Christmas 2022

The kids woke up on Christmas morning to find that the milk and cookies that they had left out the night before for Santa were almost completely finished.  

It was still dark outside, but we have a rule now that they are all a little older (and are able to tell time), that we do not head out into the living room until 7 am.  I am usually up before that, showered and with my tea brewed though to start my day.

Stockings are always opened first and all of the items in them are always wrapped.  It makes the thrill last even longer!

Jack developed a real love and interest in the Buffalo Bills football team this year and while Santa wasn't sure that he wanted to invest in a (somewhat expensive) sweatshirt for Jack in case he decided to be a fair-weather fan, Santa DID put a Buffalo Bills toothbrush in his stocking.  Jack loved it!

Just a couple more months and this girl will get her braces off!

Sophia received a special necklace in her stocking with her name written in cursive.

Even Mia ended up with some treats in her stocking!

A nice warm hat for winter with a built-in light.  Steve has a headlamp that Jack often borrows, but to have a rechargeable light as part of a hat is a genius idea and something that Jack will get a lot of use out of!

I am pretty sure that Santa has been using this particular gift bag for Sophia every Christmas morning for the last 10+ years!

One of the most darling gifts for Jimmy was "Hattie," a stuffed hedgehog.  When Jimmy really little, I bought him a stuffed hedgehog from Hobby Lobby that we named, "Hedgie."  That became HIS absolute favorite stuffed animal and he continues to sleep with it every night. 

Over the last couple of years, Santa has delivered, "Holly" -- Hedgie's mom; "Humphrey" -- Hedgie's dad; and now "Hattie" -- Hedgie's sister.  They have always been carefully wrapped up with a note and I think that it is safe to say that the little hedgehog family is now complete.

The coolest sticker ever for a freshman in high school that LOVES her chicken nuggets and almost always refers to them as "nugs."

Sunglasses!  We go through a lot of sunglasses in this house, not just in the summer but also in the winter on those bright snowy days on the lake.

Another gift bag that has been reused by Santa over and over again for Jack.

Jack asked for a stuffed squirrel for Christmas (he loves squirrels!) and Santa was happy to oblige.

A new MSU sweatshirt for Sam because she ended up borrowing one of mine when she went to an MSU football game this Fall ... and never gave it back.  Ha!

And Steve's main gift from me was a fold-up rocking chair.  We have many fold up chairs that we store in the garage and lug from one event to another, but I figured that a rocking chair version would be even better.  I was right!  

This chair will be getting lots of use at our Spring flag football games with the boys this next season ...

Later in the day, my family and Steve's dad came over and we had prime rib, mashed potatoes, salad, bread rolls, fruit and lots of dessert!  A big thank you to Stan for treating us to the prime rib -- something that we have never feasted on for one of our holidays!

*

Reindeer Food and Christmas Eve 2022

Another tradition of ours is making 'reindeer food" every year to sprinkle outside on the lawn on Christmas Eve.  While the ingredients may change a bit from year to year, some things remain the same:  there are always sprinkles or glitter to make sure that the reindeer see the sparkles on the lawn and know to visit our house when the kids are asleep on Christmas Eve.

The kids woke up one morning to see this set-up with bags and name tags for each of them:

They took turns at the table, writing their names on the tags and doing their own "special recipe" for the bag.

Some intense concentration while printing his name.

The boys did a great job taking turns with the ingredients.

A few extra chocolate chips!

Glitter galore!

The finished bags, ready to be sprinkled on Christmas Eve:

********************

After dinner, we slipped outside in coats and boots and sprinkled the reindeer food all over the front lawn:

Some years (like this one!), we have plenty of snow and it is so fun to see all of the glitter sprinkled about.  Other years, there is no snow and just plain grass, but it doesn't matter to the kids.  

Careful sprinkling all around:

Lots of wind!

********************

Afterwards, we came back inside so that the kids could partake in yet another tradition of ours: opening their Christmas Eve pajamas from Steve and me.

They now know to expect these, but take turns trying to guess what they look like.  I know their personalities perfectly (and their sizes!) so they seem to love whatever I pick out for them.

Wearing their new pajamas before bed:

And a close-up photo of them before we tucked them in bed and waited for Santa to arrive!

********************

End of the Week Randoms

 Christmas Catherine brought some containers of "snow" for the kids one day and asked if they wanted to "build a snowman."  They had *snow*  much fun with this!  (Sam loved doing hers too but was at basketball practice and didn't get home until late).

A "melted" snowman:

********************

Jack and Mia have really grown close this last year.  She knows that he is the one most likely to feed her treats and she often sleeps in his room for a bit before she comes upstairs to sleep in her bed for the rest of the night.

Mia is now at least 14 years old and we know that our days with her are limited so we are making the most of them.

********************

The boys went with Steve to Home Depot and ended up coming home with a little wooden craft to work on.  

Jimmy made a small napkin holder (he still needed to put the stickers on it when I took this picture):

And Jack made a small wooden mailbox.  One night, I discovered that he had set it out for Christmas Catherine, along with his Christmas list, for her to deliver back to Santa.  

*******************

Steve made sure to buy some new snow shovels for this year.  We got our first snowfall and when we looked around for our shovels from last season, we couldn't find any.  I'm pretty sure that many of them were broken or cracked and we threw them away ...

********************

We had planned to take the kids up to the American Legion in town (both Steve and I are members) to have breakfast and to see Santa, but had to make a small change in the plans because Sophia woke up pretty sick that morning.  After much debate, I headed up there with the three other kids and Sophia stayed home with Steve.  I would have loved to get a picture with all four of them, of course -- I'm sure that this is Jack's last year of still believing (or claiming to believe) -- but also realize that it was better for everyone that Sophia was able to stay home and rest.

Jimmy's letter to Santa:

Probably my last year of Jack sitting on Santa's lap:

Jimmy was a little standoffish, but made sure to give his list to Santa!

********************

This young man is turning into quite the bird hunter with his BB gun:

********************

Christmas Cookies - 2022

The very next morning after the kids' last day of school before Winter Break, I made sure to have all of our supplies together to make our annual Christmas cookies.  This is one of my favorite things to do with the kids and we tend to split it up over two days -- one where we roll, cut out and bake the cookies and the next day is reserved for decorating. 

The secret to all of this is that I set everything up ahead of time to keep things organized:

And then, they get right to work:

There is only one rolling pin but they always manage to share.

Sophia has mastered the art of cutting out as many shapes as she can out of her dough:

Sam's designs tend to become more complicated each year and I love seeing what she comes up with; here, she was cutting out antlers to turn an upside down Christmas stocking into a reindeer.

Design artist at work:

I LOVE that the boys still enjoy this tradition:

I skipped the gingerbread cookies this year so we made sure to make a few out of sugar cookie dough.

Last one left at the table!

********************

The next day, I rolled out a disposable tablecloth (critical for easy cleanup!), made the kids each a cup of hot chocolate and let them decorate all of the cooled cookies from the day before.

Jimmy's technique was already MUCH more advanced than last year:

Side note on the tablecloth: I bought a huge roll of this red & white striped plastic tablecloth for Sam's 10th birthday (a circus theme) FOUR years ago.  I went to roll it out for decorating cookies and had just enough to cover the table.  It has been used for so many events over the last four years!

More concentration:

Sam also turned a star-shaped cookie into Santa Claus!

I am pretty sure that every single one of Jack's decorated cookies had sprinkles on it.

Sophia loves this tradition just as much as I do.  Her smile says it all.

Cookies and cocoa -- a perfect combination.

This boy loves the tradition too.

The finished products, with several left "plain" for those that do not enjoy the frosting:

********************