Christmas Time!

It's a wonderful time of year!

We've already completed one puzzle.  There's nothing better than spending a Saturday morning, in PJ's, working on a puzzle.  Forget long runs, we've got a puzzle to master!

I got a little carried away and finished it in 2 days...and yes, I let the kids watch extra TV just so I could work on it in quiet (just don't tell them my secret).

The kids have been playing "Christmas morning" with boxes I put under the tree.

I love the look on Colin's face; he's saying, "Cheer up, Eli!  I'm reading you the gingerbread man story!"

We've been playing a lot of music.

We bought Alison a Christmas music piano book and have taken turns helping her learn songs.  Some times she'll ask to just sing, but hasn't picked up on the concept of following the music (i.e. she sings the song as fast as she can and is finished before you finish playing the first line).

Thought my parents would be proud that 8 years of piano is paying off some 20 years later.  Thanks to those lessons many moons ago I can now teach my kids some songs.  It's been fun to pick it back up and remember how much joy music brought me.

 

Ben and I have worked on a couple of songs of him playing guitar and me on flute.  The kids will ring some bells or sing while we play.  The other day I was playing before Ben got home and Eli just laid on the floor and listened.  I got up to check on dinner and Eli told me to come back and play it again.  When I was done playing the song he said, "Nope.  Play it again, mommy.  It still wasn't good."  Hmmm, I think someone may have gotten the perfectionist musician gene.

Speaking of Eli, Ben and I think he may really be Buddy the Elf.  He asks to snuggle all.day.long.  This picture is photo bombed by Alison, but Eli asked Ben to snuggle and is rubbing his head while they watch a movie.  Sometimes 3 year old little boys can be simply the best.

Ben just finished baking his 3rd batch of molasses cookies and the 2nd puzzle is halfway done.  I guess we're well on our way to being lazy and fat.

Oh well, tis the season, right?

Decorating the tree

I'm realizing this year that not very many people decorate their tree with only sentimental ornaments.  Maybe we should start coordinating the ornaments we give the kids...

We also hung the stockings, but the only place that was out of Colin's reach, was at the top of the stairs.  Alison is very concerned how she is going to get it down on Christmas morning.

1st Navy party

Our first Navy Christmas Party was on a boat!  We had dinner with the Master Chief and his wife and even danced a little.  I kinda felt like I was in high school again.  Guess it's a good thing I still have my high school sweetheart with me!

The presents will be hidden

And this is why:
I turned on some Christmas music and was decorating the house.  I had an empty wrapped box that I hung on our wall last year and decided it would look pretty under the tree.
It lasted all of 5 minutes.  We affectionately call this being "Colinized".  He tore that thing to shreds, but to his credit, he did throw away all the little pieces for me.

He's started mimicking everything.  He'll laugh when we laugh and he'll try to say whatever we say.

This is great for his vocabulary (he's FINALLY started saying mama!) and is great entertainment for us.  Last night, Ben was calling for Alison and Eliot to get into the bath.  We were in a hurry because we had a fancy Christmas party to go to, so he hollered, "Chop, chop!" and Colin was right behind him yelling "chop chop!" at them.

Life would be so boring without my Colin.

Thanksmas

Aka. celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.

Friday morning I still had to teach my class, but Elizabeth came with me, which by the way, meant a lot to me.  When we got home, we all had tea pastries and opened presents.

The kids were bursting at the seams since I made them wait all the way until 9:30!

Colin got this adorable hat and we were all laughing...guess he got embarrassed and ran into Uncle Jordan's arms for comfort.

The kids made Nana a picture of a tree.  I thought it looked so cool, I'm considering having them make another one for us too.

Alison has been saving her tooth fairy money to buy a bean bag.  Nana and Granddaddy surprised her with one and she hasn't stopped beaming.

The kids also got their own coffee mugs and some yummy hot chocolate mix.

We spent the rest of the day watching Christmas movies and playing.  I cooked Christmas dinner and we took family pictures. 

Putting up the tree

Right after our Thanksgiving feast, we broke open the Christmas tree.

I'm pretty sure the last 4 years we've said this is the last year the tree will make it...don't know how I'll part with it though because it was a wonderful wedding present 10 years ago.  Hopefully next year we can get a real tree :)

We turned on some Christmas music and all helped assemble the tree.

I told Eli to pretend to be Thomas and the branches were his load.  He was pretty stinkin' cute cho-choing across the living room.

Colin thought it would be extra fun to sneak some of the branches away and use them as brooms.

 

I love how excited the kids get when the tree goes up.

Eli kept shouting, "It's Christmas!" and gave some sweet hugs.

 

 For some reason a dance party usually breaks out after the tree is complete...not sure why, but it's kinda become a tradition.

We still haven't put anything on the tree besides lights...Ben and I are still trying to figure out the best way to Colin-proof it.