Christmas 2017

On Christmas Eve afternoon, we packed up and headed over to Steve's sister's house to celebrate the holiday with her family and Steve's dad.  We take turns hosting each year and it was her turn to have us over.  Jack took his job very seriously as soon as we got there, unloading and arranging all of the gifts under the tree.  There is no task that is ever too daunting/large for that boy.

In the meantime, the rest of us gathered in the kitchen to savor some appetizers and work on prepping the spaghetti dinner.  We ate until we were stuffed and by then, the kids were begging to open gifts.  Jimmy jumped from one person to another, but started out on Steve's lap reading a new book that he had just gotten from Aunt Deb.

Sophia chose her own outfit for the gathering, right down to the bright blue sparkled star earrings.  I suggested something a little more ... compatible ... but she was insistent.  That girl is never lacking for accessories; the brighter and more sparkled, the better.  Sequins win every time.

Jack loved each and every gift that he received and was especially excited about the Spiderman wrapping paper.  Details are important to him.

Grandpa picked out a flying white shark balloon for Samantha and she is dying to try it out.  We're just waiting for the frigid Michigan temperatures to warm up a bit.

Aunt Deb knows the way to my girls' hearts -- crafts and comfy/soft clothes (Sophia wore her new bathrobe for the rest of our visit there and then home and Samantha's zip up sweatshirt was lined with sherpa).

We left there around 7:30 pm to head home in the blowing snow.  We did have to turn back, ten minutes into our trip, because I had let a big box of food in their garage.  By the time that we pulled into our driveway, both of the boys were asleep. 

I ran into the house to grab the Reindeer Food and then met Steve and the kids back in the garage where everyone donned their boots and scurried out into the snow.  The girls were so quick (it was COLD!), that I didn't get a decent picture of them.  I did manage to snag this one of Jack ... only after he had tripped over the extension cords to the Christmas lights that were buried under the falling snow.

Once we got back inside to the warmth of our home, the kids opened their traditional gift from us -- Christmas Eve pajamas. 

Jimmy has gotten go good at unwrapping gifts now; even the bows and ribbons are special for him.

All warm and ready for bed in their new pajamas:

We put Jimmy down for bed and then the three older kids set to work, each picking out one of their nicely-decorated cookies to leave out for Santa:

And, finished off with a glass of milk on the side.

An hour later, the elves set to work putting out all of the gifts under the big tree in the living room.

Even the stocking were placed out there for easy access in the morning.

We encouraged the girls to sleep in until 7 am the next morning and they were nice enough to oblige.  Jack got up shortly thereafter and we ended up having to wake up Jimmy to join us.  Cinnamon rolls were in the oven and sausage was cooking on the stove by then ...

(I don't think that Jimmy was quite awake yet).

A skidsteer ... one of his most favorite and prized presents this season.

For the most part, the kids opened their gifts one-by-one so that everyone could see what they got.  It made the morning last longer than usual, but it was so much more relaxing and satisfying (for the elf that spent so long putting gifts together and wrapping them, of course).

A new sweatshirt for the boy that loves construction vehicles.

Her winter set matches her coat that I got for her about a month ago.  She loved everything.

New decorative scarf and purse.  Yup, Santa knows her well.

Later in the morning, my family braved the blustery snow and roads to come over to our house to celebrate with a ham dinner.  Grammy and Papa bought gifts for each of the kids and they were complete hits.  Jack's gift from them was this camo Carhartt's coat and pants and Jack was so thrilled with it.  He wears it almost every single day!

Christmas Cookies

The kids finished up with school a few days before Christmas (Jack was done on the 15th and the girls last day was the 20th).  This left just the right amount of time to finish up errands, wrapping and making cookies.  The kids were really looking forward to it this year ... talking about it for weeks ... after remembering how special I made it for them last year.  We had turned it into a big event with lots of colored frosting, many sprinkles, hot cocoa, music and a whole table of cut-out cookies.

Like last year, I made it a two-day event.  We cut-out and baked cookies one day, stored them in a container and then decorated the next.  That way, the cookies were cooled and the excitement lasted even longer.  In keeping with the tradition, we did the same thing again this year.

While Jimmy was napping, we made sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies.

I was in charge of rolling and baking, while the kids were in charge of cutting the shapes and transferring them (carefully) to the cookie sheets.

They were so gentle with the dough and we ended up with very few "casualties."

Samantha wanted to take a picture of Jack and me and we were happy to oblige.  Apparently, we planned our red shirts together for the event.

Teamwork!

A lot of thought went into which shapes they chose and how to maximize their spacing on the dough.  Sam was in charge of that.

Sophia was in charge of making the hot cocoa.  This girl would have hot cocoa every day if I would serve it to her!

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The next afternoon (again, while Jimmy was napping), I set up a long table in the family room and covered it with a festive tablecloth leftover from Samantha painting birthday party last year.  I set up stations for the kids - these plastic trays are used a lot in our house - and left them create. 

Masters at work.

I also set up a couple of trays for the sprinkles.  It minimized the mess and helped to streamline the production.  I even chuckled to myself when I heard the kids talking to each other as if they were really running a real production line.  "Ok, line it up over here ..."

Deep in concentration.

