A Wonderful Christmas

Now, I do try and be real on this blog, and post some of the ups and downs of life when I can.  But no matter how I look at it, we had a truly fantastic Christmas. 

A big part of that is just the age of my kids.   They are old enough to understand what is going on and "get" it, but young enough that if I gave them three things from the dollar store wrapped under the tree they would think it was the greatest thing that ever happened to them.  Every little thing - from making gingerbread cookies to give to their teachers to re-organizing all the ornaments they could reach on the tree each day - is just magical at this age.

The weekend did have an odd beginning though.  Traditionally, we make use of whatever days Christopher has off work before Christmas and head to the cabin.  We head down to his mom's house for Christmas Eve, and then to our house for unwrapping presents the next day.

Here is a picture of LAST Christmas "Eve-Day".  About three to four feet of snow, and clearly accessible only by snowmobile.

And here is the current backyard in our cabin.

We drove up and parked in the driveway with our truck.  It was really cold though, and since there wasn't any snow to speak of, we really didn't go outside.  But we still had fun nestled in the cabin.  I read a book and made a batch of caramels (those things are tricky, but I swear I will get the hang of it someday), the kids watched movies and played around, and Daddy relaxed and enjoyed playing with the fire in the wood stove.  I even did the preschool thing and got some little foam crafts for the kids to make.

After that, we headed down to the annual Skarda extravaganza.  Since all of Christopher's siblings played instruments seriously in high school, they now have to break them out once a year and see if they can do Christmas songs for the party.  Usually there is only mild success, but that's part of the fun.  This year a couple of the grandkids did songs on their recorder, and I broke out a piano/organ duet I played with my mom ten years ago and we tweaked it so Christopher and I played together.  Again, mild success, but lots of fun.

One of my sister-in-laws has made a nativity dress up set with enough for every grandchild to have a part (no small feat), and so the kids get all dressed up and act out the scene while the story is read.  This year, Kaitlyn was one of the angels, and Tyler was a wise man.  They both took their parts very seriously.

And then, if you sing loudly enough with the Christmas Carols, Santa Claus comes!  Tyler was SO excited, which was actually a bit unusual for him.

And then we headed home.  But since the kids had a late night at Grandma's, they slept in.  And since I'm pregnant and can't get comfortable, I woke up early.  That gave me plenty of time to get a "before" shot in.

I was worried how the day would go, since church was at 9am.  I mean, you can't actually complain about leaving your presents to go to church on Christmas, but . . . I was worried it would be hard to pry the kids away.  When they woke up we let them investigate their stocking and open one present from Santa, and given how much they loved that we almost wondered why we bought them anything else. 

When we first told her about Santa and presents, Kaitlyn had a list of up to ten things that she wanted to ask Santa for, and it was fun to see what rotated off the list and what kept coming back on since she could only remember three or so at a time.  But by the time she met Santa in Disneyland, she was firm.  She wanted Aurora Polly Pocket, Belle Polly Pocket, and Cinderella Polly Pockets.

I know this smile looks really fake, but trust me, there is true love here.  She asked me to take a picture of her with her Polly Pockets before she even opened the package.  She has been in heaven all day.

Christopher's family has this interesting tradition of a "Santa Table".  Every year, Santa would leave a large pile of food on a table for them - just random things that everyone likes in the family.  Fruit, candy, nuts, you name it.  So this year Santa left us a table of food too. 

After that, we went to church.  In fact, since the kids just ate candy from their stocking instead of actual breakfast, we even got there in time to hear prelude from a trio of French Horns.  We have some great musical talent in our congregation, and I was just in heaven.  Now I think we should have church on Christmas every year!

But back to presents we went.

And this is always how the better part of Christmas is spent.  Lounging around and investigating all the new toys.

Whew!  I only planned on checking out the pictures tonight, but somehow I couldn't resist editing them all and writing up this post.  It has just been such a great day though - the kids were truly enthralled with the presents and activities, I had the most fantastic time at church listening to the music, and we had a wonderful day together as a family.  I guess you just have to enjoy the great moments when you can!

Pre-Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas this year has been a bit stressful.  That's mainly due to the calendars - every year I make calendars for my family and Christopher's family, and this year I got all of the pictures from the family to make them with in the last week.  Which gives me very little time to make them.  Ugh.  I love making them, but . . . not in one day flat while the rest of Christmas chaos is going on!

I got my cards printed, but so far my printer absolutely refuses to print on the envelopes so I can mail them out.  Here's the internet version though!  Someday, if everyone is lucky, I will get them mailed out.  But at this rate, it might be faster to hand write the addresses on there.

