Christmas Pictures

Baby's First Christmas: "Now which one of these presents is for me?"

Sweetie enjoyed eating the paper more than anything else.

"Watch out! Someone is eating your candy!!!"

IJ really liked this Sponge Bob balloon and played with it until it broke. Then he moved on...

The boys each got play rifles and Nerf revolvers. I had a hard time deciding who had the most fun, M or the boys. Even A and I worked on our speed an accuracy with the Nerf guns. I'm such a cool mom I had no problem with M drawing a devil target on our front window.
Shooting the devil is better than shooting your siblings and Pathetic Doberman.

E got some dress up clothes, including this beautiful homemade dress I found at Value Village for $5. Someone showed their love and dedication to a little girl when they sewed this dress! I love this picture because she looks like a little prairie girl just home from hunting rabbits.

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

One of my favorite presents was knitting a sweater for IJ's favorite stuffed animal. Who is actually real and a member of our family. I designed the sweater all by myself out of some yarn that IJ found in the closet, loved, and wanted knit into a sweater for him.

And... THE SNOW!!! This was the whitest Christmas I have ever known. I absolutely LOVE the snow (right now). I can't believe it was snowing on Christmas morning as we waited for the kids to wake up. [And funny about that... L was the first kid awake. Then A came upstairs. Then the boys. And finally (after I sent the boys running up and down the hallway calling "Merry Christmas!"), E got out of bed around 8:00.] I have to say, the memory of the Christmas of 2008 that will stay with me always is going for a walk around my neighborhood with my husband and four little kids and Pathetic Doberman. We have about 18 inches of snow now. We were able to give IJ the leash in the front yard, knowing the snow was too deep for My Pathetic Doberman to run away. She literally sunk up to her belly in the snow.

A built an igloo out in the front yard that has chairs, a table, and a fireplace carved on the inside. I crawled in to take pictures, but IJ is getting camera shy and escaped before I could get a cute picture of him (but E stayed and smiled sweetly). I got back at him by having the most fun I've had in a long time... a snow fight! We chased each other all over the backyard throwing and kicking snow at each other. After a dinner cooked entirely by M, watching Wall-E as a family in the basement ("Do you have your movie watching buddy?" Poor L was matched with wiggle worm S), and VitaMix milkshakes (M&M, eggnog, and cinamon candy), Christmas was over for another year...

...so even though we didn't make it to Twin Firs like we wanted, we still had a nice Christmas. And it is STILL snowing!

Jule Kaga

Jule Kaga is a traditional Scandinavian bread my family eats at Christmas time. My Nana makes the best Jule Kaga, with my Mom coming in at a close second. As I posted earlier, F chewed my recipe up, so I had to go begging to get my recipe replaced; Thanks Mom, Nana, and sister E! The other tradition, which I refuse to participate in, is the eating of Gjetost on the Jule Kaga. Blech! Of all the cheeses I have met, this is one I do not like!

Can you believe there is no listing for Jule Kaga on Wikipedia??? But there is a listing for Gjetost! The nerve!!!

Today, in my never-ending quest to keep the different personalities in my home from colliding and causing chaos, I made the traditional Jule Kaga with E. At the last second I decided to make the bread as close to hand-made as possible. Instead of using the microwave and the Kitchen Aid, I used the stovetop and... ...this hand powered kneading bucket with a dough hook that my Mom handed down to me. E and I kneaded enough dough to make four loaves of bread for 20 minutes. That is one good way of getting and staying warm when it is snowing outside...

... and we are up to about a foot of snow now!

Christmas Adam

My housemate in college had a Christmas "Adam" tradition with her siblings where they would all sleep by the Christmas tree on the night before Christmas Eve. Get it? Adam came before Eve? I love it! Today is Christmas Adam and I am starting new traditions with my set of younger kids. Last night E helped me make gingerbread dough for a gingerbread house. She is such a hard-working little helper for a three-year-old. She rolled out dough for little gingerbread men until there was no dough left. Here I am with E and F! Today I banned video games for the younger kids for the entire day. This meant I had to make sure they had something to do all day long to keep chaos from ensuing. After schoolwork (yes, I am making them do schoolwork during Christmas vacation-its not like their school is hard), I broke out the candy canes and let S hang them on the Christmas tree. Little F found that they were a fun to pull off the tree and chew, so E and S rehung them out of the baby's reach. I also had a craft that I had planned on doing at Twin Firs to keep the kids from driving Grandad bonkers. This morning, to keep the kids from driving Daddy bonkers, we painted clear glass ornaments with glitter glue......which made a horrible mess and I got glitter glue all over the sleeve of my robe. And I let the kids paint their own ornaments and they are ugly (except A's)!!! But I love them because I am their mother and I can't help it. But the mess didn't bother me at all. That mess was only the beginning...

