Merry Christmas!

We survived the children's mass and made it all the way through Christmas morning--the children are napping (well, one is anyway), the turkey's in the oven and I'm taking a break! Who wants to see some pictures of holiday cuteness?

I had a feeling you would :)

Apparently Santa could have saved a lot of time if he had just given Henry chocolate coins and candy canes. While everyone else was distracted opening up their own presents, he--very sneakily--gathered up everyone else's coins and made a giant stockpile......

 Santa made all of daddy's dreams come true and brought him his very own baby raccoon.........

Santa also brought each of the boys a totally awesome and ridiculously large wooden pirate ship.  I started to get nervous last night that they could be a flop--when St. Nick is only really bringing one toy you really hope it will be appreciated or it could be a very sad Christmas morning!  Luckily there was no need to fear because the boys LOVE them.  I just need to make a flag for each one so the fights over whose ship is whose will *hopefully* come to an end!

David quickly brought all of the nativity figurines over for a ride and then spontaneously burst into a round of "Happy Birthday, praise you!"--the happy birthday to Jesus song they sang at the end of the nativity play last night--which was beyond precious.....and I think it more than made up for telling the older boy who asked him what Christmas was all about last night that it was in fact all about Santa and presents......

Uncle John also provided the boys with a great wooden marble run and a couple more sets of magnet blocks which apparently you can never have too many of.......

This also marked the first year that Chris asked for something other than "socks & underwear" so I was really excited to finally be able to save up and get him something amazing! Of course it was entirely too heavy for me to lift into the house in my current condition (or ever!) let alone wrap so once it was delivered I used our dolly to sneak it into the garage and there it stayed until this morning :)  I don't think he minded too much.......

The biggest hit of the morning, with the menfolk anyway, were these balsa wood airplanes that they all found in their stockings......

 .......after a morning of stupendous aeronautical stunts they don't really fly anymore but they were well worth it for the fun they provided while still in one piece......

My favorite thing is definitely the marble run...I was working on this beauty when Henry tried to come and play too--of course I had to chase him off--you know he would have ruined it :)

Don't worry, I eventually shared with him......and he did eventually knock it down.........

Here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas season!

UPDATED:  When Henry came out of him room after naptime, with his entire face covered in chocolate, he walked up to me and, smiling his most Chris-like devious smile, informed me that he had been eating chocolate coins.  Apparently he had snuck them into his room inside his pirate ship and been feasting on them.   I couldn't be mad at a boy with such a cute chocolate covered face who was obviously very proud of how sneaky he was.  Later when I found the coin wrappers, chocolate covered bed things and little chocolate handprints all over the walls I have to admit I was less amused :)  

The Grumpiest Shepherd

David wanted to be in the nativity play at church this year and he insisted upon being a shepherd even though the sheep costumes were provided and the shepherd costumes were bring your own (and yes, that is a dishtowel tied to his head).  When he's at home he's really excited about being in the play, but when he's actually at play practice it's another story entirely.......

....unless of course it is that magical time during the play when all the shepherds and their sheep parade past the real live baby Jesus and David takes his opportunity to make a run for it, away from the older shepherd boy who has been put in charge of not letting David do anything crazy.......I just hold my breath and pray for David to have the self control to just walk past the real live baby and not accost it with kisses, tickles and at least one round of "this little piggy when to market".......

I have no idea what this was about.  You'll notice that not one other child has noticed anything unusual on the ceiling......maybe it was an ingenious diversion for another escape attempt?

Tomorrow at mass, David will have to sit by himself with the other sheep and shepherds for the entire beginning of the service before the play begins.....we'll see how that goes....I think all the moms of the four year olds have decided that we'll sit right in front of them just in case......

In other news, our tree has been trimmed (oh how I love our new real tree and firmly maintain that the sudden outbreak of allergy symptoms are completely unrelated to all of the pine in the house)...

...our Advent candles are melting down to stubs, and we are ready to start our Christmas celebrations!  I think I need to get some extra sleep tonight so that I can make it through my first children's Christmas mass....wish us luck (and a less grumpy shepherd!).

Christmas is for Crafting

We've been fairly busy round these parts getting everything ready for Christmas and the steady stream of visitors that begins this week. In addition to the cleaning schedule I've drafted (and even begun implementing) which may or may not ever actually be completed, we've managed to get in some just for fun activities as well......Just in case you're looking to squeeze in just one more thing to your to do list I thought I'd share what we've been up to :)

{Gingerbread Playdough}

We used this recipe but there are tons of other options out there.  It was super easy and quick which is my kind of activity :)  I recommend adding the glitter or else your playdough will pretty much just look like something brown that Chris has informed me is wildly inappropriate to mention here....not that my children would have minded that.....

