Bigger Family Christmas :)

After our intimate (or as intimate as a Christmas with eight people can be) Christmas morning, we head over to James' parents house to share the rest of the day with his family.  It's a veritable feast of fine food, a gorgeously set table, presents, and lots of lots of coffee (it's been a long day by the time we finish opening more presents and eating our Christmas dinner).

This is how the day starts out - all energy and excitement

A rare Mom photo

Ian rocking a Christmas sweater

Just like his Dad

Post-gift opening fun with Little People playsets

And Colin with Legos!

And this is how the day ends, everyone wiped out and falling asleep

Family Christmas

Christmas Eve and Christmas morning are our family times.  We spend it together, just the eight of us, in a fairly regular routine.  Christmas Eve wraps up, post-eating and post-Holiday Inn watching, with the sprinkling of the sparkle oats on the lawn (the brown lawn, as you can see, it's almost never a white Christmas here, but on the flip side, it's not too cold either, as you can see based upon Colin's short sleeves).  Then everyone slumber parties in our room and gathers at the top of the stairs before we "release the hounds".  Usually we've got one or two grumpy kiddos who didn't get enough sleep, and, judging by the picture, that role was played by Ian and Cecily this year.  In all seriousness, though, we are blessed to be able to provide a veritable wealth of Christmas presents for the kids, and we don't take that for granted at all.  This year we instituted a new tradition - three presents for each child.  If it was enough for Jesus, it should certainly be enough for us.  It was refreshing - gift-opening wasn't so overwhelming and there wasn't as much mess to clean up afterwards.  We are definitely going to incorporate that into our annual traditions.

Allegra in the spirit on Christmas Eve

The kids sprinkling sparkle oats for Santa's reindeer

My daughter being goofy

The trips ready and waiting for the okay to descend the stairs on Christmas morning

Stocking fun

More stockings

The rest of the bunch with their stockings

I was "That Kid"s Mom this Christmas :)

December is one busy month with six kids.  The little ones had a program for their preschool.  After attending the same preschool seven years now, between all the kids, I think I know the songs better than the kids!  After all of my previous children behaved decorously and politely, I finally got my "scene stealer".  This year, it was my Elinor who was the kid belting out the songs at.the.top.of.her.lungs.  Oy.  That girl is something.

My little Elinor, the second from the left, in the red holding her jingle bells

Cecily, singing like a little angel

Sunday School Program

I always have a difficult time deciding which Sunday to put on our "Christmas clothes".  Do I do it on the Sunday School program Sunday, or the Sunday immediately preceding Christmas Day?  First world problems, eh?  At the end of the day, I chose the Sunday School program.  Weren't you just dying to know?

Mr. Colin Man - behind those innocent big brown eyes lie heaps of mischief

This was literally the best photo of all the kids.  Sad, I know.  Better luck next year, I guess.

Elle, or as she refers to herself "the baby of the family"

Ian, who was a Bethlemite "extra" in the program

Miss Cec, usually prim and proper

The tie is totally my fault - don't blame him, he wears whatever I tell him to...

The littlest ones (2-3-4 classes) sang a few Christmas songs for us, including Away in a Manger

She made eye contact, but she wasn't going to break her "game face" by waving on the way back down the aisle

Allegra played Mary (in the pink), Ian's in the second row in the striped blue tunic, and Colin's in the first row in the dark brown robe with light blue scarf

Homemade Teacher Gifts

I struggle with knowing what to get teachers and coaches and special folks for Christmas.  We don't have a big budget, and I'm not huge into the commercialization of the season anyways.  I've done gift cards in the past, but this year I decided to break a few rules - I gave a homemade gift AND I gave chocolates.  The best I can do is give something that I myself would be delighted to receive, and indeed I would have loved one (okay, correction, I DO love one, because I had a few left over).  I love the vintage ball jars, and really they are so useful for any number of things and can work with any type of decor.  So, I purchased the blue ones, loaded it up with fine (Costco) chocolates, slapped a lovely gift tag on them, and viola, Christmas present problem solved.  Next year I'll probably go back to gift cards though.  Gotta keep 'em guessing.

