Holiday Tag

Instead of working on the million things on my to-do list, I will do this (thanks Kimber!)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Every year I dig out the bazillion rolls of Christmas wrapping paper we have stored standing up in an old plastic container that originally held kitty litter (unused). Many rolls are somewhat wrinkled and they have been cut in odd shapes. Always afraid that we will run out of wrapping paper, I always buy several more rolls each year. It's like food storage - if there is ever a crisis situation, anyone who needs Christmas wrapping paper can come to my house :)
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real. Always. Cheap real though - always from Home Depot as their trees are cheap. I thought we would start getting big, beautiful trees when we no longer had crawling children and could put them on the floor again - then I went out to buy one this year and discovered that a 6ft tall tree is twice the price of a 5 ft tall tree. As Rob and I are both cheap, it looks like we will always have a 5 ft tree.
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the Saturday after Thanksgiving. If not, the week after.
4. When do you take the tree down? New Years Day.
5. Do you like eggnog? Somewhat. It always makes me sick though, so I avoid it.
6. Favorite gift? Two years ago my youngest sister, who had been in the hospital room with me and Rob when Jack was born, made a scrapbook telling the story of Jack's birth from her perspective. It's still my favorite gift, although Becca's gift to me last year runs a close second (she gave me an envelope with an index card telling me she and Rob were buying me a deluxe pedicure and she would babysit so I could go enjoy it and have the afternoon off).
7. Hardest person to buy for? Hmmm . . . have to think about that one. Probably one of the kids - there always seems to be one that we just aren't sure what to get for, although usually a different one each year.
8. Easiest person to buy for? My mom. Just get her something that goes along with her current hobby.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes - a wooden one my mom painted.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Email. Then they actually get sent.
11. Worst Christmas gift you've ever received? Several years ago my mother gave me several gifts. Every one of them was an article of clothing. As I was unwrapping one, she starts telling the story of how she got them. She had made a scrapbook for a lady who was dying and after she died, the lady's husband gave my mom her clothes. They didn't fit my mom, so she wrapped them up and gave them to me (she gave me other presents too, which were not as memorable). Also the white elephant gift exchange at my parents' house where my mother provided all the presents - they were all lotions from hotels except for a giant rubber cockroach. Life is never dull with Nona around :)
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Hmmm . . . probably White Christmas
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually I start picking things up at the after Christmas sales. This year we did all our shopping in November. Two trips to stores and everything else was bought online.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Stuffing (Rob hates it, so I never make it except on holidays) and Mom's jello mold.
16. Lights on the tree? Multicolored
17. Favorite Christmas song? "What Child is This" and "O Holy Night" mostly because I love singing them.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Everyone comes here.
19.Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes. I can recite "The Night Before Christmas" too.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel my mother in law bought us two years after we were married.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One present Christmas Eve (pj's). Everything else Christmas Day.
22.Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Forgetting someone you really should have included on your list and you didn't mean to overlook.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? On the tree we go with a collection of random ornaments we have collected or made over the years. Colored lights. For the house I love traditional decorations. Someday when we have enough money to pay someone to put lights on our house, we will have white icicle lights along the edge of the roof, small wreaths with red bows on each window, candles in each window, and multicolored or white lights on the bushes.
24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? We always have turkey for Christmas Eve and ham for Christmas day.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? No idea. Rob is frustrated with me as I won't let him buy me anything big. I can't see justifying spending a ton of money on something I don't need. I'd rather pay bills :)

Gingerbread Houses

First of all, Jack finally has cowboy boots (sort of - they have zippers on the side and I think are meant more as boots to keep feet warm). Since he has lived in TX his whole life, I thought it was appropriate ~


From a week or two ago . . . a missionary who had served in our ward (Elder Christianson) finished his mission and came to visit with his parents. We had them over for dinner. Kylie was oddly fussy throughout the meal. Towards the end, we figured out why ~


Yesterday it warmed up to "normal" december Texas weather and was in the 70's. Beth and Jack spent the morning playing outside in the backyard. I even let them take their lunches outside.


