Oh, Tannenbaum!

One of the things from this Christmas that I hope I'll remember and look back on with a smile is Ally's term for Christmas tree.
We put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving when my unsatiable eater Ally still had the delightful memory of Trick-or-Treating fresh in her mind.  She thought this new, fun thing we were doing must be similar.  She kept referring to the Christmas tree a "chwick or chweat."  All season long, she loved to sing, "Oh, chwick or tweat!  Oh, chwick or tweat!  How yovely ow you bwanches."

Carols

Our neighbor Mary has been teaching Anna ukulele all school year.  Anna doesn't really love to play, but she loves spending time with Mary.  

Kate had still been off of school the first couple times Mary came back in August, and she'd participated in the lessons.  A few weeks ago, I was playing some Christmas carols and Kate picked up a ukulele and played, too.  She had remembered every chord and quickly picked up any new ones.  

I bought her an orange ukulele for Christmas, and she and I led Dave's side of the family in carols on Christmas day.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

It was a truly wonderful Christmas.  I did let myself fall just a little, maybe one of my feet, into the trap of overdoing it, but all in all, a big improvement for me.  I tried to focus on the meaning of Christmas, to think about what the kids would remember in the future, and to appreciate my kids being this age, remembering they will only be this age one Christmas.

In full disclosure, I actually did lose it at one point, when the ukulele Santa was supposed to bring Anna was shipped to an address my sister hasn't lived at in over five years, but Dave let me collapse into a nap for no less than three hours, and that seemed to mend my frayed nerves.

Instead of, uh hm, "overdoing it" and trying to tell everything, I'll focus on the highlights. 

This year, Kate got gifts for each of her siblings, and they were a big hit.  She picked out a puppy shirt for Luke, a kitty shirt for Ally, and some giraffe fabric for Anna (out of which she had me make a dress), and they each loved these gifts.  Luke exclaimed, "Puppy shirt!  Puppy shirt!"  Ally's reaction was very similar, and Anna wouldn't wear anything but her dress from the moment she opened it until bedtime.

Anna in her giraffe dress.

Kate really wanted a fleece Bucks blanket, but at first we couldn't find Bucks fleece.  When Kate did find it, (yes, she found it in her google search after I didn't) I wanted her to be surprised, so I told her the shipping was too expensive so I wouldn't order it.

She was really surprised!

"You told me the shipping was too expensive, Mommy!"

I was hoping that we could make the cinnamon applesauce ornaments instead of cutout cookies, because they aren't edible and I could avoid the calories, but really?  Tradition, Mommy!  So, Christmas Eve, while Daddy was at work, we made cutout cookies.

Ally was way more patient than Luke.  She waited until after the frosting was on to eat the cookie.

We went out to eat on Christmas Eve this year.  It was so much fun.  Every other Christmas Eve we've traveled to Sheboygan country and been rushed and tired.  This year, we drove five minutes to Bayshore, ate for an hour or so, and came home to find Santa had arrived.

What a discovery.  Anna is staring in shock and Kate is pointing.

Luke and Ally loved the airplanes Santa brought.

Anna was thrilled to find Santa had received her request for "a bear with a Santa hat and red and white scarf." 

Kate conferred with Anna to see what Lego they now had in their collection.

Ally showed her new Dora her favorite musical instrument,
Mommy's pitch pipe from when I tried learning guitar in middle school.

No, Dora.  Like this!

Mom and Dad gave the little artist more paper.

Dave learned I'd actually surprised him (first time ever?)
with a over night stay at the Hotel Metro downtown next month!

Mason was thrilled with his big stuffed dog. 

That night, I gave everyone, even Dave and myself, a pair of matching pajamas that I'd sewed.  I wasn't sure any one would be excited after all the gifts they'd just received, but they were.  Anna burst into song.  She danced around singing, "Jammin' in my jammy clothes!  Jammin' in my jammy clothes!" and suddenly everyone was singing and dancing in our new pajamas.  It was the best gift for me!

I tried to get us all to pose for a picture, but it turned out most of the pajama pants didn't show up.

I tried another picture the next morning, but the flash was tough on Kate's newly opened eyes.

If I attempt these pajama pants again, I will do what every sewer knows they should do and wash the flannel first.  Yeah, turns out it shrinks quite a bit.  You see that additional pink stripe on the bottom of Kate's pants?  That was added around 9pm on Christmas Eve after she wasn't buying my claim that I made her pants capris.

Without further delay

I realized today that I can't possibly describe how long it takes to get my three youngest ready to play in the snow without sounding like I'm exaggerating. I mean, we literally spent three minutes on Luke's right thumb alone.

Our Elf on the Shelf

The whole "Elf on the Shelf" thing that's all the rage now...  We haven't bought into it.

Aside from my ethical objections to my kids behaving only because someone is spying on them, logistically we just don't need one.

We have our own little elf here, and she's up to all sorts of mischief.  Here's our elf, Ally, after she painted her face with juice from her blueberries.

Princess

Luke, Ally, and I were picking out what they wanted to wear today.  Luke's favorite monster shirts were all dirty, but he settled upon a train shirt.  When I tried to put a sweater over the top of it, he resisted until I went on for a moment about how much I loved that sweater.

