We were so sad to be away from our family, so we tried to make things extra special for the kids. We started early, making and taking homemade candy to our new friends. Unlike my friend Becky, I am a cheapskate, and so instead of mailing out candy, we just sent out Christmas cards to all of our friends and family out of state. (sorry)
The girls love these shopping carts in Kroger, and I thought they were quite nice - until my heels informed me differently. The new challenge in shopping is not to keep the kids with me, but to keep them from seriously injuring small elderly women (apparently the big ones can take care of themselves).
Shopping accomplished, we went home and made our candy. The kids thought it was great fun to watch Mom sweat over the stove, and then they reaped the benefits. I don't think Elizabeth has had a suitable meal in weeks. Its so hard when you can fill up on candy when your mom isn't watching. P.S. - I had to include the above picture. I made something beautiful, hee, hee.
Clearly, the Christmas preparations were too much for some members of our family, who just couldn't take another trip to the store.
As usual, the official kick-off to Christmas was the Christmas campout. The girls had matching princess jammies, and Sean and I had matching plaid PJ pants. (I tried to find him princess PJ's, but they were out in his size, and I didn't want him to feel left out) We watched "Prince Caspian" for our movie. Elizabeth fell asleep during the moving but Anna stayed up until after midnight, enjoying having our attention sans sister.
The 24th was our belated Grandma's craft day. The girls thoroughly enjoyed modeling their newly crafted wares. The instructions weren't followed exactly right, but they still had a fabulous time.
Christmas morning came at 7:45 when Anna woke up. I still remember waking up at 2:30 am on Christmas morning - sorry, Dad and Mom. Apparently Santa gave us way cooler things than he gives my kids. They have no problem getting plenty of sleep.
Elizabeth thrilled to everything Santa got her, down to the orange and apple in the bottom of her stocking. She put them in her treasure box, where I rescued them before we had a serious rotten fruit problem. She also enjoyed what Santa brought Dad and Mom - two nerf guns to shoot the kids with. Unfortunately, her doll bore the brunt of it.
Anna loved everything, especially a little Tinker Bell doll that Santa brought. The dollhouse was a total hit, especially after she opened the Barbie-sized Hannah Montana doll that her sister had purchased for her.
Two days after Christmas, we went to West Virginia to meet/visit Uncle John, Sean's uncle. He is a blast with the kids, and they absolutely loved playing with him and meeting their little second cousins. We also learned some crucial information, such as it is legal in West Virginia to keep your roadkill, and the GPS is the devil.
And, of course, with an extra week before school started back up, we had to visit the local park. The call of the tire swing is just too much to ignore sometimes.
2 comments:
Yesterday Zoë went to play with a friend and Kari was so sad. She cried and said "I just want to play with Elizabeth Neaf!" We miss you all! But definitely enjoy keeping up with you on your blog.
You are right. Grandmas do love your blog pages.
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