Getting Ready for Christmas

Here are a few pictures from the days leading up to Christmas.  We went to see Christmas lights at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows.  It was very nice.  The light display was very elaborate and of course, religiously themed, which is nice (it's a Catholic place in case you hadn't guessed by the name). 

The kids wanted to get out at the grotto and see the big nativity scene at the end.  It was cold that night so we only took a quick peek, then back in the car. 

 On Christmas Eve we stayed home, relaxed, listened to Christmas music and baked a lot of goodies.  The kids helped me spritz, sprinkle, roll and place peanut butter cups where appropriate.

Here is John eating a peanut butter cup cookie

Some of our goodies from this year

Spritz cookies, peanut butter cup cookies, chocolate crinkle cookies and a little boy getting very chocolatey while eating them.  All our cookies turned out so good.  Maybe too good. 

 We had a little nativity program.  The kids played multiple parts.  Here Matthew is Joseph and Anna is Mary...and that blurry streak is Grant the wise man bouncing by.

 The kids got to open a special gift from Grandma and Grandpa Guptill

John needed a little help opening his

 

And here are all the kids in their new Christmas pajama pants.  They matched the nightgown Anna was wearing and she was excited about that.  The kids were very excited for their new pjs (thanks Ma2!) and also very excited about Christmas morning.  More adventures to come...

Current Obsessions

These were "current" before Christmas. Now we have new obsessions.

These are just some pictures of things we've been into/up to lately.  Here are Grant and I building a block tower.

Then we must destroy it

Grant has really been up to a lot of mischief lately - like bringing lots of food into his room in the middle of the night, taking one bite of all the bananas, pouring water on things and discombobulating other people's Legos while they aren't around.  That's just to name a few.

The other night he came out of his room and asked me to "take this off" (the self inflicted pen marks).  There was a lot of scrubbing involved over a couple days to get it all off.  He's also gotten really opinionated about pajamas lately.   He's 2 1/2.

Another obsession: Legos and specifically Lego advent calendars the kids got.  This policeman came in one of the sets.  I love this guy and I love that he came with an extra mug - reminds me of this great 30 rock scene.

Grant has also had a strange obsession with flamingos lately.  He stole a small plastic flamingo toy that one of the kids got in a goodie bag from school and took it with him wherever he went for several weeks.  Many nights I was called in to rescue the "mingo" from under the bed.  This flamingo also was a frequent visitor to Grant's pirate ship toy.  The honorary mascot of his pirate friends. Here is Grant doing a "mingo" impression for me.

Matthew has been really into magic tricks lately.  He hasn't read Harry Potter yet, still a little young.  And he hasn't seen the movie, but he has been telling people he's a wizard and that he can do magic and asked for a Harry Potter wand for Christmas.  We checked out a magic trick book from the library (the magician's alliance is not going to be happy about this).  Here is Matthew doing a trick where he gets an ice cube to stick to a string using salt.  We tried to explain the science principles involved...not sure he cared.

Many letters have been written recently to Santa or our Elf on the Shelf, Charlie.

This was one of Matthew's letters:

Dear Santa, Our Mom forgot that we were going to put our shoes out on December 5th.  We thought you could come today.  Your friend, Matthew Guptill. 

John's latest obsession is cleaning off the coffee table for me.  Regularly.  So helpful.  He often finds someone else's sippy cup too.  Bonus.  John is still going to physical therapy and has been getting more confident walking with a little baby walker.  I think he's beefing up those muscles.

Here is John not napping when he should be.  Grant used to be the worst sleeper and John was a great sleeper.  Now the tables have turned.  I have a really hard time getting John to nap during the day.  Working on it.

And Anna.  She has been really into doing Mommy things.  She likes to help me cook and feed people.  She also made this sign.  We've had a "morning jobs" sign for many years and I recently revised it to a "before school jobs" sign.  Anna had to make her own version.  She hates asking for help with spelling and also hates accepting unsolicited spelling help.  This worries me a little since I would like her to spell things correctly some day.  She made this whole poster on her own and was so proud.  She brought it to me and asked if she spelled everything right.  I almost couldn't answer, I felt so bad.  In my nicest way I told her some things weren't spelled right, but that it was a great sign.  She was ok with it.

