December Daily - Unexpected Addition - Thank you Letter to Santa

Anna is on Christmas break from school but is at daycare this week. I'm sure this was a prompted exercise today but I thought it was so so sweet.

6 year old translation:

"Dear Santa,
Thank you for my american girl doll. I take it everywhere I go, just not school. I really enjoy it. I love the accessories (I had to ask about that word). Her puppy is very cute. I named her Gracie. Sincerely, Anna"

Love it! The accessories she got were shoes, socks, hair ties, and a headband. She named the doll Gracie. The puppy is named Honey.

This will make a great closing page of some sort for my December Daily album. Moving the blogging journaling and photos into the actual scrapbook is my next project.

December Daily - Day Twenty-five (Christmas!)

I thought for sure Carter would wake up when we got home, or at midnight, or 5 am. But he slept 13 hours until 7 am when Baxter decided he couldn't wait to pee any longer and did his noisy I-have-to-go-potty dance across the wood floors.

I got gorgeous Michael Kors shoes and a new, smaller camera.

I got Kevin an iPad so he can stop borrowing my phone to play Words with Friends and Chess.

Anna got an American Girl doll, Littlest Pet Shop toys and a robe.

Carter got a DS, Toy Story characters and a remote control lightening McQueen car.

And they both got lots of other gifts from each other and us, like Squinkies, My Little Pony Ferris Wheel, talking Woody and more.

The aftermath.

Christmas Day video to come later this week. Carter was hysterical and hopefully I captured some of the funny things he was saying. I haven't watched it back yet.

December Daily - Day Twenty-four (Christmas Eve)

My brother Ben had gotten into town the night before. I had planned to meet him at Paradise Park to let the kids run but they were closed. We went to Burger King and let them play at an indoor playground instead.

We celebrated Christmas with my parents and brothers on Christmas Eve.

I got a new coffee maker from Ben, a new calphalon pan from Zach and clothes and a bag from my parents. Kevin got a meat cleaver (even though I emailed my family that he was already getting one from his brother. I don't think my parents read their email. Ironically it is my job.)

Carter got Toy Story stuff. Anna got doll house furniture and littlest pet shop animals. They both got Vermont Teddy Bears. Anna was especially excited about hers.

We left at 6:15 and Carter was asleep before we made it out of the neighborhood.

When we got home Anna and I baked cookies for Santa.

Then she went to bed and Kevin and I wrapped some presents for the kids while watching Avatar in the basement. I wish I liked science fiction better. I thought it was predictable and a little boring. The special effects were cool and it looked good on the blu-ray in HD.

December Daily - Day Twenty-three

I was off because it was Thursday. Originally planned to hang out with my BFF but soon realized my to-do list was a mile long.

Went to the office and played Santa - the kids handed out iTunes gift cards for everyone I directly manage.

Then we went shopping. For my BFF, my mom, my brother. Then I took the kids home and finished some shopping that needed to be done without them.

We had Sam and Candi over for dinner. I made Corn Chowder from the cookbook Help My Apartment Has a Kitchen, which I would actually highly recommend.

Then we exchanged gifts with each other.

And then the girls beat the boys at Spades. An unusual occurance.

December Daily - Day Twenty-Two

Kevin goes to put on his shoes and an arch support is missing from one. Then we find it. In the water bowl. Baxter at work.

Carter is excited to go to school for once because they are having a Christmas party. It's so unusual for him to smile at this time of day. 

Anna is still sick. I work from home. Tassie is happy.

Later that night...

In the bathtub Carter tells me he found coins on the stairs and he put them in his piggy bank (Ham the pig that he got for his birthday) and that that was ok because they didn't come from daddy's bowl. (Kevin has a bowl of coins on the console table that we found Carter was stealing from to fill his piggy bank. I think he has learned that lesson now). Then he told me he was going to save his money to go to Disney World (this is what Anna always said). I told him he could use his money for whatever he wanted, it doesn't HAVE to be Disney World.

"I'm going to spend my money on....... long pause..... Starbucks!"

I laughed, "That is NOT what I expected you to say. What would you get at Starbucks?"

"Chocolate milk."

Oh the things that are important to you when you're 4. And oh the things I've taught my 4 year old that I want to spend my money on. Sigh. Perhaps a parenting faux paux.

That night I really needed to make a list. I was searching everywhere for my "list paper" and about to freak out because I had too much in my head and needed to make a list.

Then I found it.

December Daily - Day Twenty

Monday. Struggling a little bit to make it through what is only a 3 day work week. Weak.

I get my Christmas cards in the mail! Hooray, they will make it before Christmas :)

Christmas card pictures:

I can imagine in a few years they will want to sit on opposite sides of the bench 

Here are my Christmas decorations in my office. The photos on the wall are last year's Christmas card pics.

The door to my office.

December Daily - Day Nineteen

Sunday. Sleep in day! Anna was up first at 8. Carter didn't get up until 9. I used that opportunity to have Anna wrap the presents for Carter and then after Carter woke up we wrapped his presents for Anna. He even practiced writing Anna's name on the gift tags. It was really sweet. We took advantage of the new closet - it turned out to be the perfect "secret hide out" for wrapping gifts.

