Favorite Toys

I decided to wait until the dust settled before asking each of the kids which Christmas toy was their favorite. Here are the results:

Andrew- "My digital camera" He loves to take pictures and videos all day and has many arty shots to prove it. I will have to post some of them one of these days. He is working on getting the

entire face in the shot. I hope he doesn't take after me in the photography department.

Abbey- "My Dora Snow Princess magic wand"- This is a magic wand that you put little color tablets inside and wave in the bath tub to tint the water a shade of purple, pink, etc. Abbey refused to take a picture with it however and said she would take a picture on her new trampoline instead. A close second, I guess..

Allie- "My Baby Ally doll" She loves her new baby doll even though it never has any clothes on. Her name is Ally with a "Y" not an "IE" Allie is such the girly girl and it is so cute!

Gam and Jimmy

The kids just loved spending time with Gam and Jimmy! Gam made delicious tea cakes that we all enjoyed. Andrew especially enjoyed helping her. They were all bummed this morning when Gam, Jimmy, and Katherine had to leave. We hope to see them all again soon!

The case of the missing tooth

With all of the holiday excitement, I failed to notice that Andrew had lost a tooth. On Christmas day after we had opened all of the presents, I caught Andrew smiling out of the corner of my eye and something looked different. Well, upon further investigation I discovered that he had indeed lost one of his lower incisors and that another was coming in behind it. I immediately asked him all of the questions that popped into my head.."Does it hurt?, When did you notice it was missing?, Did it feel different before it fell out?, Where is it?" He said it didn't hurt, he didn't know when it fell out and had no idea where it was. My next move was to google "losing baby teeth" to make sure this was normal. Afterall, he is only four! I learned that children can begin to lose teeth as early as four. My little guy is growing up.. Oh and the tooth next to the space is also wiggly! The tooth fairy came on Christmas night even though we didn't have a real tooth to put under his pillow.

Christmas Eve

The kids each opened one present on Christmas Eve and as you can see it was matching pajamas. They were so excited. We spread "reindeer dust" (oats and glitter mixed together) on our front lawn and put santas cookies and milk out and they were off to bed. I was surprised that they all went to sleep immediately.

Aunt Katherine's Birthday

Aunt Katherine's birthday is on December 23. It was fun to celebrate her birthday while she was visiting for Christmas! Something I learned shortly after meeting James was that in his family you have to have your name on your cake. period. I sort of forgot about this and forgot to buy the little gel writers in the cake mix section of the store. I asked if we could just forgo the name but that was just not an option. So, I had to use the leftover icing tubes that I had from decorating the gingerbread people. The only problem was I couldn't find the tips. This is why her name was shortened to "Kat" and looks like a 5 year old wrote it. Oh well, I think she was ok with it and the cake still tasted yummy.

Our Christmas Card Picture

We are all so excited about Christmas. This will be our first Christmas in our new home. Gam and Catherine (James Mom and Sister) are arriving tonight, and Jimmy arrives on Christmas Eve. The kids are bursting with excitement and so am I! I have pictures to post but am not sure how to download with my new camera. Andrew and Allie sang in the big Christmas show at their school. Allie's Frog class sang "Away in a manger" and Andrews Lion class sang "Jingle Bells Jesus". It was very cute but the sanctuary was so crowded that we couldn't see too well. They did have big flat screen monitors and Andrew was easy to spot. I will post them as soon as I can figure out how to transfer them to the computer. Here is our Christmas card photo and some outtakes. Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Parties

So I made it to Andrew and Abbey's class parties but Allie had a cold so we both missed hers. It was really special to go to Abbey's class as the public school program doesn't have many opportunities for parents to participate in the classroom. The day of the party happened to also be pajama day at school, hence the pajamas. This was a rare chance to visit her classroom and we even made marshmallow snowman snacks together. At first Abbey was a bit teritorial about me being in her class but after a few minutes she was ok with the idea and had fun making the snowman with me. Both girls went with me to Andrew's Christmas party at school. His friends enjoyed the gingerbread boys and girls I made and they had many other treats as well. I took the opportunity to grab a picture of Andrew with his teacher who he adores.

Christmas Questions

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
wrapping paper.. sometimes gift bags for last minute stuff or weird shapes.


2. Real tree or artificial?
real tree



3. When do you put up the tree?
first weekend in December

4. When do you take the tree down?
weekend after New Years

5. Do you like eggnog?
love it

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Barbie Dream House

7. Hardest person to buy for?
Abbey- not really a "toy" kid

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Andrew- loves everything!

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes- but it is a Fisher Price toy... does that count?

10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards?
Mail

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

??

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?

Home Alone

13. When do you start shopping whefor Christmas?
Black Friday.. gotta love it!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
plead the 5th

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Peppermint Bark

16. Favorite Christmas tradition?
Kids waking up and running to see what Santa brought.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
White Christmas

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home?
stay at home although last year we went to Louisiana and Arkansas

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?
let's see, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixon, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph..yes!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Angel.. but growing up it was always a star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Christmas Creep(Christmas stuff showing up in stores in September)

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Stuffing

24. What do you want for Christmas this year?
a fun day for the kids!

25. How many days left until Christmas?
Only 14 to go!!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We decorated yesterday. The kids had fun pulling out all of our ornaments and asking about each one. I think it turned out pretty nice!

Geriatric magnet?

So, Andrew has been asking questions about death lately. The other night as I was tucking him in he asked me who dies. I told him everybody dies someday but that usually you live a long life and die when you are really old. He thought about that for a few seconds and then looked at me and said, "Do people die at Costco?" I was really confused and asked him what he meant. He said "Well, there are lots of old people at Costco right?" Can't argue the logic, I guess.

Gobble Gobble..

November flew by for us. Andrew and Allie had a show at preschool, everybody had the stomach flu, and we enjoyed Thanksgiving together, with just us. The kids were very interested in the turkey this year and had many questions about it. Here are my two favorite comments:

Andrew: (as we are taking the plastic off the turkey) "Can I see it's face? Where's the face"

Allie: (on the way to the store to buy a turkey- which I forgot to include on my Safeway.com order) "Mommy, are we going to buy a pet baby turkey"

On Thanksgiving, I asked the kids what they were thankful for. Here are there responses:

Abbey- "I'm thankful for when Mommy gives me a hug to make me feel better"

Allie- "I'm thankful for my cat Troy"

Andrew- "I'm thankful for my backyard"

I am thankful for too many things to list but most importantly our health and happiness. Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Can't wait for Christmas!!