Pictures from Christmas 2013

Susannah age 3 3/4, Sylvia age 1 3/4.   I was 6 months pregnant with Charity.

We had very simple gifts this year. Now that I am editing and publishing this 3+ year old post, I don't even remember what they were! I think books. Maybe coloring books and special colored pencils or something.

We also had Christmas stockings for the first time.  I bought sweaters from Goodwill and made stockings from them. 

In the stockings were new toothbrushes, some fun individual snacky things that are special, and in the toe of the stocking an orange, just like in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. :)

One gift we gave Susannah was a ladybug necklace. She loved all things ladybug and Daniel called her "Ladybug".

I made a birthday cake for Jesus, we sang Happy Birthday, and the girls blew out the candles.

Tucking their dollies into a hand-me-down cradle we were given, and I had kept hidden away to give them at Christmas.

A Wonderful Christmas-Time

Early in December when we had our week of stay-cation, one thing we did was get down all the nativity scenes. Two are toy sets that Susannah could hardly wait to get her hands on and both she and Sylvia have loved playing with them this month. Another set is a ceramic set that I put out of little fingers' reach on top of the piano, and then we also have this set that is plastic. I remember how special it was to arrange and re-arrange and pretend with my mom's manger scene, so I made sure to put this set where little people could do the same. I did set a boundary that the pieces had to stay on the table, but they were free to play and arrange to their hearts content. They have and have enjoyed it. :)

Wanting to teach our children what Christmas is all about, we told or read many Bible stories surrounding Jesus' birth for bedtime stories. Sometimes telling them without a book or Bible, and other times we would take a few days and go through different of their Childrens Bibles. They are both very much aware that Christmas is Jesus' birthday.  It didn't stop Susannah from knowing that Christmas also meant presents, though. ;-)

On Tuesday before Christmas the girls and I made a birthday cake for Jesus. Susannah then asked several times if the "real Jesus" and Mary, Joseph and the angel were coming to our house for His birthday. :-)  I had to do some fast thinking to figure out how to answer her that Jesus is in Heaven at the right hand of God, and Mary and Joseph lived a loooong time ago and are not alive now; BUT that when we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins and give us a new heart, He then lives in our hearts.  I don't know how much of it made sense to her, probably more than I think, but it was the answer I had.

This year I decided that I wanted to make stockings for our family. After seeing stockings made from thrifted sweaters, I wanted to do it, too. Unique and fun. Probably not as inexpensive as regular stockings from WalMart (our closest Goodwill is NOT cheap!), but lots more character! In November we purchased the sweaters and I started turning them into stockings last week. It took a little longer to get the hang of it (and to remember to turn the sweater INSIDE-OUT before tracing and cutting!!!), but by the 4th stocking I was moving right along. I finished sewing the hanging loops on them the afternoon of Christmas Eve and Susannah helped me hang them up. She was SO excited!! I was pretty excited, too, and couldn't wait to put our goodies in them after they went to bed. (I didn't grow up with stockings and always wanted Christmas stockings. Maybe that's why it's very exciting for me to do this for our girls.)

Daniel and I were both up late and the girls were up early. :-)  Susannah could barely contain her excitement over knowing there were things in her stocking!!  As soon as Daniel and I were up and had our bearings about us, we let them dig into their stockings. They had so much fun! We put very practical but fun things in them: a new toothbrush (Susannah got a new tube of toothpaste, too), a miniature box of raisins, a baggie with Cheerios and Goldfish, and an orange. They dug right into the munchies as I knew they would and that bought me a little more time to finish putting together our simple but yummy breakfast.

I had made Monkey Bread the night before so all I had to do was pull it out of the fridge, let it rise a bit and stick it in the oven (it was a new recipe, here, and I highly recommend it!). We also had bacon and eggs; the bacon was already baked (leftover from a family get-together on Saturday) and all I had to do was fry up some eggs. It was all so yummy! The Monkey Bread and bacon are special treats for us, which fit with our "special food for Christmas Day" tradition. While we waited for the eggs and bacon to finish, we read the Christmas Story as a family, sitting around the table. That was special and we were reminded again of why the day was so special.