Jack found two dandilions and picked them for me :)




Tonight we made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. I looked for individual milk cartons when Jack, Beth and I went shopping today, but I didn't find any. I got mini organic juice boxes instead. We tried to make houses out of the graham crackers using those as a base. The roof kept falling down, so we went with a more modernistic approach to house building - we built Frank Lloyd Wright houses :)








Kylie and Megan sang songs while decorating their houses. Most were Christmas songs. One was a Thanksgiving song that involved a dance similar to "the chicken dance". Kylie demonstrated the proper technique several times. Jack caught on quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it!




Beth sorted her candy by color ~


Kylie dancing again as Simon tries to see what everyone is doing ~


I tried to get a good picture of all four kids with their finished houses. It didn't work quite as well as I hoped ~


I love Beth and Jack's pose in this one! Not so sure about Kylie's ~


I told them if they smiled for the other pictures, we could take a silly one ~

O Christmas Tree

First a picture of Simon, who tried to eat Beth's Indian hat, but had it backfire on him ~


Christy and I went out and bought Christmas trees (real of course) on November 30th. Rob and I put the tree in the stand that night, but told the kids they needed to have the playroom clean and their rooms clean before we decorated it. Nearly a week passed and Rob and I weren't sure we were ever going to get the tree decorated. Saturday evening though the kids got everything cleaned up, so Sunday after church we got out the decorations. I had already put the lights on, having had Rob stop buy the store and buy some as I remembered that all our colored lights stopped working last year. I opened the boxes and discovered 6 (!!!) sets of lights I had bought on sale last year after Christmas (note to self - check boxes before assuming you weren't organized enough to remember to buy them last year and even pack them in the Christmas boxes).

This year we could have had the tree down on the floor like "normal" people do, rather than up on the climber due to crawling children, however due to Simon's presence, we put it up on the climber again this year. We chose not to use any fragile ornaments this year as all four kids can climb the sides of the climber and most can even reach the top of the tree. As usual, I unwrapped the ornaments and the kids decorated the tree. They did a pretty good job this year! Usually we end up with 14 ornaments on each lower branch and none on the top ones.









Jack was not horribly interested in hanging ornaments on the tree, but he LOVED each ornament that made noise.


Don't know why this one turned out so fuzzy. We finished the tree by putting on candy canes and the angel tonight.


Usually we have the youngest child able to hold the angel put it on the top, but as we don't have any children younger than Jack, we went back to the beginning of the list and let Megan do it this year.


3 of my goofballs with the finished tree (Jack was behind the tree and didn't want to come out and be photographed) ~


I decorated the mantle and hung up the stockings as well. Since my whole family always comes here for Christmas, I have all the Alico stockings as well as each of ours. I love seeing them all hung up together. It makes me realize how lucky I am to have such a close family. This is the way it should be - everyone together for Christmas. We'll miss you Grandma and Grandpa Knowlton, Kate, Becca, Quincy, Cindy and Terry!

My Miracle

Monday afternoon as Jack, Beth and I were leaving the house to pick up Megan and Kylie from school, Beth asked if she could carry my cell phone in her coat pocket so she could call her dolls if they started crying. I agreed and tucked it deep into her pocket. I checked several times as we were walking to make sure it was still safe in her coat. Once we reached school, I became more focused on keeping track of all five kids (we were walking a friend home), pushing the stroller and making sure Simon's leash didn't get wrapped around anyone.

Later that night, I went out with Christy to get our Christmas trees. I couldn't find my cell phone anywhere. Remembering that it had been in Beth's pocket, I checked her coat, but it wasn't there. We called it and it went straight to voicemail, which was odd as it had been fully charged that morning. After searching the house, we realized it must have dropped out of Beth's pocket as we walked home. Christy stayed with the kids and Rob and I retraced the route we had taken home from school. We had walked on the opposite side of the road than our usual path as our friend lived on the other side of the street, but we checked both sides on the off chance that it had been lost while walking to school instead of home. We found nothing. We checked our account online and there weren't any charges, so we didn't cancel the service, hoping that if someone found it, they would call one of my ICE (in case of emergency) numbers. Frustrated and worried about having to track down all the numbers and information I had stored on my phone, I put a remark about the situation as my Facebook status.

