December 26th Enjoying the Spoils

New toys are fun.

December 25th Merry Christmas!

Prepare yourselves for a glut of pictures. We had a delightful Christmas. The kids were so excited and fun. I think three out of the four of us had trouble going to sleep. Sylvie had no problem, and she slept in until 8. Jens, on the other hand, was up while it was still dark and had to be ushered back to bed. He came into our room at 7:15 and got in bed with us. We read a Christmas book I had on hand, a long one, and finally at 8 we woke up Sylvie and went downstairs. Some highlights of the morning:

Stockings. It is always fun opening them.

The kids eating Pez. All of them. Immediately. And being very excited about the pez dispensers.

Cute slippers--both pairs, very popular with their respective owners.

Having a wind up car derby in the kitchen.

Seeing Sylvie try to hold and play with all of her toys at the same time.

Jens, so excited it was very difficult to contain him.

Sylvie tackling her elephant from Grandma with shrieks of joy.

Jens shouting with excitement over his RC car, something he did not ask for, but definitely loves!

Sylvie opening her farm and immediately saying "Thank you!"

Jens, wanting to build his lego set immediately. Even I have to admit that this was a pretty cool model. It was broken later that day, but has since been rebuilt and not a piece was missing. I think that should be considered some kind of record.

We were pretty low key for most of the day. It took us 2 hours to open presents, and then we had to play with all the presents, and have some sort of snacky lunch. Jens wore his pajamas the whole day.

For dinner we had the Nielsens, Littles, and Laura over. The meal was good and the company was better. Laura brought Sylvie a belated birthday/Christmas gift, one of which is the cutest little board book I have ever seen: "I Like it When . . ." Thank you, Laura!

After everyone left, Mike and I ignored the dishes and general upheaval to lay on the couch, Mike too tired to do anything else, and me too full of dessert to do anything else. I guess that is a sign of a successful day.

December 24th Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with the LIttles. We are glad we have such nice friends to spend holidays with when our families are far away. After a dinner of yummy appetizer foods, the kids did a nativity. Jens refused to be Joseph, but was fine with being a shepherd, a part he took pretty seriously.

Sylvie represented all of the livestock dressed as a puppy. She insisted on keeping her costume on for quite a while, even after we were finished. I kept saying "Let's take your costume off. You are too hot."

And she would stroke her own ears and say "I cute."

Our team of players:

We did stay up a little late and the kids got sleepy. Do these two look like good little friends or what?

We drove home admiring the neighborhood luminarias.

December 21 Sibling Love

This week has been magical at our house. We have been enjoying what many refer to as a "Staycation." Mike took the week off, Jens was out of school, and we have been having the best time together. Jens has been such a helper and the nicest brother, starting with Saturday morning when he decided to clean the whole downstairs by himself. I left early to go to a YM/YW planning meeting and Mike was still in bed. He picked up all the toys, cleaned off his coloring table, and Mike came down and helped him vacuum. He was so proud.

He has also been very kind to Sylvie this week--playing with her and helping her be happy. In this picture she had just insisted on sitting on Jens's lap.

Sylvie loves having everyone home and anxiously inquires where people are if they go out.

In conclusion, this might be the best family vacation we have ever had.

December 21st Gingerbread Houses

Well. This year we made gingerbread houses. I can't say that they were a raging success, although we certainly had fun making them. On Monday we made the dough. The kids really enjoyed helping with this part, and Sylvie got flour everywhere.

Tuesday, we woke up to find soggy houses. So I rebaked them for a few minutes and ran to take a shower, leaving the houses in the care of an adult who also lives in our household. I emerged from our room to the smell of burnt gingerbread. One of the houses was really torched. But no longer soggy, so I put it together anyway, even though it smelled terrible. The Littles came over to decorate them with us. The kids mostly ate candy, but some of it did end up on the houses as well--more on the Littles' than on ours, for which we are grateful because of what ended up happening to ours.

The finished products were pretty cute and the kids felt proud.

Here is our house, finished.

Here it is the next morning after Jens and Sylvie pillaged it.

It almost looks like a historical Viking reenactment, doesn't it? Burned and pillaged. Mental note--next year, only buy those pastel melting chips. They were very unpopular.

We took it apart after this, and as Mike was disassembling it, the gingerbread was bending and squishing, so it probably wouldn't have lasted much longer. The Littles' collapsed that night. Maybe next year we will do a kit.

December 19th

Our cuties in front of the tree. Sylvie kept trying to imitate Jens's poses.

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!

Oops

Jens and I made some sculpey ornaments. They turned out very cute. Then I baked them. And turned the oven off. And left them in the oven. And later, when I made dinner, I preheated the oven and completely scorched them. Burned sculpey does not smell good.

December 16th Wild Nights

We went to the zoo to see the lights and have a train ride. It was such a fun little outing! The kids loved seeing the animals racing around at night--a lot of our zoo's creatures are nocturnal. The tigers were running in their enclosure, the wolves were up, the raccoons were scuttling around, the bears and the cougars were out. The decorations were fun, there was a choir singing, which the kids loved, and they got to see Santa (again).

Then we went on the train ride. Sylvie was so excited about the train until we actually got on it.

Then she clutched me and cried "I scaredy, get out!" I made her stay on and when the ride started she calmed down. She hugged me tight the whole time and by the time we finished, she was thrilled with her train ride.

Thank you, Grandma!

Our Christmas candy arrived looking just perfect.

Progress in the kitchen

Here is our kitchen before: (looking impressively clean!)

I finished painting the upper cabinets. The base cabinets are going to have to wait until after the holidays. I have a feeling they are going to take a lot more work because we are planning on stripping and re-staining them. I am really pleased with the painted uppers. They make everything look brighter, although they also emphasize how old our stove and microwave look. I also painted the wall darker so there would be a stronger contrast between the cabinets and the light counter tops.

December 15th Advent Calendar

Here is what opening the advent calendar looks like at our house:

Tonight a puppy and Batman got the "CANNEE!!!"

December 14th More Vintage

This turtle dress used to be my favorite. I wore it when I was just the same age as Sylvie, and I actually have a picture of myself wearing it in front of the Christmas tree. Someday, when I can get Mike to scan it for me, I will put it up. Sylvie actually liked the dress pretty well herself, and kept pointing out the turtle and saying "soft."

December 13th Wearing Old Clothes

Mom sent me a few vintage clothing items. I wedged Sylvie into these overalls and she looked so cute I made her wear them twice in one week.