And finally, we assembled the gingerbread house that I cut out last night. Now, this is no pre-cut kit from China! I used a pizza cutter and a ruler and made my own house pieces! There is flour all over the misaligned walls and roof, but the whole thing was made with love and a sense of adventure by me! And here we are gluing the candy on with frosting... and using Christmas candy corn as teeth... which was my idea... ...because I am a goofball and I can't help it. And yes, E is wearing a halloween shirt. And you can't see that she has three braids in her hair, but she does because she is three years old. And the final product...

An Inconvenient Truth

It's cold! And here I bought land in Alaska and bathing suits for the kids based on some secret inside information from a close source! Can you guess who these sweet babies are??? Same tree, same snowsuit, different baby! The top pic is of IJ in 2002 and the bottom pic is F, today. The tree is one that we bought our first Christmas together as a new, blended family. We have a Christmas ornament from 2001 with a picture of M, L, A, and I right after we planted the tree in the front yard. The picture is one of my favorites, mostly because A and M look like they just buried a good friend, but it was taken before we had a digital camera so I can't post it until M scans it. Along with our Santa picture from this year... Anyways, a few years ago we transplanted the tree to the backyard. Here is one of my favorite clowns pretending to ride his scooter in the snow. And here is another blast from the past picture-with-the-Christmas-tree (also 2002)... and the current picture posers...

Christmas is Canceled!

Okay, not the entire holiday. Just our trip to Twin Firs. The weather just isn't cooperating. We've heard that all the hotels in that area are filled with people who couldn't make it home from work because the roads are so bad. And police cars are spun out all over the place. And people can only drive 5 mph. So we are definitely not loading all these small children into a van and driving for eight hours on treacherous roads. The sad part is I ordered the best Christmas present ever for IJ and it is being shipped to Twin Firs. Just in time for Christmas.

So M and I went out and cut down a Christmas tree. In the 15 degree weather. With a baby. But M is so fast when he is focused on a task that he had a tree picked out, cut down, and was back to the van by the time I had F's diaper changed (I forgot to bring diapers, but since my mind has been opened by cloth diapering I manufactured a diaper out of a cloth rag and a hair band). We decorated our tree last night while remembering funny stories of past Christmases. And the best part is that L is here! She is staying with us until the weather lightens up.

It was ten degrees outside when I woke up this morning. Brrr!

"Knock, Knock..."

Me: Who's there?
E: Banana!
Me: Banana who?
E: Knock, Knock!
Me: Who's there?
E: Banana!
Me: Banana who?
E: Knock, knock!
Me: Who's there?
E: Banana!
[I grit my teeth so I don't say, "Say ORANGE! Say, 'Orange ya glad I didn't say banana?'"]
Me: Banana who?
E: Knock, knock!
Me: Who's there?
E: BANANA!
Me: Banana WHO?
E: BANANA! Now are you going to let me in your HOUSE?

Homeschoolers don't get snowdays...

Here is our little angel... oh never mind, it is just E. S finally went outside to play after a day-long ban on video games. He went disguised as Randy from The Christmas Story so the bad cold wouldn't burn his skin off. Now, who told him about frost bite???I made cinnamon rolls and banana bread while M "rocked" the baby to sleep with a little Van Halen...

Let it Snow!

