Nae-zers

LeNae visited us for Christmas, and let me tell you that the boys were beyond excited that she came. She has definitely been missed...by all of us. But for some reason, Roger missed her the most.

Several weeks ago, Lyndee was talking to Roger on the phone. She asked Roger if he missed Nae, to which he replied in the affirmative. Then, in hopes of competing with Nae, Lyndee asked Roger if he missed her to which he replied that he didn't. Shocked and offended, Lyndee couldn't believe her ears, then Roger said, "Ya, I don't miss you 'cause I'm talking to you".

While here, Roger did not seem to leave LeNae's side. They were attached at the hips. Lyndee jealously called Roger "LeNae's Boyfriend". He looked at her with admiration and insisted on always sitting by her.

I can't say that I blame Roger. LeNae is pretty awesome. She is tons of fun, very cute, but most of all, she loves people. She will just sit and play and talk with my boys without ever making them feel that she has something more important to do. My boys will talk and play with her more than any other adult, probably including me.

We were grateful to have Nae back in our home, even if just for a couple of days.

Christmas Eve

My dad and remaining sisters flew in late the night before Christmas Eve. My dad claimed that he was going to go to bed and not wake up until his body "told" him that it had gotten enough rest.
Well....with four little anxious boys, they couldn't resist running into his room and waking him up. When he straggled down to breakfast, I asked him if his body told him that it was time to wake up. He gave me a look that I am guessing means that it hadn't.
After breakfast, my dad told me that we needed to go to Target. He wanted to take the boys to pick out their Christmas gifts. Once within the store, my dad told each of us (my sisters included) to take one of the boys and help them pick out some toys. My dad then told us how much each child was allowed to spend....which I will not disclose but will say that one child's spending allowance was more than I had spent on them collectively.
I was a little unsure about this. I do not want my kids to be spoiled. My thought is Less is More.
Lyndee could sense my uneasiness about the situation and asked me if it was okay that we get the boys gifts. I was unsure of what to say until my boys ran over to the dollar cart, each grabbed a dollar sword, and were the happiest boys in town.
My sisters later commented on how impressed with my boys they were. According to them, a lot of kids in their situation would have become bratty, trying to grab every toy they saw. Instead my boys grabbed just a few inexpensive items (backuguans, spiderman, and sillybands) while the adults grabbed some toys that they thought the boys would like. I will admit we picked up some $10 nerf shotguns, that load and unload like a real shotgun, funnest things ever.
After our shopping spree we were hungry. Originally we were going to have fondue for dinner, but it was 3:30 in the afternoon and we were going to eat at Red Robbins. The food was great, but we were stuffed, no need for any more dinner the rest of the evening.
I was a little saddened, I had hoped to have a perfect Christmas Eve celebration with all the traditions Todd and I had started implementing: fondue dinner and the Nativity performance were my main ones I wanted.
We got to my house around 6, and we were wiped out. We decided to wait for an hour before we did the Nativity and the rest of the evenings' celebrations. While we all (including the kids) were in the living room I kept thinking that we should start with our celebrations, but then I was exhausted.
William was giving out commands on who would be playing which part of the Nativity. He said I would be Mary, Todd would be Joseph, Mikey Roger and William would be the 3 wise men, and Dee-dee would be the "A--hole". Good thing he is taking speech classes.

I was disappointed when 20 minutes later I looked over to discover that William had fallen asleep. We were now ready for the evening's festivities, but we were short one important player. Todd kept telling me that we could just do it the next day, but it just would not be the same. I tried and I tried to wake him up, to no avail. I was discouraged, feeling disappointed. I didn't want to have just another evening where we eat and fall asleep with no connections, no memories.

We were sitting down to have hot chocolate with my favorite, Tim-Tams (these are cookies that we discovered in Australia, you suck hot chocolate through them and it is a glorious, delicious melting chocolate cookie. Costco happened to have them this year). After we were finished, William started stirring. I was so excited, so grateful. I really wanted to do this with my kids, and now we were going to be able to.

We all got dressed up, and we had some great sports about their costume get-ups.

Lana was the narrator, LeNae was the Angel, Lyndee was Innkeeper and Shepherd, Nathan was a Shepherd, Todd was Joseph, I was Mary (I've never beat Lyndee out for this role, but it does help having a 3 year-old that believes you are perfect for the part), Mikey Roger and William were the 3 Wisemen, Mikey was also an Innkeeper, my dad was King Herod, and Grant was whatever we could get him to be - which ended up being the nanny.

The nativity went well. My dad did a great job as King Herod, and the boys did a great job as the three wise men. Grant was not so good, but better than last year. Grant was so excited about our "Baby Je-ua Ckist". He kept taking the doll from me, playing with the doll, cradling the doll, and dropping the doll. Needless to say, I will not be allowing him to hold a baby anytime soon.

After our presentation, we ended with singing some hymns.

It was very beautiful, very peaceful, and I felt such a tender mercy from the Lord. He knew that my heart was desiring this experience for my kids, for my family, and for me.

We put the kids to bed, which was actually on the floor of my room. They were excited, but tuckered out.

Then we adults went to work with the rest of the Christmas preparations....getting things ready for when Santa came down the chimney.

"Who do they think puts all their toys under the tree?"

Papa Elf: "Well, there's a rumor floating around that uh, that the parents do it."

Buddy: "That's... That's ridiculous. I mean, parents couldn't do that all in one night. What about Santa's cookies? I suppose parents eat them too?"

We spent way too much time and had way too much fun playing with the Nerf Shotguns - but I will say, I am the champion shooter.

