Ice skating

There is a skating rink near the river in Tuscaloosa this year, and we finally went today. This is the first time they have both been on skates, and the first time I have skated in more than 20 years. We were able to get double-bladed skates for both kids, but they were still slippin, sliding, and falling all over the place!  We went with our friends Lani & Ember, who helped out with Savannah & Gage - thank you!!!  Savannah said she fell down about 100 times (correct), and at one point, Gage lost his balance and in the process of trying to steady him, I lost my balance and we both fell on our behinds.  He wanted me to carry him at that point, but I convinced him to get up and keep on trying. Really fun day :-)

Snoozing with kitties

So, Savannah has had her two stuffed kitties since she was 1 (Smooth & Bumpy, named after the tags that she slides her finger into as she falls asleep - one tag is smooth, the other bumpy, obviously). This is how she falls asleep every night -- Savannah, Smooth, Bumpy, and Lola all snuggled up (Lola licks Bumpy and purrs). Savannah sure loves Lola and those kitties :-)

snoozing

We should have known it was a little too quiet upstairs.  When Savannah went to check on Gage, this is what she found - at 6pm. Tired boy.

The day after the day after Christmas

The kids are still playing, and still building and setting things up.  Everyone is still in jammies, and we are having a lazy playing kind of day (again).   Savannah has been playing with her squishy brain kit and making Barbie dresses..

Savannah ventured outside to try to catch a few snowflakes on her tongue when we had some flurries. After a few minutes outside she was very ready to come in to the warm house :-)

Gage is knee deep in legos and pirate ships and his favorite -- his "sock'em'bop'em" (as he calls it)

Mommy is trying to control her desire for order in the house to just let the kids be kids and have a mess of toys everywhere. So far, so good. I have thrown away the stale gingerbread house and put a few toys away, but the living room still looks like Christmas exploded. I have managed to keep the trees and decorations up but I'm not making any promises how long this will last....

Merry Christmas!

At 6am Gage woke up but told me that it was still dark outside so he could not get up yet. I said "it's morning buddy, you can get up" He said "no Mommy, it's dark outside and that's when Santa comes".  I told him when he was ready to get up, he should wake up his sister and come downstairs -- he made it about another 10-15 minutes and he was downstairs - without his sister yelling "Santa brought new toys!" Our usually-slow-to-get-moving-in-the-morning Savannah bolted out of bed to run for the tree. They were pretty excited by the giant stash they found :-)

 I'd say those are some genuinely happy and excited faces :-)

 

And then, the unwrapping began! The gift Gage MOST wanted was Spiderman Stunt City. He was super excited! Notice that we ended up with the weather channel on in the background - our weather radio started going off - we had tornado warnings all day, but nothing more than a big thunderstorm every materialized for us, thankfully.

 

 

They both broke out into dance more than once :-)

 

Savannah was VERY excited that the last gift she opened, was the Monster High High School that she really wanted! Okay, it was behind the Easy Bake Oven, which was first on her list (and she also got that)

  

So, we had a fun, full day of unwrapping, building, installing batteries, and playing. 

Although it was nice not to travel and we were where we should be - home - so the kiddos can wake up and have Christmas in their own house, Mommy missed being with family (and seeing the kids with Grandmas & Grandpas, Aunts & Uncles & Cousins) more than she lets on.....

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day was beautiful, with warm sunny weather that let us play football outside, and then get crazy on the playset. Rather than just slide, we "upped the ante" -- Daddy slicked the slide up with Armor All and then Mommy took it up a notch by having the kids sit on a burlap bag (like they do at the giant slides at Quassy). The result was a VERY fast slide. So fast that Mommy had to catch the kids at the bottom or they would shoot off and land on their backs. 

We also whipped up a batch of cookies for Santa. Move over Jamie Oliver, Gage really is the Naked Chef.  Savannah went a little crazy with the red sugar sprinkles. Daddy tried to reign her in and show her how to sprinkled lightly, but Mommy said just let her go crazy...so she did.  Santa's cookies were VERY sparkly and our girlie was very happy :-)

 Before bed, we all watched Charlie Brown Christmas and the Grinch, egging Savannah on to dance like the kids in Charlie Brown. I think we rewound it enough times for her to dance like everyone - she likes the girl in purple who swings her arms band and forth the best :-)

Gingerbreak cookies!

