Post Christmas Wrap-up

We had a great Christmas! and you? Our Christmases are pretty low key, believe it or not. Our kids get one present from Santa, one from us, and one from one of their siblings. We hang out around our house all morning and then head to my mom's around 3pm. This year was the year of the bike. Oliver, Rosie and Max all got bikes from Santa. The weather was actually in the 50s so the kids got to ride their new bikes all morning. And yes, after much searching I was able to find Rosie a bike that was not either covered on Bratz or Barbie, or a stripper pole on wheels. But, it cost me. At least Fiona will get to ride it, too.

Fiona got a baby doll and a new pram. I don't know if I'll have any woodwork left after the next couple of weeks.


Conor got a new phone (that he can't use because his line is blocked until he gets a job and can pay for any overages that might occur. burned this summer.), Five blank skateboard decks, and grandpa gave him a new fishing rod.


And in classic pastor family fashion, Bob got called away to the hospital right before dinner. Oliver cried for him nonstop until he got back. Later that night he was called back and the member ended up dying. What is it about this time of year?

Are they fooling you?

'Cause I've got three large boxes of packing peanut "snow" all over the living room floor that says differently.

Our Family Annual Christmas Photo Shoot Slide Show

And people wonder why we don't pay for professional pictures. I can't imagine paying for this. We barely got a doable picture this year.

Hard Lessons Learned

I was getting Fiona ready for bed and the kids were all in the bathtub supposedly washing their bodies and hair. Suddenly, I hear screaming and then see 3 naked and wet children running out of the bathroom...followed by a very wet and indignant kitten.

Lesson 1: Kittens do not make good bath toys.

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Lesson 2: Know when to leave.

This is one of the top five lessons parents need to learn, in my opinion. Life with children is so much easier once you have this mastered. For example, my in-laws always go shopping on Black Friday and I usually tag along. Well, not along completely since they start at 4am. I meet them for lunch. This year we went briefly into the mall because I had to get this year's Hallmark singing snowman. As I'm walking through, this woman in yelling at her 4 or 5 year old son because he is running around and whining. Exasperated I hear her say, "Why did I have to get such a rotten kid!" to which I responded, "You didn't get a rotten kid. You got a kid. He's done. It's time to go." She shot me a well-deserved "mind-your-own-damn-business" look. But, it was true. She had missed knowing when to leave.

So, last week we were spending our 3rd day that week at the great Christmas train exhibit near my house. It's a great exhibit our garden puts on every year and since we are members we get in free. We go quite a few times during the holidays. The kids really enjoy themselves and it's just a nice low key activity to keep us in the Christmas spirit.





Bob and I were split up trying to keep track of everybody while they ran from train to train. After they spent about an hour watching all the trains, I came around a corner looking for Oliver and Max. That's when I found them. I couldn't figure out what they were doing at first, they were repeatedly falling onto the ground, but my mouth was already open to tell them to get off the floor. Then I saw the sign. And heard Max pointing to the sign and encouraging Oliver who had just flopped onto the floor with his arms flailing. "Almost. You just need to stick your foot up more like this."

I knew it was time to go.

Our pathetic excuse for a snow...

Every time we get this little hint of winter, Bob starts looking for jobs back up north. Look out Canada! He's focusing his sights on Ottawa. or Buffalo. or Vermont. or...

Here's our dinky snowman.





And you know, I can take the occasional stolen car. The periodic smashed out window. Even the random mugging. But today when we got home 2 hours after building our snowman, some little buttholes had knocked it down. I can't begin to tell you how this filled me with the worst kind of rage. My kids were crushed. We are building another one...in the fenced in backyard.

The Man of the Hour

Today after school got out at 11:30am, we invited the class upstairs for pizza and cake and ice cream for Oliver's birthday. The kids had a great time running around like crazy people. And though I had to field another interrogation about the size of my family from one of the parents, and 3 of the kids speak little to no English so directing them was a bit of an issue (luckily their teacher was there to help!), and twice as many kids came as RSVP'd, we really enjoyed ourselves.

Here is the picture I took of Oliver with his class...



and this was the second take in case the first one wasn't a good one...



and the proud owner of one new rocketship...

Not to Keep Harping on This

A few pictures for your comparison

2005

2006

and...2007