Its Finally Christmas!

And the finally - or already? - it was Christmas Eve.  And much to Sam's dismay, and soon the rest of us as well, since he asked 8000 times that day if it was time to go yet, Christmas Eve was a full 24 hours again this year.  No ability to fast forward to the good stuff, sorry bud.

So we did our best to fill the day.  I was done wrapping, although Chris had some to finish.  I prepped some food for the evening, cleaned up the house.  And the kids and I made Reindeer Food!  What's that you ask?  It really doesn't matter, its whatever you find in your kitchen that year.  This year it was bread crumbs, red food coloring and red hots that we "baked" in the toaster oven.

Happily our last Christmas party of the year was on this happy day, so we were able to quit with the questioning around 3:00 when we left the house.  And we thanked the hosts for providing Sam with something to do, and they indicated this issue was a key player in their decision to host. 

After the party it was off to church, our own church this year, for Christmas eve service.  The church gave one enormous gift to its children this year: an indoor playground.  Because sometimes construction is concluded on time and slightly under budget and it just so happens that you can open the new wing of your church on Christmas Eve.  Sometimes those things "just happen."  And all the kids played like they'd never seen a playground before. 

It was really nice to see our own friends at church on Christmas - a first for us in our adult lives.  While the service and music were lovely, I am disappointed that our church does not allow candles, even on Christmas eve.  Even Sam wanted an explanation on that one.

Then it was home for our traditional Cheese Soup dinner.  Sam ate pretzel rolls, and I'm not actually sure that Annabelle ate anything at all, while we tracked Santa's progress on the radar and chatted about all of the very important things that needed to be done that evening.  Before I knew it, Sam was practically begging me to get a move on, get the stuff done, so that they could get into bed.  He was growing simultaneously excited and nervous that Santa was getting so close!  And then Annabelle started to put the whole story together and realized that there would be reindeer and a strange man at her house.  She began to ask lots of questions about her personal safety.  Smart little cookies - the whole Santa thing is super-creepy if you look at it the wrong way.  We assured her the the reindeer would stay outside and that Santa wouldn't touch her.  I tried to tell her that Santa wouldn't come in her room, but Sam corrected me, because that's where he leaves the stockings.  But Sam also reassured his sister that they really did want Santa to come in the house, and she believed him more than me.

Anywho, we got to work.  We spread our reindeer food outside - after I began with the grass, Sam insisted we throw it onto the roof.  So much more logical!  Then we all put on our matching Christmas Jammies and set out a plate of cookies, with carrots, for Santa.  We read the Christmas story from the bible and T'was The Night Before Christmas, courtesy of a recordable storybook from Gommy and Papa.  And it was the fastest bedtime in our family's history.

And then Chris and I prepped and enjoyed our "grown up party."  I forgot that I'd mentioned it to Sam sometime in the past, but he didn't and he asked me this year if he was old enough for it.  Hahaha No.  It actually took us awhile to get all of our indulgent treats prepped, gifts laid out, the turkey marinading for the next day, so it was late when we started our movie, but we made an excellent to decision to buck a small part of the tradition and switch to what he and I consider to be an ultiamte Christmas Classic for the ages: Home Alone.  And I stayed awake for the whole movie.  And cleaned up afterwards (only because I knew I'd be sad to wake up to a mess on Christmas morning).

And Christmas morning came for Sam sometime in the 5:00 hour, and no one who's ever met him was surprised.  He was given his tablet and told to entertain himself for an hour in bed.  And then the festivities began.

Chris took no more than one picture during stocking-opening before Annabelle decided that she must take a picture with every single thing she pulled out.  I will spare you the 8 pictures of her holding a mini candy cane - they are all different candy canes - that she insisted he take.  And Sam could not wait to head to the tree, but wow did we need coffee first, and to "make sure that Santa had come to the tree," so he built his first lego creation of the day on bedroom floor, before 7am.

And then joy filled our home as the kids ran to their bounty.  We took our time opening, and allowed the kids to stop and play with whatever they wanted to whenever they wanted to.  We ate breakfast at some point, our traditional cinnamon roll tree (Sam discovered he loves cherries) and then went back to it.  Annabelle stopped to play more than Sam did, but that's to be expected by their personalities.  I was pleasantly surprised when she opened her Daniel Tiger toy and declared, before the paper was removed, "It's a trowy!" (trolley).  So awesome to give your kids a gift they love before they even get to touch it.  I got a similar reaction out of Sam when he opened is giant Lego arctic base camp set.  Hugs and thanks you's for that one.

