Christmas Day 2013

We woke up on Christmas morning at Aunt Deb's house and kept the kids occupied in our room downstairs for almost an hour until the rest of the house was awake.  By then, the girls were very anxious to see what Santa had brought them!

 

Our little family on in our pajamas on Christmas morning:

Sophia received some chapstick in her stocking and had to test it immediately!

This boy was all smiles and waves for us:

The girls helped Jack open his stocking items:

Jack got a new hat from Santa (thank goodness because Momma lost his Spiderman one in Target the week before Christmas!):

Jack loved his new tool bench and set to work doing a little hammering right away:

Santa's big gift to Sam was a Doc McStuffins check-up center.  Sam squealed!

The sacred treasure chest.  This is all that Samantha talked about prior to Christmas and all that she asked Santa for.  Luckily Santa listened to her request (even though she announced on Christmas morning that she wanted a bigger one.  Since then, she has realized that this one is the perfect size to haul around with her "treasures" in it).

My little man in front of the Christmas tree.  He is on the verge of sitting up on his own, but still topples to the side once in the while.

Jack received a sippy cup in his stocking and attempted to use it for the first time later that day.  He completely understands the concept!

Once we were back at home (albeit with no real power yet), I told Sam that I would help put together her check-up center.  Usually, there is an unspoken rule in our household that the engineer (aka Steve) does these kind of jobs.  But, he had to leave for work that morning, so I kindly obliged.  And I did it successfully!

Overall, while Christmas did not go exactly as I had envisioned it, it was still a nice time with our family and it made for a memorable holiday season!

A Christmas to Remember

A tremendous ice storm moved into our area on the night of December 21st this year.  Large branches and trees were down all around us (from the heavy ice) and we lost our power.  Steve and I were both up in the middle of the night (after being awakened from our smoke alarms going off), so we were able to prepare a little bit for the morning that was ahead of us.  Two hours after the kids had awakened, it was obvious that I just needed to get us out of the house -- Steve was working feverishly to get a small generator going, but with the inability to run water or the furnace and with no good way to heat Jack's food (his baby food is frozen in ice cubes in the freezer), I packed the kids and myself up and headed to my parents' house.  They had power for the time being.

In the middle of the night on the 22nd, my parents lost power at their house, as well.  And our power had not been restored yet.  After a couple of mini-breakdowns and wondering how I was going to pull this holiday off, Steve's sister offered for us to come to their house.  I gladly seized the opportunity.

The original plan was to celebrate Christmas Eve AT MY HOUSE with Steve's family and Christmas Day AT MY HOUSE with my family.  I had meals planned and a few presents to still wrap, but I had to re-evaluate everything.  Instead, we just celebrated Christmas Eve at Steve's sister's house (we still did the meal; we just prepared it at her house instead).  Santa came there on Christmas morning and we canceled Christmas Day with my family and just stayed at Deb's. 

At 9 pm on Christmas Eve, we received word from one of our neighbors that the power had come back on at our house.  To me, it was a Christmas miracle!  But, all of our presents had been brought to Deb's house and we were going to continue with our new plan.  It turns out that that was a good idea because the power went back out again in the middle of the morning on Christmas Day!

We heard that it came back on in the afternoon, so we packed up both vehicles (to the max) with opened gifts, sleeping bags, pillows, suitcases, left-over food and the kids and headed home at 7 pm on Christmas night.  I was anxious to get the kids home and in bed and then to try and restore a little order to my house before crashing for the night.  Imagine our surprise when we came home to a house that was STILL without power!  Yes, it was a low-point for me.

Luckily, we were able to run the generator (for running water and some electricity) throughout the next day until our power was finally -- and officially -- restored on the night of the 26th.  We kept a fire going in the fireplace for some warmth and we managed to make the best of it.  I have never been so happy as I was when I was able to do loads of laundry and clean up my house for the first time in a full week!


Christmas Eve

Christmas Catherine managed to make her final appearance at Aunt Deb's house of Christmas Eve morning and she brought the kids a last little surprise: some new shirts!

Finding a new hanging spot for our stockings at Aunt Deb's house:

Steve set to work making meatballs for our spaghetti dinner that night:

Eventually, Sophia just needed to take a little rest.  It's hard work preparing for a night of festivities.

Uncle Dennis showed the girls where Santa had already been and where he was traveling to next.  They were SO intrigued.

A quick photo of my little ones before we began exchanging gifts that night:

Stan wrapped several gifts that Barb had purchased for the kids earlier this year.  He even wrote on the tags that they were from Grandma.  It was definitely a special thing.  For that reason, Sam absolutely treasures this little bear.

Jack loved playing with the bows:

The excitement on Sophia's face over every single present was adorable.  Aunt Deb had gotten her some Curious George movies and she went crazy when she opened them!

Showing Jack some of the presents:

I love this girl so much!

Jack helped open a few gifts too:

Sophia was pretty independent when it came to opening her own gifts.  After all, she is going to be three soon ...

Jack managed to smile for one more picture before letting us know that he was done for the night:

Yup, game over.  Jack was ready to put his new Christmas Eve pajamas on, have some milk and go to bed.

Opening their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas from Steve and me:

Before the girls got their pajamas on, we had one last thing to do -- they needed to sprinkle their reindeer food out onto the lawn.  They slipped into their boots and coats and rushed outside to empty their special bags.

