Ornaments Mess

So, in my opinion, there is an annoying down side to having the Christmas tree up for a whole month. The reason is that, here at our house, it's hard to keep the ornaments on the tree with the toddlers around. Today, for example, Daniel was hitting the tree with his teddy bear...

And after he's knocked off a sufficient amount of the sparkly decorations, he took a turn whacking Wes.

I bet it kinda felt like a soft back massage. Thanks Daniel!

So, there have been ornaments all over the floor. During past Christmases, I have been vigilant at quickly restoring them to their place on the tree. This year I'm taking a new approach - I'm putting them back in a box and putting it back downstairs with the holiday storage. I might bring them back out, but I might not. Maybe on Christmas Eve to restore the decorations one last time before the big day. But to do it now, what's the point!? They'll just knock them off again. Owen's taken it to a new level, and all the blue plastic icicles that have been within his reach are now in the garbage, cause he's taken them and put them on the floor and then stomped on them to snap them in half. Then he's proudly come to get me and show me his work - "Look mom! I break it!" I glued back together two of them earlier yesterday when I thought it might have been a one time thing and telling him "No, don't do that" might cease the destruction, but not so. So all the ones on the bottom half of the tree are gone and in the garbage. There are still like 3 on top. But ugh, all this Christmas mess and clutter! Well, it shouldn't be clutter, but it is when the festive things are not kept in their proper place - then it's just becomes a mess all over the floor of things for me to sort again and organize. Mostly ornaments, then the regular clutter of garbage and socks, and the Little People Christmas people are on the floor too -

Right now Owen's moved them into the kitchen, but the camels and shepherds have already had their fair share of time on the floor, and we're just four days into this! So into the box they are going too. I just don't want to pick it up 100 times this year, so we'll see if I put the ornaments back up and on and set up the toy nativity again, or if I just pretend that Daniel and Owen helped me pack things up early this year.

First Snow

It snowed yesterday, not much, but the kids are excited. Abi helped Owen get dressed today and they went outside to play "snowman".

(She's such a good big sister)

Owen has been calling snow "snowman" since he's recently discovered the movie "Elsa" aka Frozen.

He hasn't been singing Let it Go, but his version of "Do you want to build a snowman" is pretty adorable. I'll try to get a video of it.

We had a nice Sunday. It's good to have some snow, makes it feel like it's okay for us to have the tree up. I'm hoping this month goes by quickly, the faster it passes the faster this pregnancy will be over and baby will be here. We're also really looking forward to talking to Joseph on Christmas! I'm sending him a package tomorrow, the last one he'll get before Christmas.

Tree Is Up

Abi wanted to put up the trees today. I said it was fine if all their jobs were done first, and she dutifully got the rooms cleaned. So, they did all the work and the trees are up.

I'm okay with them putting the trees up the day after Thanksgiving, cause I tell myself that that means it's okay for me to take them down the day after Christmas. 

I don't mean to be a scrooge, but the toddlers pull off all the ornaments and there's just a mess of Christmas clutter everywhere all December, and I'm always ready to put the ornaments back in their boxes.

I am going to try and embroider their names on the stocking this year, or alteast a big initial. We'll see. Daniel and Natalie were excited to play with the Little People toys.

Cute little guy -  Daniel playing with the manger scene.

Natalie's got Santa and the North Pole toys.

It's November 23rd and they're all ready for Christmas! And tonight Abi was complaining about how far away it is. Yes, this is good for you to learn patience.

Party at Uncle Mark's House

Yet another Christmas has come and gone. True to form, I was ready to continue my "the day after Christmas" tradition of taking down the tree. And I did. Just the one in the front room. Honsetly, I was so excited to get the ornaments put away and out of reach of the kids and to vacuum the front room. Yay! And it's not because I'm a Humbug Scrooge. It's cause I celebrate Christmas all year long and I don't need a tree in my house to have the spirit of Christmas in my heart, hah! So there. I'm not a Scrooge. Although I was accused. The kids woke up and were surprised at my efficiency. Kids, I'm really excited for us to get back to achieving goals and "making-something-of-my-life" mode and out of "it's Christmas-break-and-I-can-be-lazy" mode. Before Christmas, Ethan had said that the only thing he wanted for Christmas was to be able to sleep whenever he wanted for as long as he wanted. No waking him up early, like at 10 or anything, no waking him up from afternoon naps. Children, I realize that you guys won't be producctive until you are forced to go back to school, and I will accept that, but that doesn't mean that I can't start to try and kick things back in gear. So, even if you all don't want to say goodbye to December yet, I am okay to take down the tree. (I counted it as my workout today.)

