Abe made Christmas lots of fun this year. He was at the perfect age for still being in awe of all the lights and sparkle without having the "gimmee attitude" that children seem to struggle with as they get a little older. We all enjoyed watching his delight and surprise at so many of the holiday details.
We didn't get out as much as usual, because the entire family was sick in December. We had a round of the cold/flu followed by a round of strep throat. When it was all said and done, Ryan was the only one who didn't have to resort to antibiotics. We had to cancel quite a few commitments that we usually look forward to at Christmas time. But, we got to spend lots of time together between naps and Tylenol doses, so that made for some good memories. One of the funnest things we did was making some simple "gingerbread" houses. We used graham crackers, empty milk cartons, and tons of confections to make for an evening of fun. Each of the kiddos made their own house, and fun was had by all.
Lily's house.
Isaac in mid-construction. He's holding his bag of "mortar"
Abby's house, complete with a spearmint tree.
Lizzy's place, with a delicious fishpond,
Grammy sewed us new stockings this year. Rather than hanging them by the chimney with care, we chose to stack them on the stairs.
This looks like a ridiculous amount of stuff. But, believe it or not, our kids opened 3 boxes each from us and 3 from Grammy. Of course, when you multiply that by 5 and add a couple of packages per adult, it adds up. Nana and Pap came a few days later and brought load number 2!
The kids all ripped through their stockings quickly and decided to come and help Abe with his. He loved all of the new trinkets and would have been satisfied to stop with the stocking loot.
Here's Lizzy with a classic, the "Easy Bake Oven." Of course, in our "green" world, it's much harder to find the required 100 watt light bulb than it was when I was a kiddo.
Here are the boys, relaxing after the big event.
You know everyone feels lousy when you end up throwing out 1/2 of a Birthday cake! It's the thought that counts, right?One of my favorite memories of this year's gift-giving involved Abby and Lizzy. For YEARS they have been asking for hamsters. The answer has always been an emphatic NO! They didn't even bother to ask this year, because they knew that we would never concede. Well, on the 23rd, as Ryan and I were finishing the wrapping, we had to face the fact that we had nothing for the girls that we were excited about. There simply wasn't a "WOW" gift for either of them. So, on a last minute whim, we decided to give them hamsters. We decided to hide the hamsters through the night and just wrap the hamster balls we bought for them.
Lily went with me to pick them out, and she was hysterical. When we went into Petsmart, she looked at me like I had three heads and said, "Are you serious? Are you really serious?" Then finally she asked, "Does Daddy know about this?" She was delighted. On the way home, she was giggling constantly and she offered a prediction about what would happen the next morning. She said, "Lizzy will scream, and Abby will cry." She nailed it! I posted the clip of that moment at the end of the blog.
Here is one of the little guys. They are cute, but they are high maintenance!
We were supposed to go to KY for a few days after Christmas, but Ryan's parents took pity on us and our pitiful state and came to NC instead. We enjoyed a simple visit from them for several days, and we finally began to feel better around New Year's.
Lizzy and Pap playing a game of Guess Who?
We spent New Year's Eve at the Nemitz House, which has become our tradition. Then, New Year's Day, we held our 2nd annual pajama day. We had a wonderful family day, playing with all of the new toys. We ate enough that day to make up for our previous days of soup and crackers. Here are some photos of the fondue we ate as we closed out the season with a final showing of "Elf."
Hamster mania!
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