Merry Christmas! It is a pretty quiet day around here. The kids have been playing with their gifts, John is napping, and Eric and I are relaxing after weeks of preparations. So, why not blog?
I believe it is safe to say that the kids all had a great Christmas morning. Dom may have been a little touch and go (FYI: Socks in the Stocking...not a huge hit), but he did tell me this morning he was happy with all of his gifts. Even the socks. He has also mentioned his monogrammed handkerchiefs a couple of times which he told me I was pretty smart to give him since he always needs one in church. (Ok, upon reading that two of his gifts were socks and handkerchiefs...I can sort of understand his less than enthusiastic reception of these gifts)
But, let me backtrack a bit and cover events from the last weeks. We brought out Christmas decorations the first weekend in December and gradually decorated over the next few weeks. Along with the decorations came our multitude of books. Will and Molly loved the Christmas treasury. Especially the music. Dom and Will sang in the choir for Christmas Eve Mass, and I practiced the music with them most nights. It was such a wonderful experience for everyone. Not only did they enthusiastically belt out their songs at this point (as well as really start to listen to their pitch), we'd hear them singing around the house as they did their chores or set up games. All three older kids really loved 'The 12 Days of Christmas', which I've never been fond of, but you get over that when your kids ask for it and sing it with you. We are now going to sing a verse a day through the Christmas Season. During Advent we all sang 'O Come Emmanuel' before dinner, and the boys didn't want to give that up. Though, the first verse of 12 Days was a little short last night...so we also sang 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing.' I think I'll push for 'Joy to the World' tonight.
All of the kids have been pretty helpful around the house. I'd pit my house elves over just about anyone elses.
(Just like the rest of the country, it has been really warm here. Even by Florida standards...we have had to run the AC and the kids have had to wear summer pajamas the last few nights.)
John is a hoot. He is so cheerful and up for just about anything. He loves walking around saying: Ho Ho Ho!
Here he is about to take flight. Like a Reindeer.
Molly and I have spent a lot of quality time together. She has been begging to make Christmas cookies for weeks. Well, this was the week! I even let her break eggs. She is very fair and always offers to split everything at least 50/50. I've also noticed that this year she is very aware of not trying my patience. Which meant baking with my 4-year-old was less of a chore and definitely more of a pleasure.
John assisted with the extensive taste testing our kitchen does to insure the quality of our Christmas plates is superior. He was very diligent in his duties and worked when everyone else was not even aware of his activities.
On Christmas Eve, we rolled out the sugar cookies and decorated them. It's pretty neat to leave your kids alone with the dough and come back to find more cookies cut out and really not a huge mess. I'm pretty sure I made more of a mess than they did.
It helped that John kept himself entertained by looking at every book on his shelf as evident by the mess he left on the floor. I posted it on facebook, but I'll document it here as well, during a recent marathon reading of his, he stopped and excitedly ran into the kitchen to show me a picture of a Jayhawk in one of his books. This was the first time he'd ever stopped reading to do something like this and, of course, I love that it was a Jayhawk. He wore a shirt with a Jayhawk on it for Mass under his overalls and he was constantly trying to find it back.
In other John news, you can imagine how excited he was to see our Polar Express. It didn't fit under the tree, so we set it up in the office which worked out just fine. He really doesn't mess with it too much for a toddler, I think. We only had to repair it a few times.
And this is just a sweet moment between father and son. John loves eating with a fork and appreciates when we give him a little more freedom at the dinner table. Of course, this sort of freedom only happens outside.
On Christmas Eve, we still had our traditional Rouladen despite it being so warm. The kids were not exactly thrilled, but they did their best and then filled up on dinner rolls. Just like their mother use to do decades ago.
Following dinner we placed Jesus in the manger of our Nativity scene. A year ago, Molly was allowed to do this. Will was a little upset, but he found a compromise and made sure that even this once a year task would be treated with the fairness principle he applies to nearly all of his life activities:
We found this note in the Nativity Box and happily watched as Will took his long awaited turn. He goes again in 2019.
And with that, I think I will go and see what the rest of the family is doing. I'll leave Christmas morning for another time. Get 'cited!
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