Ramblings: Christmas--come and gone

Once again, I'm a week behind and you get a JUNK list.

1. Our church had a Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. There was BBQ for dinner, games and face painting for the kids, a mini-talent show, and of course, SANTA showed up.


The boys spent the whole time flinging bean bags and bowling for cheap prizes and whistles that everyone in there despised after 10 minutes of constant ear-piercing noise. They took a quick break to get their cheeks painted--apparently it tickles.

And my little niece just hung out on Uncle Jeremy, enjoying her thumb for awhile..until she enjoyed it to sleep. I'm sorry--I never had a thumb sucker and it's just too cute. Until you have to pay the orthodontic bills, I guess. 

The kids (except Alex--who was apparently too cool in front of his friends) went and sat on Santa's lap to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. We threw them all on him together for this picture.

I'm guessing Santa just told Avery that he was getting a lump of coal for all his shenanigans around the house this year. Ahh, Santa DOES know all. And maybe Aidan spotted an elf hiding somewhere on the sidelines...? Aidan told Santa he wanted a robot and a hot dog. But he screamed the hot dog part and everyone thought that was pretty funny. I promise I feed him.

    

During the talent show and carol singing, the boys were singing SO loudly that people were turning around and laughing--especially during Feliz Navidad. That's what I get for playing Christmas music for two months straight.And no matter how many times I repeat it for them, they continue to sing "Fay-leez Nah-dee-dah."

2. Maddie got her wish and the day after Christmas she got to have her ears pierced. She wasn't too nervous even though I was very honest about the process and the pain involved. She picked small pink flowers and was set to go. Everything was fine and dandy until the girl surprised her by piercing the first ear without any warning. She managed to keep herself together until she was about to get the second one done and I made the mistake of asking her if she was ok. She started bawling right as the girl pierced the second one.

But 5 minutes later after the promise of a milkshake, she was in recovery and said she was glad she did it. She's been taking care of them herself and is counting down the days till she can start changing the earrings. I didn't take a picture of her crying cuz I'm not that mean. Well, maybe I am (it's for posterity, dangit!) but I was distracted and forgot to take more pictures. And I was getting elbowed out of the way by the 5 little girls in line behind us that were anxious to get up there (at least until Maddie started sobbing).

3. I managed to get our tons of Christmas cards out, along with the 75 Jeremy sends out to his firm, clients and other professional arguers.  I can't get creative because that's too many dang cards and I don't have that much time or patience. So we went for the basic "Merry & Bright" photo card cuz of how merry and bright our picture is (haha) with a cheesy greeting. They limit how much you can type and with our 200 kids, I barely have enough room to even type our names. But here it is in case you didn't get one.

And here are some of our others from the family photo shoot that I dreaded for weeks before. And Dena, I think this will let you click to make it bigger. But you better not be wanting to enlarge it just so you can count my fat rolls, you naughty girl.

 
The last one's my favorite.


4. Alex requested cash for his birthday a month ago and has been hoarding it since. The one thing that he's had on his mind to spend some of it on: giant jawbreakers. We've looked around everywhere--Target, Walmart, and ...uhh..that's it .OK, I confess. I didn't really look that hard because I wasn't super anxious for him to be constantly gnawing on a baseball sized lump of petrified sugar. Think of the $$ I'll be spending at his next dentist visit. Or all the stickiness that would inevitably be found around the house. Or all the jawbreaker-envy from the other three. And the absolutely head-splitting screaming that would result from that combo.

But today, after dragging all four to the pediatrician because Maddie has an ear infection, we finally found the GIANT jawbreakers while waiting to pick up her medicine at the store.  Alex finally parted with $7 of his stash to buy three of the biggest jawbreakers I've ever seen. Why did I let him get THREE of these blasted things and when did the price of jawbreakers skyrocket? I wasn't quite in my right mind and I don't know. The boys were fighting to the death in the front of the car cart and I was trying to keep Alex and Maddie from touching all of the candy in the bins with their hands instead of the giant plastic scooper.

(This is why I have a non-bin candy eating policy. Who guards those brightly colored and highly tempting bins? No one!  Kids with their boogery, pee covered hands can run their fingers through at will. I've ruined candy from bins for you now, haven't I?)

Anyway, by the time we got home 15 minutes after I took this picture, his entire right arm and everything from his nose down was covered in sticky red goo. Happy Birthday. I'll be using the rest of your birthday money to pay for your new teeth. 

5. Since we moved into this house 5 years ago we've hated the carpet. It's cheap. It's off-white and everything shows on it. It's disgusting. I've cleaned it a million times and it only comes back nastier. So we've finally decided to take the plunge--new carpet. But here's the problem. The thought of having to move everything--every piece of furniture, every toy, every anything from every room and closet in this place so that they can come in and lay carpet makes me want to simultaneously vomit and cry. We've had them come and measure and now we just have to commit. Am I crazy? I know I'll love it as soon as it's done, but I am completely dreading the process. Has anyone done it--is it as bad as I'm imagining?

6. Maddie got an Easy Bake Oven from Auntie Brooke for Christmas and she's been cooking up a storm. It's too bad for me that the thing can't cook a casserole or I'd have her on dinner duty every night.  What can you feed a family of six that's capable of being cooked by a 100 watt lightbulb? Any ideas?  And she's managed to use it safely several times now but I just burned myself on it. What does that tell you? She informed me that I didn't leave the pan in the "cooling tray" for the appropriate amount of time. Whoops.

7. In my anxiousness to have all the post-Christmas chaos and mess cleaned up, I've already gotten all of my decorations and ornaments packed up.  I don't usually get around to it until after New Years but it's kind of nice to have it all put away. Less visual stimulation and less risk of any more breakables being "breaked." Plus, I had 6 hands flinging ornaments at me to wrap and put away at 90 mph, so the tree was naked in no time. But now the boxes will sit for who knows how long until I can nag Jeremy long enough for him to finally take them to the attic. And then when he does, I have to listen to the annual ranting about how much "crap" we have, how we don't need so many Christmas decorations, how there's no room in the attic for all the "crap"...

8. We videotaped most of Christmas, so I don't have too many pictures of the frenzied present opening and excited squeals. But I did catch a few pictures as it started snowing--that's right--it snowed here. In Texas. Land of heat and cows.

The kids were sure it was a Christmas miracle. Actually it's snowed twice--a day or two before Christmas and then on Christmas morning we awoke to a thin layer of snow in the yard. They didn't last too long playing in it--it took me at least three times as long to get them all dressed in coats, hats, and gloves and then clean up all the puddles and wet footprints all over the kitchen when they came in after 10 minutes.

9. My computer time's up...there are seven giant neighborhood boys in the backyard with Alex and Aidan just came in crying that they're being mean. I may arm him with a slingshot...What, is that a bad idea?! They should pick on someone their own size.