Christmas Celebration #2

On Sunday (the 19th) we celebrated Christmas with Grandma Cathy and Doug since they will be out of town for our usual Christmas Eve celebrating. (They had also taken the 4 oldest kids to The Nutcracker the day before - a huge favorite - at least for the girls!)

We spent a little time enjoying hot chocolate and marshmallows and a little time playing.Then Samantha and Amelia helped Grandma Cathy make the ebelskivers. My hope is that in a few years they will be able to do this on their own so they can make them for us. Although, I should probably still learn how to do it myself.
The kids could hardly contain themselves when they saw this bounty of presents just waiting to be opened.
Peter has definitely learned how the present thing works. He knows that when someone hands you one, if you can figure out how to get the paper off, there is usually something good inside. This just makes Christmas that much more fun.

Everyone ended up with new books and a new sweater.

As usual, Jonas was very interested in any book he saw - whether it was given to him or not. He was checking out everyone's books.
Amelia's turn. The kids were all very good at sitting and waiting patiently as everyone else opened their presents. (Every once in a while, they give me a little glimmer of hope that they may end up a little bit civilized after all.)
Samantha was more than happy to help others open their presents. She can't stand it when some of us choose to do it carefully and slowly. She likes to tear right in. (So of course, some of us- I won't mention names - tried to open our gifts v-e-r-y slowly just to cause her pain.)

Peter helping out with the picture taking.

The boys sporting their new sweaters.

I don't know, but this may be the way to do Christmas. Stretch it out over a couple of weeks, have time to enjoy the gifts you got before moving on tho the next ones. It certainly forces us to do some of our Christmas shopping in a more timely manner. And now, our Christmas Eve and Christmas day will be nice and quiet. I wonder what we'll do?

Christmas Orchestra Concert

Jonas had his Christmas orchestra concert at school today. This can be one of the more painful parts of parenting. Shawn says there is a special place in heaven for the people who teach the band and orchestra classes in schools. I would have to agree. Can you imagine trying to teach all of these kids (most who have never picked up their instrument before), to play on different instruments in time, and mostly on key, in just a couple of hours a week? All in all, I'm pretty impressed with how well Jonas does considering that he almost never practices at home. (Hey, there are only so many hours in a day, and I already make him practice piano, plus 2 of his sisters have practicing to do, too. Also, since I refuse to haul the bass back and forth daily, it stays at the school for half the week anyway. I just can't make it happen. - Can you sense the guilt here?) Anyway, it wasn't too bad. And I love the sound of the bass.

Jonas and his friend, Josh.

Peter and I enjoying the music. Shawn took some video of Peter dancing, because that's what the kid does when he hears music. I couldn't find it so it must be on Shawn's phone. I'll have to add it if I find it.

Duffy got to catch the last part of the concert since preschool was over before the music was. (Hallelujah for having preschool at Jonas' school! Just a quick walk down the hall to check her out, and then back to our seats.) Grandpa Quincy and Fran also got to enjoy the concert since they were in town.

There are 3 bass players in the orchestra - Jonas, Preston and Josh.

A little vide clip for the grandparents of the song that was all plucking. I have the other songs, too if you want to come over and see them.
'Tis the season!

A Couple of Things....

1. There are only 10 days until Christmas. How in the world did that happen?

2. Why in the world do smoke detectors only run out of battery power in the middle of the night? There are all those hours in the day when I'm awake and not trying to sleep, when dealing with a beeping smoke detector wouldn't be a big deal. But no, they always wait until I'm sound asleep before they start beeping. And then, trying to identify exactly which smoke detector is beeping is ridiculous. I have to go and stand under each one and wait until I hear the beep, to see if it's the right one or if I need to move on. (One night, Shawn ended up ripping down 3 different ones, wrapped them all in a blanket and set them on the front porch, in an attempt to find some peace.) Anyway, I think it was the one in Jonas's room. He wasn't happy about it either.

3. Have I mentioned how much I love my gore tex (read water proof) Salomon trail running shoes? Because I do.
This morning's run would have had to end after about 5 minutes if I'd been wearing different shoes. As it was, despite the snow, slush and snowplow crud that I was plodding through, I came home with dry, toasty warm toes. (No trail running today, this was just on the road. But it is so quiet and peaceful on an early morning snow run - until the snowplows come by.) My lace locks were frozen when I came in and it took a little work to get them loosened so I could get my shoes off, but all in all I love these shoes!