They started out sprinkling in the same area and I had to encourage them to spread out a little bit:

Sophia is a natural now, where last year ... she just dumped her bag in a single pile.

The glitter was sure to shimmer and shine among all the ice:

After the kids had their pajamas on and their teeth brushed, I read them a story and settled them into their sleeping bags for the night.  We never heard a single peep from them.  Something tells me that they were exhausted!

Christmas Traditions

When Samantha was a baby, I really didn't give much thought to Christmas traditions.  The only thing that I knew for sure was that we were pretty fortunate to be able to begin celebrating with Steve's family on Christmas Eve (something that began when I joined the family) and celebrate with my family on Christmas Day.  Other than that, I figured that I would just "wing it" until she was old enough to really understand traditions.

Once she became a toddler, I started to realize how special the little things that we began doing at Christmas-time were to her.  And so the traditions have developed ...

**  Making a Christmas countdown chain to hang on the girls' bedroom door.  The girls each make one of their own (and to distinguish them this year, Steve did a different repeating pattern on them).  Then, they tear off a link to the chain each night before going to bed.

**  Putting a Christmas magnet on the countdown on the refrigerator.  The girls take turns each night, choosing which magnet they would like to put on the magnetic board.

**  Visiting Santa at the mall each year.  This began the year that Samantha was born (when she was 2 weeks old).  Ever since then, I make sure to go to the same mall (and the same Santa!) and get a picture of my kids with him.  I couldn't believe how much Samantha begged to be able to do this this year.

Jack did pretty well with the bearded man in the red suit.  I contribute this mostly to the forethought that I had to make sure that he sat with Santa AND his sisters first.  THEN ... the girls jumped off and we were able to snap a picture of just Jack and Santa.  (The picture quality of these pictures is not great because they are pictures of pictures.  I took my camera with me and snapped a couple of pictures myself but they were a little farther away and therefore, not as easily seen.  These are the two obligatory pictures that I purchased -- and I am truly pleased with them). 

As I was taking Jack off Santa's lap, I turned around and saw this ... Sophia just laid down right in Santa's court with her coloring book and crayons (a gift from Santa) and set to work designing a masterpiece.

Pausing for a moment to color some more:

**  Making reindeer food.  We did this for the first time a couple of years ago and it is definitely something that we will continue as long as we can.  On Christmas Eve, the kids sprinkle the reindeer food out on the front lawn so that the deer have a little something special to snack on while Santa is dropping off presents inside our house.  This year, we added some marshmallows and chocolate chips to the mix!  And of course, there was glitter -- this is used to help the reindeer find our house as it is illuminated by the moon on Christmas Eve.

We did this with a couple of our friends, and they enjoyed it just as much as my girls!

Total concentration:

**  Meeting Christmas Catherine.  Our elf has made quite the impression on the girls and has managed to pull off some really cute antics this year.  Many of the situations that Catherine has found herself getting into have been a direct result of Steve.   He just has such an way to think of all the fun things to do with her.   We have problems getting the girls to sleep in as they rise so early with the anticipation of finding the latest antics that our elf has found to do!  


A beach scene:

Christmas Catherine made an igloo out of marshmallows!

One morning, the girls found CC camped out watching a movie with some popcorn:

CC was coloring a picture under the Christmas tree:

We have done quite a few other things this holiday season, as well.

**  Samantha wrote a letter to Santa and then mailed it to the North Pole.  It was Steve's idea; I wasn't sure that it was going to work ... but I was pleasantly surprised that she received a reply back in the mail!

(I can't seem to get this picture to turn right-side up, no matter what I do.  But, I wanted to be sure to include it here; her writing is improving so much -- even if she did spell the word, "to" incorrectly!)


**  We've been doing a lot of wrapping!  I have a table set up in the basement and the girls like to help me down there as much as they can.

**  We made Christmas crayons as a gift for Samantha's friends at school.  The girls helped me peel a bunch of crayons ...

Then, they chose random colors to fill silicon molds in the shapes of gingerbread boys and snowflakes.  We baked them in the oven and then let them cool. 

They turned out great!

The next day, Sam helped me assemble the gift bags for her friends.

She carefully counted everything out and lined them up in a row.

She strategically chose a little memo pad (there were three different designs that I had picked up at the dollar store) for each friend, along with a candy cane and four of the crayons.

 

Each friend received two snowflakes and two gingerbread boy crayons.

All ready to go!

 

**  Samantha's Christmas Program was last night and it was such a wonderful performance.  I wasn't sure how Jack would do because the program was at 7 pm (the time that he begins to wind down for bed), but he surprised me and did really well.

 

 

Posing for a quick picture before we left for the program:

 

(I let Samantha wear one of my special necklaces -- it is her birthstone, given to me by Steve on my first real Mother's Day.  She felt SO special ...).

Noticing us sitting in the auditorium as she filed in with her class:

This picture just makes me smile.  Every. single. time.  Sophia clapped the loudest of anyone there!

Singing with her school:

 

And we still have a few more things to do!  We will be baking cookies with Aunt Minnie on the 23rd and then preparing to celebrate the holiday with both of our families here at our house this year.  The kids will receive their traditional NEW pajamas on Christmas Eve and I can't wait to see them wearing them ...!