We went to my grandma's or "granny's" for her birthday/anniversary/Christmas lunch.

It was good to see my cousins Megan and Jennifer that I really only see about twice a year. They are both married now and Jennifer has a little boy named Owen. Here he is with his auntie Meg.

I overate. And after that I was completely exhausted. I definitely could have used a nap. I got a small cat nap after we got home around 5. I realized I left the milk out all day so headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things and milk, for the week.

This week's meal plan
Sunday: frozen pizza
Monday: Spaghetti w/sausage meat sauce + Salad
Tuesday: Fajitas + Guac
Wednesday: BLTs + Side
Thursday: Corn Chowder + Garlic bread

I also got stamps to mail those Christmas cards.

December Daily - Day Thirteen

Well, it's almost half way through December and I haven't scrapped a page. But at least I'll have all my journaling done when I'm ready!

As I suspected Anna woke up sick. 102 fever and a horrible cough. Croup was going around the daycare and I think she might have caught it. Or if not, some other virus. I worked from home. She wrote her Christmas list

1. American Girl doll
2. Littlest Pet Shop
3. Robe

We put it in an envelope and then I had to explain stamps and why they cost money. It takes a lot of work to get that letter to the north pole I explained, gas, people, airplanes, cars. "Ah, I get it now."

Our kitchen pipes have been frozen for a few days. As you can see I really needed to do the dishes. So Kevin found a new use for my hair dryer and thawed the pipes. Yay. Then I got to do the dishes. Boo.

Anna spent most of the day in my bed watching cartoons. I started out in here, but was quickly annoyed with the Dora song and Wonder Pets song and so on and so on. So I switched it to a marathon of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Very early episodes. She thought that was hilarious. That evening she watched The Princess Bride. She didn't eat dinner. In fact she only ate toast, chicken noodle soup and cheese crackers. And motrin. My kids are so picky about the flavors. We have two chewable flavors and three liquid flavors of motrin. She only likes the Original Berry Motrin (that's the one with strawberry and raspberry, not to be confused with Fruit Flavored Motrin which is strawberry and cherry). And she likes the orange Delsym but not the orange chewable motrin - "those are spicy." I can't remember what Carter likes but it's the opposite. My medicine cabinet is full of every flavor they make.

While Kevin was using my hair dryer I tried to change the channel on the TV. It was that crazy show with the obstacle course that's impossible to complete and they fall in the water and everyone laughs and laughs. Carter about flipped out and claimed "Daddy is watching that" when really it was him. Boys. Then Kevin was watching that logging show and Carter had his feet propped up on the coffee table. Boys.

Tassie finally got some love. Kevin has been joking I should call it the 25 days of Baxter because I keep taking so many pictures of him. He's so dang cute! Except for when he pooped on the floor.

Fourth and Final Christmas

Kevin's parents came up today. Anna and Carter each got a Leapster 2. I got the three pictures I wanted for the chocolate painted wall in the kitchen. Kevin got to hang them which was a challenge because one was a slightly differnet size and each had it's wire at a different height on the back. But they are hung and look nice.

It snowed some more and we're getting another 1/2 inch tomorrow morning. I'm hoping I can make it to work without too much trouble on Monday. We're getting another storm on Wednesday so it's good I'm off on Thursday and Friday next week. Crazy weather.

Christmas #3 - Santa Claus Comes to Town

Anna woke up first. She came into our bedroom and asked me if she could watch cartoons. Ok I said. I turned them on and as she is sitting on the couch her eyes got wide and she said Santa Came! But she still didn't get up to go check everything out. I think she even said something like "I think I see my DS"

I actually went back to bed and she watched cartoons for a few minutes. But Kevin and I knew it would be long so we went ahead and drug ourselves up. We also wanted to see how much snow we had gotten. Finally Anna said she wished Carter would wake up and I told her she could go wake him.

She came out and said that he said he didn't want to get up. She came downstairs and I was headed up to get him when he peeked his head around the corner from his room and got that twinkle in his eye when he realized Santa had come.

Anna got a Nintendo DS with Dora Puppy game. She was obsessed with it all day. She also got a cow webkinz and rainbow markers that click together, all from Santa. Carter got a digital camera, a dump truck and a pillow with Slugger and his name on it from Santa.

From mommy and daddy they got books, Anna got doll house toys and Carter got more Geo Trax train toys.

Afterwards we bundled up to play in the snow. But it was bitterly cold and windy so we only lasted a few sleds before coming inside to warm up with hot chocolate and oatmeal.





The roads were too bad so Kevin's parents decided to wait until Saturday to come up so we headed to Sam and Candi's in the afternoon. The Christmas they were supposed to be hosting also got cancelled because of the weather. So we helped them eat a nine pound roast, mashed potatoes, gravy and green bean casserole. I also ate quite a few peanut butter balls.

This year didn't really feel like Christmas to me. Even with the snow and the kids being really into it. Not sure why. I have felt unprepared all month. I started out so good getting the decorations up early but too many hours at work this month made me a bit of a scrooge at the end.

Plus I hate the cold as I might have mentioned a few times.