The rest of the Dec.23rd activities

When the kids were little, one year when they begged to sleep under the Christmas tree on the Christmas eve, I said: "No. But you can tonight" (which was the 23rd). And a tradition was begun. Every year since then, when they were home, they have slept under the tree. As the older children grew up and married and started families of their own, Gil and I offered to keep the tradition going with our grand-children and let the adults have this night for a date or to use in any way they want. We had 10 kids for the first part of the evening.
We had pizza for dinner - and the little ones ate and ran. I took this photo to show that our children are training their children well. We fed 10 kids and some adults and this was all that was left on the table. Most of the kids took their dishes off the table as they left. Clean up was a snap and I really am impressed because I didn't ask one child to take their dishes- they did it on their own!
Gil had a wonderful idea - we went to the church gym to play broom hockey and run run run. The Girls had a great time performing on the stage and we all enjoyed the adventure.
Next we opened pajama presents. I made the bottoms this year- and enjoyed the challenge.

Hannah, McKayla, Emma and Hallie
Tucker and Carter- two great guys with a bunch of girls!
Bree was the first to fall asleep. She was out even before all the kids selected their sleeping spots.

Stella and Aspen were the last to fall asleep. They just couldn't settle down and finally I had to separate them. But it was 11:30 and tomorrow is Christmas Eve! -No morning photo's - it was poffertjes, sausage, eggs and juice for breakfast and lots of playing to do before we gathered together again for Christmas eve and cousin gift exchange. I love this - some day I won't worry about the little ones getting to sleep- but for now we do so that they aren't too grumpy and tired by Christmas.

More of the week before Christmas

We have enjoyed having our littlest ones around a lot. Gil found this ride on toy - push the button on the steering handle and it goes. Jake can almost steer around the obstacles. It was a thrift shop bargain and the e-bay rechargable charger brought it up to 25.00 total.
The two year olds are race-car drivers as they navigate all around the house-
We finally put this little nativity down where Ellie could reach it. We will probably find pieces all over the house after Christmas, but it is so cute to see her sit on the shelf and play with the figures.

I had just finished cutting up the cantaloupe- and left it on the cutting board to get the lid for the container. I turned around to find Ellie had reached up and helped her self to the cantaloupe. She is so proud of herself- I couldn't help taking a photo.

Tuesday morning in the wee hours, I happened to glance out the window and this is what I saw.
The kids and Gil took advantage of the next sun-shiny afternoon and played in the snow.
So you could say we'll have a semi-white Christmas this year.

Week Before Christmas

In the weeks before Christmas there are lots of Christmas Programs to go to. I love to watch the families as much as the kids. I went to Tucker's choir concert and as a bonus got to listen to him in the Percussion class. Gil and I watched Bree and Ellie while Kim Deven and Carter went to McKayla's program. We got a solo performance afterwards.
Aspen and Tyler in their preschool program. Santa came to this program and the kids got to tell him what they wanted. Aspen wanted a jingle bell.
Kurt's family went to IF for Christmas, so the night before they left, Tyler- Christy- and Jake spent the night. We tried balloon creations. IT was much more fun to wear the balloons.


New Jammies for grands.And getting to sleep in the living room

That is if you can give up and go to sleep. Carter crashed- Tyler is thinking about it. Jake is in the crib "while visions of sugar plums danced in his head"

Gingerbread graham-cracker houses

We did our annual decorating in shifts this year, pre-schoolers and schoolers. It went much smoother.- But it could be that making the houses ahead of time (with a hot-glue gun) facilitated the ease. Notice Hannah's house. The crackers from W..... brand were all warped. Covered by frosting and candy - no one would ever know. Hallie, McKayla & Hannah.
Tyler Christy and Jake showing Oma Great their fabulous constructions.
Aspen's beautiful house
Gung-ho Carter -we even had a couple of guests. This little girl licked every single piece of candy she put on her house. The other "smart" thing we did this year was give each of the little ones their own bowl of candy- no mixing licked candy with the unlicked!
Tucker built a car on a "rocky road" Emma is gettting ready to start.

baby it's COLD outside

On Monday (Dec 7th) this is what we woke up to. And even though it was just a skiff, it's still all here because it's so cold out side!
This morning it was 1 degree. Beautiful, but too cold to give us any more snow :(

Actual Thanksgiving

It has been so much fun having Thelma here. She relaxes in her chair and watches the action in the kitchen and the living-room. Sometimes with a lot of littleones here, there is a lot of action! When they are gone, it is really really quiet.

This year we had Kurt's family and Oma Great (Gil's mom) here for Thanksgiving day- so it was pretty low key-Christy and Tyler were great help with the relish dish.
Gil bought some new to us games and the kids had a ball learning and playing them. This slider Tic Tac Toe evens the odds for the little ones because when you slide the bar, it changes the placement of the discs.And this picture is for the smile value.
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too.