After breakfast we opened our wrapped gifts. The girls went first and it is always fun to watch them. We kept our gifts very simple this year, but some were very exciting. Sylvia got some story books that I had been on the look-out for and found either at our MOPS swap or the thrift store, and a new notebook to draw in and a sheet of ladybug stickers. Susannah had been asking for a few specific things that we gave her. Glitter markers were at the top of her list and she got those with a new notebook. Nail polish so we could paint ladybugs on her nails was also very high on the list, and her wish was granted. :-)  She loves looking at my jewelry so I found the perfect necklace for her: a ladybug on a simple chain. We saved that gift for last and it was her special gift. It was sweet to watch Daniel helping her open the box and then help her put it on. I envisioned what they might look like in 10-ish-plus years when perhaps she might receive a pearl necklace, or diamond earrings, or whatever. *sniff*

Haha, Daniel and I were pretty practical. :-)  I gave him some tools including a new splitting maul, he gave me a cheese slicer (a very nice one!), 2 movies for date-nights and ... a freestanding toilet-roll holder for our master bathroom. I will really enjoy not having the TP on the bathroom counter anymore.

After we opened gifts we relaxed as a family until lunch. Lunch was more of our traditional, special foods. Oh, and we use paper plates for all meals to maximize our time of relaxing and being together! A shrimp-ring, summer sausage, Lebanon Bologna, cheese and crackers were the main course along with the oranges that were in the stockings. For dessert we had Jesus' birthday cake!!

We relaxed some more, enjoying our family time together. Before nap-time I sneaked the girls' dolls upstairs while Daniel and the girls went to their room to wait for one more special gift (that we didn't wrap). A while ago I got this wooden cradle (also from our MOPS swap) and had been keeping it for a special occasion. When the sewing bug bit this fall after the canning and garden were done, I started off with sewing cloth diapers for their dolls. After I made Susannah's dress I used the leftovers to make her doll a matching dress. Sylvia got a blanket for her doll since she didn't have one.  I got both dolls fixed up in their new things and brought them in the cradle to the girls' room.

The girls love the cradle and Sylvia knows which pink doll blankie is hers. Dear Susannah had done some digging around in my sewing corner Christmas Eve morning and found the doll dress, so it wasn't the surprise it was meant to be, but she was still happy to finally have it on her Baby! Both girls mothered their babies a lot today. :-)

Daniel's parents came over and joined us for a simple dinner and it was nice to visit and relax with them as we wound down the evening. This morning Daniel headed back to work and the girls and I had a good day getting back into normal routines and doing housework. Susannah asked this morning if it is still Christmas. I told her that it is still Christmas-time. In fact, we had more of Jesus' birthday cake for dessert tonight.

While Christmas Day is now behind us, we are still listening to Christmas music and enjoying Christmas-time. Merry Christmas to all of you!!

Christmas at the Beach

Daniel's parents gave us (their children) the gift of time together at a beach house.  We were all there for several days and it was really nice.  We had a great time together, and the one evening after the kids were in bed we played a gut-bustin' game of Apples to Apples.  Somehow a card with the word "underwear" was played and after that EVERYTHING was hilarious.  It was great to laugh so much.

Doing a new puzzle with Papa

The downside to this part of Christmas Vacation was the lack of sleep for me and the girls.  The first night there, I discovered that I'd left their pajamas at home.  I'd pulled them out and they were in the pile of clothes to pack, but they never got into the bag.  Since we were extremely limited with car space, we packed VERY lightly and that was the ONLY pair of pj's they were going to have.  The house was very comfortably warm, so I thought that they would be ok sleeping in shirts.
 

The first bedtime went well.  Sylvia fussed a little (the girls were sharing a room), but then they were quiet.  About midnight I peeked in on them and pulled their blankets up before going to bed myself.  I noticed that their room felt cooler than the rest of the house (a big cold-front was coming in that night).  When I left the room, Sylvia woke up and cried and cried and cried.  Susannah then woke up from the noise.  It is rare that Sylvia does anything like this, but the few times she does she almost always goes back to sleep after crying a few minutes.

That was not the case on this night.  I ended up holding her for a while and she would *almost* fall asleep on me so I would ease her back into her bed.  She would wake up and cry and cry.  Finally I had Daniel bring her pak'n'play into our room so she wouldn't be crying in Susannah's ear.  I ended up lying in bed with her on my chest for 45 minutes until she had calmed down and fallen asleep.  I very carefully put her in her bed and she woke up and cried.  I was flat out at the end of my awake rope, so I talked to her a bit and she soon went to sleep.  This was night 2 of way less sleep than I am used to at this stage.

When she was awake, Sylvia was a happy girl.

She made great forward strides with her mobility while at the beach house.

The next night was only slightly better in that Sylvia only cried for a few minutes before going to sleep... and staying asleep.  On the other hand, though, Susannah was awake throughout the night because she would kick her covers off and get cold.  About 6:15 the next morning she came into our rooms and she was simply cold.  I snuggled her in our bed (of course not getting any more sleep) until it was a decent time to get up "early".  That afternoon I googled the nearest Target and went and bought both girls footed pajamas - for $2.63/pr. on clearance. :)  That night we ALL slept pretty good.  {For some reason their room was considerably cooler than ours.  Their balcony door was drafty, too, which I'm sure did not help.}

Sylvia moderating a game of chess.

