Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa

With 5 kids and 12 grandkids, it’s tricky for my parents to get us all together for Christmas.  This year, January 1st worked the best for our family…so we’ve already celebrated Christmas in 2012, ha! ;)

I was excited to have a little time to play games with my siblings when we first arrived. That doesn’t seem to happen too often anymore.

My mom & sisters had made LOTS of appetizers for before the meal.  I was stuffed before we even sat down for dinner! (I don’t know where my brain was, and I feel terrible about this, but I completely forgot to offer to bring food this year…DUH moment!)

We ate a yummy dinner of hot beef sandwiches, potato salad, jello, and lots of extras.  Afterwards, all the kiddos opened their presents by the basement Christmas tree.  I really tried to focus on the people this year, rather than being slave to the camera in my hand.  That means I missed out on a lot of pictures…that, and the fact that my camera doesn’t like the lighting in the basement.   Here’s what I caught on camera…

Jensyn’s singing Christmas kitty
She also received suede boots and a diaper cover, a 2T winter coat, a pink tutu skirt, and a few cute outfits/dresses.

Max got the Cars 2 DVD, which has already been watched repeatedly by my kiddos

 

Alex got the Cars 2 game for his new LeapPad.  I wish I’d caught a picture of his reaction when he realized what it was.  He was one EXCITED little boy!

They also got a new guitar, a floating Hot Wheels track for the bathtub, Do-A-Dot markers, Cars dominoes, a Hot Wheels police station, a Thomas lights & sounds signal, and few other toys. 

Here are some of the cousins opening their gifts…it was a very shoe-themed Christmas!  Kathryn got Uggs (which explains why she got very few other Christmas gifts at her family’s Christmas the week before!).  BoGyeong received some new shoes.  Jensyn got cute little suede boots from my parents.  Several adults got new shoes or slippers, too…including me. 

 

Derek got a dog bone.  A a gag gift.  That didn’t stop him from eating it right there!

  

We leave the kiddos downstairs to be noisy & messy, and then we head to the main floor for adult Christmas.  We exchange names, and each couple buys gifts for another guy & girl in the family.  I didn’t take many pictures this year; here are the only three I have…

Keith received hair spiking gel & a Spam beach ball from my brother.
Good laughs!  He also got a Steven Curtis Chapman CD and an Amazon gift card from my sister. (Keiths’ most request item this year was Amazon cards so he can save up for a big purchase.)

 

My mom had my name this year, and she got me a cinnamon sugar shaker, a Chris Tomlin CD, new picture frames for my living room, and beautiful boots!  (I do have to pay her back for the boots, as I had to choose between either the frames or the boots…and I couldn’t make the choice!)

Afterwards, we hung out for a while, and then we had dessert, got our kids in their pjs, and headed for home.  Max conked out immediately.  Jensyn screamed for 20 minutes.  Alex played the new guitar for 30 minutes before falling asleep WHILE playing the guitar.  How Max slept through all that racket is beyond me! :)

So, there you have it…Christmas 2011 is over.  The trees and decorations are down.  And Max is walking around the house saying, “Onwee fwee moh days ‘til Fwismiss!”  Sorry, kiddo, you’ve got to wait almost a full year!   I’m glad you enjoyed your Christmas enough to hope it will come again soon, sweet boy!

Happy 4th Birthday, Alex!

The thing about a day-after-Christmas birthday is that your special day can get lost in the shuffle!  We wait until mid-January to have his birthday party, but we like to acknowledge Alex’s birthday on the actual day.

We started out by giving Alex his present from us ~ a big boy bike!  He is SO excited!  As of January 4th, the bike is still in our house.  He’s riding it all around the hallway and kitchen, as we haven’t had a chance to get him outside on the new bike.  (that’s the stinky part of a winter birthday…)

He really does have the hang of it, and we look forward to seeing him ride it outside.  We know he’ll do a great job!

Grandma S tried to wish him a happy birthday over the phone, but Alex didn’t feel like talking.  At Grandma & Papa P’s house, we sang happy birthday and had homemade peppermint ice cream cake.

   

It’s amazing to me the change that seems to have occurred overnight in Alex.  He seems to believe that being four makes him all grown up, and I love the sudden changes in his personality. 

He gave up naps entirely.  It’s as if turning four made him decide he wasn’t going to nap ever again.  He is more confident about a lot of things. 

He’s so much FUN!   (Well, there is the “I have a mind of my own” attitude, but other than that, he’s LOADS of fun these days.)

Happy FOUR, Alexander Cole!  We love you, and I thank God every single day that He blessed us with an amazing little boy like you!

Christmas with Grandma & Papa

Christmas with Grandma & Papa’s family is often two days.  We celebrated on Christmas Day with Nana (Keith’s grandma), Grandma & Papa, and Keith’s brother and his family.  On the 26th, Uncle Jim and his kids and granddaughter joined the rest of us for brunch and presents.

Christmas Day:

Jesus’ birthday cake (with a candle for each boy to blow out…)

Jessica & Jensyn ~ the girl cousins have to stick together!

Nana (I have what should be a better picture, but someone stepped in the way of the picture…)

Opening presents…there were 5 very spoiled children! 