One of our favorite Christmas activities is a white elephant party that our neighbors do every year.  The group is a lot of fun, and we are constantly amazed by the zany things people find to bring!  And this year, they added an "ugly Christmas sweater" contest as well.  Since that seems to be popular right now, there aren't any more in the thrift stores, but I couldn't let that stop me.  Regular sweaters + dollar store finds = Ugliness!

 I thought the guy who came in a festive sweater, elf hat and shorts with tights on would be the clear winner, but we actually managed to edge out that couple on the last vote!

And today, Kaitlyn had a special "performance" in ballet class.  Obviously at her age that doesn't mean that much, but the parents got to come in and take pictures, and the girls got to wear special matching skirts and headbands.  They had a little dance they had been practicing, and like everything in that class, it was hilariously cute to watch.

Here's her little class!

And Daddy was even able to drop by from work to laugh with me.  Of course, Kaitlyn's favorite part was the little treats her teacher gave her at the end.

Alright, I better get back to growling at my printer now . . .  I hope everyone else is having fun getting their lists done!

Disneyland

Disneyland really has gotten more and more fun each year that we go.  As the kids get older they not only behave a little better and have longer attention spans for it all, but are more and more excited for everything.  I am so grateful for Christopher's boss for taking the company there each Christmas!

This year we started off with a bit too much adventure, unfortunately.  There was a wind storm that popped up as we were in the airplane, so we circled LA for a while hoping it would die down.  And then LAX lost power.  We diverted to land in Las Vegas, but the wind was whipping that plane around like a paper airplane.  Poor Tyler went through three air sick bags, and I ended up using one as well.  By the time we landed, I was seriously considering ditching out and calling one of my brothers to see if we could crash at their house for the night.  Between how late it was getting, how far we had to go, and how crappy Tyler and I felt, it was a close call.  But we did get on a plane to LA fairly soon after that, and even though Tyler went through two more bags, we made it safe to our hotel.  At 2:30 am or so, I think.

Enough with the downer story.  On to pictures!

Once we woke up and headed into the park, we attacked the rides.  We were really excited to be there on a weekday this year, since the park was a lot less crowded than we were used to. 

But this year, I think our kids were actually more excited about the characters than the rides.  Kaitlyn would gasp in sheer joy when she saw them, and Tyler would do this happy little hopping dance as he shyly went up to the Princesses.

Kaitlyn was especially excited about Ariel, since she has been watching that movie lately.

 I had to spend the day before we left reworking their costumes so they could fit one last time, and it was totally worth it.  Kaitlyn actually made a drawing of Tinkerbell to give to her, and asked me how to spell Tinkerbell so she could write the name on the back.  Tinkerbell was so impressed that she asked for a pen to write Kaitlyn's name on the back so "I can hang it up and show it to my friend Terrance!"  It was hard to tell, since the characters are all fabulous actors who treat every kid like they are the cutest thing ever, but I think she truly intended to keep that momento. 

Another newfound love for my kids this year was the cotton candy.  Kaitlyn spotted them on the first day, and since they had eaten really well at lunch we broke down and got her some.  Both kids spent the rest of the weekend asking for it every time they saw a vendor!

Last year Kaitlyn was really bummed that she was too short to ride on the bumper cars, so this year we were excited to go and ride together as a family.  But of course I couldn't ride since I am pregnant!  So Daddy gave the kids each a few turns.

I'm not a fan of the parades, since they are SO crowded, but Kaitlyn had been talking about seeing Santa in a Christmas parade since one of her cartoons showed that weeks ago, so we caught that as well.  And then went to see Santa in our hotel that night.  Tyler still doesn't quite get the concept, but Kaitlyn has been telling me for weeks about all the things she was going to ask Santa for.  She ended up telling him that she wanted Princess Polly Pockets.

The next day, the kids squeezed into their old Woody and Jessie costumes one last time so we could hit California Adventure.  I'm not sure, but I think Tyler thought he was smiling for the camera here.

As much as Tyler liked the Princesses, he truly was much more excited about seeing Buzz . . .

And Woody was excited to see him!  When Woody came running out, he grabbed Tyler for a hug and pointed at the matching outfits.  I think that was Tyler's favorite part of the whole trip!

Another fun thing was that Tyler was tall enough for a lot of the "big" rides this year.  Since Kaitlyn and I couldn't go, Daddy happily took his buddy on the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain.  I didn't have my zoom lens with me, but rest assured Tyler looked pretty nervous in these pictures.