This pretty much just stays on the kitchen counter at all times since the boys want to play with it every day.

{Popcorn Stringing}

I know your're all dying to know, did we string the popcorn and achieve nostalgic Christmas preparation bliss or not?  Well we did, but child participation was pretty much a bust.  David was interested for all of two minutes before he walked away.  In hindsight I probably should not have attempted it on the day he skipped his nap and just had the supplies out from the beginning of Advent for him to work on whenever he was in the mood.  I ended up putting on a Christmas movie for the kids and they snuggled up on either side of me while I strung the popcorn and they stole fistfuls of it to cram into their mouths.  

I finished it up by myself later in the evening while the children and their father ran back and forth in various costumes trying to shoot/stab/attack each other with various weaponry. Luckily for me, I find popcorn stringing very relaxing.....

....and it's pretty much my favorite tree decoration ever......

{Snow Globes}

Finally, and certainly the boys favorite thing we've done in months.....snow globes.  These were also super easy to make--there are some good instructions here.  We used some toys that, let's face it, were probably destined for the good will, glued them to the bottom of the jar lid, filled up the jars with water, added glitter and a bit of glycerin for good measure and that was that.  I didn't glue the lids to the jars which ended up being a good call since the children's rather vigorous shaking dislodged some pieces and they had to be re-glued.   The boys promised not to open them up under any circumstances so I'm sure we won't have any problems with giant glitter-water spills.  After all, they are boys of their word....

David cradles his snow globe every day and asks if he can really keep it for forever.  We should have really done this craft sooner.......We had so much fun, we even made some extras to give away :)

Has anyone else made anything super fun and easy to get ready for Christmas/keep the kids busy while your preparations are underway?  I was considering some paper chains to fancy up our windows but I think that I'm just about Christmas crafted out for this year, not that we'll have much time for crafts once our guests start arriving, and I really should carve out some time to get to those bathrooms......we'll see :)  

{p,h,f,r} St. Lucy's Day Edition

{pretty}

We went for it and made Saint Lucia's bread in celebration of her feast day today.  Ideally this would be something you eat for breakfast but I made the dough last night and put it in the fridge to rise--I don't know much about bread making in general so I was at a loss as to what to do with it this morning since it was cold and once I braided it it never really doubled in size....I eventually gave up and threw it in the oven hoping for the best and we feasted on it about at about ten.  It did turn out pretty (and delicious)!

{happy}

I made these truffles for Chris' office Christmas party tonight.  I started dipping them in chocolate so they would have that wonderful truffle-y shell but I ended up overheating the chocolate in my makeshift double boiler and had to abandon the whole attempt and just roll the rest in various things--confectioners sugar, cocoa powder and sprinkles.  A chocolatier I am not.  I'm hoping they taste good though, even if my chocolate dipping was a flop, especially the ones I got fancy with and made with dark chocolate and raspberry liqueur.  There weren't enough to have a big taste test so I'm just going to bring them and hope for the best!  

It also appears that the days of real Navy Christmas parties that are held in ballrooms complete with younger spouses/dates dancing around in full prom attire and flat screen TVs given away as prizes are officially gone.  It looks like from here on out we'll be having much more low key get togethers like this evenings festivities which are being held at a local Italian restaurant and where everyone has been asked to bring their own desserts to share.  I'm not bitter though--we've got a babysitter (even though this is a child friendly event) and we are going to fully enjoy our two hours of freedom together :)

{funny}

In honor of St. Lucy's feast day I printed out some coloring pages for the boys and this is what I got back.  Coloring is not their forte.....I'm not sure how I produced two children who have such little desire to sit down and color a pretty picture for mommy.....What's worse is the blue picture on the left is David's......

{real}

I've finally gotten all of my Christmas cards out except for a couple of stragglers waiting on current addresses which is no small feat since the majority of our address list is composed of military families and recent law school graduates who tend to relocate constantly--this year I had to get new addresses for literally three quarters of our friends.  

Now that our cards are safely on their way out to all of our loved ones, I couldn't help but noticing that our own Christmas card wreath is looking a little, um.....sparse.  Don't be fooled by the appearance of four cards here. One came from Notre Dame and another is also a mass mailing from our old realtor....in reality we've received an underwhelming two......maybe I should have sent out some of those "Hey!  We've moved.....again" cards.  Maybe I'll remember that for next time.......

You can find even more contentment, and probably less whining, over at Like Mother, Like Daughter :)  

A Winter Wonderland....