Friday morning Daniel took Susannah out on the beach while I packed everything back up again.  After lunch he packed up the car and we hit the road for my parents house...

Bedtime story with Grandma

Christmas Day

I had been working at getting gifts wrapped here and there, but still ended up with quite a bit to do when Christmas Eve rolled around (somehow rehearsals for 2 Christmas concerts ate up a TON of time and energy!).  I considered throwing each girls' stuff into a big box and only wrapping 1 box for each of them, but um, hello, that is SO not nearly as fun as opening multiple gifts!!

I caught Susannah just sitting and 

looking at the tree and gifts for a few

minutes one afternoon.

Our gifts were pretty simple this year (as they have been), but it was a lot of little items.  I think I went to bed around 3:30 Christmas morning.  I could've finished sooner, but I wanted the gifts to look nice.  I will confess to spending probably 30 minutes arranging and re-arranging the gifts under the tree in the middle of the night, because I wanted it to look pretty in the morning. :)

Middle of the night before Christmas.

This year I got to put out a wooden train that I snagged for just a few dollars a couple years ago.  A few of the wheels are broken off, but I think it looks fabulous under the tree. :)

I, of course, did not burst out of bed at the crack of dawn.  Susannah woke up first (around 8, I think?) and we got up and ate Cheerios for breakfast if I remember right.  Then we knew that if the day was going to go like it needed to, we had to get on with the gifts... what a shame. ;)

Sylvia got some new tights, 2 puzzles (that I took out of a puzzle rack that was a gift to both girls), and some rattle-y balls and turtles.

Back in the fall, a friend was cleaning out her attic and offered us a child's easel.  It is nothing super-fancy, but it allowed us to give Susannah a really "great" Christmas gift for nothing.  I had actually been considering finding one used, but I hadn't fully decided.  To go along with it, we gave her "art" supplies: paint, brushes, (short, fat) colored pencils (because she likes to break her crayons in half), a huge pad of paper, a huge binder clip to hold the paper to the easel, some window crayons, a small pad of stickers and some (needed) barrettes.  It was a lot of little gifts but did not cost very much.

After we opened our gifts, Sylvia went down for her morning nap and I started tearing around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  See... as soon as we could get left after lunch, we were leaving for a week.  First we were heading to the beach for a few days with Daniel's family, then heading to my parents' farm for a few days.  Susannah and Sylvia had a simple lunch, and Daniel and I snacked on the traditional Christmas Day shrimp ring and other munchies while we packed.  I was running on coffee, adrenaline and will-power.  About 2:30 both girls were getting fussy for their naps.  We loaded them into the car (it was not cold outside) and they both fell asleep while we finished packing.  We pulled out about 3:30, I think, and they slept most of the way.

More on this un-vacationy-vacation later. :)

Getting Ready For Christmas

Yes, it is January 9th (and now 12th as I finish this post!) of the new year and I am still blogging about Christmas. :)  It was such a busy December that I did not get much blogging done at all, and there are memories that I want to write about so they are not forgotten!

This year (well, "last" year, to be exact) for the first time in many years, we actually had room for a real, "big" tree instead of the little tiny fake one we've been using.  On December 8th after lunch, we loaded up the girls and went to a nearby Christmas Tree farm to find a real tree.  I was very excited! I had been wanting a real, big tree for a long time and it was happening!  Sylvia rode in the stroller and Susannah traipsed along with either Daniel or myself, or somewhere in between.  We had looked over the map of the farm and decided which kind of tree would fit our budget, and perused the seemingly few uncut trees of that type.  We walked and looked for probably 45 minutes, meandering down one side of the lot and then heading back up to the front.  I was starting to feel discouraged and my head was beginning to ache from the sun glare.  Then we found the tree.  We looked at it, talked about it, and walked on a bit.  Then we turned around and looked at it again and decided it really was our favorite.

By then it was well into the girls' naptimes, and thankfully the tree farm isn't too far from home.  We came home and I deposited the girls into bed for naps while Daniel got things ready to put the tree up.
We have never used a real tree stand.  I didn't grow up using one, and Daniel's family had a fake tree.  The few times we've had a real tree in our married life, we've used a bucket with gravel just like we did on the farm.  We continued with that tradition this year. :)

We got the tree up before naptime was over, but nothing else happened that day.  I was hoping to have a Norman Rockwell, picture-perfect "family evening decorating the tree"... but that was all wishful thinking.  Once I realized how far-fetched that idea really was, I spent a few afternoons climbing up and down a step-stool and squeezing around the tree (hoping it wouldn't tip over!) and managed to get lights on it.  I thought it looked beautiful with just lights!