Our trip ended with the big company party.  I can't believe how many people work with Christopher now!  When he first joined the company, the Christmas party was held around one dining table in someone's basement, and now it has grown to 50 employees.  When you add in the spouses and children, that added up really fast.

One of our traditions has been getting the kids one toy from Disneyland each year, and this year their picks suprised me.  I thought Kaitlyn would go for the Princess hair set (I could just see her using the pretend hair dryer and flat iron like mommy), but she went for this Princess Minnie Mouse.  And Tyler refused to put that Tigger down once he found him.  I wasn't even sure he would know who Tigger was!  I figured they were both small enough to fit in their carry-on, but I quickly learned the neither child had the intention of letting go of their precious new friend.  Kaitlyn was making high pitched Minnie Mouse make-believe the entire way home, and Tyler has been telling Tigger not to eat things all day today.

It was exhausting for all of us, but it sure was a lot of fun!

Family Pictures

I love making my Christmas card every year.  And one of the most important elements is a family picture to go on the front of it.  Getting one of those seems to always be a fiasco, somehow.  One year the friend that offered to come and take it didn't show up, so we used the timer and spliced together until I had everyone smiling.  So I gave up on having someone help take them, and one year I ended up taking pictures of the kids together, and pictures of us together separately, because I just couldn't make it work otherwise.

So it was in the back of my mind this year - ugh, I should figure that project out soon.  And then while I was on my girls trip a few weekends ago I just happened to find coordinating shirts!  All I needed was it to be warm enough to take the picture.  I figured I would just wait until after Halloween chaos was over. 

And then it got really cold.  I would be mad, but it IS November.

I waited until the forecast had gone up slightly and enlisted a friend to come and click the shutter, and thank heavens for her.  Because the rain that was supposed to start after the shoot came 12 hours early, and it was SO COLD.

We got out of the car, took this first shot, and then I moved the camera and fussed with the tripod to get things lined up for the next shot.

And in the time that took, Kaitlyn was shivering - and then outright bawling from the cold.  So we got into a pattern.  Keep the kids warm in the car while mommy sets up the shot  . . .

Pull them out and line them up quickly . . .

Take twenty shots until everybody had been smiling at least once in the set . . .

And then have the kids race back into the car while Mommy figured out the next picture.

Thank heavens for Photoshop, that can magically make it look like the kids were happy and smiling in each picture!  I might not have been able to get fun casual shots since we were in such a hurry to get warm, but the overcast sky was really nice to work with.  Now I don't have to think about it for another year!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year.  It has been especially fun to see how excited Kaitlyn gets over everything.  I think every holiday this year has been like that, actually.  What an easy to please age!  Impatient, but easy to please.

One of the things we did this year was go to a pumpkin farm.  Unfortunately, the night we got to go was rather cold - but there were too many fun things to do for the kids to be too upset about that.

There was a petting zoo . . .

Pony rides . . .

A big slide . . .

Some swings and little bikes. . .

And an animal train ride. 

After all of that, we took a hayride to the well picked-over pumpkin patch and got some little pumpkins for the kids.  They wanted to just grab the first ones they saw in pure excitement, but we managed to get a couple of good ones in the end.

The next night, Christopher and I headed to the annual Scallywag Swoiree that his boss hosts.  He really goes all out for these parties - and this year he had a professional photographer that took pictures and printed them out for you. 

Arrr!

On to Halloween itself.  We hadn't gotten a chance to carve the pumpkins yet, so I brought everything outside and showed the kids how to scoop their pumpkins out.  I decided that those little baby pumpkins were actually the way to go after all - very easy!

After that, they drew a picture of the face they wanted on their pumpkin and supervised while I carved it out.  I think they came out pretty cute.

Once Daddy got home and we had some dinner, it was time to head out Trick or Treating!  Kaitlyn was so excited that she actually came to us at 8:30 this morning in Princess attire and said "let's go get treats!"  I told her we had to wait until after dinner, and then she asked me if we could "have dinner now" about five times before we even had lunch. 

The third pumpkin, by the way, is the one thing I grew successfully in my garden.  The vine for that pumpkin took over like a weed. 

Oh, and Kaitlyn's bag was a fun story too.  There is a store near us that sells Pottery Barn seconds, which are usually things that have random names embroidered on them.  I love it because I can just take the name off and have great stuff.  But this little basket came with the name "Kaitlyn" on it!  Her spelling even!  Can't beat a personalized bag that matched her outfit for $3.

When I quizzed them before we knocked, they both knew they would say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you" - but without fail, every time the door opened they would freeze like deer in the headlights.  They sure loved it though.