The Night Before Christmas

Judging from the excitement level in our home on Friday, Christmas had to be getting close.  Very, very close.  Hard upon our heels.  Drawing very near.  Nearly upon us.  (You get the picture.)

We were invited back to James and Tiffany's for a Christmas Eve dinner of homemade tamales, Spanish rice and beans.  There were enough relatives that they said our family of 6 would blend right in.  I counted about 30 people at their house for dinner. 

 All the kids ate at the table, and the adults found places on the floor in the dining and living rooms.  It was zoo-like (truly- the kids were playing zoo in one of the bedrooms at one point) and festive, and we were glad to be part of the happy group.

 After dinner, but before dessert, we had our Nativity play.  The kids were either animals, shepherds or angels.  Emma was a speaking cow, and Elizabeth was a speaking sheep.  (Very authentic, I'm sure.)  Ryan was the narrator, and I was the speaking angel.  Annie and Maddie had non-speaking, running-around-crazy angel parts.  (Again, I'm sure very authentic.)  But the message was there, and everyone was able to participate.

Then it was time to go home.  Annie and Maddie went to bed nicely, but the other two were too keyed up for us to think about trying to get them to stay in their beds.  I dimmed the lights, and plugged in White Christmas for us all to watch until those eyelids got droopy.

 Elizabeth made sure we put out cookies and milk for Santa, and Emma wanted carrots left for the reindeer too.   And the kids did not get out of their beds at all.  It was a Christmas miracle! :)

We must have been good this year- not a single lump of coal!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Stories

I took the girls to a special Christmas-themed story time at the library Friday morning.  We sang some Christmas songs, read some Christmas stories and St. Nick even made a quick appearance.  The little ones are really anti-Santa at the moment.  Although, my twins weren't as scared as another child there.  She started shaking and crying the moment the bearded man in the fuzzy red suit arrived. 

Resemblence

Emma put on Elizabeth's glasses tonight.

 It reminded me of someone:

Joy To The World

It was Christmas dress Sunday.  My "inner pageant mom" becomes unleashed this time of year, and I dress my girls in their big, poofy dresses.

 Of course, I ask the girls to give me their nicest smiles, and they give me this:

Maddie says "Oh," Elizabeth kinks over, and Emma shows off her beaver teeth...  At least Annie cooperated.  This time.

The Perfect Date Movie

Last night Ryan and I watched "Letters To Juliet" after we put the kids to bed.  Ryan exercised great self-control and only snickered here and there.  And just groaned once or twice.  When it was over, he gave me "that" look-- you know the one a woman gets after making her husband sit through an insufferable chick flick.  He sat through that mumbo jumbo and deserves a little somethin' (wink, wink) for the effort. 

He was also storing up his "brilliance" in the form of witty one-liners and re-writes of how to make the movie more "date friendly" and really wanted to tell them to me.  I, on the other hand, had basked in the romance of the movie and didn't want to hear them.

"What?  How are my ideas not romantic?"

Yah, you are always romantic, Ryan.  Snickering during a chick flick is so romantic.

Then Ryan came up with his Best Idea Ever.  He has the sure-fire way to turn any chick flick into a movie to be enjoyed by both the male and female viewers.  Just two words.

These two word:  "....And Zombies."

Yep, those two words could make any girlie movie into something to be enjoyed by men.

Sense and Sensibility and Zombies

Jane Eyre and Zombies

Twilight and Zombies

The Little Mermaid and Zombies

Bleak House and Zombies

White Christmas and Zombies

And let's not forget Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Too bad someone already used that one.

But Ryan was on a roll.  There could even be:

Rambo and Zombies

Terminator and Zombies

The possibilities are endless.  Welcome to the new age of date movies.

A visit with Mrs. Claus

The first Saturday of December is an exciting time for us.  We have a whole big day of exciting activities in town.  So this morning we went down to decorate cookies with Mrs. Claus.  Annie and Maddie participated this year.  

 All the kids were given aprons to help protect their clothing.  The only problem is, those aprons do nothing to protect sleeves.... 

 Maddie eating her frosting.

 Elizabeth enjoying her creation.

 Mrs. Claus checking up on us.

Santa said he remembered us from last year.  I don't know if that's a good thing, or a bad one...?

Unroll the Fun

Monday morning rolls around once again, and it finds me making the attempt to leave the house.  This leaves the house very vulnerable with Mommy's attention focused on surperfluous things like showering or blow drying hair.  I was hoping that decorating the living room with all the wet wipes while I was in the shower would be sufficient entertainment for one morning.

Alas.

Annie comes down the hall saying, "Bum bum" and finds me in my bathroom.  Her diaper is MIA.  Then she pointed to the toilet and said, "Potty."  She only does this when I am trying to leave the house.  Honestly.  So I set her up in the hall bathroom with the toddler potty seat, and hung out for a few minutes waiting for the sounds of success.  They were not forthcoming.  So I went back to my bathroom to finish up my morning routine.

I came back 3 minutes later to find Maddie keeping Annie company in the bathroom, and the roll of toilet paper massacred and left in several piles.

So I am faced with a dilemma- do I "do away with" the roll that has been left for dead on the floor, or try to salvage what I can of the remaining pieces? 

My family rarely uses those half-hearted re-rolled blobs of toilet paper.

But it was almost a full roll.....