A little more about Christmas Eve - on Sunday, after church, we headed up to Corey's brothers' house for a Wride family party. It was great. We enjoyed a yummy taco bar and other appetizers and desserts. I gave in to the cheese ball which was really tasty with the sweet potato crackers. I'll be getting back on the plant based wagon as soon as the holidays are over. Highlight for the kids was the saran wrap ball game. We played this last year and it was the highlight then too. When Uncle Mark announced it was time, they all cheered.

Daniel was a little curious/confused as to what could be the cause of such noise and excitement.

I took a video, but it was so loud and there was so much screaming (mostly Ethan being obnoxiously loud on purpose) so I'm not uploading that one.

I will, however, share a video of the highlight of my evening - Sophi and Owen dancing their little interpretation Tchaikovsky's nutcracker music. 

It was so cute. I love these little people.

The kids played their musical instruments like last year, and they all gave a go at Karaoke too.

Ethan and Hyrum did an interprative dance to George Michael's "Last Christmas"

You boys are funny. The kids enjoyed time with their cousins and with their cousins' pet lizard.

It was starting to snow when we headed home. Thankfully it wasn't too bad but we did see a few accidents on the way. That would not be fun to be in an accident on Christmas Eve. But the kids were glad to have a little bit more snow before Christmas day, it's been a very mild winter. They are hoping to sled before the break is over. Not much yet though and nothing in the forecast. Unfortunately it's a pretty short break from school this year, they might be out of luck, we'll see.

Christmas 2017

Natalie! You made it! Today is CHRISTMAS!!!! 

Merry Christmas little girl! She's been waiting and counting down the days on the calendar on the fridge for a whole month. Now it's finally here, time to cash in! She was probably the funnest one to watch. We went for the shock and awe with a big present first - one from Costco that earned a lot of bragging rights last year when Sophi got one (Dori last year) - a big coloring set with crayons and markers - Disney princess this time. Natalie and Sophi both got one. They were the "biggest" presents, so they were quite pleased. This should keep them busy for a week or so.

So, Corey and I didn't head to bed until 5:30 this morning, so we slept in and kept ignoring requests to get up until 10:45. When we came out, they gave us their presents from under the family tree in the front room, where they slept. That room was trashed - wrapping paper, MnM's, you name it all over the floor. Then we headed into the side room where the gifts from Corey and I were. Since we didn't get around to putting names on them last night/this morning, the kids picked up presents one by one and formed a line by Corey and his laptop, where he informed kids who the numbered gift was for.

Me on my 8th trip out to the garbage can. Daniel wants me to hold him. 

Another highlight of my Christmas was watching these two play with their wood cars and floor mat.

Cute cute little guys, you can hear them zooming and vrooming their cars - too cute.

Lots of art kits for kids, papers and pens and markers. A few electronic things. A Forks Over Knives cook book for me from and a subscription to Purple Carrot, which I'd never heard of before, but he said it's like Blue Apron, but plant based. Cool! I'm excited

After all the opening was over, Daniel was just laying on the ottoman in an almost drunk-like stupor

It was like he was just basking in the overdose of it all, made me laugh.

The kids did their best to find an open space on the floor where they could park and spread out their loot.

Front room and side room are trashed, but the girls found an open spot in the kitchen. It's getting hard to walk around here...

Daniel found someone's chocolate from their stocking - I held him at arms length until he was safely in the tub to be properly un-chocolated. Sorry, don't mean to make you sad, but don't touch me!

So it's just been a big messy Christmas explosion all day, which I guess is how it should be. Kids are happy, no one feels slighted that I'm aware of. I think a great Christmas memory was delivered to our family with help from lots of Christmas angels, you know who you are, thank you. I think the kids would all say it was a good day.

Christmas Eve Tradition

I'd say that one tradition that we are consistent with is that of sleeping under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. (You can see Natalie there telling Ethan to go to sleep so Santa can come...)

Sleeping around the tannenbaum isn't something that Corey or I did growing up. But the kids did it in 2007 and they're the ones that deserve the credit for keeping it up through these past 10 years. Here are those little kids in 2007 - 

Sophi ready to have visions of sugar plums dance in her head.

This year they wanted Owen to join them. And it was a lesson learned. Sure, he seemed to snuggle up fine, but it did not work out well for Santa's helpers.

Note to self for when they want Daniel to sleep over with them next year: Just say no.

 

It is now 3:00 a.m. Christmas morning and we're not done yet going through gifts or wrapping them. Owen was still awake at 1:30 (cute little face) and so was Wes. 

Wes was reading but said Owen was the one to blame for keeping them both up. 

Owen liked Lily's dog Bunky Bunky.