I called the school the next morning to see if anyone had turned it into lost and found, but no one had. We hoped maybe someone picked it up and knew it was mine, but didn't know where we lived and planned to give it to me when I picked the kids up from school again the following day, but that didn't happen. We decided to report it stolen the next day if we hadn't heard anything that night.

Later that afternoon, I got a response to my Facebook status from Monday night. A friend who's kids usually ride the bus asked "did you lose it yesterday? Was it Nokia and silver?" Her son found it while walking home, but the battery was missing. He picked it up anyway. Because of where we live, he never would have found it if we hadn't walked our friend home as it would have been dropped on the other side of the street. Because the battery was missing, I doubt that anyone else would have been able to figure out whose phone it was. His mom happened to see my status quite a while after I posted it (Facebook updates as the members on it update, so it was somewhat odd that she happened to see my status so long after I posted it).

I don't believe in coincidences. It might seem like a small thing, but it really meant a lot to me that Heavenly Father took the time to help me with something so relatively minor.

To anyone who has tried to call me this week, I had to order a new battery. It is supposed to get here today, but I don't have it yet. I'm not just ignoring your phone calls :)

Forgot to add to the last post ~
Beth was less than thrilled. She crankily dragged herself out of bed and into the playroom, where she turned on the tv and crawled onto the couch. She is still there, huddled under a mound of blankets. Apparently she agrees with Rob regarding the topic of snow.

"The Bestest Day of My Life!!!"

It's been unseasonably cold the last few days, with the lows at night in the 40's and even 30's. This morning Rob and I dragged ourselves out from under our cozy comforter to get the girls ready for school. I sorted through their shorts and capris and found some sort-of wintery clothes. I put them and Rob's clothes in the drier for a few minutes to warm them up, then woke the girls up. Meg was the first one out of bed and dressed. As I was helping Kylie get dressed, Meg looks hopefully out the window and nearly screams in excitement. SNOW!!! She's been asking if it is going to snow for several days, but since that happens next to never in TX and even less than that in TX in Dec (most flurries show up in Feb or Mar), I told her it wasn't horribly likely. The weather apparently decided to beat the odds this year. Meg, thrilled, practically glues herself to the window, excitedly exclaiming "This is the bestest day of my life! Isn't it, Kylie?!?"





School was not canceled (I'm sure the snow will be gone in an hour or so as it's already above freezing), so Megan and Kylie continued to get ready for school. Breakfast was cheerios with warm milk, eaten in front of the back door so they could watch the snow fall.


Simon was very curious about this white stuff. Fortunately he was not as opposed to snow as he is to rain (last night it was fun trying to get him to go outside and walk - note to self, Crocs are NOT the best shoes to wear while walking the dog in the freezing rain).


Jack, not surprisingly considering Megan's enthusiasm, somehow woke up as the older girls were getting dressed. The last time it snowed, Jack was about 6 months old, so I don't think he remembers seeing it. I took a few minutes to bring him to the window. Here is his reaction ~


"NO, Mom! NO!!!" (translates to "Snow, Mom! Snow!!!")

It's . . . Marker Boy!!!

Why we don't color with markers more often . . .


A few quotes from today ~

Megan's math homework asked her to explain the strategy she used to solve a group of problems. Megan wrote "My brain file. I have a lot in my brain file. I searched the sums and it told me."

Overheard a few minutes ago as the girls were arguing over something in the playroom -
Megan: "You are the baddest sister ever Kylie. I'm not going to be your wife anymore!"
Kylie: "No, I'm not. And that's ok. I'll be Beth's."