 

Alex’s big gift from Grandma & Papa was a LeapPad!  We’re already on our third set of batteries on January 4th, so you know he’s loving it! :)

Max’s big gift was a mini trampoline.  At first I was afraid that would be a little too much, but if you’ve met Maxwell, you know that he’s a bundle of energy.  We put it up in our playroom, and both boys LOVE it!

Little Miss got some nice gifts, too, including a few new baby dolls.  She enjoyed lots of snuggles with the ladies of the family!

Kevin & Keith give each other gag gifts each year.  This year, Kevin gave Keith a “lunch club” for work, made with packaged & microwavable food.  Keith gave Kevin an “over the hill” survival kit because Kevin turned 40 this year.

 

Too much celebrating for Kyle ~ he’s worn out! ;)

December 26th (also Alex’s 4th birthday):

Everybody did their part to make a delicious brunch of waffle casserole, hash brown casserole, ham & egg casserole, fruit, breads, bacon, and more.  It was SO yummy!

Afterwards, the kids exchanged presents with one another, and then the adults did our annual gift card exchange.  It’s always fun to see who ends up with what gift cards at the end!

Cousin Cailin always enjoys playing with Jensyn.  I don’t know if it’s because Jensyn is a girl or because Jensyn is a baby, but these two little ones enjoy each other’s company.

Keith’s cousins chipped in together to get each of our children a special gift.  Jensyn got a singing baby doll and a princess chair.  (See, our princess needed her very own royal throne!)

Our boys got a toy laptop computer, a Home Depot workbench and tools, and a McDonalds drive-thru playset.  They are completely thrilled with the new workbench, as it looks much more grown-up than their garage sale Little Tikes bench.  (Alex requested that we bring the Little Tikes bench over to Grandma & Papa’s basement; that way we had room for the new one at home.)

      

Alex had fun teaching everyone how to play the Jewel Train game on his LeapPad.  I loved seeing him all snuggled up with Uncle Jim!  Cailin loved getting a chance to try it out, too.

Before everyone headed out the door, we took a few minutes to sing Happy Birthday to our FOUR YEAR OLD.  (Where did the time go?)  I’d quickly thrown together an ice cream cake the night before.  It tipped in the freezer during the night, so it was a rather slanted ice cream cake.  Oops!  

I forgot to bring the candles, so I asked Grandma if she had anything we could use.  She disappeared downstairs for a moment, and came back with candles that spelled Alex’s name.  I’m telling ya, Grandma is prepared for EVERYTHING! ;)

Once the extended family headed out the door, we enjoyed some time to play games, hang out, and just relax together.  In the evening, the guys went to see a movie and the girls did some day-after-Christmas bargain shopping.  Now we’re stocked on wrapping paper and Christmas craft kits for next year!  (Thanks, Grandma & Papa, for feeding and entertaining the boys while we were out!)

There ya have it, Christmas 2011.  Next up, Christmas with my family…

Christmas Morning

There’s a rule in our house that children do not get up before 7 AM.  So far, the kids have even abided by this rule on Christmas morning, much to our surprise.  I was still dozing in bed when Keith nudged me, told me the kids were stirring, and we waited for them to run to our bedroom…which they do every morning!

This morning, though, they didn’t come to our room.  Keith & I found them in the living room staring at the tree!  I don’t put their presents under the tree until they’re in bed on Christmas Eve, so they were admiring all the packages.

We took them to the front hall to see if Santa had eaten the milk & cookies we’d left out the night before.  He had, and he’d also left them a pretty special present…

Tidmouth Sheds!  Santa also left a mine tunnel (that he bought used and half-price on ebay) and a few new Thomas and Chuggington trains.

They were so excited that Christmas morning could have ended right here.  They had very little interest in opening stockings or other presents.  Yet somehow, we as parents feel compelled to give them more ;)

Keith then read the Christmas story from Luke 2.  It’s important to us to do that before opening presents, as THAT’S what Christmas is all about! 

We took the stockings (see Jensyn’s beautiful new stocking, handmade by Grandma P?) and sat in the living room to see what we could find inside.  Santa brought dollar store motorcycles, one Hot Wheel car for each boy, Smarties, little plastic cars filled with candy, National Geographic Kids magazines (for those who follow MoneySavingMom.com, Santa likes the online deals, ha!), M&Ms, new toothbrushes & toothpaste, and Gerber Puffs (for Jensyn)

 

We give each child three presents, and then I had each boy pick out a present for the other brother.  The boys also bought an O-ball rattle for Jensyn.

Alex got:
~ Angry Birds playset (generic one, for $10 from a random Hong Kong website)
~ Hot Wheels firehouse playset
~ Vee set (for Chuggington trains)
~ double-decker bus from Cars 2 (I *love* his reaction!)

Max got:
~ soccer ball (free from saving cereal box points)
~ K’nex Elmo set
~ Wedgits
~ Hot Wheels car transporter

Jensyn got:

~ cloth diaper covers
~ 2 new outfits (uh, these were new with tags but I just pulled them out of her closet and wrapped them…she has EVERYTHING she needs!)
~ big girl car seat
~ o ball

After we cleaned up the Christmas morning aftermath, we had cinnamon roll bread and yogurt.  We attended church, came home to give Jensyn & Max a nap, and then headed to Grandma & Papa’s house for the rest of the day…but that’s another post!