Finally! We've been waiting for snow for days! I was pretty disappointed when I looked out the window this morning to a fine dusting and school only an hour late for A. But while we were doing our schoolwork, the snow started coming down. I gave the boys a "recess" to go look out the window while I got the next subject set up. And after they finished all their work only this child wanted to go outside. And he forgot his hat and had to come back in. Guess what S wanted to do when he was done with his work? You only get one guess! Diddy Kong Racing! Two days until we make our trip down to Twin Firs, come snow or ice, for Christmas. And speaking of Christmas, I'm not sending Christmas cards this year. I have no excuses. I just didn't make myself do it. Same thing with Christmas shopping. My kids are getting one present each under the tree and candy in their stocking. But since S doesn't know why we have Christmas stockings (he keeps asking when he gets to wear it), I don't think it really matters. And the baby ate my Jule Kaga recipe, so if anyone has a copy of it, email me!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

I remember reading The Long Winter (part of The Little House on the Prairie series) when I was younger and experiencing long, cold blizzards that blew for weeks on end right along with Laura Ingalls. The trains were stopped on the tracks. The town ran out of food and coal. The wind never stopped blowing. The last two days were a little like that. We didn't run out of food or coal though. But the wind! I woke up in the middle of the night last night because I thought I heard something.... silence. No wind. Today I'm running off to the store to stock up on supplies before the snow!

Yesterday, we braved the cold and wind to visit Santa at the mall. Because we don't watch TV, and my kids miss out on a lot of commercials, they treat a visit to Santa much like a trip to the dentist. This was an opportunity to go somewhere, meet some interesting people and talk to them (meanwhile embarrassing their mother), and maybe getting a snack out of the deal. Of course with the icy wind, we had to bundle up. I think S was a little confused. He thought we were actually going to the North Pole.

Santa was good. He did his piece perfectly. Except he said, "Those cookies you left for me last year were delicious." IJ says, "Oh. I don't remember leaving you cookies." Because we didn't. I quickly asked if the reindeer would like something after their journey and Santa said they would like some carrots and maybe some apple slices. "I think apples from Washington are the best," he says. IJ returns with, "I think apples from Costco are the best."

The kids asked for seven snow leopards (IJ), five kitties (S), and a stuffed monkey (E). Again, they don't watch commercials and don't know to ask for expensive game systems or Hannah Montana or Pokemon or anything like that. But I don't think Santa carries live animals on his sleigh (and we have enough wildlife around here).

We will get the picture scanned and up sometime today.

Freeeezing!

Our power was out most of the day today. I'm sitting downstairs typing with half-frozen fingers. The temp inside actually got down to 56 degrees before the power came back on. Did this effect my children at all? Oh, no! They ran around like crazy chickens and kept warm, just like usual. My dear M has a hard time with power outages. No music, no radio, no computer, no esspresso machine, no video games, no movies. I didn't notice anything different about my day, except I didn't have to do laundry! I knit, read out loud, played Jingle Bells on my guitar, and hollered at the kids to quiet down.

Now, if only the wind would stop blowing. Our house is angled so that the wind hits the front windows right on. The window panes are bowing in the wind, causing little gaps along the frame. We taped the windows last night with packing tape, but we could still hear the tape flapping in the wind...on the inside of the house. Brrrr!

My Pathetic Doberman is Freezing

We are prepared for the upcoming freeze. We hung our thermal drapes, weatherstripped the front door, and stocked up on essential groceries. The van is parked facing out of the driveway so we can pull straight out instead of backing out and spinning on ice. All the kids have snow pants that fit, hats, and mittens. Bring it on!(Cute pic of F right out of the bath, trying to crawl away as fast as she can go. She doesn't like the way clothes slow her down. Doesn't she look healthy?)

And believe it or not, we still don't use our furnace (very often). We are still keeping the house warm with one Eden Pure heater and baking bread. After all, why heat an entire basement if we aren't down there? Our furnace is located in the basement and has to heat up cold air. The ducts run through the garage before they reach the bedrooms. So when we run the furnace, we first blow a bunch of cold garage-temperature air in the rooms which is then followed by warm air. What a waste of energy. And anytime I bake something, the whole upstairs is warmed from the heat of the oven. Which is why I hate to cook in the summer. When I get cold, I bake bread.

But there are still some cold weenies in my home. M is one of them. He wears his field clothes to keep warm while working on the computer downstairs. My Pathetic Doberman is the other. Here she is this morning after taking her morning trip outside. She is standing in front of the heater, warming her ears. Now if that isn't pathetic, I don't know what it.

