Our Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home. It was really nice to start some of our own traditions.

On Christmas Eve, we baked cookies for Santa and made reindeer food (oats, sugar, and sprinkles). Mark and I worked on wrapping all the presents while watching Christmas movies. Neither one of us had seen "It's a Wonderful Life" so I DVRed it and we watched it after the kids went to bed. We went to Christmas Eve service and then tried to get take out afterwards, with no luck. First we went to get a hot-and-ready pizza, and they were closed, so we went to Steak-n-Shake, and waited in line for about 20 minutes, and then the manager came out and stood at the drive through speaker and told everyone that they closed at 7. We were pretty mad, so we went by the grocery store to grab a frozen pizza, but they were closed...there was a Chinese restaurant open, so I placed the order while Mark waited in the car, and when I pulled out my debit machine, they said their credit card machine was broken and they only took cash. So, we went home and scrounged around. Note to self...have something ready in the crock pot on Christmas Eve!!!!! After all that, it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cold outside, but we HAD to get the reindeer food out...Nathan said we could just throw the containers out on the yard, and Santa would open it up for the reindeer. I don't think he wanted to go back outside.

After a rough night with Nathan (between him trying to hear Santa, and a 2 hour coughing session) he woke up at around 8:30. He yelled, "MOMMY, DADDY LOOK AT ALL THE PRESENTS!!!" He was very patient while we got Becca up and while I put the yummy sticky buns in the oven. He tore through his first present, and as soon as he saw what it was, he started tearing faster and faster. Becca needed a little help with them, and she wanted all the stuff out of the box immediately. Nathan wanted to play with the presents as he opened them, and not wait until after he opened them all.

Nathan got: a Geotrax airport, a shake and go airplane, 2 games, and a couple of movies.
Becca got: a new doll, some play jewelry, and some movies.

We had so much fun, we stayed in our pajamas all day!!

My Favorite Things

Nathan's preschool Christmas program

The kids running to hug each other.


My favorite things so far about Christmas so far:

1. "Doing the numbers" Every day counting down to Christmas. We wake up and Nathan climbs on the piano bench and changes one of our countdowns and Becca dances to jingle bells that it plays. Every now and then I catch Becca climbing on top of the piano to do it again. Nathan refers time in the future as it relates to the "1" on the countdown. Santa comes after the 1. He's told his uncle Patrick that he'll see him after the 1, because we're going there the day after Christmas. Today he told a worker at Lowes that it's almost the "1." I had to explain the countdown.

2. Watching Christmas specials with the kids at night. I think I've DVRed every single one of them.

3. Reading Twas the Night before Christmas...Nathan said that when it's on the 1 he'll have a clatter...you know "When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter"...I think he's going to be listening for Santa.

4. Seeing everybody's Christmas cards and pictures and reading all the letters.

5. Having the kids "help" me make the goodies.

6. Becca pointing out all the "thanta" (Santas) and "Nomen" (Snowmen) that she sees.

7. Teaching them about giving to others.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and I can't wait to read all your blogs!

Christmastime is Here!

We took the kids to Breakfast with Santa at Grandma's school. We didn't know how Becca would do with it..but she did great!! She would go up to him and hug him and let him hold her and everything. This is the first year that Nathan actually told Santa what he wanted (airplanes). They had students face painting as well...and Nathan of course wanted an airplane on his face.

It's been really fun getting ready for Christmas this year. Nathan's really getting into it. We're watching Christmas specials and listening to Christmas music. Every morning, we do our "numbers," by changing our advent countdowns.

We're working on the "gimmies" with Nathan by focussing on what other people want too. At first, I asked Nathan what we should get Daddy, and he said airplanes. Then I asked what to get Becca, and he said airplanes. He's getting better...now he says we should Daddy tools, and Becca a baby...and then I asked him what he should get me, and he said a puppy....I don't think so...Spike's enough for us.

Nathan's been in a few Christmas programs this year, and I'm working on getting the video up here. One thing I thought was hilarious: His preschool teacher Miss Carla told the kids the Christmas story today during their Christmas program and she asked if they knew what an inn was, and one kid said, "I know!! It's a letter!" He thought she meant "N."

This is from our church's Christmas program. The 3 and 4 year olds sang "Away in a Manger." Notice how he can either do the motions or sing, but not both =)

Say what??

The kids were both climbing on the back of the couch and looking out the window in our sun room. So I asked them what they could see, and Nathan said, snow, a tree, etc. Mark said he could see 2 monkeys (meaning the kids) and Becca looked at him with a very serious look on her face and said, "Where da monkeys go?" and looked back out the window for them.

Becca's also been copying everything I say. So one day, I looked at her and said, "Are you a copycat?" and she said, "meow."

I think I'm going to have to start her own set of quotes on here.

Eskimos??

We woke up Sunday morning to a blanket of snow. Nathan was so excited. Last year, he didn't care for the snow, because he fell a few times, and was afraid of falling on the ice. This year, though, he was so excited. I threw a few snowballs at him, and he threw some at me...and later, Mark took him and Becca out to play. I think Becca liked it a little, but she refused to put gloves on, so she didn't last long. It was great packing snow, so they made a snowman...and then Mark decided to make an igloo. He got about half-way done, and Nathan got bored with it, so Mark went back out after bedtime and finished it. The neighbors thought he was crazy for playing in the snow by himself at 11pm. I think he used most of the snow from the front yard.

Now I have a place for Mark to go when I'm mad at him...not the doghouse, but the igloo=)

Becca and Abbi on the sled.


Alex, Becca, and Nathan in front of the igloo.