fidget spinners are the stupidest things in the world!" And then one of my girls gave me one, and i brought it home, and all of them could not stop wanting to play with it. So we got them each a fidget spinner for their stockings, and they've all been playing with them since they opened them.


And then tonight, we went to my parents' house, along with the ENTIRE FAMILY of approximately a million people (Fine. Thirty-ish. But when we're all packed in to my parents' house, it's a lot of people!) for dinner. Dinner was chaotic and loud but also delicious and fun.  And then we played Tripoly with nearly all of the original family plus several grandkids. And it was entirely fun.

So. What i'm trying to say is, it was a really fun day! Yay!

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

5 sleeps until Christmas!


The countdown to Christmas continues! 5 days an counting! Except that for us, the parties start tomorrow, and we have Christmas 4 times in the next 5 days!

We've been finishing up last minute shopping, wrapping presents, and watching Christmas movies with abandon. Yesterday we started drying some oranges, which finally finished drying tonight, so tomorrow we're going to string those up and hope they look pretty. Today we made stars out of string, and those are drying, so tomorrow we'll see if we had any success. So tomorrow will either be a day of "Yay! We made lots of cute things!" or "Wow. Both of these projects failed. Sigh." Or, i guess, one could fail and one succeed. Details.


Sunday, December 17, 2017

Baking!


Katrina has been wanting to bake Christmas cookies, and so today we made that happen. She and i spent a few hours this morning and afternoon baking and baking and baking. We made chocolate fudge cookie things, cheesecake, peanut butter cookies (ew), molasses cookies, weird poinsettia cookies that totally failed, and these cute little mice cookies. We haven't tried them all yet, so some of them might be gross, but i CAN vouch for the deliciousness of the molasses cookies and the chocolate fudge cookies. And even if the rest of them ARE disgusting, it was really fun to do all of that baking with Katrina. She's adorable and fun and is old enough to actually do a significant part of the work now. Yay!

The rest of the day we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and then went to church for Fifty6/the.element/Anthem. "It's a Wonderful Life" is my favorite Christmas movie, and after today we probably won't have a lot of movie-watching time, so i'm happy that we got to watch it before Christmas.

And finally, a hilarious snippet of conversation i had with Houston:
Houston: "What's that you're wearing? It's like a vest with sleeves...?"
Me: "Yes. So...a jacket."

In his defense, he realized the idiocy of his statement immediately after saying it, and both of us burst out laughing. 

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Game night


Tonight was game night. We started out playing Balderdash, and ... this game is not as easy to play as it was when the kids were a bit younger. All three of our kids are just really smart and really good at coming up with believable definitions. For example:

Ambeer - "The name of a certain type of stitching, usually found on pillows." - Houston
Snoggle - "The shell of a bullet that was shot out of a rifle." - Zane
Furzechat - "A holiday in Africa when all mothers get presents from their eldest sons." - Katrina

I voted for all three of those. They were a lot more believable than the actual definition of, say, saleratus, which was "baking soda." (Why would anyone EVER say "saleratus" when they could just say "baking soda"?)

Anyhow. There was much laughter and hilarity and at one point Katrina chose the word "Kaka," and when Houston wrote something down and handed it to her right away, i asked him, "Did you just write poop?" And he was all, "Noooo...." and took it back and erased his definition, and while we are not normally a family that appreciates potty humor, "poop" became incredibly funny for the rest of the night. 

Friday, December 15, 2017

Snow day + Christmas decorations


Yesterday Katrina and Zane had a snow day because ... apparently Michigan has gotten very wimpy? We had snow, but it was NOT snow-day-worthy snow. They very much enjoyed sleeping in and getting to relax and not doing anything.

We had book club (Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore) - a small group of only 5 of us was there - and we sort of talked about the book, but mostly we got off-topic a lot and just talked and laughed about everything else under the sun. So that was highly enjoyable.

Tonight we went for our annual drive-around-and-look-at-Christmas-lights drive. Yay! We stopped and got pizza and ate it in the car as we drove (a complete success - we got to start out so much earlier, which meant we could see lots and still get home before late!). Rather than hit all of the crazy, overly decorated houses, this year i looked up where there were neighborhoods and streets that were good, and we saw a lot of just pretty decorations. There was one house with decorations galore, but only just the one this year. 

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

This week, so far


We finally got snow on Sunday, and the kids (especially Zane!) were very eager to go sledding, but since we were completely busy on Sunday, we didn't make it out to sled until Monday. And actually, Monday was even better, because it had snowed a little bit more by then and the hill was perfect for sledding.



On Tuesday, Beth had a Christmas party at her house. There were hot chocolate and delicious cookies and lots of fun people and crafts to do, and we all had a great time. Katrina made approximately a million (or maybe more like 10, but still) little hats out of yarn. After her third or fourth one, she was all, "I'm just completely addicted to making these!"

Today, Katrina and Zane had dentist appointments after school. Actually, they technically started 5 minutes before school ends, and that means that it used to be that i'd pick them up 15 minutes early and we'd run over, because the dentist is 2 minutes from school. But just last month, our school changed its policy, and now you have to get your kids by 2:30 or wait until school is out at 3:15. So i picked them up at 2:30 and we just kind of hung out for half an hour. Neither of them were very upset about missing their last class, quite frankly.

We were going to make these cute little pokey balls out of paper tonight, and we started making them and they MIGHT get finished, but they took longer than i expected and we just kind of ran out of time. Katrina and Houston made an effort. Zane basically just looked at the paper and hoped it would make itself, and as soon as i told him that he really didn't HAVE to make it, he was like, "GREAT!" and never gave it another thought.