Thank you to Kristine & Elizabeth for sending us our very own gingerbread decorating kits!!  When we were in CT last year and went to the gingerbread village, the kids did these, and Savannah drank the icing. You can see, nothing has changed!

I think she may have eaten too much sugar...

Gage was very serious about decorating this year

And was very proud of his work!

leaping lizards!

Well, you know Lola and Smidge bring lizards into the house all the time. They are so cute I really don't even mind.  The most recent little guy that Lola brought in looked odd when I saw him on the floor, and when I picked him up and opened my hand to show Gage, I noticed that he is shedding his skin. I did not realize lizards did that. It was so neat that he was literally peeling out of his paper skin. I didn't want to keep him until Savannah got home, so I just took his picture. She would have loved it -- in her nature journal, she has a petrified lizard we found outside, and a snake skin. She would have loved to see this ltitle guy!

Nope...he didn't make it 15 days

On Saturday, the kids and I were outside raking leaves and playing.  Suddenly Gage disappeared, so I checked in the window and saw him playing in the living room. I went back out to finish up.  Later that night, I went to turn the light off in the hideaway (the light was on but the door was closed?), and I saw this....

 Hmmm...it looked like I had stumbled upon a crime scene.  Wrapping paper shredded, and some new toys (gifts, maybe?) strewn around the hideaway.  I turned the corner to find this...

...more wrapping paper and gifts

Apparently, when Gage came in, he grabbed some loot (big sister had told him that his gifts all had Rudolph paper while hers had Tinkerbell) from under the Xmas tree and made a break for the hideaway to open them.  He fessed up, and told me that he tiptoed past the elf to get to the hideaway.  I made him put all of the gifts (he is very excited about his new hulk mask because the other one broke) behind the tree, and promise that he would not touch them until Xmas day.  We had a big talk, and he had to apologize to the elf that night, and ask him to please tell Santa not put him on the naughty list.

----

Apparently, having gifts under the tree was just too much for him to take. All the gifts were from Uncle Eric (in PA -- yes we have 3 uncle Erics, so we have to be precise). I called to tell him and he got a good chuckle out of it.

---

I should have known!

Gage's Preschool Christmas Program

After weeks of preparation, today was Gage's Christmas program at school. Mommy picked up a new red tie for the occasion, which he loved. He ran to the stairs to check himself out in the mirror (he can see himself in the big mirror when he's on the stairs.  He decided he definitely looked handsome.

I told him to be sure to look for me when he came out to the stage. I sat in the balcony, hoping to get a good view for the program. When his class came on the stage, I could see him looking straight ahead and then to the right -- with a confused look on this face. 

He finally caught sight of me and looked very happy to have found me. He waved, gave me a thumbs up, and blew me some kisses.

They sang 3 songs - twinkle twinkle christmas star, J-E-S-U-S, and another about seeing candycanes on the tree, shaking the tree as hard as they could, and then eating the candy canes up. 

He inspected the tape on the floor for a minute or two...

 

And although I didn't get a photo, when it was time to exit the stage, he turned sideways and did a crab walk all the way out. Silly boy. It was adorable.

snow globes

Our Christmas craft for the day yesterday was making homemade snow globes!  Bottle brush trees, pickle jars, fake snow, and a little glue, and presto....waterless snow globes! Gage loaded his up with so much snow at first that we couldn't see his tree!  They love them, and we'll probably have these pickle jar snow globes as Christmas decorations for years to come :-)  Savannah was feeling a little camera shy, so she wouldn't let me take a picture. But, when Daddy skyped us from Belgium last night, she ran to get her globe so she could show Daddy.

Snowy Reindeer, our Elf on the Shelf, caused some distress that morning. He found the bag of fake snow and was hugging it on the counter. He had poked the bag open and sprinkled snow all over himself and the counter.  Savannah got very upset because we can't touch him, and he was holding our fake snow hostage!! So, we had a talk with him and asked him to please let go of the snow while we were away during the day so we could make snow globes later that day. He did what we asked, but left a big mess on the counter. Today, we found him asleep inside the tissue box, where he made a little pillow of tissues and covered himself up with a tissue blanket.

homemade Christmas fun

Our tree is getting very full of homemade ornaments. We have 3 years worth of salt dough ornaments, a few years of ceramic ornaments we've made at the pottery studio, along with cinnamon ornaments we made this year, and a bunch of random paper and foam/sticker creations.  When we made cinnamon & applesauce ornaments this year, Gage insisted he was tasting the dough because it smelled delicious...but...it is made with a LARGE bottle of cinnamon so it turns out it was a little overpowering, so he kept wiping his tongue off saying "I need juice...it's so SPICY!"