It's December 10th and 80 degrees outside....not exactly a picture perfect lead up to Christmas--well, it may be to my tropics loving husband but definitely not to me.....but that hasn't stopped the locals from trying their best to winter it up around here.

Chris took this video at an event here on base this weekend.  They advertised "snow sledding" and a "snow area" for the kids to play in.  I was imagining a snow machine like the ones I've seen at ski slopes....what we got was this......

It's a giant ice truck hooked up to some sort of ice chipper and hose.  The children started out laughing but it quickly turned to shrieks of panic as they all covered their heads and ran for the hills.  Apparently having giant chunks of ice raining down on your head isn't as fun as everyone thought it would be, and isn't really much like snow at all...

We didn't let a little "snow" disaster ruin our winter fun though.  Chris and I have officially purchased our first ever real live Christmas tree as a married couple.  This wasn't exactly the hiking-through-the-snow-and-cutting-down-our-own-tree moment that I'd always imagined but I guess you take what you can get when you live in northern Florida.

Sidenote:  We also took the boys to the barber--Chris and I completely disagree on the ideal length of our sons' hair so apparently we've settled on letting it grow out until it totally impedes their vision and then taking them to a military barber and telling them to give them a "boy cut."

Once we were home Henry decided to make some of his own Florida snow--without anyone taking any ice chips to the face......

Once we cut our glorious new tree down to size (I guess in the future we should measure the ceilings before buying the biggest tree we find), we set it up right in the middle of the house where the ceiling pitch is the highest and bedecked it with lights.

I'm thinking we'll (and by that I of course mean I'll) trim the tree sometime next week.  I'd really like to wait until Christmas Eve, you know, so we could all sit around sipping eggnog and singing carols a la Little Women, but I suppose it may not have really turned out as idyllically anyway and with the constant stream of family visiting from the 20th until sometime during the first week of January, I should probably just get it done ahead of time and not risk a complete Christmas meltdown on my part.......I am still planning on an attempt at popcorn garland stringing with the boys though so hopefully that will fulfill my nostalgic Christmas dreams, at least for this year........

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!

St. Nicholas dropped by our house last night and he did not disappoint......

The boys each got a new train (the battery operated kind, so that was super exciting), a new Christmas book (Merry Christmas, Strega Nona and Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey) and of course some chocolate coins and candy canes.  David was really worried about the horrific state of dirtiness of his shoes as he was going to bed last night but I assured him that everything would be okay and St. Nicholas would not be too scandalized.....

We had a special breakfast of hot chocolate and donuts which went over pretty well.......

This picture is deceptive in that it makes it look like he actually drank the hot chocolate--in reality this is precisely two seconds before he spit it out all over himself and the table, declaring that "I don't think I like hot chocolate."  Both boys ended up just eating the whipped cream off of the top and then pushing away the rest of the disgusting monstrosity that I had dared to place before them.....oh well, more for me :)

We've had a little confusion this year about St. Nicholas vs. Santa.  David said he was excited that St. Nicholas was going to come but wanted to know when the real Santa was coming, you know, the one with the presents?  Liturgical year parenting fail.  I was quick on my feet and calmly explained that St. Nicholas is Santa and he loves God so much and is just so happy that we are celebrating baby Jesus' birthday that he comes back a second time on Christmas Eve to give even more presents!  I think that settled things, we'll see....you never really know what's going on inside those little heads of theirs......

I think reading some books about St. Nicholas and discussing the beauty of giving gifts out of love of God are on the agenda for the rest of the day.  We picked up an Angel Tree ornament at mass last week and went out earlier this week to pick out presents for a special little girl.  David wanted to chip in so that the presents would really be from him too so he raided his piggy bank of all the dollar bills he had and was so excited to give his five dollars to the cashier to help pay for the gifts.  Five dollars was a substantial amount of his savings but they ended up costing quite a bit more than that--I may have gotten a little carried away choosing a "winter outfit" for a little girl--I don't often get the opportunity to buy a fully accessorized girl's outfit complete with sparkling hair clips so you'll have to forgive me!  

I think David is well on his way to being "even kinder than Cinderella"....which is his current prayer :)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Advent......

I know I can't be the only mom out there unnecessarily stressing out over our family's Advent traditions and celebrations.  Being a convert myself, I don't have any Advent family traditions of my own to draw from and it's easy to quickly become overwhelmed when you start looking into what other people are doing to celebrate the season--which of course is not the point!  Still, I can't help but envisioning my sons all grown up and talking with the priest who is visiting them in prison and telling him, "Well, if only we'd celebrated Advent properly and had that Jesse tree growing up we may have understood the real meaning of Christmas and things could have turned out differently for us......"  Am I being silly? Probably, but I can't help but fret over things like this and constantly feeling that somehow I'm just doing it all wrong...it's just in my nature I suppose.  This year I've tried to just pick a few things to focus on and to do my best not to turn into a mad woman who attempts a perfect family Advent only to give it all up halfway through because it isn't going according to plan--not that that sounds like something I would ever do.....