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Sunday


Continuing our "see everyone's houses decorated for Christmas" adventure, today we went to my sister Jill's house for dinner and then to my brother Jim's house for dessert.

Sundays are always just really busy on the weeks when we go to family. We go to church and then directly to dinner with the family, and then the kids and i head back to church for Fifty6/the.element/Anthem. And by the time we get home, it's 8:30 and everyone is starving because lunch was hours ago, and then they have to get to bed before long because there's school tomorrow. And i love our church and i love our family and i even really love the girls in my group at the.element, but i don't necessarily love Sundays sometimes. They're fun sometimes, but they're not exactly "restful."


Saturday, December 9, 2017

The 8th and 9th


Last night we camped out under the Christmas tree, which, now that the kids are older, mostly means that we watch Christmas movies until late into the night, until they're tired enough that they go to their beds to sleep. All except for Zane, who actually DID fall asleep on the floor and slept there all night.

This night is one of our family's favorite traditions, and I usually try to introduce at least one movie that the kids haven't seen on this night. So last night we watched The Polar Express, Frosty the Snowman, and The Grinch (the original), which they've all seen many times before. And then we watched Love Actually - Because i love this movie and really wanted to watch it with the kids, I edited out the two really inappropriate story lines completely and the bedroom scene in one of the other story lines, and the end result was a ... mostly age-appropriately appropriate movie - and Snow Globe Christmas (an absolutely ridiculous Hallmark-channel-type movie). Zane fell asleep during Love Actually. Houston went to bed half an hour into Snow Globe Christmas, and i fell asleep within 20 minutes of his leaving. Juanito and Katrina both made it to the end, though.

Tonight we went to a live nativity at a church we've never been to, and it was fun. They did the whole "walk through Bethlehem and buy something with this coin we give you," and then we went outside to have a guided tour through the Christmas story from Isaiah through to the cross. It was really cold, but otherwise was well done and sometimes amusing, and we all enjoyed it.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

8th grade band concert


Today was the 8th grade band concert (with 4 6th graders - including Zane - thrown in because they needed more trombones). They're a pretty small band, but they were so good. They were especially good considering where they were a year and a half ago, before they got their new band director. (And also considering that there were at least 2 members of the band completely not playing. The trumpeter sitting on the end was barely even faking it - he'd kind of halfheartedly hold the trumpet up near his mouth and then kind of randomly push valves. It was most amusing to watch.) Katrina practices diligently, and she just loves playing the flute. And she loved it even when she had the terrible director, but she loves it So! Much! More! now.


Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Christmas concert and also ornaments


Tonight was the 6th and 7th grade band concert. And it was ... i mean, it was 6th and 7th graders, so it wasn't awesome, but Zane was totally happy to be playing, and it was fun to get to see his band play. My mom and Beth both came to see him too, which was super nice and made him feel all special.

So that was mostly our advent activity tonight. "Mostly," because i also told them that there's a pickle hiding on the tree (per German tradition, which the kids always love when we go see the trees at Meijer Gardens), so they got to find that too. I've been sort of planning to make a pickle ornament for a few years now, and i finally did it this year.


And while i'm posting pictures of ornaments, here are just a few of our many, many, mostly homemade ornaments that i love.


The wreath with the cardinal belonged to my Grandma (my dad's mom). The red star hung on our tree when i was growing up, and the weird green yarn guy is an ornament my mom made for us when we were little - it used to pull apart and get a roll of Lifesavers for a body, i think. The sloth, owl, and Dumbledore were made by Beth. The sheep comes from Scotland. The carousel spins and makes me happy. (It was from my parents.)

I think that one of the things i love about our Christmas trees is that i can tell you where every ornament came from and the story behind it. We don't have any room for basic store-bought Christmas balls or whatever, and i am not sad about that at all.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Advent, the first post

It's December, which means that here in our house, we're fully embracing the Christmas season.

We went to my aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving, along with 3 of my siblings and their families and my parents and my cousins. It was a full house, and it was totally fun. And then, as per tradition, we went to get our Christmas tree the next day. Yay! We've always gotten the tree and set it up and decorated on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. A few years ago, we ordered a pizza and got it delivered, and the next year, the kids were all, "Are we going to get a pizza again? Brought to us in a car?!"  And with that, a new tradition of getting pizza delivered while we're decorating was begun.


We had to do all of the decorating quickly this year, because on Sunday, my entire family came to our house for dinner, and then we went to my sister Jackie's house for dessert. Next week we'll go to another sister's and my brother's houses, and then on Christmas Eve we'll celebrate at my parents' house. So by then we'll have seen all of the houses nearby.

And then December hit, which means that we got to start the Advent Calendars! Yay! I love Advent Calendars. This year we have, um...four. Two of them i made - one has an activity to do every day, and this year the other one has random facts about Christmas history and Christmas around the world. We got a Lego Advent Calendar this year (so fun!), and we have one that's online, where you open one new thing every day, and you can design snowflakes and decorate trees and do all kinds of other fun stuff. And this way the kids and i all get to open something every day.

Today's the fifth. So on the first, we started all of the calendars. On the second, we went to a craft fair. On the third, we (Katrina and i, because the boys both wanted to take naps) went to an open house at the Ford Museum, where there were trees that groups had decorated and beautiful Christmas quilts that people had made and cookies and carolers.


Yesterday we started doing Secret Santa. And today, Sinterklaas Day, the kids all put out their shoes for Sinterklaas.