I really wanted to make some Christmas cookies with Susannah, so one afternoon we mixed up homemade Oreo cookies, and she helped cut out the first cookie-sheet full before she took her nap and I finished baking them.

The next day I used some leftover frosting I'd had in the freezer, and she watched/helped me make Rudolph cookies. :)  {Don't be too impressed... I think I made 8 or 10 of these, total; the rest were eaten as plain sandwich cookies!}  She thought they were pretty exciting.  Mission accomplished. :)

Back to the tree that was being beautiful with just lights in the living room.  I loved it.  I thought it would look even more beautiful with pretty decorations on it, but I was feeling pretty un-excited about decorating it by myself.  One day I decided it was time to bite the bullet, and got down the big tub of decorations.  I hung a few before I decided that it, too, would be a naptime project.  It took me all of one long afternoon naptime, but I did it!  Just like I thought, it was even more lovely decorated.

A few of my favorite ornaments:

A hand-painted picture by Daniel's mom.

This ornament, from one of my sisters,
happens to not only be one of my favorite
kinds of chocolate, but also bears my middle name (for real). :)

These ornaments with different parts of the 

nativity scene on them, reminding me of 

the True Reason of Christmas.

This star, which I don't remember where it came from,

but it ended up hanging right at my eye level.

Each time I look at the tree I see this star and 

love it's simple elegance.

Another aspect of our Christmas Season was doing an Advent Calendar of sorts with Susannah.  I wanted some way to count down (or up?) the days till Jesus' Birthday, but didn't want the traditional Advent Calendar, open-the-door, read the verse, get a piece of candy -type thing. Instead I made this tree, cut into 24 pieces, to go on the background that I had for it.  Each evening I wrote a "message" (a little short paragraph) and stuck it on the fridge with the piece of tree for the day.  In the message I included which story from The Jesus Storybook Bible we would read that evening.  We followed this plan for reading The Jesus Storybook Bible.  Susannah loved this, and several times a day would run to the refrigerator looking for "another message!"

One Saturday afternoon Daniel helped me try to get pictures of the girls.  The "official" picture is in this post; these are some of the out-takes (it was quite a circus with 2 little people!).

(This one is cute, but "blown up" at all Sylvia is blurry,

plus she's cute without her fingers in her mouth, too. :) )

Christmas At The Ranch, Part 3

Now on to the most fun - and crazy - part of the day: PRESENTS!! I love giving and I love getting.:)

Sam (Gail's youngest) pretty pleased with his

pile of gifts.  Actually, he was carefully and

sneakily tearing the paper off one of them. :P

Poor Susannah was in the deep end of a head cold on this day, and in the middle of lunch Sally discovered she was running a fever.  I took her temperature and sure enough, she was 100.6 - IF she kept the thermometer under her tongue.  I loaded her up with Tylenol to get her through lunch and the gift opening, then I gave her some Benadryl for her extreme drainage and tucked her in for a much-needed nap (more to come, later, on our week of sick, sleepless "vacation").

Daniel excited about his presents. :)
(My grandmother in the background.)

Daniel helped Sylvia open her gifts and I helped

Susannah open hers.  I didn't get many pictures of the afternoon

because I was a bit busy.

At Thanksgiving I got a good picture of Susannah and my 91 y.o. Grandma,

I made sure to get a picture of Sylvia with her this time.

The youngest of the crowd this year,

Rachel's VERY smiley baby girl, Morgan.

The second youngest cousin, Sally's daughter, Rachel.

(Or, "Rachel Anne" as she gets called when we're 

all together to avoid confusion of which Rachel we're talking about!)

Sylvia, the oldest of the 2012-born cousins, enjoying Grandma's toys. :)
In 2012, 3 new cousins were born: Sylvia, Rachel and Morgan.

We didn't serve turkey, but it seems the Tryptophan was still at work.  After the gifts people lined up in the recliners to relax.  These are the times that Mom & Dad's huge house DOESN'T seem "too big"!!

Gail & Rachel

(Rachel was the head of the planning committee this year

and did a fabulous job.)

A very long game of Monopoly in action.

Glen, Sally & Linden (who is THE Monopoly player)

Linden, Jason & Luke

I heard there were some under-the-table deals going on,

contracts being written, and that it was quite the game!

About this time we had to load up and head home.  Daniel was on call New Years Day, so we couldn't stay the night and enjoy the after-party partying like we'd hoped.

If you missed them, you can read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Happy New Year, y'all!