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.

The Best Day Ever :: Part 2

 With Christmas music playing all day, we settled into our morning to hang out and enjoy new things together.

Todd and Evan figured out how to transform three new Transformers and played for a bit with the AT-ST walker -- its moving legs were the hit of the morning :-)  Evan also put together his model Jeep from Chloe.

Chloe spent a while playing with her new animals -- dressing them up and setting them up in her bedroom.   Then she and I colored together on the couch for a really long time.  She got a new bird coloring book and a lap desk to prevent all those neck and back cramps she gets from hours on the floor hunched over!

She also spent quite a while learning the new cassettes -- they're small and rather cute, so she really likes them.

Her Playmobil stable was the anchor for a lovely horse pasture set-up that seemed to grow bigger with each little change in our storyline.  Chloe has always been so interesting to play with!

By mid-day Todd was able to get Gramma on Skype for the kids to open her gifts.  Photos don't ever turn out great downstairs, but the kids loved everything -- Evan was thrilled to get a woodburning kit and Chloe was goggle-eyed at all her "true artist" supplies.  They played with their light-up RC cars while Gramma watched and chatted with all of us. 

Back upstairs, Chloe got right to work on some new bracelets and other crafty stuff, while Evan built Legos and went back to his new RC car.  It was non-stop playing (and snuggling on the couch) all the way up till bedtime.

Tucking the kids into bed, they both declared this the best day ever and the best Christmas ever.  Another blessed year with our beautiful family.  The best indeed.

Merry Christmas!!

The Best Day Ever :: Part 1

The kids LOVED Christmas this year -- and every year ;-)

These two bought each other secret presents this year and were so eager to see how much the other loved the thing they gave.....

When you are opening gifts that are the same thing, it's best not to peak at each other lest either of you spoil the surprise :-)

After tearing through stocking stuff which was mostly food, they decided to open gifts from Granny and Grandpa plus a couple from Uncle Zak and Aunt Kaylan.

Todd had this sweet surprise planned for Evan (and Chloe too since she likes this stuff):  His newest Transformer, Soundwave and all the cassettes, were displayed on the coffee table with a pile of little packages from "Santimus Prime."  Evan got such a kick out of this and started opening the little presents.

As he unwrapped the new cassette transformers and played with each of them, Chloe laid into her gifts like a pro.

We got her a Playmobil stable and new horses to go with it, a horse jewelry box that plays Home on the Range (her favorite song), and a pile of Schliech rabbits and parrots (and two horses)..... plus other fun things....


All that time, Evan was contentedly busy with those cassettes.  With a little prodding from Chloe he was ready to move on.  I love this little quirk of his -- he opens his gifts on his own time, not under pressure.

We got him mostly Transformers, some more Star Wars stuff and other fun things.... The older he gets the more expensive his things get!

So by then the sun was up, the kids moved on to playing contentedly, and Ruby settled in to a pile of tissue paper for the day.

Another great Christmas morning!!

{I will do a second post tomorrow since there were so many photos.}

Hiding Her Smile

Between Chloe not having any front teeth right now and Evan's top lip being all swollen up from his tooth nearly going through it, there was an entire week here that both the kids were hiding their real smiles from me.  I'm pretty used to it with Chloe, but both of them.... arg.

Evan's lip is now back to normal, just lightly bruised, but Chloe just clamps shut when it's picture time.  I guess that big space makes smiling difficult.

Last week we were doing a brief photo shoot for some Christmas pictures for Gramma.  Chloe was hiding her real smile again and was adamant about Gramma only seeing her closed-mouth smile.  It still turned out very pretty.

But then, I asked her if I could just take a toothless smile just for me to have.....
and unbelievably she agreed!!