Anna's sign:

Morning Jobs

Brush Hair

Put on Clothes

Eat Breakfast

Put on Back packs (I think she ran out of room on that one)

Put on Gloves and Coat

Anna's Christmas Program

Anna's Kindergarten Christmas Program was on Friday.  The theme was The Polar Express and it was very cute.  One of the teachers narrated and the kids sang some songs.  Anna was on the front row, so I could see her very well.  She's wearing a blue nightgown and brown boots.

 Singing

I had to peek through the first row parents.  Most of the kids at this school live in base housing, so lots of military parents.

 Afterward the kids got to sit with their siblings and have cookies.

So Grant got to join Anna for a little snack.

We also got to stop by Anna's classroom and see some of her art work.  And Anna and Matthew got to be picked up from school for one day of the year.  They've been asking if they could be "parent pick up" sometime.  At the beginning of the year they were all about riding the bus, but the novelty has worn off a little.  Good job on your Christmas program Anna and hooray for Christmas break!

The Treadmill

Running is my exercise of choice.  And although I haven't been too consistent with it, for various reasons, since we've moved here, I have logged a lot of miles on our treadmill.  Scott also uses the treadmill regularly during the colder months.  Matthew and Anna ask if they can run on the treadmill a lot and once in a while I've let them walk on it.  And this week I let them try running.  Matthew ran a mile on his first try, with some walk breaks at the end of each quarter mile.  Still pretty good I thought.  I never ran more than a half mile without stopping until I went out for the cross country team in high school.  So I was impressed.  I think I'll take Matthew on a real run when it gets warmer.

 

Anna put on what she thought was appropriate exercise clothes - stretchy black pants and a white T-shirt. Not unlike what I wear when I work out.  I attached the safety key to her, so if she slipped or fell the treadmill would turn off.  She did pretty good though and ran a half mile on her first try (with walk breaks).  I have mixed feelings about them using the treadmill.  I feel like kids should be running and playing outside, but then again it is super cold and these kids have lots of energy.  Maybe its not so terrible during the cold winter.  Anyway, I'm kind of excited they are interested in running.  Maybe I'll sign us all up for a fun run.

Santa's Workshop

The elementary school had an activity this past week called Santa's Workshop.  There was going to be some shopping for inexpensive gifts (between $1 and $10) and there was also supposed to be cookies and a visit from Santa.  The event was canceled once because of a snow day and then rescheduled for another day that happened to be snowy and with freezing rain.  We had to park far away in a distant dirt lot and walk through the snow and freezing rain (with all four kids) to get to the event in the school, but I was trying REALLY hard to still have a happy outlook about our adventure. 

When we got inside we found out we couldn't just go in and shop, we had to wait until our color was called.  They had to control the flow through the shopping area apparently.  So we sat and waited...for an hour.  We did get to see Santa while we waited.  Here is Matthew with Santa.

And Anna with Santa.

They also had some face painting.  Or at least they did when we first got there.  Anna got a snowman. They also had cookies and juice boxes for the kids, coloring pages, and the movie Polar Express playing on a big screen.

Grant even got to see Santa.

John was getting fussy but finally our color was called and we got to go into the shopping room.  I was very disappointed with the selection of items to buy.  Everything was dollar store quality or worse and they were charging up to ten dollars for some of the stuff.  None of the fliers for this event ever said it was a fundraiser, but I hope the school was getting something out of it.  When I saw what there was to buy (things like plastic trophies that said "World's Best Grandpa") I wanted out.  Especially after waiting so long and having two slowly melting down toddlers.  Anna had been expecting to be able to buy Christmas gifts for the family at this event, and try as I might, I couldn't talk her out of it.  Matthew had already bought his gifts at a much classier shopping venue, Walmart.  So I helped Anna find the least garbage-y things there and we checked out and left.  I later complained vocally about the unpleasant school event to Scott.  Anna thought it wasn't very nice of me to complain because people had worked hard to put on the event for the kids, and she was right.  I shouldn't complain.  But next year we're skipping the shopping part.