For our family, that means at the very least lighting the Advent wreath at dinner.  I love the excitement on the boys' faces as we light the candles each night and eat by the candle light.  We don't get super fancy with it yet--they don't last long when prayers start getting long and dinner starts getting cold, but just seeing the progression of one more candle being lit each week really builds their sense of anticipation and wonder.....

This attitude of expectation is one which the Church wants to encourage in us, her children, permanently.  She sees it as an essential part of our Christian drill that we should still be looking forward; getting on for two thousand years, now, since the first Christmas Day came and went, and we must still be looking forward.  So she encourages us, during Advent, to take the shepherd-folk for our guides, and imagine ourselves travelling with them, at dead of night, straining our eyes towards that chink of light which streams out, we know, from the cave at Bethlehem.  

In Conversation with God, Volume I, page 2

As long as we do the wreath and I don't completely give my home over to total pre-Christmas Christmas craziness I feel like Advent will be a success.  For the building of our wreath this year we did pretty much the same thing as last year:

Step One:  Procure an Advent wreath candle holder thingee, some candles and a sad five dollar pre-made but flattened pine wreath (this particular beauty came from Lowe's).

Step Two:  Send your husband and children off into the wilderness with the wagon and giant, manly knife to collect more exciting greenery.  If you have husbands and children like mine you may also get ridiculously oversized new friends such as this with your delivery......

Step Three:  Put your wreath form on top of your sad wreath and then pull the pine branches through to hide the ugliness.  Then proceed to stuff your new greenery in to fill out your sad wreath--I don't bother with securing anything in--it just sits on the table so nothing falls out--add candles and......voila!

I may have gotten a little carried away with the amount of things stuffed into this wreath.  There are magnolia leaves, some kind of red berry bush from our yard, various pine needle branches and some white stuff--we really need to work on our nature identification skills around here......

While I was at it I made another wreath for the front door--again stuffing random greenery into another sad wreath and replacing the bow with something prettier.  This time I did secure everything with floral wire since it had to, you know, hang vertically :)

I'm not sure which one I like more.....I was pretty excited about them both!  And now every time we open the front door or sit down for dinner we get that wonderful pine smell.  I've also convinced Chris to let us get a live tree this year so we will probably go and pick one out closer to Christmas.....I'm pretty excited about that too :)

In addition to the Advent wreath we've got several nativities out--some for little hands to explore and others for me to (perhaps over-zealously? ) guard.   Our "nice" nativity set was put on a toddler accessible shelf with a bowl of hay for the kids to put into the manger whenever they do something kind for someone else (to make a soft bed for baby Jesus).  This may or may not be a disaster since I told the boys they can put the hay down but under no circumstances are they to touch the fragile porcelain figures.....we'll see how that goes......

We've got baby Jesus tucked away in my sewing cabinet awaiting his soft bed on Christmas morning and our wise men will be slowly making their way over for their appearance on the Feast of the Epiphany......

We've also got the wooden nativity set out--which the children are allowed to touch--theirs does have baby Jesus because really, he's everyone's favorite to play with.......

Of course like most activities in our house, the nativity was quickly incorporated into the giant train track set up that was already on the floor and baby Jesus hopped a faster ride to Bethlehem than any old donkey could provide......

For the grand finale of Advent preparations, I pulled out our collection of Advent/Christmas picture books and David has already been demanding choruses of The Little Drummer Boy which was by far his favorite book last year.  I have a hard time every year not stockpiling ridiculous amounts of excellent picture books for the season, but I keep telling myself that we have years and years and multiple children to get books for so it will probably be okay if they don't have every wonderful book out there this year.  I do have it on pretty good authority though, that St. Nicholas is bringing some more books this week on his feast day (along with chocolate coins of course) and I've picked up a couple more for the feasts of St. Lucy and the Epiphany.  I'm thinking we'll do some special baking projects, read relevant picture books and color some fun coloring pages to celebrate these three feast days this year and just keep things simple.  

I've been cataloging some of my favorite ideas and resources here in case anyone needs some more inspiration!  Maybe one year we'll get around to putting together that Jesse Tree, until then I'll try not to stress out over it and just enjoy this season of joyful waiting!

Disclaimer:  Some of my links here are Amazon affiliate links :)