Tradition

I love Christmas Eve.

We have some of the longest lasting traditions on that night rather than any other time of the year. Of course we've added & subtracted a few as we became the parents & added the grandkids, but many still are the same as I remember growing up. This year the Wassermans & Grismers headed to the early children's Mass, so the kids & I were able to set the tables for our big meal while they were gone. It's one of the few times we pull out so many of Mom's "fancy dishes" & I love it. (Notice the little kids still used paper. ;P ) Teresa was not pleased.

We always eat soup, bread, & lots of appetizers by some sort of candlelight. The turkey rice soup Mom made was a tasty addition this year though Dad's oyster stew was missed... by some. ;)

After dinner is eaten & dishes are washed, we head upstairs to the family room. We take pictures around the tree before the chaos of gift opening ensues. I'm so glad Denise's family was able to be with us this year!

Since Grandma lived closest to us, she came to most of our Christmas Eves growing up. It was just expected, but now I realize what a blessing it was. I always think about her & miss her in a special way on that night. (some of) the grands

After photos, Clara read the Christmas story from the Bible. Then we sang Happy Birthday & the kids processed Jesus to his place in the manger."Can I start now?"

Our tree growing up was real, but once my nephew was born allergic to it, we bought an artificial one. It works just as well & less sappy! We also always had big colored light bulbs, but now they are little white ones. There are a few of the same ornaments, but most of us have taken ours from growing up to put on our own trees since we were married. Thank you for filling our tree, Mom & Dad!

Andrew & Rebecca exchanged gifts for the first time this year. They were so sweet! She gave him a card & a wallet which was perfect. He gave her a lacing mitten, some stickers, & this book. It was fun to watch them really think about giving gifts this year.

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I forgot to mention my FAVORITE gift that Rebecca gave this year to her two baby cousins on Darren's side. She made them presents all by herself! It was a green Post-it note, with curled ribbon taped to the back, & drew on the front with a pencil. Then she wrapped them. Hilarious & adorable!

We put our kids to bed at 9:00 & then had the adult gift swap. We've never tried it on my side either but it was fun. Unfortunately, the whole guy/girl gift labelling didn't really happen, so we had a couple less-than-fitting final gifts. Darren got The Ministry of Motherhood which is the fantastic book we just finished with my Bible Study group. Not exactly up his alley & I already had a copy. So, he swapped it post-game for a tin of chocolate. ;) I got a DVD of The Bells of St. Mary's. Perfect.

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Other fun gifts I was given included a pretty bracelet & Prize-a-Day calendar from my parents, Bananagrams from the kids (super fun!), an Our Lady of Guadalupe ornament from my Goddaughter Julia, & a VIDEO CAMERA from Darren! Woohoo & what a surprise! I'm so excited to have one that doesn't use tapes. (I hope to show you more videos here & make montages for each of our kids to have of them growing up without having to watch tape after tape after tape.) Thank you, everyone!

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My dad has sung in the men's choir at St. Francis for over 30...40?...years. They always sing at the midnight Mass. I haven't gone much since we had kids (staying up past midnight when we're not in our own beds? on purpose?) but I miss it. They sound so beautiful & St. Francis is especially gorgeous when they flip on all the extra lights during the Gloria. We'd sing all the way home in the van, & then sneak goodies & the shrimp platter out of the fridge. We'd stay up playing games & chatting until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. Such memories! This year, I slept. Well, as much as the kids let me. ;)

Believe me now?

I told you Christmas photos would be interesting with our scrunched nose of a tot.
O holy night...

Christmas Eve eve

Maria, who I asked to smile, decided to throw in this lovely ballet pose as well. Can you tell she's Chris' daughter???

We were SO blest to spend four days at the farm this year, some of the time with all twenty-three cousins together. On the 23rd excitement was mounting & the lure of the gifts under the tree had the kiddos in perpetual "run circles through the house so we don't touch them" mode. :P After much deliberation, we let them each give & receive one gift from each other. It was actually pretty nice giving them a chance to really appreciate both the thankfulness of the receiver & the gift they were given. It's nice when they aren't just looking for the next thing to rip into!
Teresa decided to do her exploring while all the big kids were sitting in one place. She pretty much mastered the stairs & rocking bench while we were there. Merry Christmas to me!

To: Andrew From: John

ANOTHER Nerf gun... he's been extremely gleeful

To: Rebecca From: James
Moon Dough - Have you tried it? It's this crazy dry play-doh substance that doesn't smell (hallelujah) though is rather crumbly (but it vacuums up well). She got the puppy set where you can make forms of puppies, dog dishes, T-bone steaks, & bones. Pretty cute.

To: James From: Rebecca

A pretty homemade card, a little loader, & this personalized water bottle. LOVED the bottle.

These boots are made for walkin'

Help for the homeless

The last few years on my side of the family instead of a gift exchange among siblings we've picked a charity to receive our donations. It's a good way to recognize the variety of needs in each of the areas where we live & provide some help. This year my suggestion won out!
We put together Basic Needs Packets for the homeless & working poor that go to Matt Talbot Kitchen & Outreach. They hand them out as needed year-round. Now that they have showering facilities in their new building, they're especially in demand.

