For those of you who live in Northern climates this may not be a big deal to you. But, for those of us down South it is.
It snowed up in Dallas and my kids got to find out what real snow feels like.
Their opinion: it’s fun and cold, and as Peter found out later that day it can also be slippery and lead to ER visits…… We are now going to have to start our ER visit count over.
Here’s what they discovered about snow: it’s cold, that you can throw it. If you pack the snow tighter it can be thrown farther. They also discovered it’s fun to throw it at Mom and Dad. I wasn’t quite so thrilled about that.
Their Dad led them in an impromptu experiment about ice: Does it float in water? Superman and Princess thought it would and Batman didn’t. They threw it in and it did float. Then they had to repeat the experiment several times.
Then they tried walking on ice….. That didn’t end so well. Superman, who you can happily see standing up there eventually slipped, and gave us quite a scare when he said he couldn’t see. In case you’re wondering a child who has lost his sight gets quite hysterical, I mean REALLY hysterical.
So, then we got to see if the ER up here is any good, and I’m happy to report we had a great experience at the ER (well as happy as you can be about an ER trip). Superman’s CT scan came back clear, and the doctor said he has a very nice looking brain with no visible signs of swelling or bruising, and after he slept for an hour or so his vision did come back and we calmed down a lot after that.
I was actually originally going to be writing about the Chia pet we started, but this seemed like a much more timely post all things considered (seeing as how I”m editing this at 12:30 tonight, and I really should be sleeping…..).
So, anyone else do anything this week?
Let’s Talk Christmas!
This is going to be one of those long posts with lots of pictures. I’ll warn you right now, it’s “silly Mommy pic’s” as I like to call it, that I love and my family will love. So read on at your own risk, or some other silly warning.
Our family tradition is to open our family presents on Christmas Eve. Jeff swears this was his family tradition growing up and he loves that tradition. I was willing to sacrifice opening on Christmas morning and the opening of one present on Christmas Eve, because that meant I got MY Christmas Eve service. That, and we’ve discovered this often makes scheduling with the different families much easier.
How do you end up with zillions of presents under a tree? Well, there’s five of us, if we each get 4 presents that’s twenty presents. Then there’s a couple of presents for the various aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. That probably added another 20 presents all told. Then my kids started wrapping their own toys to put under the tree (I kid you not). And if you notice there is some store-bought paper under the tree, we ran out partway through and I didn’t get a chance to make enough more.
The kids came downstairs to discover the mailboxes I’d made them (that’s going to be my post tomorrow), and inside was their dolls with new outfits). Ironically, the boys seem to be bigger fans of their dolls than Princess has ever been.
Batman got his much treasured Batmobile with a cage and Batman AND Robin. Because we really needed another Batman. Honestly, I think we have 10 different ImagineNext Batmans.
Sigh, I’m going to blame this picture on Superman. I think it looks “visually interesting,” but there’s no face. We got a Wii for Christmas from my Mom, and I knew this would be a hug family hit. And it has been. Mind it takes about 10 minutes a lap for my boys, and they think the best part is when they fall off the road and have to be fished out. I kid you not.
Jeff finally got to see the horrible wonderful presents the kids picked out for him. I asked them what they wanted to get their father, and they said “clothes and work stuff and shoes and pajamas.” I dissuaded them from getting the crazy shirts they wanted to get. I was not able to change their minds about his NEED, “he needs shoes, Mommy,” for dress shoes. And the smurf pajamas. I’m sorry Jeff, I tried, really I did. I tried to steer him to the cool dragon pajamas, but Superman’s response, “NO Mommy, those are scary. Dad wants these.” Jeff did a much better job than I did at getting the kids to pick stuff I like. They got me slipper socks (I will not run out for a LONG time), and lotions, and bubble bath!
The rest of the morning was spent in leisurely play. We’ve actually managed to not open all of the presents yet. I’m slowly opening them for the kids, to cut down on the mess.
Santa brings to our house a stocking full of little presents, a video, and one bigger toy. In this case each kiddo got a Playmobil set. Which they were very disappointed to learn they couldn’t open right away because they were going over to Mimi’s house to open more presents.
Superman “helping” Princess open her present from Batman. Since then they’ve emptied it of the food and use it to haul around whatever toys they’re playing with right then. This replaces the doll stroller for the most efficient way to haul toys. Second, seems to be their new mailboxes……
Princess convinced Mimi (my Mom) to read her one of her Christmas presents. I’m sure my Mom REALLY appreciates me sharing this picture, but I think it’s cute.
Now for part 2 of Christmas
That night we went to the Christmas Eve service. I think this was the kids’ favorite part: trying to make Uncle Sean fall. Sadly my camera phone just doesn’t get very good shots of moving people. I think my favorite part of that was when Princess then sat on her brother as they were being dragged by Uncle Sean.
My proudest moment of the night came as we talked about what our present was to God for the year. We talked about how we could give our time, or give to God learning more about Him. Princess decided she was going to give God her candy cane she had just gotten (this is a half-eaten at this point candy cane), but you could tell she thought this was a big gift for God.
Our family also has a tradition of turning whatever is handy into wrapping paper if you haven’t wrapped your present in time. This time it was paper bags turned upside down over the present. Most common is a towel, blanket or shirt just kind of bundled around it.
The kids made Noco (my Mom’s dog) a new doggy bed, and so they spent about five minutes chasing him around the house and trying to MAKE him lay on that bed. They weren’t really all that successful.
My Mom gave the kids Leapsters. In general, I’m not a great fan of handheld game systems because I’ve seen too many kids completely ignore everything around them, but my thought was this could be a great thing for them to use on car trips and for rest time. We’ll see. I’m giving this a try. And, it was a huge help for the drive up to Dallas that day.
And what would be a Christmas without a Lego set? I don’t think it would be Christmas without getting at least one Lego set. I know I got them for Christmas through at least part of high school. Yes, hi, I’m Ticia and I’m a nerd.
Princess got a Batgirl Barbie. My Mom’s fiancee found it, and I have to say it is SUPER cool.
Now our pictures start taking place in Dallas, where people constantly got in the way of my shots. So, most of mine were backs of heads and such, but here are a few fun ones.
Playing Mario Kart, I didn’t know the proper way to play is with your feet.
I love this shot of Batman wearing Superman’s Christmas present.
The boys got LOTS of ImagineNext toys for Christmas, and they also got a big HUGE tub of hand me down ones. So, they’re set for toys for a while.
That was our wonderful Christmas. Of course, the day after was spent in the ER, silly Superman, but all in all it was a wonderful Christmas.
Two Comments from the original Christmas memories post
Raising a Happy Child says
Wow! It is definitely a totally cool Christmas for kids with all those toys. I bet Jeff just made executive decisions on what to give you ? Love his shoes.