Coming down the jiminey

This year we were invited to spend Christmas with Dad, Lisa and the girls. It had been quite a few years since we had Christmas at my dad's so we were really excited. We went over on Christmas eve day and just hung out and visited with everybody and let the kids play. Emma played on the floor with toys hoping to get Wilbur's attention in any way she could. Randomly he would come by and try to lick her all over. Their affection for each other is definitely mutual. Ave, Hunter and Alec rotated between the trampoline, the Wii, and playing with toys. The rest of us ate and visited and did more snacking. Later that evening Dad had come up with a new trivia game for us to play. Involving these cute little boxes, prize money, and Christmas trivia questions. It was something fun and different and definitely got us all laughing. Grandma let the kids make sugar cookies for Santa. Well we were supposed to bring the cookie cutters for the cookies until I realized that we didn't have any cookie cutters so we improvised. Now when I say improvised I mean we sort of let the kids have free creative range on the size and shape of their cookies. I about died of laughter when Dad pulled them out of the oven and they looked like this.... wow really? They were huge. Seeing the kids eyes when they saw them was even more hilarious. After baths and pajamas it was almost time for bed. Avery was pretty excited about dad's fireplace so that Santa could come down the jiminey. It is so cute she has been calling it a jiminey instead of a chimney all month long. It is hard to contain a giggle when ever she comes up and starts talking to me about Santa and how he will fit down the jiminey and why our house has no jiminey. She knelt down by the fireplace and kept look up into it talking about him and how excited she was that he was coming. She told me that she was going to go for a ride in his sleigh. Deke and I reviewed the rules with her about riding with Santa including that she couldn't lean over the edge and look down below. Wide eyed she told us she wouldn't because she didn't want to fall out. Instead she would sit on Santa's lap. When I went to tuck Hunter in he told me that he hoped that this would be the year that he saw Santa. I love the way he believes I wanted nothing more than for him to be able to see him. Christmas is so magical with the kids and the anticipation and the excitement they feel. They headed off to bed and the rest of us stayed up and talked until 2:30 in the morning. We finally put ourselves to bed only to be awakened by the kids at 5:30 eager and ready to see if Santa had come. There was no way that I was waking up the baby that early so we let her sleep and headed out to open gifts. Hunter was so excited to see a Wii Harry Potter game, a Hot Wheels tub racing track, LEGO's and Bakugan's as some of his presents under the tree. I think however one of his favorite things were the two science experiments that Santa brought him. Growing a crystal tree and making your own marbles. Those will be a lot of fun. Avery got her Baby Alive whom she named Allie. She also got dress up clothes, a princess computer, pink LEGO's and plenty of other fun girl stuff. Her favorite thing of course was the pair of purple Ariel and pair of purple rhinestone heels she got. Instantly everything else was put on hold while she tried them both on and walked around in them as if testing them out. After all the unwrapping was done we ate some yummy omelets and headed back to bed for a little extra snoozing. A couple of hours later Miss E was up and it was her turn to open presents. She was pretty intrigued by the wrapping paper and really got into the process of tearing it up. Some things she got included some new blankies, a glow worm, some bath toys, a nightlight singing thing for her crib and some other fun toys. Her favorite thing was this little gumball machine toy that you drop ball into and then when you pull on the handle they swirl down and come rolling out. It also plays music and lights up. She loves it and it is really helping her to want to crawl. For the rest of the day we just ate and played with the kids and played games and visited and just relaxed. It was a really nice Christmas. The kids are all at such fun stages and it was so neat to watch them and share in their excitement of the day. The next morning we went over and got together with all the extended family at Bly and Lou's house. We had lunch, the boys played rugby, we played games and again more fun visiting. We have such an awesome family. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Their tree is pink

I love love love the fact that every year our kids each get to have a small decorated tree in each of their rooms. Why? I love that at the end of every night as Deke or I go in to unplug their lights for the night there is a soft warm glow in the room. It is just enough light to be able to see their little faces as they sleep and the glow the lights give off is so soft and gentle. They always look angelic to me. I love being to see them sleeping so peacefully. They love it too and usually look forward to putting up their own little trees almost as much as the family tree. Last year we bought Ave a new tree and what do you know it is PINK!!! I never thought I would ever like a colored tree and I never would like a big one. However this little pink tree is cute as can be. Avery loves it. This year Emma has been like a little "moth to the flame" with the Christmas lights. When she sees them her eyes light up and she starts smiling and giggling and kicking excitedly. There is something so amazing about watching your children experience things for the first time. She keeps making her way over to the big tree and even though there are no ornaments down low she plays with the lights. More than once or twice I have had to go rescue her when she got herself tangled in the lowest strand. She also loves the little pink tree. We put it in the girls room on the changing table and so every time I change her or get her dressed it is right there for her to see. She squirms around and tries to evade me as I struggle to get her arm in a sleeve, reaching for one of the red blubs hanging from its pink branches. At night in her little jammies I sit her by it and watch the light reflecting in her big blue eyes and feel my heart melt as she looks at the tree wide eyed and then turns to me and smiles as if to say "look mommy its soooooo beautiful." Then I gazing at her and think "yes Emma, it is sooooo beautiful." There is nothing like rocking or holding a sleeping baby next to a glowing Christmas tree when it is nice and chilly outside. Heaven. It is so fun to go in at night and unplug this little pink tree after gazing at my beautiful little girls sleeping away. I feel so lucky and blessed to have two sweet daughters.

Gingerbread Pirates

So when I say that we do gingerbread houses every year I actually mean that we make graham cracker houses and call it a gingerbread house contest. This year however we actually decorated gingerbread men which we hadn't done in years. Hunter got a cute book called The Gingerbread Pirates from school it is a great story. We cooked up the gingerbread men and then decorated them like little pirates. Hunter made the one with the missing leg and the eye patch. I love the one he made with the red and black striped pants and the white ruffled shirt. Ave's of course had to be wearing shoes and had Red Hots for hair which cracked us up. I made the sad faced guy with the green belt and the guy with the happy eyebrows. Deke's were awesome. He is so good at the details. The guy with the skull and crossbones on his shirt. Sweet. The best I thought was the guy with the striped black and white that is all tattered at the bottom. Then we read the book as a family and tasted our crew. Emma sat in her high chair and wished she had teeth so she could join in the fun.