Christmas Hair

Christmas with Lisa's Family

My mom is working on making a Christmas hanging for each of the grandkids. Nicholas loves his. He's had a plan for months about how he would hang the finished product in front of the fireplace to trick everyone. He was thrilled to find it ready to go Christmas Day. Yes, we all thought it was real.😉

 

Here's some of the festivities.

 

 Later in the day we had a fun gingerbread cookie decorating contest orchestrated by my mom and Thomas. Lots of prizes were awarded.

Look! Samuel and Thomas can  get along long enough to get a picture taken. Helped by the fact Elias  is in it and my Uncle Bob took the picture,not me.

A highlight: at about 9 pm my dad disappeared, came back and announced "Hey family, look at this!" Very festive Dad.

We spent a couple days at my parents' before heading home. We left Julia and took home Augustine for an extra day of fun. 

Christmas at Home

We had Christmas Eve dinner at the farm as usual. And as usual I forgot to take pictures. But we had a nice time!

We were home for Christmas morning and its excitement.

Nicholas got a rescue bot video and guy as well as a Lego set. Samuel got books. Thomas received the third Lord of the Rings movie (we've been watching them with the big boys but only had the first two) and tickets to the new Star Wars movie. Philip got a big Ninjago Lego set and Julia got 13 gel pens, a drawing tablet and a cool coloring/story book.

We headed to Christmas Mass before Christmas brunch at home and family gifts.

The kids got their traditional ornament and book from Jeremy and I. They also had fun opening gifts from each other. Julia bought dollar store gifts for all her brothers, everyone else got something for one sibling.

We headed to my parents after some time playing with all our new stuff.

Advent Preparations

Philip left this note for St. Nicholas. Translation: 2nd (grade) put extra for Sam my brother. I guess he thought Samuel wasn't putting out his shoe.

I have renounced press cookie making until I find a twist press at a thrift store...or I inherit my mother's.  The click ones just don't work well and I get frustrated then they taste funny from me adding angst instead of love.  Jeremy and Philip did the pressing after I dramatically gave up.

Our annual candle light O Come O come Emmanuel procession.

Philip made peanut butter cracker sandwiches to dip in almond bark while Julia made Rolo pecan pretzels.

 Samuel and Philip did the dipping.

 Nicholas proudly cut peppers for the veggie tray.

 Julia made little smokies.

Samuel got toppings ready for our Christmas Eve nacho bar at home.  We'd had a huge Christmas dinner at noon and nachos are light and easy to get together.

There were all sorts of other preparations going on too!

Nicholas is Still Funny

Nicholas (while doing some..thinking in the bathroom):  Mom?  It's no fair how I was bornd-ed last!

Nicholas (again the the bathroom after I'd washed my, ahem, undergarments and hung them on the clothes line to dry):  Mom why did you hang up all your brauts?

Me:  Nicholas can I have 27 kisses?
Nick: Can't you pick a lower number?

Christmas Tree Decorating

Employing my "little at a time" strategy we've been slowly preparing the house for Christmas.

The Advent things are up

We put up the tree yesterday and decorated it today.

Last week when the weather was nice Thomas and I put up some outdoor lights but we haven't turned them on yet.  Soon.

Visiting Santa

Santa made his yearly stop at John Deere and some of us were there to meet him.

Philip brought a carrot for the reindeer.

 They sang Rudolf and Frosty and read The Night Before Christmas just like the past 14 years.  And I noticed two things:  1.  Mrs. Claus has fit into the same dress every year for the 14 years I've been going.  Very impressive.  2.  Parents are younger than they used to be.  (What?  You say I was younger 14 years ago?  I fit right in then?  Now not so much, huh?)

Nicholas unzipped his jacket to make sure Santa knew he was also wearing a John Deere shirt underneath.  He asked for a ball gun I think.

Julia sat on Santa's lap, it might have been the first time she was brave enough to do that.  She asked for a big box because she knows that's what she asked for when she was almost 3 and she thinks that is hilarious.

I can't remember what Philip said he asked Santa for...probably a drone.  Good luck, kid.

Then we went home to finally get a start on some decorating.

Christmas Programs

Julia and Philip had a nice (record breakingly short) Christmas program last week.  Since it was so short we spent some extra time at the cookies and punch before heading to Nicholas' program.  That one was not so short but was fun because at our smaller school each kid can have a more special part.  :)

Philip and his friend Sam.

Julia and Celeste

Nicholas and Mac

Julia

Philip

Nicholas

Samuel and Thomas had a nice band concert as usual (the high school band was especially good this year!)
They protested this picture promising me a brother picture with the junior high bow ties and cummerbunds at the concert (their band director is smart enough not to let those go home) but they were empty promises...

Samuel

Thomas

The junior high band

 And that's all our concerts this year:  three concerts two days (Compared to four on four days last year) not bad at all!

One Last Thanksgiving Turkey

Now we can move on to our super short Advent.  Don't miss it!

Children's Musuem

We hadn't been to the Children's museum in ages so we celebrated the Immaculate Conception (holy day- no school) by going.  In fact Nicholas didn't remember ever being there (he has, he was just little).  We ran into friends doing the same thing so Julia and Philip were even happier.  Samuel didn't come because he was headed to a wrestling meet with the high schoolers.

St. Nicholas Day

We celebrated Nicholas' feast day with chicken nuggets and a cake Grandma Susan made.