Christmas Baking + Christmas Eve

This past holiday season seemed to just fly by! There didn't see to be enough time to fit everything we wanted to do on the calendar. But we managed to get the "major" things done, like baking!

 We started off strong this Christmas by making a practice batch of Kringler. I'm still working on finding the perfect mix of powdered sugar and milk for the frosting, but it tastes yummy regardless. HD nominated himself to be the head of the baking committee, so he was in charge of making sugar cookies.

 Ms. Gail and I worked on making our 2nd batch of Kringler while HD was in charge of making sugar cookies. He loves being in charge of that to make sure the cookies get made!

JP is never any real help in the kitchen; he seems to just pop in at the right moment to get in on the real fun. Little stinker!

As per usual, we had our jammie exchange. We need to find a better way to go shopping. HD ended up with some Star Wars jammies, JP snagged a pair of Wreck It Ralph pjs and Ms. Gail picked out her beloved princess nightgown.

The HD thought he was getting the Wreck It Ralph ones, and JP thought he was getting the Star Wars ones so they were surprised at the switcheroo that happened!

Needless to say, it was a successful swap for the kids. Dad enjoyed the pair HD picked out for him, but the pajama set Dad picked out for me was...well, a little big. If he'd have held up the bottoms, he'd have known! Hahaha but he tried! He took them back and found a better pair for me somewhere else.

A few days before Christmas we finally sat down to decorate cookies. I say finally because we planned on doing it several nights before but things kept coming up. Then the night we were setting up, I asked JP to go get his glasses on, and they were no where to be found. Dad said we aren't starting until they were found.... an hour later we still hadn't found them so it we had to stick to the plan, so the kids went to bed. Ms. Gail and I prayed to Saint Anthony and he led me right to them. So the next night we *finally* sat down to decorate.

Ms. Gail did really well this year in not spilling *all* the sprinkles everywhere!

HD was super focus on decorating that he only decorated a couple.

HD's snowman vs JP's blue man. I can't pick a favorite boys!

The were all pretty excited to decorate cookies, but I was surprised at how much longer it took them to decorate them all! The older they get, the longer it takes! I thought it'd be the other way around!

On Christmas eve, the kids got together and made Strawberry Santas. They started out strong.

But we didn't have the willpower to not eat them immediately after so while dinner was cooking, they were snacking on their strawberries.

Another one of our traditions is reading, "A Child's Christmas in Wales" and while I'm not super fond of the book, it's becoming more enjoyable now that Perry and I aren't the only ones reading it. Both boys took turns along with us but I was surprise at how many turns HD took. He brought one of the copies to school several times to read on his own. A true Dustin!

HD was finishing up reading the last paragraph when Ms. Gail attempted to jump from the couch to the bean bag on the other side of the coffee table. She lost her footing and tipped over my eggnog, which spilled alllll over the carpet and splash onto the couch. The story was immediately over as we then shampooed the carpet and clean the couch so it wouldn't smell rotten the next day. Happy Christmas Eve!

Before the kids went off to bed, they each were allowed to open one present from under the tree. HD picked one from Dad and received a collection of Star Wars actions figurines. He was thrilled!

JP opened up a coloring book from mom where you color in a circle to see see the image. Ms. Gail opened up a sticker maker. It was supposed to be opened the next day so when she wasn't paying attention, we put it back under the tree!

Ms. Gail finished up her letter to Santa as HD set up a camera to see if he could catch him. 

Home for the Holidays

I kind of can't believe I haven't posted on my blog in over a month! I missed HD's NINTH birthday and Christmas fun. Who am I?! To my credit though, January had been a whirlwind of a month. 

We hadn't had Christmas at our own home since HD was one year old, which means JP and Ms. Gail hadn't celebrated Christmas in their own home, ever. My babies won't be babies much longer so it was important to me that we stay home and have a low holiday at our *new* home. 

HD would not stop bugging me about making cookies for Santa so I had him make them, under my direction. I was a little surprised his siblings didn't want to do any of the cookie cutter portion, but HD did great on his own. 

While Perry and I did some holiday baking in preparation of Christmas day. I was in charge of making eggnog and Kringler and Perry worked on getting a Strada together for breakfast. (This was my second attempt at eggnog and I was impatient during the cooling process, and inadvertently cooked the egg whites... It wouldn't be Christmas without me messing something up.) 

