Christmas 2014

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Tessa

This is my third attempt at writing this Christmas blog post. The first two were from my phone on the Amtrak train yesterday (that will be another blog post) and my WordPress app got wonky (that’s a techical word, right?) and lost everything. I was annoyed and my thumbs were sore, so I gave up after two tries. Today I’m on the computer and hoping things will go a bit smoother.

The blog and my blogging habits have been changing lately. Now that the kids are older and I’m working full time I feel less need to ~~vent~~ share in this forum and as I take more pictures on my phone and share more often on Facebook and Instagram, there seems to be less urgency for regular blog posts. Of course that means all the thoughts and photos I used to capture in one place are now being spread across multiple platforms, which in some ways is less ideal. Additionally, it occured to me this week that almost every grown-up at Christmas had a camera phone and was taking and sharing their own photos. Gone are the days where my camera was “the one” and I was the somewhat sole holder of holiday photos. Now everyone has their own copies and people are sharing through the day/event, also creating less of an urgency for frequent blog updates. There seems to be no perfect solution, only ever evolving technology and habits.

Anyway, enough of my tech thoughts, on to Christmas!

This year Christmas was AWESOME! It’s great every year, don’t get my wrong, but this is the first year since…. I’m not sure when, that all four of the Collier kids were home together. Rosy has been working holidays in the ER, Barney moved out to CA two years ago, and Joyce has been Navy-committed for what seems like forever, but this year the stars aligned and everyone came home. Well, to my home anyway. :) It was great. Barney even brought his new (to us) girlfriend and she survived (I hope!) the very silly Collier clan reunion. :)

Eve made up her own cookies this year. They included very fine peppermint candy cane dust. It took her awhile to chop up the candy candy as fine as she wanted them.

They came out pretty well, though a bit too crunchy. We’ll work on it for next year. :)

Decorating the Christmas tree. It was up for three days before we got a chance to decorate. I think that’s a record for me. Usually it’s barely up for an hour before I’m stringing lights!

Daisy was intrigued. She has been VERY good with the tree, though she does like to drink the water.

We experimented with Peanut Butter Blossoms this year. Lots of variations, all delicious.

Goody bags for the teachers and staff.

Joyce came to back to see that all of her hard work sorting Legos had been undone. Sorry J!

Cookies for Santa.

Santa usually leaves the kids little gifts in their bedroom as well. This year they each got a karate bear and a few books.

Stocking time!

Each year the kids get a project to do in their advent boxes. This year it was a tree made with tiny Lego-like building blocks. They got 14 pieces a day and on the final day the star went on top. It was fun.

Uh oh, Lex opened a book first! Good thing he understands how Christmas works these day so the book didn’t slow him down for too long. :)

Aww… kittens. Eve loves anything cute.

Rosy will be stylish and warm this winter!

I got a Selfie Stick in my stocking. It’s totally dorky but we all had a great time with it!

The 2015 calendars came out, with a #tbt theme this year! Everyone looks forward to this gift. :)

Haha… selfie stick fun!

Do we look a little tired?! :)

After lunch we took a walk to the playground to shoot some hoops.

Unfortunately the basketball court was covered in snow. Fortunately we can have fun wherever we go!!

Bitty Baby came along for the walk too, wearing her new snowsuit. Eve took her snow-mountain climbing.

Eve dressed for dinner. Bitty Baby joined us too.

We need some practice with the selfie stick! I have about a dozen pictures, all totally silly, of me trying to get a group shot. This is the best. :)

Maybe we should have stuck with the old fashioned tri-pod method. :)

Saying goodbye to Uncle B. Come back and visit us again soon, please!

In case that wasn’t enough photos, I added all of my Christmas photos to a Google album for your viewing pleasure.

Peace

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Tessa

I found Lex tonight with Daisy sleeping at his feet. Her usual spot. But tonight she was sleeping peacefully, covered in his blanket. Happiness is.