Decorating the Tree

This actually happened a week and a half ago, but I didn't post about it then.  This is just a few pictures of us decorating the tree.  The kids did a lot of the decorating.  Scott got ornaments ready and hooks in place and spent a lot of time searching for missing stockings (found them eventually).

 

Scott thought we had too many ornaments.  And the branches on this tree (as opposed to other tree varieties) did not seem to hold ornaments well.  So we had a lot that got swallowed up into the fluffy tree.  It's a white pine by the way if you know trees.  I don't.

 Just decorating

 Grant getting ready to put our tree topper on.

 Go Grant, go!  That's Scott with the assist.

And the kids were eager to put together this angel chime candle holder.  The heat from the candles makes the angels spin and ding little chimes.  It is very fun to look at.  So now we are decorated up for Christmas.  And Scott put the lights on the house on a warmish day.  Good thinking 'cause it got really cold after that weekend.  Merry Christmas!!  Now time to bake some treats.

Gingerbread Heaven

We made gingerbread houses this week and it was kind of an ordeal.  I wanted to make three houses so I used my normal recipe (which makes two) and multiplied it by 1 1/2.  It made a TON of gingerbread!  I didn't even have a bowl big enough to mix it (it used 13.5 cups flour).  Plus the dough was very stiff and hard to mix.  I felt a little like I was in a war with gingerbread, but I was losing...badly.  Eventually I got the dough mixed and chilled and started rolling it out.  It was so stiff that I had a hard time getting it thin enough.  I rolled and rolled and rolled and got it to a place that I thought would be thin enough.  But it was still pretty thick.  And they puff up when you cook them, so I ended up with thick and heavy gingerbread house pieces.  I was worried they wouldn't stay together when I tried to assemble them.  Luckily the royal icing I mixed up to put them together also turned out VERY stiff...and the houses had no trouble at all staying together.  I was relieved.  This was my first time making houses all on my own.  My mom helped me last year and in previous years we have bought a gingerbread house kit with premade pieces.  So the houses may not have looked perfect, but I was so happy when we got them made.  It was like crossing the finish line of a long race.  Here are Matthew and Anna decorating.

Grant did more eating candy and licking frosting than anything else.  He put on a few candies, then would pick them off and eat them.  I put frosting on and the kids did their own candy decorating.  Can you see the big plate of cookies in the background?  Since my houses were a little smaller, I think I could have still gotten three houses out of a regular dough recipe (without multiplying).  I had lots of extra dough, so made lots of chunky gingerbread people.

John and I were sick that day.  And Scott was out of town.  Poor John started crying just as I had loaded up the royal icing  to assemble the houses.  I just put them together as fast as I could and then picked up John for snuggles.  Then would put him down again for more frosting and he would cry some more.  I felt bad, but nothing was making him happy other than being held.  After I got the frosting on I held him and he was happy.  He even sat in his high chair for a while.

I was impressed that all the kids did such a nice job decorating on their own.  I was there to supervise and put frosting where they asked, but they did the rest on their own.  Even Grant.  Here's Anna with her house.

 Grant actually got more than two pieces of candy on there without eating them.

 Matthew working on his creation

 And from another angle

 More pics

 And here are the three houses all done

Grant's on the left, then Matthew's and Anna's

 Here are some of our gingerbread people.  Like I said, they were pretty thick

 They're just big boned!

Another night (after I had recovered from house assembly trauma) we decorated the chunky gingerbread people.  I had some leftover squeezy frosting from the store, so we just used that.  Homemade would have been tastier, but this is more of a craft project anyway.  The kids don't like gingerbread that much and I am not going to be eating that many gingerbread men.  I really didn't mean to make so many.

 Matthew and Anna each made one for their teachers.

Anna with her cookie for the beloved Ms. Taylor

We had lots of fun and I've learned a few things about gingerbread house assembly.  I probably don't need to increase the recipe.  I should probably try to roll smaller pieces of dough at a time so I can get it thinner.  And its good to have a John wrangler around to help when we put them together.  Lessons learned.

See our gingerbread recipe HERE.  

See the gingerbread house cookie cutters I have and love (thanks Mom!) HERE.

See our gingerbread assembly from last year HERE.