Finally, The Tree and Christmas Celebration #1

Last Saturday, after a very busy day that involved a lot of yard work for Shawn, we found about a 20 minute window to go and pick out a Christmas tree. (You know, go, go, go! Get in the car!) By some miraculous twist of fate we found a tree that we all agreed on within about 2 minutes. (I guess you could call it a Christmas miracle.) So we loaded it up and brought it home. Shawn put on lights on Sunday, and finally, Monday night we decorated it. Grandpa Quincy and Fran came into town to celebrate an early Christmas with us. After dinner out, we came back and set to work.

I'm sure Jonas was discussing the finer points of why or why not he should get a certain expensive electronic device for Christmas.

And here, I'm sure we are reminiscing about a beloved ornament...or something.

Everyone working together. (A rare moment of harmony for everyone.)

Our happy, Christmas elf.

Surely you can see the love here. Shawn asked them to put their arms around each other and act like they liked each other. Not very convincing.

At least the girls can be friends.

And Peter likes everyone.

There was much arguing amongst the girls (friendship only lasts so long sometimes, you know) about who could put the star on the tree. So finally, Shawn said they could all do it together.

During the decorating, Grandpa Quincy was downstairs wrapping presents and Fran was reading the kids a story on her nook. But everyone was "present" for the presents. Peter got to open his first and everyone was looking on with great anticipation.

Next was Duffy.

Then Amelia.

Jonas looking to see if Samantha's present interests him at all. It didn't. But it was perfect for Samantha.

Jonas checking out his new space crystal set.

And all the kids modeling their new hats.

It was a fun evening and especially fun to have Grandpa Quincy and Fran in town. The kids certainly didn't complain about the opportunity to open some presents a little early. (The next celebration is scheduled for Sunday, then next Thursday, and then actual Christmas. Whew!) I just wish that we didn't have so much homework going on because it's kind of getting in the way of my plans. You know, sit by the fire and read stories every night while drinking hot chocolate, going to movies or at the very least watching some Christmas videos together, maybe going to look at lights. Instead, everyone comes in the door after school and is either whisked off to their next activity or starts working on homework, then dinner, then off to bed with barely a thought to the Christmas season. Oh well. I'm going to keep dreaming and imagine that we have lots of quiet evenings home together. That way, just in case it ever happens, I'll be prepared.

Visions of Sugarplums

Or at least, visions of Peppermint Twists and Elves were dancing in my head. Amelia and Megan had a holiday ballet recital this morning. It was perfect. (Meaning less than half an hour in duration.) The costumes were so cute and of course, the dancers were even more so.

Megan was a peppermint twist.

And Amelia was one of Santa's elves.

Ballet is always more fun when you do it with a cousin. (Ainsley)

And super fun when you do it with a cousin (Ellie) and a friend (Hallie). Of course, you can't see the friend and only half of the cousin in this photo but I promise they were there.

15 Days To Go...

Are YOU ready? Me, not so much. The kids in my life are covered, but the grown-ups are proving to be very difficult to buy for. (With the exception of Shawn, who can always provide me with a number of items for his list.) None of them need anything. And I can't seem to find that "just right" thing that will be useful and not just take up space. I guess I'm glad I've got a few shopping days left!

Doing Our Part to Lighten Santa's Load

My kids have been so excited and counting down the days - not to Christmas, but to the arrival of Fred the Elf. And just like clockwork, he showed up the morning of December 1st. I had forgotten he was coming and couldn't figure out what Amelia was doing running from room to room until she announced, "I can't find Fred anywhere!" That's right, Fred is here somewhere. And sure enough, the girls found him. Apparently he came in by horse this time.

Unfortunately, the fact that Fred was here did little to hold off the tears, yelling, screaming and tantrums that went on here this morning. (I hate mornings like this - and it was a bad one.) I should say, however, that the 6 and under crowd were great. They worked hard to get everything done and get ready on time. Not so much the other 2. (Of course, Shawn is not included in this either, being out of town and all.) Did I mention tantrums? Please note that the tantrum throwers were both above the age of 8. Isn't that fun? I thought so. But since I was also involved in quite a bit of the yelling and the resulting unhappy feelings around here, I guess we need lumps of coal all around - me included. There was even some "discussion" about the fact that I am the meanest Mom in the world, to which I replied, "Yes, I am absolutely the meanest Mom in the world. Now that we've established that, can we get on with the morning?" Like I said, just doing our part to lighten Santa's load on Christmas. If we're lucky, maybe we can get back on the nice list. In the meantime, I'm just trying to remember that some days are like that. Even in Australia.