Midnight Swearing -In

Christmas at Gram's

This is my last Christmas post...we are already in full Inaugural preparations around here.  Here are just a few pictures from our wonderful Christmas at Gram and Papa's.  She put on a fantastic buffet and we just ate all day.

 We opened what seemed like an obscene amount of gifts.

More Playmobil:

Fun times with our Cincinnati Cousin:

And Great Grandma Ye Ye:

What a great family!

Christmas Morning at our house

We were home for a few hours on Christmas morning by ourselves.  It was so fun to slowly open our family gifts.  The girls get so many presents from their grandparents, that I am always tempted not to buy them anything.  But I can't help it!  PK1 got lots of playmobile and PK2 has been wanting a remote control car for a year.  When anyone asks her what she wants for Christmas she says "reMOTE conTROL," in a sort of sing-song voice. She may or may not have said this to the governor-elect recently.  We were only a little embarrassed.

PD picked out a great car for her.  It is perfect for her age.  Not too babyish, but not too difficult to maneuver.  It has even been out on the icy sidewalks already.  It also gives rides for baby koalas.

And sometimes PD has to "test" it a bit too.

PK2 also got some legos.  She is a genius at following the directions and putting these together.  She wanted pirates this year.  (Remember, when you homeschool, they don't know what stuff is for boys and what stuff is for girls.)

I got this awesome head scarf thingy that my sister told me was in style.  I love it to cover up my hair on a day when I don't want to shampoo! (second year in a row to be photographed in my Tina Fey glasses on Christmas morning)

PD got mostly work clothes this year.  We spend more $$ on his work clothes than the three of us girls combined.  But we call these ties the Nard Dog ties after the guy on the office who wears super preppy clothes.  Not all PD's ties are so "polo club" but these were.

The girls also got a ton of Zhu Zhu stuff for Christmas.  These Zhu Zhu pets have taken a bit of heat for being too much of a fad, but my girls really love playing with these.

Here is PDs car.  I wanted to show that we got a bit of snow on Christmas.  I should have taken a picture of the house, but then I thought I would put this on because PD's car is already 18 years old  and if I look back on this blog post someday..it is going to look really old and funny.

I also thrifted a couple dress up outfits for the girls.  PK2 really needed a medieval outfit so we can be super dorky and go in costume to the Ren Faire next year. And I couldn't resist the hat for PK1.  Everyone does come to us for the "perfect costume" when they need to dress up as something these days.

Then we had an awesome breakfast of cinnamon rolls, eggs and bacon.  PK1 made the eggs for me this year. The cans of soda were not part of the breakfast, they were left out from the company the night before.  My BFF and my mom can groan now that I left out the mess and didn't clean it all up the night before. We headed to the Political Grandparents around noon...will post about that tomorrow.

Christmas Eve... and I talk about some stuff

Christmas Eve, PD was home from work and the girls begged to be pulled in the sled.  There was only a little snow, but he did his best.

I love this picture because it is cute, but also it just makes me think of all the times the girls say "can you zip my coat...I have to go potty...can you tie my shoe...I need a snack."  I love it when PD is around and he is the one who has to shake the snow out of the dropped mitten.

Sidebar on how hard it is to be a full time mom to little kids. When PK1 was two and I was pregnant with PK2 I was complaining to a group of moms about how hard it is to be pregnant and deal with a two year old.  Another mom told me that she hates it when there are dirty fingerprints and smudges all over her glass door, but when she is wiping it down, she tries to pray and thank God for those little fingers that make the mess. That has really stuck with me. Who can argue with that?  Chubby little fingers?  What's not to love? And God gave me these little ones to live at my house!   Another one I came up with on my own was that I used to hate giving the girls a bath.  At the end of a long day, after dinner I just want to punch my time clock and be done.  The faucet in their tub is hard to regulate and hard to reach.  One day though, I realized I only have a really short amount of time left to be giving these girls a bath..soon they would be showering themselves!  After I realized that, I decided to pretend each bath was the last one I was going to give them.  It really changed my attitude. Only problem with that is I would start to tear up every time I gave them a bath!