In the meantime, I had the kids work on making Strawberry Santas. It was hard to not micromanage them because I wanted them to look perfect, but they turned out cute anyway. I feel like there should have been more, but they must have been eaten out of excitement. 

We had a skiff of snow on 24th and HD was SO SO HAPPY about it. Literally a skiff and he was out making snow angels on the deck! He spent the rest of the morning collecting and eating it. 

Despite my exhaustion from working the overnight shift, we still managed to get the cookies frosted.

 

I really enjoyed watching Ms. Gail decorate hers. We ended up with several that had sprinkles overload. (That bottle was full...)

 

You know she had requested we bake her a few cat cookies to decorate...

 JP took a lot of time decorating his cookies. He did the snowman on the left and Ms Gail did the snowman on the right (obviously) but when Perry asked who did *this* snowman, JP let his sister take credit for his cookie while he sat back and smirked to himself. He's such a sweet brother.

I was a little surprised as to how long HD stuck with decorating cookies too as well as the time he spent on each one. 

I had to work the overnight shift on Christmas eve, which sucked, but ah well. Knowing the kids would wake up early, we had them sleep in our bathroom closet so they couldn't raid the presents without us. It sounds weird, but if you were to see our closet, it's HUGE and they love it! I made it home by 7:30am and crawled into bed after I realized *everyone* was still sound asleep. I managed to get a good 45 minutes of rest before I started to hear whispering and footsteps. 

Originally Santa was going to leave their presents upstairs by the fire place, but since the fire place was too hot from the fire the night before, he went through the other chimney and ended up in the basement. (Honestly, I just didn't want to be cooped up in the master bedroom while we had a livingroom we could spread out in to open our stockings.) After we made a mess of the livingroom, we raced to the basement to see what Santa left. HD was given his own toolbox, complete with tools, JP was excited to get a build-your-own car, and Ms. Gail received the bean bag she really really wanted. Knowing everyone was going to end up with a Nerf gun, Santa also left Nerf guns for mom and dad. Super high powered ones too! The boys didn't think that fair... Perry's nerf gun held 36 darts, and shot them three at a time. Mine had a reloadable cartridge that holds 12 darts. Before we started opening presents from under the tree, we had a nerf war. 

To determine who would get to open the first present, the kids had to find the glass pickle and Ms Gail was winner. Her brothers were not impressed. 

Perry helped her pick out the best one to start with. 

We had such a relaxing morning in our new Christmas jammies. All the kids were really good about taking turns. I loved watching their expressions as they opened all their gifts. HD had me open his present as one of the firsts to be opened. Earlier the week before he drew a really cool picture of a ship with a scuba diver and coral reef and shark. I loved it and loved all the little details he added. However that afternoon, he became upset with me and ripped it up. I expressed how hurt I was about that because he knew I was wanting to keep it. With out me knowing, he taped it back together, the best he could on his own, wrapped it up, and gave it to me for Christmas. I about started bawling. So this is one of the only pictures I'm in and I'm just starting to open it. 

JP even got in on the joy of giving when he wrapped up one of his hot wheels cars to give to his sister. She opened it and exclaimed, "Oh I love it! You're the best brother! This one is my favorite too!" To which he responded with, "Now we can play cars together." She then proceeded to hug him. He acted like it was killing him, but I know he was loving it. It was so sweet to watch!

I enjoyed all the snuggles throughout the morning. I was *so so* tired come 1:00 so I passed out on the couch for a while. When I woke up, we played with the nerf guns some more. To go along with their nerf guns, we gave the boys a 100 count bag of GI Joes to aim at. We had fun lining them up and shooting them down. JP has pretty good aim!

When we came out of church on Christmas eve, the ground was COVERED in snow and it was so nice to have snow on Christmas! I was not looking forward to driving to work in it though... 

On another note, it looks like Ms. Gail needs a new pair of snowpants! These were size 18 months but she insisted they would still work! 

Miss Gail's Christmas Concert + Fire Station Field Trip

Miss Gail had her first Christmas program a few weeks ago and it took an entire day to get it uploaded to share. She was so so sweet!

Just a few days before their program, her preschool class met up at Target and everyone purchased a toy to take over to the fire station to give to kids in need. I got the pleasure of corralling three of the four girls in the class. They were fun though!

While at the fire station, the kids were able to check out the fire trucks and see all the fire fighting gear. Such a treat for them!