We each bought 50 of a couple of items to add: trial size shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, disposable razor, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, Kleenex, Band-aids, Chapstick, & lotion in Ziploc bags. The best part was doing it together once we were home at the farm. Our assembly line made 50 bags in about 10 minutes!

The kids had fun making them; who doesn't love a project? Fr. Jon will drop them off with us tomorrow. It's hard to even imagine in our abundance needing such a simple thing as soap. I hope to remember that basic needs such as these are gifts that I need to appreciate every single day. Our prayers go along with our packets.

Mmm, reindeer

We enjoyed the last few days home at my parents' farm for Christmas with ALL my siblings & their families. That's 37 of us staying together. It was marvelous! Here's the first installment of our fun there. You know Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, & all those guys, but do you know these reindeer cupcakes?
Chocolate frosting face, mini Nilla wafer snout, red M&M nose, green M&M eyes, & broken pretzel antlers
Rebecca & James did a lot of M&M sorting, as well as sampling
Maria was our expert antler gal (Please note: twist pretzels are NOT simple to break into the antler form... even though you only need 48, buy the big bag! Then plan to make Strawberry Pretzel dessert with the remnants. ;P )

They turned out pretty cute! Thanks for helping us make & eat them, cousins!

Scholarly fun

Andrew had his first Chuck E Cheese party for our neighbor gal & she invited the entire Kindergarten class! I was able to go with him & leave the littles with Darren. We had a pretty fun time just being together. We also took maybe the best picture ever of us together there... in the photo booth. I just might have to draw that one so that I can hang it up on non-Chuck E Cheese paper. ;)
A few days later we attended his first BIG Christmas program. Their class sang a song right at the beginning & then joined all K-5 at the end for a few more.

My favorite song was, "It's all about Jesus". I was pleasantly surprised that the whole program was only half an hour long! Thank you, Ellen!

Rebecca & I joined him for his class party on the last day of school. Since one of his classmates was sick, Rebecca was able to join in ALL the fun. Here they are making nativity ornaments. Super cute!

We played a hot potato-esque game where you passed a huge present around the circle with music playing. When the music stopped, whoever was holding it got to open the present. Lo & behold, they found another wrapped box inside! We did that 7 times & then found a box full of ring pops for all to share in the middle. Totally fun & hilarious to watch their surprised expressions!

They also decorated & ate their own cookies for snack. Heavy on the sprinkles. ;)

It was only an hour, low-key, & a lot of fun. It was also VERY eye-opening! I've gotten to know a lot of his classmates a little bit from different activities & walking to school but never in any sort of structured environment. Now I think it will be a little easier to relate to all the scholarly stories Andrew shares with me. What a blessing!

Celebrating

Darren's family always celebrates Christmas ahead of time so that everyone can be there. It's fabulous! So, December 17th was our first big celebration. We've grown so much! Check out those eight grandkids.
The "big kids" seemed to split less by age & more by gender this year. Rebecca had a fabulous time playing ponies & chatting with Alaina.
Jackson is SO cute! Besides baby snuggling for the last few years we have all brought food to donate to the local food pantry. The kids carry it up to Jesus in the nativity scene. Grandpa delivers it the next day.

Teresa was absolutely in love with Abigail. She spent a good chunk of the night just loving on her.

I don't know if there was anything specific, but I just left feeling like this was the best Christmas celebration we ever had there. Everyone was happy, the kids were well-behaved, food was delicious (though we lamented that we did "not do duck this year" ;P ), & it was just a fun time. Andrew was a big fan of Logan.

There's that grin!

And another of Logan with his daddy, Brad.

This year we spiced up our normal gift exchange with a gift swap. (Kind of the white elephant idea but with nice gifts instead of, well, white elephants. ;] ) It involved several giftcards, some alcohol, & a few other sundries. Darren came away with two movies & I with a giftcard & CD. Very fun time. I hope we do it again next year!

Thank you for a marvelous Christmas celebration. Love you all!

The norm

Andrew & Rebecca deep into coloring is a normal sight around here. I love to see their free-form creations but sometimes their coloring "in the lines" is just as fun.
Yes, Andrew sticks out his tongue when he concentrates... just like his mother.

Story of a Tree

One liners

Rebecca is almost becoming a regular with hilarious one-liners around here. She cracks us up! Of course these were all more funny in the moment but here's just a taste:

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We enjoyed dinner out at China Buffet & were surprised to find Santa making a stop (& later eating) there. He talked to all of the kids & gave them a beanie baby. Fun surprise! In the car afterwards she was "reading" the tag.

Rebecca: I'll read the directions. It says, "Be cute."

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After an agonizing lunch that she just kept on dragging out FOREVER, I felt that maybe a cookie would help her along & get us away from the table before after school pick-up.

Me: Here. (Setting a cookie in front of her) Maybe you need some extrinsic motivation.

Rebecca: Can I have TWO motivations?

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After enjoying the fantastic light display out on 112th & O Streets complete with multiple buildings, trees, blow-ups, & coordinated music on the radio, we were all expressing how impressed we were.

Rebecca: Does Santa LIVE there?

Preschool Party

Friends Preschool had their Advent party last week.
Here's the crowd (minus Josh) with their pipe cleaner candy canes

Teresa's best friend: Ellie

Amy with Gemma

The preschool girls: Rebecca & Jesse Kate

Thanks for a fun party everyone! We've loved learning & playing with you this year!