December was a wonderful/busy/inspirational/stressful/relaxing/frustrating/enjoyable month depending on what day you caught me. And for someone who likes pictures, I'm terrible at taking any. Among other things, the kids were in a chorus and orchestra for the nativity festival. Randal was a bearded wise man for the live nativity even. And I have nothing to show for it.
I did manage to photograph this:
It's a quilt I made for a gift and it signifies much of my evenings in December. It also helped me check another item off my '40 Things Before I Turn 40' list--a list I have been working on for a year now and have only crossed off 5 things. Yes, that does leave me just one more year for the other 35. (I think one of them is 'stop procrastinating', or at least it should be.) Anyway, I have made a number of quilts, but have never quilted one this size myself. Well, until now. Check.
No matter how many good intentions fell off the list this year, Christmas came anyway. And it was great! This kids even said it was one of their favorite years.
Santa brought Ethan a bow and arrow. Grandma R. sent the pajamas he is sporting. Both are red, his favorite color. And the PJs--he did not remove himself from them the entire Christmas break. He even wore them under his jeans to go to the movie theatre because he, "wanted to be comfortable." Which, in my mind, seems entirely contradictory. But then I'm the mom who doesn't know anything about anything.
Addie asked for one thing--Ever After High dolls--and Santa came through. Later we learned she had some other things she kept secret in order to test her theory of the validity of Santa. We told her Santa is a lot of things, but he's no mind reader. I don't know where her loyalties lie now, especially since Ethan's target was found in the back of our car Christmas Eve. Oh well. All dreams will inevitably be crushed in the Santa department at some time or another.
The kids worked to make gifts for one another. Ethan made Owen a car box:
Addie made Owen a match game out of milk lids and sewed a little bag to keep the pieces:
Randal helped Addie make Ethan a cool clock:
And Ethan made an awesome necklace holder for Addie:
This next one makes me laugh. Ethan struggles with organization so we gave him a zip-up binder to help keep his schoolwork in order. As a gift, I worried he would be disappointed. But you would have thought we gave him a million dollars. He jumped up and down with excitement. The funny thing--we hear rather frequently around here how much he hates school. Who knew he just needed the right kind of binder??
And here is Owen with his loot:
He was in Christmas heaven.
Gingerbread houses were one of those traditions that fell off the list before Christmas. But the kids still wanted to make them anyway so we made it a part of our New Year's celebration.
It may be hard to see, but Owen has more candy in his mouth than he is managing to get on the house:
And tonight we celebrated Randal's birthday. We gave him running shoes…even though one of his New Year's resolutions is to never run again. But after that delicious Mexican chocolate cake he's going to need to use them. Actually, just me. But he can run alongside for moral support. That's what spouses do.
Our break was very enjoyable and relaxing. I agree with the kids--it was one of my favorite Christmases. Now we're back to normal life and looking forward to what's in store for 2015.
According to the 35 things left on my list, it's going to be a great one! (Well, except for that 5k. Ugh. Why does everyone have to be running these days??? I felt like I was forced to include it.)