Things Kids Say

Yesterday, I took the kids (IJ, S, and E) to a local nursing home for a Cub Scout field trip. They sang a few Christmas carols and decorated their Christmas tree with ornaments made by the pack. While there, IJ struck up a conversation with one of the residents, who was an older lady in a wheel chair.

IJ: Do you ever have any fun here? Do you play games?
Lady: Oh, we play checkers and dominoes...
IJ: Do you ever play dodgeball?
S: How old ARE you?

And then after Taekwondo, we went to the grocery store. On the way out we passed by the Christmas trees for sale. I said, "Oh, don't the Christmas trees smell good?" to which S said, very loudly (does he have another volume?), "All I smell is TREE BLOOD!"
And this is a cute picture of F eating baby food (wearing a handknit bib and a homemade purple polkadot diaper!). She will not eat it from a spoon, so I won't let her have it very often. Only when I have time to give her (and the table) a bath. But she does look cute picking up a whole handful of cereal and stuffing it in her mouth! With her being the fourth/sixth baby, we don't follow food introduction rules. Yesterday she ate cabbage pieces and noodles with barbeque sauce for dinner. (IJ, S, and E each ate a whole raw cabbage leaf. And loved it. My kids are so weird.) I am so glad this is M's slow time. He has been doing a lot of this lately. The girls love him so much. Even F (the traitor!) prefers Daddy when nap time comes. Last night when Daddy said, "No!" too loudly, E cried and cried! Why doesn't she do that for me?

AND... guess who FINALLY got her DRIVER'S LICENSE?

Shrek the Third and The Big Question

This evening IJ, E, and I were watching Shrek the Third. The scene where Fiona calls to Shrek that she is pregnant and the following line where Shrek says, "How did this happen? I know how it happened, but..." and then Donkey turns to Puss and says, "How does it happen?" piqued IJ's interest. He turned to me and asked, "How do you get a baby?" This moment was just too good to keep to myself; I really want M around to enjoy it with me. So I said, "I'm watching the movie. Can you ask me later?" which is a common answer in my house to the many questions I'm asked. E said, "You get a baby like dis," and she pantomimed picked a baby up off the floor and cradled it in her arms. I hid a smile and kept watching Shrek.

When we got to the scene where the high school student asks Shrek to the prom for her friend while chewing a wad of gum, IJ turned to me and asked, "Okay Mom. Now tell me. How do you make a b..." [Here is where I thought, "Oh no, he didn't forget and now I'm going to have to answer him."]... "A bubble with gum???"

Whew! But still, I can't believe it took him this long to ask. He is such an inquisitive kid! He asks me questions all day long! Why did he wait this long when he has memories of me being "pragnent" with E as well as F?

A tip to get kids drinking their veggie smoothie is to stick a straw in it after not letting them have straws. Tonight's smoothie is four old mushy tomatoes, some limp celery, a handful of yucky old spinach, a frozen banana, frozen strawberries, and orange juice. This one was a winner. The last one wasn't. Brussel sprouts don't make good smoothies. Especially to people who are sensitive to the taste of brussel sprouts (M) and those who are gastronomically sensitive to the members of the cruciferous family (me). Do these kids look related or what???

EC is Too Weird

Today's topic is Elimination Communication. I thought EC was crazy. Honestly, I I have better things to do all day than watch my baby for cues to take her potty. I do have other children. And a Pathetic Doberman (which is more work than I thought, but I digress). And a husband (which is also more work than I thought- love you M!). I think it is easier to change diapers for a few years and then potty train for a week when they are older and understand consequences. But, just for fun, when I had nothing else but dishes to do, I watched F. And when I saw her getting ready, I held her over the toilet. Just for fun. Just to see what would happen.
And I do have better things to do all day, so I do not want to get caught in this elimination communication lifestyle trap.

But it works! Ahhhh... talk me down! I don't want to do this! But its so cute! When I have nothing else to do (besides cleaning, which is never done) on a weekend, I let F use the potty! All I have to do is think (!) about how long she has been dry, pull off her pants, hold her over the potty, and whisper "sssssss" in her ear and she goes! And when she is done she wiggles sideways and grins, like in the picture above, which was taken a month ago. She is so cute!

Today is Saturday and I haven't changed a poopy diaper since yesterday morning. And only one wet one today. And F is learning that she does NOT like wet diapers and she wants to use the potty. She tries to crawl away from me when I try to put a dry diaper on her. She fusses and fusses and I can't figure out what is wrong with her until I pull off the diaper and hold her over the toilet. And the light goes on in my head...she is communicating with me.