Allegra in the Nutcracker...Again

Allegra performed for the I've-lost-track-of-how-many performance of Ballet Idaho's Nutcracker.  She was in the Garland Dance and a Big Mouse, which she thoroughly enjoyed.  It's most definitely a Fife institution at this point.

Garland Dance

My girl loves to be on stage

My dancer (since she was 3)

Allegra is such a sweet, bright spirit that she makes friends wherever she is

Merry Christmas!

I have to interrupt my behindedness (not a word, but probably should be in my life) to shout Merry Christmas!  We're in the thick of the season, so well-wishes are long overdue.  We've been busy with lots of activities, as always, and I will share them, but I wanted to put my virtual Merry Christmas out there first.

Pictures from our church Christmas brunch and Sunday School program 12/15/13

Colin

The best photo of all the children I could find

Elinor loves to get her picture taken

Ian

Cecily

Dad - festive in a holly tie that was not of his own choosing

Cecily and Elinor singing Away in a Manger

Cecily

Allegra reciting Mary's Magnificat

Colin'sin the dark brown and blue in the first row, and Ian's in the second rowwith a striped white and blue tunic

Allegra as Mary

The Calm Before the Storm

 

That's how I always think of Christmas night, as we're getting ready to go to bed and snap one last picture, knowing that in a few short hours, there will be mass chaos.  We had a very materially blessed Christmas this year - Ian enjoyed his Legos and video game, Hero got mostly clothes, Colin got a bike, Allegra got the new historical American Girl doll, Caroline (probably the gift I personally was most excited to give), Cecily got the Little People Disney Princess Castle, and Elinor got the Shirley Temple DVD collection she's been oohing and ahhing over during TV infomercials for a few months.  Daddy got a burger press, mango cutter, and new hat, and Mama got a skirt, new shoes, and sweater. 

Christmas night

Christmas morning - the kids slept, slumber party style in our bedroom, til 7

This picture is mid-chaos, but I thought it was pretty cute - Colin climbed into the bike gift bag to open it.

Sprinkling of the Oats

I'm STILL stuck back in sharing Christmas pictures. But it's kind of fun to look at those pictures, with our super green, snow-free lawn and contrast it with now, covered with snow and frigid (and has been since Christmas evening). I'm going to be honest, Christmas Eve was rough this year. It didn't go smoothly AT ALL. I think I may have been guilty of saying "I so don't want to do this this year" at several points during the day. People were kind of cranky (and probably tired, because of school not getting out until the previous Friday, and Nutcracker weekend, and a funeral to attend the Saturday before) and everything that COULD go wrong, did (including but not limited to: a gift cheesecake that cratered, but it didn't end up mattering anyways, because the giftee ended up not being at home when we attempted to deliver it, and the tragic loss of Elinor's "Bumper" - her little orange and blue lovey blanket [this one still bothers me - it got lost at the Christmas Eve service at church and never resurfaced]). We ended up not starting our traditional movie night (it was Holiday Inn this year) until about 9:00 and I knew I still had Stollen to make afterwards (as well as a few other things for Christmas dinner). But we survived (and it was a good life lesson in not getting caught up in the "traditions" of Christmas that are fun, but should never be the focus of the season). Our kids have a fun little minor tradition of scattering oats with glitter in them on the ground on Christmas Eve for Rudolph and the reindeer. Honestly I think they just like running around outside in their Christmas PJs throwing stuff around. Ah, the way Christmas allows for normal house rules to be bent...

 

Allegra, Elinor, and Ian

Allegra, Colin, Cecily, Ian, and Elle

Colin sharing some love with the lit grapevine deer in the front yard

I love the pure, unadulterated joy on my Ceci girl's face

My little doll, Elinor, and her snowgirl toy, Noelle