Then he let me put it on.  Once it was on, I buttoned it, gushing a moment more about what a nice sweater it was.  Once it was buttoned, he stood up, looked down at his sweater and then proudly announced, "I a pwincess!"

Today's "Oh, Anna!" moment

Anna was supposed to be cleaning the playroom, but she was taking one of what would be multiple bathroom breaks she always ends up needing when she is supposed to be cleaning.

"Mama," she yelled from her perch on the toilet, "when I grow up and live in a different house..."

"No, Anna," I interrupted,  "don't grow up and move away."

She giggled and continued, "But, if I do, just in case, if I live in a different house, I am never going to clean up.  Never ever.  Because I don't like cleaning up.  So, it's just always going to be a mess."

I laughed.

Anna told me the other day she was never going to have babies.  She said she didn't want to have to take care of them and that they're too much work.  I felt bad when she said that, like I'd traumatized her by making parenting look too hard, but now I get it.  She's just lazy.

That little red headed girl...

Luke and Ally had rough nights last night, and they weren't in great moods this morning.  Ally was particularly feisty.  I was happy this was the one day a month when I got to MOPS and someone else has to care for them.

When I went to pick up Luke and Ally from the nursery.  Luke ran up to me, and a sweet, grandmotherly woman came over and asked me if he was my son.  When I confirmed he was, she told me how sweet and polite Luke is.  She went on for a little while, even going as far as to call him the perfect toddler.  

I thanked her but then my mischievous side got the best of me.  I said, feigning innocence, "That little red headed girl is also mine."

There was a moment of awkward silence, the dear woman evidently adhering to the "If you don't have anything nice to say..." adage, until I began to laugh.  She laughed then, too, understanding then that I was very aware of children's differences.

She'll have to meet Kate and Anna sometime.

Naughty

Luke has been tearing pages of books.  I've talked to him about it, and I've taken the books away when I catch him.  He loves to fall asleep with books, though, and this morning I came in to find he'd torn more pages from the book.

I said, "Lukey, you have to stop tearing pages..."  I didn't know how to make him understand, so I continued, "That is a really naughty thing to do."

He looked both hurt and angry, and with a big pout, he yelled, "Don't talk me naughty!" Then he stomped off.

First snowfall

This year was the first that my children's excitement about the snow exceeded mine.  Although their excitement made me even more excited, so we may have still been tied.

The snow started to fall in gigantic, storybook flakes in the early afternoon, and the second Kate got home from school, we headed outside and stayed out until we finally had to come in for a late dinner before bedtime.  

It was a first snowfall you'd order if you could choose, warm winter weather and completely perfect packing snow!

The first thing Luke said when I got him out of bed was, "Hat on.  Coat on.  Go play in 'no (snow). Go play now!"

I get an R rating

I actually forgot to write what I really wanted to share in the last post.

When my editor was making the edits on my piece, it turned out there were a few changes that had to be made.  I never realized it, but my writing is a bit risqué and violent.  The talk of breasts and killing animals had to be taken out.  It was in reference to breast milk, Anna lifting her shirt, and vegetarianism, but this is a family friendly paper.

She even said she was a little sheepish making the suggestions, but I get where they were coming from.  There's no need to offend.  I just thought it was funny that it never even occurred to me, or even to Dave.

My column

What a great day today is.  I'm feeling very excited about the second piece I've written for The Fox Point of View.  It's a dinky assignment, but it's my column, and that's a dream come true.  I owe it entirely to my friend Brenda who wrote to them on my behalf after I'd been denied when contacting them myself.

My first piece came out about a week ago, and I've had several people email me that they felt the same way, and a few others have come up to me when we were out and commented that they liked it.  It's very exciting.

As my deadline for this piece approached, I couldn't get anything finished.  I wrote a piece I loved, but it was 1220 words, over twice my limit of 600.  I couldn't possibly cut it down that much, so I wrote another.  It ended up 1000, and a third ended up in the high 900's.  I finally emailed my two favorites to Dave, and he liked the first I'd written and helped me cut it down to 700.  I couldn't live with some of the edits, but I took most of his suggestions and got it to 820. I submitted it like that last night at 10:30, too exhausted to think about it any more.

When I told Dave, he couldn't believe I'd done that.  He asked me if I thought 820 was the same as 600.  What was I thinking? he asked.  I sheepishly replied, "Well, I guess I thought maybe it would be so good that she'd take it as it is?  Maybe they can give me more room or use a smaller font?"

"Or maybe," he said, "They'll find someone else who can follow their guidelines."

I was horrified.  Why had I done it?  I guess going from 1220 to 820 seemed like I'd done so much that it was close enough.  But it wasn't, it was over 35% too long.  The last thing I wanted was to lose my column.  I couldn't fall asleep.

This morning I woke up.  When I remembered the column, my heart sank. I took a deep breath and checked my mail.  Not only did my editor take it, but she called it "delightful."

Humph!  Well, Dave, maybe I wasn't being so unrealistic last night, after all!

Or maybe I just got really lucky.

Dora

It's possible I've been a little lax about limiting the twins viewing of Dora this last week. This morning I told them it was time to put on their shoe, but the mudroom door was closed. They both just stood there yelling, "Abre!  Abre!"

Today's "Oh, Anna" moment

"Mommy, can I have milk in a bowl so I can lick it like a dog?"