Here they are with our house in the background.  I love our house.  Whenever we pull in the drive I always tell the girls, "Oooooo here we are at the prettiest house in the neighborhood!"  It is partly for them, but it really helps me to be content when all my friends are building their mansion/houses.  And I do think our house looks pretty sharp with the black shutters I painted last spring and all the work PD has put into it over the years.

Christmas Eve, the Ohio side of our family came to our house.  I didn't have time for pictures because I was playing hostess, but I had to show this great cake the PKs and I made.  It looks pretty normal until you cut it open. Wait for it.....

Oooooo....Aahhhhhh.... Isn't that fantastic?  We had fun making it and I only swore a little ..to myself...in my head. It took five cake pans, two cake mixes, one and a half days and a pound of butter!

I got the idea for the cake here.  And to see my sister's version go here.

Little Blessings

I am really starting to notice and appreciate the little blessings that God gives us here and there.  Remember this...where the PKs got to make ceramic ornaments at the high school with Gram and Papa?

Well, the art teacher asked us to come in this week to paint the ornaments and glaze and fire them!  I thought that the room would be empty, but there were lots of high schoolers finishing up projects.  Imagine how cool the PKs felt working along with the big kids.  

One nice girl in particular helped us a little.  The teacher was so nice saying how beautiful the girls' work was.

She even invited us back and offered to teach PK1 to knit!

I just can't tell you what a blessing this morning was.  The kids loved it. To watch them get to work  in a high school art studio was such fun!

And speaking of little blessings, my best friend at church had #4 baby last week. She was only 5 pounds, but perfect in every way.  I had only held one baby smaller than that.  She was just incredibly tiny.

Here she is with her big brother.  He and PK1 get along famously.

So tired right now, from all my Christmas preparations, but really looking forward to Christmas Eve tomorrow! And hoping to continue to look for and enjoy those little blessings during this holiday week.  For starters PD was home early enough to read with the girls tonight.  We are working through our stack of Christmas books and they read Gift of the Magi.  PK1 really loved it this year.  And I am glad PD was the reader because it is a loooong one!

Christmas on the Farm

We were involved in a Christmas program for our Nursing Home Ministry this year. The theme was "Christmas on the Farm" and it was a collaboration between the residents of the nursing home and the kids.  It was such a blessing to be involved in.  There are a few things that I know we have given up by homeschooling and the opportunity to be in a school program is one of them.  PD and I decided that the pay offs are greater than the sum of these little things we give up.  But it has been so great to see how God has placed little replacement opportunities for us here and there.  This is a great example.  The PKs and I had a lot of fun learning all the songs, gathering costumes and performing.  This is our wonderful and talented leader Miss Connie.

Even the daddies were able to sneak out of work for a couple hours to come support us.

For one scene all the kids dressed as characters from the nativity.  PK2 was an angle (haha) and her little BF was a camel.

Here is the whole group.

Family Birthday for PK1

Saturday night Papa and Gram came over to celebrate the birth of PK1.  Sorry I look a little peeked in the picture.  I think I did have some make-up on, but I have been fighting a bronchitis thing.  PK1 requested burgers on the grill, which is a summer food, but easy, so I agreed.  PD had to put his snow boots on to get to the grill.

It is the year of Playmobil at our house. Gram got PK1 the pet clinic and she and her sister have not stopped playing with it for a second.  Little does she know she is getting three more pieces for Christmas! This is such a great toy and I know it will bring hours of joy in the long winter months.

Gigi got her this American Girl outfit and bird watching kit.  It is the cutest thing.  The binoculars work and the book is really a tiny book about birds.  So glad Gigi sprung for this because I was having a hard time stomaching the price tag.  But PK1 has had that page of the catalogue bookmarked for a year now.  Thank you Gigi!

Sorry to put a gratuitous cake picture on here, but I just thought this cake was so cute and we got it very spur of the moment. It was so perfect for PK1.

Had to end the evening with cards.  PD and I had the kitchen spic and span by the time they were done playing.  What a great evening.  Now I have a couple days to breath before Christmas is here!