Day 25: Christmas

It seems that everything gets more fun as the kids get older.

Christmas especially.

Day 24: Christmas Eve

We started the day yesterday by opening our family's presents.

It just doesn't seem right to go without opening some presents at home, and we figured we'd be too tired to do it Christmas evening.

(We were right.)

As sweet and special as that time was, my favorite picture-worthy moment came last night.

Gammy was coerced by toddler charm into painting Lila's toenails.

She sat as still as a toddler can possibly sit.

It was so adorable.

Day 23: An Early Christmas Eve

Usually Christmas is a chaotic sort of mess, as we mix in both of our extended family's celebrations with ours.

It's a lot easier than it sounds, since our families of origin are quite the opposite as far as timing goes.

This year is even easier.

One family bumped Christmas Eve back a day.

After eating, the kids played Bingo for prizes.

Mostly the prizes were sugary goodness. But there were also some little three-drawer containers that will be brilliant for storing school supplies. Both Yonah and Arabelle wound up with one.

I doubt I've ever seen them love something so much.

Arabelle is still snuggling with hers.

Day 14: Lights in the dark

Day 13: Odd Traditions

Yesterday's post is coming to you today.

It didn't come yesterday because Kim and I went to the midnight showing of The Hobbit.

It was a good movie. But also a bit disappointing.

Such is life.

I snapped this picture at Mom's house when I dropped the kids off for babysitting.

Every year I forget about this recent tradition brought to us by my crazy sisters.

But I can't figure out the tree-topper Santa's motive.

Maybe he's giving out glittery vampires instead of coal these days.

Day 11: Adventures in Paint

Today I attempted what seemed impossible.

I covered the table in wax paper.

I stripped the children of their clothes and tied their arts and crafts aprons on.

I selected three of my least favorite paintbrushes.

And then I set out the liquid paint.

They have painted many times before, but always with the dry watercolor sets.

The older two were much tidier than I expected. Lila, on the other hand . . . Well, it's nothing a bath can't fix.

But it is done. The house came through unscathed. And the ornaments have been painted.

Mostly, I sat back and supervised. But I did most of the details once they put the background color on.

I also painted the ornaments representing our family.

I painted them according to requested colors. I feel quite proud of my Aravis ornament.

December Photo Project: Day 6

In preparation for the Christmas tree coming this weekend, the kids and I got to work making some ornaments.

2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1 cup of water later . . .

The kitchen is trashed, and I'm procrastinating cleaning it up.

I wasn't able to take many pictures during most of the adventure. Lila was far too eager for me to step back. But she and Yonah lost interest before too long, and I had a chance.

Tomorrow, if I'm feeling adventurous enough, the kids and I will paint them.

The hand prints were tricky. We needed the dough to be thin enough to be able to hang in the tree, but thick enough to keep the hands from going through. We erred a bit on the thin side . . .

December Photo Project: Day 5

I had the perfect moment to snap some awesome shots today.

Five days late, the kids and I were finally putting together the days-til-Christmas chains. Natural light was streaming in the window next to us . . . The kids were doing it all mostly by themselves . . . There were smiles, and pride in personal achievements, and much happiness . . . 

And the camera sat untouched on my desk through all of it. Sigh.

So instead, I am sharing some (kind of half-assed) pictures I took of our current indoor Christmas decorations. Kim and I are planning on bringing a tree home this weekend.

Hoping to have something more interesting to look at tomorrow.

December Photo Project: Day 2

Today we had a Christmas party with Kim's unit. While usually military shindigs lean toward the side of boring, the kids being old enough to actually participate in things made it more fun. Especially since they aren't old enough to participate in things without some parental involvement.

They responded to their first encounter with a "real" Santa as I expected.

Arabelle was the only one courageous enough to sit on Santa's lap, even though she wouldn't give a real smile.

I had to beg Yonah to stand near enough to have me be able to take a picture, and even then he would only do so if he got to hold his new Angry Birds puzzle.

Lila required both cookie incentive and Kim holding her down long enough for me to get a shot.

Kim took some pictures, too.

I especially like these ones. Usually I'm the one behind the camera, so I don't have very many pictures of me with the kids . . . Or me at all, really.