Then we had my dad read "The White Arrowhead". It's a story that we've read every Christmas eve for years and years. Of course we all get emotional during it.

Then as we set up the presents, we watched "Support Your Local Sheriff" - a tradition of my parents. If you have never seen it, it is worth picking up. Hi-lar-ious.

We went to bed around 4 or 5, exhausted, happy, and excited for the kids' reactions in the morning.

Dee-Dee & Nathan

This summer after Lyndee's wedding, Lyndee and I were discussing her Christmas plans. I invited her and Nathan to join us in Ohio...and things worked out so that they could. I was so excited for this, not only was I going to be able to spend more time with my sister, but also get to know Nathan better. Let's just say that I am so happy Lyndee found such a great guy. He really is so good to her and a very, very nice guy.

As we discussed our plans, we thought that maybe we would invite our other sister's to join us, so LeNae and Lana were able to come as well, and to top it off, my dad also came.

We did get a couple of days with just Lyndee and Nathan, which was nice...and quiet...well, sort of. They started their vacation by instructing the boys with yoga/riding the boat/whatever they were able to come up with.

And building a fort around Grant...ya, pretty cool.

This got the boys eating out of Nathan's hands.

That and the fact that he allowed them to play with his phone (he obviously hasn't lost any phones to children's misfortunes)

Our first night we went to Lake Farm Park's Country Lights. We've done this several times the past few years, and were excited to have these city folk (they're from Vegas) see how the country is, in the extreme cold.

We had a great time. The boys talked to Santa and even though I thought this may be the first year that no one would cry on his lap, Grant could not hide his feelings.

William told him that he wanted a "Toy Story 3 Rex....this big" (about 6 inches)

Roger said he wanted, "Whatever you bring me"and Mikey said, "I don't want anything...I already have what I want".

We rode on the horse-drawn wagon and saw the lights and animals. Lyndee and Nathan were not too thrilled with the weather. It was shocking to them when one worker told them that it was one of the warmer nights. We got to see and pet some animals

The doctors had to discuss the anatomy of a cow

The boys got to go to Santa's Workshop and chose a toy to build

and paint

Grant refused to have the painting shirt on, but he also refused to paint. so, I took off the shirt and just a few minutes later he started to paint - by dropping the blue paintbrush down his front, ruining his nice khaki pants - good thing these pants have gone through 5 boys and who wants pants that have been used that much?

It was really fun having Nathan and Lyndee join us, and it made it so much easier because our adult to child ratio had us playing man to man defense. Also, Nathan and Lyndee are very attached and dear to my children.

It was a fun evening, and enjoyable time. The next night, the rest of the clan joined in with our Christmas celebrations

Tour it Tuesday

Christmas Decor

I don't have a lot of Christmas decorations, which is so strange since my mom always had a ton of Christmas (and any other holiday) decorations. I just usually don't think to buy it...and I'm too cheap to purchase items that will only be up for a month. About 99% of the Christmas decor that we have was given to us.
We have several strands of lights that I don't ever know what to do with, so I string them around the banister. I've been doing this since moving here, so I guess it's tradition now.The green ceramic Christmas tree is very similar to one that my mom had when we were growing up. I found this at a garage sale in the middle of the summer. For sentimental reasons, I had to purchase it.
This snowman is something my mom gave me my senior year in high school. Pretty tacky, but kind of cute, and the kids love it.
We have a cheap little lighting up tree. My mom gave it to me when I was in college so that I could have some sort of Christmas decor in my apartment. We put it in the boys' room. Last year it was in Mikey's room, so he volunteered to have it in Roger's room this year.

Our first year with a baby, my mom gave us this hand-me-down Christmas tree. It use to be really cute, one of those Jubilee of Tree's, but one year we took off all the lights and decorations so we could put them on a real tree and it hasn't looked the same since. The boys help decorate this tree, it has a lot of mismatching going on.

This tree was another hand-me-down from my mom. She brought it out to us. The bottom section was broken, which actually is good because our ceilings are barely tall enough for it as it is. The downside is that the bottom doesn't actually fit in a tree stand, so our tree is always crooked and I am always nervous that it's going to fall on one of the boys.

Here is our Tree Skirt. It's actually a large window curtain that my mom gave us 6 years ago. It has been a table cloth, left in storage, and used for moving blankets. It is very versatile.

My mom can be known for her tacky gifts. For example she gave us this Irish snowman. He use to balance a bowl on top of his head, but somehow his arms melted a little bit and now they cannot keep the bowl up. My mom was so excited when I was marrying an Irish boy. She considers herself part-Irish since she was born on St. Patrick's Day.
And if this gift from her doesn't scream Tacky, I don't know what will. But she did give us this, which I like because it shows what our focus needs to be on during this time.

We got our first Nativity set a couple of years ago. It was given to us by a Secret Santa Family that would drop off a piece every night with a quote attached to each one. The first one we got was the horse and it looked like a little turd sitting on our front porch - and you know with kids anything is possible. We were happy to see that it wasn't a turd....obviously.

My mom use to collect Nativity sets...I guess she was looking for something to spend her money on, for last year she got rid of them. I got this one, which is made out of olive tree wood from Israel.
Unfortunately my niece had a fetish with babies and would keep on taking all the Baby Jesus' from my mom's nativities, so the original isn't with us, so I improvised.Believe it or not, that is most of our Christmas Decorations. Now you won't feel any need to come to my house to see it decorated for Christmas, for you have seen it all.
I hope you are having a great Christmas Season!