Quiet Christmas

For the first time EVER we stayed "home" for Christmas.  We typically have a tour of the midwest/south and this time we just stayed home.  It was fun and not quite as quiet as we originally thought it may be.  We went to church on Sunday and it was a nice service.  The kids sat around the pastor and he tried to keep them all engaged as opposed to sending them to children's church.  The kids kind of let us sleep in and woke us up by telling us Baby Jesus was in the manger.  All month (through Advent) they kept wanting to open the "last" box on the calendar and put Baby Jesus in the manger.  They finally did it and were super excited. :) I personally like how the calendar changes a bit every year.  We get random things like camels in the sky. This year A was significantly more concerned about making it "right" though which kind of makes me sad.  G still didn't care if he put a star on the ground or a camel in the sky. :)

A's favorite present this year has been a snowflake waffle maker.  The kids have been asking for snowflake waffles since then.  Hopefully tomorrow we will get some made.  She keeps exclaiming that "This was the best Christmas EVER" so that's nice at least.

G's favorite present was the train tracks and trains that he received.  He also got some Jake and the Neverland Pirate sheets and had to sleep on those Christmas night.  We also managed to find a killer deal on a "train" table that G desperately wants us to bring inside the house.  It was a display table for Hobby Lobby and they are trying to get rid of them.  They are like 6' by 2.5' with a small ledge and just G's size for reaching the middle.

We made "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake.  I made a spice cake and then added carrots for Chris and me since the kids won't eat food with "stuff" in it.  We can tell them that there is "stuff" in the food and they won't even touch it.  No we don't use it to our advantage ever.

For those of you who are unaware -- G did get glasses the end of November.  We had both kids' eyes checked and he really needed them.  He really likes them and takes them off to eat and play.  We've finally convinced him to wear them and they definitely help him see.  

Christmas Baking

Well, not really Christmas baking but the weekly baking so that we have some easy snack for everyone during the week. It just happens to be around Christmas.

So far Advent has gone remarkably well. We are counting down days to when baby Jesus is born like fiends. A is really getting into it and G is simply following his big sister. Big sister also only has one day of school left this year so we will see how that goes. We aren't sure that her being off for 2 weeks is really a good idea. Since we aren't traveling for Christmas this year we are going to try and do some fun things. It is just weird to not have several places to be all at once.

Anyway, Chris has finally gotten the kids to bed so I'm going to go say hello.

Christmas Pageant

Last weekend the kids were in a Christmas pageant at the church we are currently attending.  A was an angel and the angel chorus had a few lines. One of our advent calendars has the lines in them so A will say them most days.  G was a I'm going to wait until the very last minute star. He practiced as a star, but come Sunday morning he decided that he didn't want anything to do with the costume. Then when everyone lined up to go on stage he decided that maybe her did want to wear the costume.

A is wrapping up her second term of kindergarten. We will see how it goes. She has started asking if she can read books instead of doing the work set her by the teachers. Realistically since it is simple things like letter sounds and recognizing words in sight, we are okay with this plan. We get kind of bored with the work she gets sent home with. G won't even sit with her to do it anymore either. Tonight he was going to sit and cuddle with A and me, but when he found out we were doing her homework he went to help Chris finish dinner.

The Christmas party for work was last Saturday. It was quite a party and Chris got to meet a lot of the people I work with. There is always a bit of self segregation based on job function, but for QA people it seems to be even worse. I suppose it fits our personalities, but we all sat together for supper. We had fun.

Growing Up!

Yesterday A lost her first tooth. It has been lose a little bit and she had played with it since she has friends at school who have lost teeth. She is super excited and support proud. Now GMan wants to follow in her footsteps.

Yesterday we also had a surreal experience with Miss A. At a friend's house she was told she could help her friend by cleaning a bathroom so she and friends could play later. She opted to clean the bathroom so that she could play with her friend later. Talk about growing up!

Post Party Pictures

These are kind of in backwards order but enough that you should get the idea. We did a "Thomas" snack with graham cracker raisins bananas and mousemellows (Thanks Skippy!) all held together with peanut butter.  It was a lot of fun and hopefully our new friends will come back.  

Sister couldn't resist helping blow the candle out

The "Thomas" A and Chris put together

G fixing the wheels and refusing to get in the Thomas while A gladly got in the Thomas. 

I Will Be...

We have had anti bullying week here recently. We had anti drug week when I was in school, but now it is anti bullying because bullying is a bigger problem than drugs. This was part of A's journal from the week. We know the ffiend is misspelled, but it is great we think!

I Voted!

Well, this week had been interesting. The kids didn't have school on Tuesday since most of the schools are polling places. I can only imagine the craziness of the security involved if they had both school security and voting security at the same time. Chris took the kids to vote with him and they got stickers as you can see below. G put his to good use.

On Monday it was great. As we were talking about what to do Tuesday with no school and why, A mentioned that she voted at school that day. We discussed the importance of voting and asked who she voted for. She told us, "the woman with the flag of the United States of America flag." We asked if she meant Stein or Hillary. She said Hillary. We asked why and she said, "because it was a girl."

This week I've finally gotten the nasty bacterial infection that's gone around my office. I saw the doctor on Wednesday and have a few explicit instructions about what to do in different scenarios and a nice antibiotic prescription.

We are also getting ready for G's bday and party. He picked s Thomas the Tank Engine theme, so expect some fun pictures tomorrow. We found out yesterday that he will win the first glasses of his class award because he needs glasses now. Chris was surprised at how bad G's vision was. Next week we get to start weaning him into wearing the glasses so hope that goes well.

More pictures and stories tomorrow after the party.