The Merry Christmas Review

Parker and Adam during a match of "Bad Guy" wherein Adam is said Bad Guy and Parker and Madelyn are the Good Guys who try to wrestle the bad guy to the ground and just generally "get" him. Parker's preferred method of "getting" involves taking a running leap and then hurling himself on Adam. The game usually ends with Adam being vanquished by the Good Guys and everyone comes up for drink of milk so they can be strong enough next time to get the Bad Guy again. We didn't have a problem getting the kids to drink milk before, but now they go through it as if we have a cow tied to the back deck!


Putting legos together.


A little Christmas love.


This was about all the Christmas photo cheer we could get from Meredith.

We had a great Christmas. We keep waiting for the year when the kids wake up at some obscene hour but so far each year it's been a very respectable 7:30-ish. We started the day with reading Luke 2 and then watching it (we acted it out the night before, which made for the start of a really fun tradition). After that, we put the cinnamon rolls into the oven and began opening gifts one at a time. The kids were really patient while waiting their turn to open presents. When I was growing up, Christmas was one big 15 minute free-for-all. I think I like this way better--we all get to enjoy seeing each present, and there's not the same aftermath to clean up!

The rest of the morning was spent playing with gifts and getting ready for the day. We spent the afternoon at the house of some of our friends and we had a lot of fun with them.

That evening we had a light dinner, meaning Christmas cookies and fruit, and then the kids went to bed. Christmas was everything we hoped it would be: a lot of time together as a family, fun time spent with friends, and total overindulgence in tasty food!

Happy NewYear!

The Makings of a VERY White Christmas!

Here are the snow angels hard at work.

Unless something really catastrophic happens in the next 48 hours to melt the 12+ inches of snow on the ground, we'll definitely be having a white Christmas! It's been snowing steadily ever since Saturday and it's not supposed to stop until Wednesday afternoon!

The kids were out playing in it yesterday, but couldn't stay out too long before they were freezing; then as a family we went out to deliver neighbor treats last night and were very brief with our yuletide felicitations!

We had to laugh at Madelyn last week. She was saying that she felt so bad for our Arizona family who didn't get to have Christmas. When we asked why she thought they didn't get Christmas she said, "Well, there's no snow in Arizona!" We assured her that Christmas does come to every place in the world, even if there's no snow! She was relieved for our family's sake.

Well, we wish you all a very merry (and hopefully warm) Christmas!

The Return of Finish It Friday!

A bow holder. I think it needs little black dots around the perimeter and a bow to finish it off. What do you think?

These are bows from some adorable ribbon that my sister sent me to make bows for her new twin girls. I had soooo much fun doing these!

These are some receiving blankets also from gorgeous flannels that my sister sent me for the aforementioned sweet new twins.

One of my favorite Christmas memories from my childhood is being invited over to my grandparents house in early December. My grandma invited each of her older granddaughters over individually to help them make a Christmas gift for their mother. There was something wonderful about creating a gift for someone you loved, with someone you love. She was a very talented seamstress and often sewed something beautiful for us. Since that time I have always loved making gifts, although I'm not nearly the seamstress that she is, I still find satisfaction in creating something to give to others. Now for the "keepin' it real" portion of the post: even though I enjoy making gifts, the majority of the gifts I give are purchased! However, I have made a couple of things lately that were so fun to do and I wanted to share them since I'm finally FINISHED!

The Birthday Boy

The birthday boy with his birthday "goatee" after he licked the beaters I used to make the frosting.


He was very pleased with all the sprinkles.

Parker had his fourth birthday this past week and we celebrated with the usual trimmings. His favorite gift was a set of Lincoln Logs. Today he got out the Little People farm to go with his new homestead.

One of my favorite things about Parker is how much he likes to sing. He hums a lot when he's thinking or playing (or using the commode!) but I love it most when he sings songs in his sweet little boy soprano at the top of his lungs.

Parker was very excited to turn four and today I realized one reason that he was. He asked me what we were going to do tomorrow. When I told him, he had a thoroughly unimpressed look on his face and said, "but Madelyn said when I was four I could go to preschool, so I want to go tomorrow!" I hated to burst that bubble, but I told him that preschool starts in the fall and that we could do preschool things at home until the fall. Lucky for me, that appeased him.

This weekend we also enjoyed a visit from our friends, the Fords. They were passing through the area and stayed the night with us. On Saturday we took the kids to the local children's museum and they had a great time. We love having such great friends!