Christmas 2011 and just before.

Ah, The holidays.  We are miles and miles away from our family.  Some to the South, and some to the North.  This year we are staying home.  Jeanne is now 2.5 years old this month, so this holiday season is a bit different for her.  She understand more now, and we were able to build some excitement about all the present she was going to get on the big day.  We aren't 'doing' Santa, so she knows that the presents she gets are from her parents and family.

To start, we kept all the presents we and my in-laws bought the kids in my laundry room.  We wrapped them in glitter wrapping paper.  I bought it because it was pretty, and I knew my wrapping skills were minimal.  I just wanted the boxes to look oh so sweet when they woke up.. except it was a nightmare wrapping them, and in doing so my entire living room rug was covered in tiny silver glitter, never mind my body.  I knew I would a) have to vacuum at 5 am before I allowed my 9 month old to crawl and eat the glitter or get some in his eyes,  b) I would have to unwrap all the presents and get new paper and c) wrap them all again.  d) lesson learned.

Then presents from my family started to arrive, so I put them in the laundry room.  Then more arrived.  Then it was starting to get hard to find room for laundry in the laundry room.  Wowszer on the generous scale!  We wrapped all the presents and set them out the night before Christmas eve.  We are a secular home, so it was solely to build excitement within Jeanne.

 

She'll never guess what this is!  Thanks hubbers for the great wrapping job.  A Magic wand should be had by every little girl and it was so sweet of Loki to pick it out for her.

Christmas morning and we (finally) get to open presents!

 

  

BEFORE! 

You may notice the sliding window is open.  Yes, we had to open the windows on Dec 24th.

 

BEFORE.

 

AFTER.  

Carnage.  But that's what you want right? Legos, Olivia dress up clothes, jackets. pj's, soft trucks, puzzles, bugs to chew, musical cubes, clothes, you know, the bomb!

 Daddy and Loki listening to a recorded story from Awesome Aunt Laurie,
a bunch of Mega blocks, puzzles and Yo Gabba Gabba!

  

She was flipped out to hear Laurie's voice and having way too much fun.

I'll be honest and tell you that the beautiful, angelic, innocent, babes of mine are being..... 'fussy'.  They are not sleeping well (at all really) and Jeanne (I think) is transitioning away from needing her afternoon nap. This will leave the parents drained, tired, feeling robotic, in-human, CRANKY and fussy themselves.  The morning was awesome, it was so great to see the kids excited for their gifts, but the afternoon left me with two tired, kinda sick kids who refused to nap for various reasons.

Two weeks prior to Christmas

Pizza night!  Jeanne was happy to eat in the living room with her new tray, and we were surprised to see that Loki wanted some pizza too.  He's definitely my kid, he will do anything to get your food.  This night, he was daddy's best friend since he was the man with the pie.

Yum, mommy's homemade crust and daddy's cooking make the best pizza's!

A couple of weeks ago, we had a play date with the "Ladies who lunch", and this day we were making gingerbread houses!  Now, I'm pretty stingy with the candy in this house.  Chocolate, real chocolate no problem, but anything with artificial colors or HFCS isn't purchased, but I am trying to relax the noose on occasions such as these. I was in no was surprised that she was WAY more into eating all the brightly colored candies than she was in making the house, but that was OK.  I at least 'tried' to get her to put some candy on her house.

FYI, there were more than 15 kids in this home, ranging from 5 weeks to 5 years old, and they were all AWESOME.  Think of that, lots of kids, lots of candy, lots of toys, FUN.

The boy in the background is a little older than Jeanne, and he was spending serious time on his house.  By the end it was AWESOME.  I'm not just saying that, it was cool!  I wanted to take a picture of it but didn't get a chance.

 

In our playgroup, there is another boy Loki's age.  "R" is a sweetheart and I'm so glad Loki has someone his age to play with.  During the gingerbread play date, they were hanging out together.  

Here Loki is telling R all about this archaic toy he is playing with. "They are calling it a 'phone'.  Haven't they ever seen a phone, silly Mom's."

R: 'Hey, your Mom is taking a picture of us."

R:" Oh hey, watcha got there, does that feel good?"

 

R:"I'm just going to check it out, oh nom, it does feel good..."

Loki: arms flapping "MAAAA, he took my nom nom!"

Loki: "That's it, I don't have to take this, I'm outta here!"

R:" Woah Baker, take it easy!"

R:" Hey Loki, take a chill pill, don't go! Hey, Momma, tell him he doesn't have to go."

Random afternoon

Check these kids out.  Both of them chillin' with their sippy cups.

Loki: 'Hey, you taking pictures lady?

 



To my Family in Florida, Missouri and New England, I love you all. Thank you so very much for your generosity.  I will call you all very soon.  I bid you adieu.