'Twas the Night Before Christmas

I have always liked Christmas Eve better than Christmas day. Even as a kid, although I was wildly excited to open presents, the sense of expectation was almost more fun. As a mom, I have generally made a big deal out of Christmas Eve but this year was a little different. It was really quiet for a change, but was really nice. It was just me and the kids and it was fun for a change to not be bound by a schedule and to just watch them without being distracted by guests or meal preparation. I will admit that holidays are just not my favorite anymore. Things you are able to forget at other times of the year come back with a vengeance during the holiday season. There is always the feeling of something missing and the sadness of being alone for something that is meant to be shared. While I don't expect that to ever really go away, I am getting more used to feeling it. Either way, watching my kids on Christmas is absolutely delightful and this year was pretty nice.

The kids woke up Christmas eve morning and immediately asked how long it was until bedtime. The boys, who had done nothing but fight with each other for weeks were angels. Once when the house was a little too quiet, I went upstairs to find them both on Bubba's bed, drawing pictures of what they hoped to get from Santa "to make the time go by faster." We had lunch at McDonald's and came home to watch movies and play our new family board game to try to make the day less long. By 6 pm, they were begging to go to bed :-)

Usually, we have fondue on Christmas Eve, but the kids still eat the equivalent of one sandwich between them, and I wasn't about to eat a whole pot of cheese by myself (don't get me wrong, I COULD, but it didn't seem like a good idea :-). So, we saved that meal to introduce to Gma and Gpa W when they came for dinner. Instead, we had had turkey croissant sandwiches, clementines, fudge and sparkling cider while we watched the Norad Santa Tracker online. It was delicious.



I taught the kids how to toast with their cups and now it is all they want to do at every meal.


Next came watching the movie of their choice (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) in my bed...


The yearly stairs/christmas jammies photo came after they wrote a letter to Santa along with leaving milk and cookies. Junior helpfully put out another list of the things they had asked for in case there was any question on Santa's end.


Then they spent awhile at the window watching for rudolph's nose up in the sky.


Sis went to her own bed, but the boys wanted to sleep in my room. I made them a bed on the floor facing the window so they could watch the sky for Santa. They were in bed by 8, but were too excited to fall asleep until 10 (a feeling I remember really, really well). I sat outside the room for awhile and listened to them talk about the mysteries of Santa and Christmas. Junior couldn't reason out how Santa gets to every house on the same night (my earlier explanation of 'christmas magic' didn't convince him). Bubba had some serious doubts about whether or not he had been good enough for Santa to bring him toys (again, my earlier assurances meant nothing.) He finally figured that even if Santa didn't bring him any presents, he would at least fill his stocking. I tried to be sneaky and record the conversation on my camera, but they were talking too quietly. Bummer :-)


Whew! Santa made it....



Sis' favorite present was her toy make up kit.
Bubba's favorite present was his 'real' light saber
Junior's favorite present was his Lego sorter.

Gma and Gpa K joined us for breakfast and we all ate too much while the kids got spoiled with even more presents and we figured out how to hook up the new Wii.

Merry Christmas to all...

'Twas the Week Before Christmas...

I had great intentions of getting these pictures posted (hi kate, jeff and aunt jeane...) a little closer to Christmas. However, all my good intentions
(which include cleaning the house, getting the laundry done or feeding the kids something other than chicken nuggets and fruit snacks) have all gone out the window to make way for the massive landslide of homework and being a student again after 10 years. Junior thinks it is hilarious that I have to do homework like he does, but I gave him a peek at my math and he felt a lot better about his own lot. So, 2012 for me begins with 4 classes (two of them are math with half a semester each), continues on in the summer with more pre-requisites for my pre-requisites and hopefully will end with me acing Anatomy and then crossing my fingers a lot that I can get into the program I want here instead of another state. The bottom line is that I will spend the year trying to keep on top of work and kids and school and home without going (more) insane. I hope the kids still like me at the end of the year.

In the meantime, I just got an A on my first quiz, so I treated myself to catching up on things like showering and posting my pictures :-P December was actually relaxing and fun and delicious. It was so relaxing in fact, that I forgot to take pictures of much of it...


My excellent assistant chefs. They were great at helping mix and then eat the cookie dough.



Then it was time to just chill for awhile while the cookies baked.


Junior has always been my best helper with the Christmas tree. Bubba and Sis spent most of the decorating time in the kitchen eating goldfish crackers...


...or doing this.



I would have sworn that two was too young to start raiding my closet, but Sis doesn't think so.


Our lifelong best friends, the Bradshaws, decided to move to Alaska at the end of December (I still don't want to talk about it....!) So, we tried to get as much face time as possible before they left. This is the kids almost in line to see Santa at the mall. In the end, we left because the line wasn't moving and they wouldn't let us take pictures with our own cameras (seriously!!!??) The kids didn't seem to care :-)


We bundled up and went to see the village display in downtown Ogden. Local businesses will decorate cottages and you can walk around under the lights and look in the windows. I can't believe that we lived there for so many years and never went to this. The kids thought it was awesome.




Most of my pictures of Bubba and William these days look like this.


The boys pretending to be deer.


Sis is going to really miss the twins.


There was a small snowfall while we were there which excited the kids more than anything else. Sis caught as many as she could on her tongue.