Lily! Go to bed! Taking one last picture at midnight and saying goodnight for the last time (I wish) 

So at 1:30 I took Owen upstairs and we lay down on the floor with him in our room. (He doesn't want to sleep in the crib anymore, so he's kept with the toddler tradition of sleeping at the foot of our bed on the floor - like Sophi and Natalie.) I set an alarm for 20 minutes, enough time for Owen to fall asleep and for me to not be too deep in sleep and unable to get up and finish our Santa work. Corey is still wrapping things and taking photos and putting them on the computer. We both bought stuff, he took it all and wrapped it at his parent's house, and took photos along the way then put post-its on the presents. He's almost done wrapping I hope, and then we'll go through it all and make sure things are equally distributed.

Update - Picture taken at 4:45 a.m. At 5:30 we were finally done and headed to bed. 

Corey asked if I thought we should go through and take off the post it notes with numbers and replace them with the kids' initials or name. I said no. That would seriously have taken us another hour. Let's just go to bed.

I hope we work out a better system for next year, cause I'm too old to pull all-nighters. Unfortunately Santa had to resort to the sugary carbs via the plate of cookies left out for him to keep his energy up until the job was finished.

I hope we get a nap tomorrow. To all a good night.

Melodie is 17!

We had a really fancy party for Melodie's birthday tonight. We sent out invitations and everything. The dress was formal.

Just kidding. That wasn't for a birthday party. The kids had a concert at the school tonight. They are a good looking bunch, don't ya think? For the real party, most of the kids were gone, but Mel was home. My mom came over with gifts, so we sang and she enjoyed her cake with the little kids before Mel had to leave for rehearsal. Her younger siblings were glad it was finally cake time, cause they had already been waiting ALL day. 

Natalie his very - pink cake! 17 candles Mel... you're getting up there! Happy birthday to you! Natalie wanted a better view and even helped blow out the candles.

I love Owen's little head. I had given Mel her birthday present from me 10 days early - an academic planner.

Yes, those are technically for mothers, but Mel is a mother at heart. And she is smarter than me, cause she just puts white out over the pages of things she doesn't need and makes them into something that is helpful to her. She received money and crafty things and I think was a good birthday. Lucky Mel is finally going to get her drivers license! Her driving test is scheduled for next week. She's almost ready to launch. Hope you had a good day Mel.

My day was good cause I took care of some tasks that had been bugging me. I took Natalie with me to Home Depot and got a tree stand and a toilet handle for the two current things that made me feel like our life is falling apart. Bugging me item #1 - our tree that won't stand up. One of the legs of the stand broke last week. I tried to fix it with hot glue. It worked for about 24 hours. When we came home from church on Sunday (after I was already feeling a little miffed at our not together life) we walked into the house to see the tree crashed over again. Joseph was behind me and saw it - "Mom, the tree is broken..." and I replied "Just like our life..." I had noticed it myself, but as each kid entered the house from the garage door, they each saw it and then made it a point to seek me out and make me aware. "Yes, thank you, I know." "Yes, thank you." So, I left it leaning again the wall on Sunday, then that night took it apart in half and attempted to gather the scattered ornaments.

There already were/are ornaments scattered everywhere in our house. May I introduce culprit #1 -

And the rest of his posse -

I'm sure one of these little kiddos is the reason the tree fell apart anyway. So today I got a stand for a real tree at Home Depot. Sophi helped me get it ready, while Owen pretended to help do something on the tree.

I broke off the rest of the legs of the tree to before my first try at fitting it in the new base. Unfortunately, the thin trunk of the artificial tree did not fit in this base made for a real tree. So I had to get creative. A few sports balls from the dollar store and I sawed some small blocks of wood, and voilà, we have an upright tree, yay.

The second thing that had been bugging me for a few months was our broken toilet handle. It didn't to back down to plug the tank, so for a few months we've had to remind the kids to fix the handle. This past week, it totally broke and we couldn't move it, so I had to take off the tank lid and any user of the bathroom had to pull the chain. The little kids found the inside of the tank very interesting. But they didn't want to touch it. So I've been walking in to find a bunch of unflushed stuff. I'm glad I got that checked off now, I finally fixed that today, thank you YouTube. Good bye old handle.

I also looked around Home Depot at the dishwashers. We've needed a new one since we moved here and it's really gotten pathetic the past few months. I think it's gonna happen soon. 

I'm excited to have buttons on top where our button and dial happy baby Daniel can't reach it. He likes to turn on the dishwasher. Also, if we cook something at the stove top, we have to put on the handle and take it off after turning on the gas, cause Daniel has a radar antennae or something and always goes straight for it. He's turned the gas on a few times, isn't that right Daniel?

Yeah, you messy sticky freeze dried strawberry boy. One last thing, it's been fun to get cards and surprise treats from neighbors, like this one tonight. We have many blessings.

We haven't done it for a few years but I hope to make Christmas popcorn or to get something to give out this year to share our love.