And Chris and I opened gifts, too!  I even got a lime tree this year, because my husband is awesome and pays attention to me.

We had a lazy afternoon, the kids never got dressed and I'm sure it was after 2 before Chris and I put clothes on.  I even read a little bit!  Sam built Lego's for about 8 hours.  At first he needed a great deal of help, but his confidence grew quickly and he was completely independant by the time we were prepping dinner.  Although we enjoyed sitting with him while he built.  Annabelle put on pretend make up more times than I can count.  And they played together and separately.  It was actually wonderful to give both the kids a great deal of my undivided attention that day - I wish I could make more days feel like that.

We did fried turkey and cheesy ranch potatoes for dinner.  The turkey process was more stressful this time, because Chris wanted to be relaxing with the family rather than tending to it, and it is not a labor-free process.  Not entirely sure we'll do that on Christmas again, but we'll see.  He did make himself a nice set up outside!  We didn't do a formal dinner or anything, and Sam spent the whole time begging to get back to his Lego's.  Maybe we'll work on that part of the day for the future.

Eventually we all went to bed happy.  Our first ever Christmas at home was a huge success.  I can't wait to do it again next year.

2 Wheels

So, amidst all of the Christmas happenings, guess what else happened...  Sam learned to ride his bike without training wheels!

Teaching him to master this skill has been a goal of mine since half way through last summer.  He and I tried once and he was in a sour mood, so it went quite poorly.  Then every time I suggested it he was, shall we say, less than interested.  And then one day at the end of the summer we tried to go on a family bike ride (with training wheels) and discovered that Sam's tire was so flat that it wouldn't even hold air long enough to carry him down the driveway.

And, for whatever reason, it took us 3 months to get that tire fixed.  Finally in December I happened upon a can of Fix-A-Flat in the bike aisle while doing some completely unrelated Christmas shopping.  2 days later Chris had re-inflated the tire and removed the training wheels.  Sam was motivated this time, because over the course of three months he had seen a couple of his friends ride on 2 wheels, including the slightly older neighbors around the corner.

So one Saturday morning he and I set out to give it a try.  I was totally awkward in my attempts to hold his bike, and it took me a few tries to figure out how best to explain to him what he needed to do.  He have it a few goes and then declared that he needed a break.  Not wanting to push things, I agreed that we'd try again after lunch.  And then I watched the kid grab his Razor scooter and zoom around with one leg out to the side, leaning this way and that, completely steering himself with his body motion.  And I realized that he already knew how to balance the bike, he just needed to remember to pedal at the same time.

So after lunch we tried again.  On go 2 I let go with one hand.  Next time I let both hands hover just beside the bike - and told him that I'd let go.  And that was all he needed.  Before I knew it, he was riding back and forth from our driveway to the stop sign, only needed me to help get him started.  And then he attempted his first turn.  All in the span of no more than 20 minutes 

And later that day he learned to get himself started with the help of the small slope at the bottom of the driveway.  And then I took him on his first bike ride.

By the end of the weekend he no longer needed help getting started.  He gotten over his concern with sidewalks (they are, in fact, quite narrow).  He now begs to go on bike rides all the time, and we generally willingly agree - bikes are awesome!  And its very cool to be able to do suck a legit kid/family thing with him. 

I was super proud of him, and super pleased to eliminate the bit of mom guilt that came with the fact that I hadn't taught him to do it yet.  And he was beyond proud and exited as well:
"I'm really gettin' the hang of this!"
"Hey, I did it!"
"Now I fit in with the other kids!"

If only we'd bought that can of fix-a-flat 3 months ago!

The Little Christmas Things

The Christmas season is more than just parties and outings, right?  There's lots and lots of special little things that make it a joyful time. 

Ok, so this one isn't so little for me, its actually a lot of work.  But I love it, and it turns out that people have come to expect it out of me.  So each year I create the Christmas Cookie Tray.  One usually varies each year.  This year I threw in regular and peppermint fudge, but I'm not convinced I'll keep it.  I had several places I committed to bring cookies this year, so they had to be done by the first weekend in December.  Thankful, must husband appreciates the my cookies and willingly allowed me the time I needed to complete my project.  No, I'm not willing to let my kids help frost - presentation is too important to me.  But this year I kept a few back and let them frost those later.  Theirs looked disgusting - so much frosting that even Sam couldn't finish a whole cookies in one sitting.  (Let's not talk about the plethora of cookies I dropped on the floor while pulling them out of the freezer.  Chris heard the crash - when he came to see what happened he didn't miss a beat.  "We can save a bunch of them!", as he began quickly scooping them up off the ground before I started to cry.  That's love, friends.)

