Other Christmas-y Stuff

** We had a Christmas party at my Mom's in the new barn that Todd built.  A warm fire, yummy food, Christmas music and almost all the siblings together.... it was quite nice.  Only Keir and Jess and Brook's two boys weren't able to come.

Can you see the three white-tailed doe over Chloe's head??

 

** In addition to the party at moms, the kids got to hang out with their friends at a couple Christmas parties too. This was the first year Chloe went somewhere without us and she thoroughly enjoyed herself.  And Evan, who used to be so hesitant to separate from us, was jumping at the chance to go -- such growth all in their own time.

** We have a small stack of Christmas books we really like and read every year.  Some of them surprise me since we don't do the Santa thing, but Santa stories are tradition :-)

Our favorites (in case you were interested):
   The Night Before Christmas
   Rudolph
   Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree
   Harvey Slumfenberger's Christmas Present
   Christmas -- Peter Spier wordless book
   How the Grinch Stole Christmas
   Apple Tree Christmas



** One frigidly cold evening was spent looking at Christmas lights around town.  We visited a few of our local favorites and drove out to see a few more notable ones in the county.

Our favorite house -- and it's only two blocks away!

We get out of the car even when it's 17 degrees and very windy.  We're tough like that.

Our friends recommended us to check out a display with two houses on a huge corner lot with both yards and houses decked out.

Outside to check out lights again.  Tough, I tell you.  My teeth were chattering!

The side and back yards were absolutely mind-boggling -- so beautiful and not done justice in photos.

** The kids have been playing Action Figures and Horses in their room since Christmas day.  They have this super elaborate setup that gets paused and un-paused all day long. 

This is actually a pre-Christmas photo.  They wanted to be able to play here right away with any new toys!

Chloe has painted and colored during her breaks from playing with Evan.  He spends his free time learning his new transformers -- really complicated ones -- and building lego things.  They also come out for food :-)



** Our Christmas traditions have never centered around TV or movies but there are a few we like to include if time allows for the kids -- Charlie Brown, Rudolph, The Grinch (cartoon), and Elf (which I edit for them with the mute button).  Chloe got the movie Home Alone for a gift this year from Uncle Zak, so we (hesitantly) previewed it and figured out how to make it work for us.  We did end up watching it with about 20 muted moments and one close-your-eyes moment.  Oh, and we spent about a week leading up to it talking about the violence and movie magic and stuntmen... all this for a movie.  All that is to say, that night after we had watched it, both kids complained of not being able to sleep because of scary/disturbing images in their minds.  Nice.  So, we prayed with them and tucked them in finally at 10pm!  We will NOT be watching that one again anytime soon.