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Friday, December 31, 2010

Christmas Day

Christmas Day brought more fun.  It was up early to see just how good we all were this past year.  Santa treated everyone to a nice assortment of stuffed animals, candy, 22 shells, stickers, tiny trucks, lotion, pop guns, and an electric guitar.  You can see three of the kids' expressions when they discovered the guitar under the tree in the collage above.  There was mass, violin duets, piano solos, shepherding, visiting, and just being filled with the spirit of Christmas which is another way of saying the kids were loud all day and Grandma can attest to that.Posted by Picasa

Christmas Eve

This is just a tiny clip from our Christmas Eve celebration. The shoes, why in the world would I take a picture of my shoes? Well, I did so to document that I wore high heels all day Christmas Eve. It seems, as a child, I remember the grown-ups waiting until the work was done to put on the nice Christmas outfit, but people would start showing up and lets face it, Christmas brings a lot of work especially if you have kids so the work is never over. At first I grabbed a pair of sweats on Christmas Eve morning thinking of all the tidying up, cookie baking, laundry and last minute gift wrapping that had to be done. But I knew that would put everyone into the "mom's gonna make us clean today" mood and knowing I wanted a happier mood set I decided to put on a sparkly top, nice blue jeans and high heels. I put on makeup and jewelry right away too. And I was right everyone pitched in with the jobs and cookie baking with a Christmasy spirit. Amber and Emily even ran back to their room to change into pretty clothes too. At one point I was dusting, wearing satiny red high heels and Amber said, "You look pretty cleaning with your high heels on, but isn't it hard to do?" Well, yes it was a little....slow. Heels really make a woman take small steps. I guess I needed that reminder to slow down. I tend to start in with the day expecting everyone else to mimic my level of fortitude. I've been known to bark out orders until everyone is sick of me. But on Christmas Eve day my heels were a reminder to slow down, do everything with purpose and be happy with what got done.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas


I'm taking a moment to stop in at my lonely blog to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas.  I realize I haven't posted anything in December but Christmas preparations, homeschooling and vacations have literally taken every minute of my time.  Here are a couple views of our tree with presents sprawling out from underneath.








This is a good time to share a couple of our gift giving and wrapping traditions.  I really can't remember where these ideas came from.  I suppose we could've come up with them on our own, I just don't know.  Each year we get the kids three gifts:  something to read, something to wear and something for fun.  We use these categories loosely and use our creativity to the fullest.  Last year a shotgun with a sling became something to wear.  We also wrap the gifts as we buy them and put them under the tree as soon as we have it up and decorated.  The kicker is the gifts are not labeled.  In advance I choose 5 different papers and then decide which child will get which paper and wrap all three of their gifts in that paper.  So when we place the gifts under the tree they do not know whose gifts are whose.  There's always lots of guessing throughout the weeks and hoping that the paper with the largest presents is for them.  Then on Christmas Eve we hide scraps of each paper with their name on the back and as they find the squares of paper the mystery is revealed.  It's great fun to be a part of this tradition and this family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ~ MAY YOU HAVE A PEACEFUL HOLIDAY