I stressed the idea that "less is more" when it comes to sprinkles.  I'm guessing that that phrase came out of my mouth at least 29 times during the session, and in the end, I just gave in and encouraged their creations.  After all, I heard that Santa enjoys quite a few sprinkles on his cookies.

Reindeer Food

We have quite a few holiday traditions that we try to do every year and sometimes we add a few new ones into the series.  One of our customary traditions is making reindeer food -- a bag composed of oatmeal, cocoa, sometimes raisins, flour, glitter ... whatever we desire ... that is sprinkled onto the front lawn on Christmas Eve.  The idea is that the reindeer will see the sparkling glitter and know to stop with Santa at our house and then may enjoy the oatmeal while Santa is inside delivering packages. 

My favorite thing about these Christmas traditions is that we will be doing them for many years ... even when Samantha is older and maybe isn't as interested (and that makes me a little sad to think about), Jimmy will still be at an age where he is truly into the celebration.  The Christmas spirit will live in the Lapinski household for a long time.

Filling their bags with flour, cocoa, oatmeal, chocolate chips (anything goes!) and glitter:

No exact measurements needed; a little of this, a little of that.

Jimmy's favorite filling was chocolate chips.  He would put one in the bag, eat one, put one in the bag, and so on.  I eventually had to limit his consumption.

Samantha was following a specific "recipe" from her memory.

A group shot taken in process:

And then, me.  Writing names on the bags and tying them up tightly.  They will sit on our counter until Christmas Eve when the kids get bundled up, squeal with anticipation and prepare for Santa's arrival.

Meeting Santa

For the first couple of years that I was a mother, I took the kids to the mall to meet Santa and get a picture of them that I could then sit out every year in a festive frame.  Samantha was only two weeks old the first time that I did this and we continued through the year that it was Jack's first Christmas.  Then, I realized that it was a lot of work to fit that trek over to the westside of Lansing into our busy schedules and take a chance on how long the line was ...

So, for the last couple of years, we have been going into town to the American Legion to see Santa.  The kids get dressed and we head out the door by about 8:30 am one special Sunday in December.  The kids get to see Santa (and sometimes Mrs. Claus!), tell him what is on their wish list, score a candy cane, pose for a picture and then eat breakfast there afterwards.  The line is minimal, if there is one, and I am free to take as many pictures as my momma's heart desires.

Jack went first and I was pretty sure that he was going to ask for a new chainsaw (he has two, but one is broken).  He actually asked for more parts for his Hot Wheels car track.

Jimmy was next and he seemed pretty content.  No screaming or crying, and also no real wishlist items to share this year.  He was most interested in the candy cane.

Samantha was excited to see the big jolly guy, but must have felt a bit awkward on his lap.  She asked for a karaoke machine for her and her sister.

Sophia was last in line and saved the biggest smile for Santa.  She asked for fuzzy socks and a crazy chubby puppy toy.

A quick group photo, where a few of the kids missed the memo that they needed to look at the camera.  Still, no one was screaming this year ...!

While we were waiting for our breakfast, we asked our neighbor, who was sitting with us at our table, if she would take a family picture of us.  Sadly, I am pretty sure that the last family photo that we took was last Christmas!

Our Christmas Card Picture(s)

The weekend after Thanksgiving, I made plans to have the kids pose for our Christmas card picture.  I had their outfits all laid out on my bed and was anxious to snap one decent picture that I could design a card around.  The weather was definitely chilly, but I was hopeful that the kids would cooperate long enough to get most of them looking at the camera.  Then, we could come inside ... change their clothes ... and have the rest of the day to work on decorating for the holidays.

Steve suggested a picture down at the park and the kids were completely on board with this idea; that is, until they realized that it is usually about 10 degrees colder down at the lake.

A warm-up picture with coats to see how it would look.  2 out of 4 ... not bad.

We stripped off their coats and that is when Jack melted down.  Yes, my toughest one in the bunch (who also had long-sleeves on) started complaining about how cold he was 15 seconds into the photo shoot.

The wind was blowing Sophia's beautiful curls into some sort of unnatural shape and Jimmy just couldn't understand what Jack's problem was.

We pulled the plug on this operation at that point.  No decent picture.

Then, I suggested that we get back in the warm van and head into town for a picture.  Maybe it would be a little warmer, maybe the change in venue would work better for the kids and maybe there might be some bribery involved.  After all, they were all dressed up with nowhere to go and more importantly, no usable Christmas picture on my camera.

We drove to a local park and let the kids sort of dictate where we would take the photo.  They wanted to have it taken on the 20 foot tall slide, but we compromised on a bench with a nice background.

This was our first shot, to which Sophia later looked at it and said, "well, it's nice, but we just need to fix Jack's eyes."  Yes, that's all.

And then THIS happened!  The perfect photo ... just what I was dreaming of.

And then my heart melted after I captured this:

Jack was in a great mood now ...

... especially because we promised that we could go down the road and look at the parked construction vehicles.  I'm pretty sure that he did a little happy dance right there on the bench.  Yup, he did.

Wearing Steve's hat:

Our other Christmas card picture where we wrote: "We're diggin' this holiday season."  Corny, yes.  But it's perfect for our little brood.

And some quick pictures of Jack loving every minute that we spent in this parking lot ...