Lola is a little crazy about the tree -- she is constantly causing a ruckus under the tree, jumping around presents and peeking out at us with crazy cat eyes. At least she is not climbing it this year!

shark bite...who-ha-ha

I braved the outlets with both kids this past weekend - alone. While shopping at Children's Place, we found these cool mittens that have shark teeth on them.  As I stood in line to pay, Gage and Savannah were hiding underneath a rack of coats, alternating between giggling and having fun and fighting with each other over who knows what. The cashier said "is it just you and kids here today?, Brave, aren't you?" Crazy is more like it. 

 Luckily we got there as they opened so it was empty. I bribed them by letting them stop at the playset every few stores to get the wiggles out every now and then. On the way out we were excited to find Santa!  Later that night, Savannah asked me some serious questions. Why does Santa look a little different every time we see him? His beard looks different. And why does his voice sound different. Sometimes he sounds like this [low gravely voice] and sometimes he sounds like this [different voice]. I told her that beards grow every day just like Daddy's whiskers, so it depends on whether he shaved lately or not. We agreed that he probably lets his beard grow longer near Xmas to keep his face warm.  I asked her if she thought maybe Santa had helpers who dressed like him to help him let all the kids visit with him. She was adamant that Santa would definitely NOT do that.

 

As you can see, it's been cold here the past few days -- in the morning, that is. It was 26 this morning, with a high of 63 forecast. So, we have been bundled up. Savannah does NOT like being bundled up. As soon as she sees the coat I pulled out for her today she starts with "oh no...not that coat again." She complains that her coat is too poofy, it doesn't fit into her backpack, etc etc. etc. She says we need to move somewhere that it is hot all year round. Gage loves the cold weather, loves bundling up, and loves that it's not hot anymore. The one fun thing Savannah does like is seeing her breath in the morning. Gage gets all excited and says "Look Mom, I made FIRE!"

Don't open until Christmas....WHAT?!??!

A few days ago, I put a few gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Rapp under the tree. Call this a test run. Will Gage be able to see those gifts under the tree -- out in the open -- and NOT open them? I was skeptical. I only put presents for Mommy & Daddy under the tree just in case he couldn't take it and ripped them open.  I told him that we had to wait until Christmas to open them, and he said "I know".  So far, so good.  Well, today a big box arrived from Uncle Eric and Aunt Tammy. I threw caution to the wind and put ALL of those gifts under the tree. The kids are so excited it's adorable. Savannah cannot believe how many presents there are.  Gage keeps asking "is this for me? is that one for me? how about that one" . Sometimes, he just sits by the tree and looks at them....

But other times, I catch him picking one up and showing me how heavy it is, or...holding it over his head and shaking it ;-)

Savannah has a little bit more willpower, but Gage...I'm not sure if he'll be able to hold out another 15 days!!!

Christmas countdown!

Mommy has been busy with extra-special Christmas treats and activities for the kiddos this year! Because Savannah is constantly asking me "how many days until [fill in the blank], we often do countdown paper chains so she can tear a link off each day and keep track of the number of days until whatever event she is excited about. But, I actually planned in advance and set up a Christmas countdown calendar for them for the month of December. 

Each envelop has two candy treats and a card telling what our special Christmas activity for the day will be. Each morning the kids squabble over who opened the envelop yesterday, and after reaching an agreement, they tear the envelop open to see what's in store for the day. So far, we have written letters to Santa, made candy trees (sugar cones covered in frosting and candy decorations -- Daddy is often caught red-handed and guilty-faced munching on a tree and proclaiming that they are delicious!), paper snowflakes, and paper chains. After a trip to Hobby Lobby and the grocery store, we have stocked up with all the glitter, felt, jewels, ribbon, and candy to make lots of fun things this month -- cookies, gingerbread houses, snow globes, ornaments, and lots of other goodies.

 It may be 70 degrees out here in Alabama, but Mommy is working hard to make sure that it feels like Christmas around here!