I've read stories about missionaries coming home from their trips and using the techniques they learned from the natives on their own children and never using diapers. And of course the green people love EC (I remember hearing about diaperless babies on the radio with the guest talking about holding the baby over a bush. That seemed so silly. I can't imagine running out in the winter rain with a baby that needs to go.) And then I start thinking about what people did for thousands of years before there were disposables and prefolds and washing machines and running water toilets and then elimination communication starts to make sense...

But I won't do it.

Watch Out!

This kid can roll, crawl, and pull herself up to standing! She has two teeth! She fakes crying so her dad will pick her up! Too Cute!

E is Fwee!

After a lovely Thanksgiving, our clan headed down to our favorite farm to spend the weekend. Here we celebrated E's third birthday with some cake, VitaMix milkshakes (Caramel and Eggnog), and presents. We also celebrated this Monster starting to crawl. She figured out she could grab the long lengths of shag carpeting and pull herself along the floor... Other weekend highlights were me shooting a revolver (and actually hitting the target twice of five shots), hearing coyotes howling down at the pond (and making A and My Pathetic Doberman accompany me to the shed because I was scared to go outside), and A learning to drive a stick shift in Grandad's car. I'm not feeling too inspired to write this morning and I have a Cub Scout meeting to plan for this afternoon, so I'll just check out now!

Thanksgiving Turkeys

I give thanks for my turkeys... And now a trip back in time... M and I got this large salad bowl as a wedding gift and only used it when we had company or special occasions. Every year we had a new baby, they would get their picture taken in the salad bowl on Thanksgiving... Except E didn't get a baby picture in the bowl. E was born a few days after Thanksgiving an the next year we were visiting Grandparents! This is E with my Nana! Hi Nana! And this year it is F's turn to sit in the bowl...which we now use several times a week to hold popcorn.

Gender and Thanksgiving

I bet Western Washington University would have this class. They could study the different ways men and women eat, behave, and think at Thanksgiving. I bet they would say all straight white men gobble like hogs and watch football on TV while their imprisoned slave-wives work all day in the kitchen cooking and cleaning up. And that Thanksgiving should be changed to a day of mourning instead of a day of giving thanks for our blessings. And that Thanksgiving should be illegal and they should not close campus or government offices on such a racist day. That is what I heard when I went there. Seriously.

The gender roles are reversed at my house on Thanksgiving. That makes us socially acceptable for at least a little while I guess. M does ALL the cooking on Thanksgiving. I have never ever cooked a turkey. All I do is buy them on discount the year before. And we work together on clean up. With My Pathetic Doberman's help. Oh, I guess I do put the frozen vegetables in the microwave (but I don't take them out until after dinner)! I do make the best rolls though... and pie.

My best friend is cooking up a fantastic menu for her husband and two kids. I almost want to go over to her house on Thursday! Here is her menu:

Cheesy Spinach Souffle
Sweet Potatoes in Navel Orange Cups
Corn for the the picky boys that won't eat anything
Cornbread and Squash Stuffing
Costco rolls (gotta love Costco!)
Turkey and gravy, of course:)
Cranberry Sauce, maybe homemade, not sure yet
and homemade pumpkin pie. NOT from a can.
Maybe a chocolate pie for dh, haven't decided that yet, either

I asked M what we were having. He said, "Easy. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Gravy. Sweet potatoes. Stuffing. Homemade bread?" I nod. "That would be great. Salad. And pie."

And there you have it. Gender and Thanksgiving.

Mirror, Mirror...

...on the wall. Who is the most stubborn one of all? When I look at E, I see myself reflected back to me. Ornery. Strong willed. Stubborn. I'm an adult, so I can moderate my feelings and flaws. I cannot expect the same from an almost three year old. Most days my mantra is, "I am a flowing river. I'm polishing these little stones that I call children. I am slowly rounding their rough corners and wearing down their points of resistance. I am not shattering rocks, I am smoothing them..." BUT THIS GRANOLA HAS BEEN SITTING ON THE TABLE FOR EIGHT HOURS AND SHE IS GOING TO EAT IT!