The train display was back at the preschool this year.  For some reason they were almost never running, but that didn't stop Annabelle from asking to look at them every. single. day.

Christmas Movies.  We take full advantage of the ability to record so many family Christmas movies directly to our DVR each year, and then delete them and forget about them until next year.  The kids particularly enjoyed Frosty this year - it was Annabelle's selection every time.  Chris took great joy in introducing them to Peewee Herman.  "He went to Daddy's High School!"  As if that somehow makes the programming higher quality.  This wasn't just for the kids though - I watched all my favorites again this year.  Its pretty much all the grown ups watched in December.

PJ Days!  Both kids had the opportunity to wear PJs to school this year.  Fortunately, I'd ordered us all matching Christmas Jammies and even had the kids' monogrammed.  So much fun stuff at school this time of year - like Buddy the Elf, who was always causing trouble in Annabelle's Classroom.  Sorry, no picture of Sam.

And in Sam's class, there was Jingle Bells the Gingerbread Man.  He was doing well hanging in their class, until the Watch Dogs accidentally let him out.  Before you know it, friends and family started spotting Jingle Bells all over the country, and all over the world!  They all sent post cards letting us know that he'd been spotted, so the kids got to learn a bit about world geography.  After winter break, Sam got to bring home all of the postcards sent to him - quite the stash.  Something like 8 countries and 4 states.  Thanks friends!  Oh, and Jingle Bells did turn up after the class made him a gingerbread house.  To celebrate, they made individual houses at their class parties (see how that all came full circle!?)  (Oh HEY.  That class picture is on PJ Day!)

My duo was quite pleased to discover that they'd both made Rudolph hats in their classes.

But we aren't likely to wear those hats out of the house, so its important for us ladies to look festive in other ways.  Like with matching Christmas Nail Polish.

And yes, Sam had made gingerbread houses at school already.  But he and have done one together for several years now.  And Annabelle hadn't done one yet.  So I bought them each a kit (soooooo much easier than homemade.  Someday we'll do homemade, but we aren't there yet) and we had a good time.  Sam has really progressed - I helped him with the icing but he placed every piece of candy onto that house himself.  With age comes slightly increased focus.  And creativity - he cut and gingerbread marshmallow in half so he could have a head looking out the window, and put the legs upside down on the other side of the house.  He ate a little bit of candy.  Annabelle had to be strongly convinced that any piece of candy could be spared from her mouth to be put on the house.  I did most of her house.

A Ripe Jolly Old Elf

And he really was a sweet old man!  Legitimate beard, legitimate wrinkles.  We were told he was a great Santa with a nice backdrop and free/cheap picture packages.  So that's where we went.

Along with the rest of Katy on that Sunday afternoon.  A one-hour line to meet Santa.  Next year I'll come up with a better plan, I promise.  So Daddy took the kids around the store to kill time, and we chatted about what our requests would be.  And yes, I'd vetted the requests in advance.

I honestly wasn't sure that Annabelle was going to willingly go meet him, and was confident that she would not verbalize her request to him.  I had asked Sam to speak on her behalf if she grew mute.  He was ready.  He was confident.  He was goal-oriented.

But it turns out that our little girl had been listening to us about the importance of delivering a request to Santa, and had started to put all of the pieces together regarding the role he plays in this whole Christmas thing.  When placed on his lap, she clearly articulated that she would like "Frozen Toys."  Sam requested "a build your own robot kit."

Throughout the month Annabelle asked lots and lots of questions about our friend from the North Pole.  She really wanted to understand where he lives, how he travels, who Rudolf is, etc.  It was sweet to explain it to her, and sweeter to watch Sam do the same.

Sam has decided the Santa only travels by sleigh/reindeer on Christmas eve.  He takes a plane to visit the stores and the kids ahead of time.  He also told us yesterday that Santa is in the "materials gathering" stage of planning for next year's gift making.

Annabelle how refers to Bass Pro Shop as "Santa's Store."  We have to explain to her when we drive past that we can't visit him today, he has gone back to the North Pole.

These are the "prime magic years," and an hour long wait is totally worth it when I get to see them playing these things out in their growing brains for weeks and weeks afterwards.