Fun with pipe cleaners

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Tessa

I’m totally behind on blogging. I just took pictures off the camera and there are so many! We have been busy lately! Last week we got pipe cleaners to make gifts for teachers… and to just have fun with. And boy have they been having fun with them! :)

Lex made a cat toy that Daisy loved!

He wore Daisy right out!

Eve made a toy too. Everyone had fun with cats and pipe cleaners.

Once Daisy was all worn out the kids moved on to other things… like halos! :)

And costumes.

Today Eve made herself a pipe cleaner costume. She called herself “Fang Girl” though there were no fangs. Sometimes she seemed like a super hero, but other times she seemed more villainous. You just never know with that girl. We had to run errands and it was Sunday, so the kids went out in PJs. PJs and pipe cleaners. Life with kids.

Super hero / villian / Fang Girl!

Even heros need to run errands sometimes.

Fang Girl battles King Arthur… while waiting for a snack.

Break time for Fang Girl

Temp

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Tessa

Daisy’s first walk

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Tessa

Eve finally bought Daisy the harness and leash she has been so eager to get for so long. The great day finally arrived (last week) and she took Daisy for a walk!

Daisy’s first walk… in the snow.

She was less than impressed!

The walk lasted about two minutes. :)

Eve took her out one more time since and Daisy spent the whole time trying to get back inside. We may retire the leash until the ground clears and the weather warms. :)

Cookie crunch

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Tessa

The kids and I decided this year to give their teachers crafty reindeer bags filled with cookies for holiday gifts this year. Shhh… don’t tell. It seemed like a good idea until this past weekend when I sat down with the calendar to map out the next two weeks. Turns out to have an assortment of cookies available we have to bake cookies every day this week! I don’t remember ever being stressed about making cookies but somehow this year we are having trouble getting it done.

Then, this afternoon, I got a box of cookies from one of my students, a tin from Greg and Kathy (thanks!!), and a text from Rosy saying she’s bringing lots of cookies. Hmmm…. then it hit me why I’m stressed – school is out so early this year! Our last day is Friday the 19th, which is nearly a week before Christmas! So having all the cookies ready, to provide a variety for teacher gifts, we have to have all the baking done a week before Christmas. That doesn’t make any sense at all! Somehow that realization completely calmed me. I decided to scale back the treat bags and just relax! We made chocolate pretzel treats today, wrote holiday cards (check your mailbox… eventually!), sang carols, and had a lovely afternoon.

Sometimes you just have to step back, take a breath, and check your expectations.

Happiness is.

That hair!

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Tessa

I was combing Eve’s hair tonight, but we got a late start and it was drier than usual. I couldn’t believe how different the combed side looked from the tight-curl non-combed side. I commented to Eve and she wanted to see, so we busted out the camera. :)

This is mostly combed, but you can see the non-combed on the left.

Half and half. The combed side is twice as long! She has beautiful hair!

She’s a beautiful girl, cat scratched face and all.

I love everything about this child. I feel so blessed to have her in my life.

Fun with friends

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Tessa

We had a fun afternoon with friends the other day. (Tech trouble prevented this from getting posted for a few days.) Eve had a friend from school and I had Elizabeth. Lex decided he would be happy with Alistair and we all had a great time. Partway through the afternoon the girls decided to go outside. The boys wanted to too, but A had no snow pants so they stay in and played a game instead. Elizabeth and I drank tea and got caught up.

After the friend left we all took a few minutes to breath. Fun often equals loud and chaotic and we all needed a little downtime. After awhile I put my mom hat back on and went to start the bedtime process. This is what I saw when I went into Eve’s room:

Plus Eve, curled up in her bed, surrounded by books. No wonder they went outside. There was no floor space left in the room!! Amazingly she did a great job cleaning up, despite the late hour and busy day. Lex too was curled up in his chair, book in hand. In this house we love friends, but we also love quiet time with books! 💕📚📖

First Lego League (FLL) Championships!

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Tessa

Lex and his team, the #10 Pencils, spent Saturday at the FLL Championships in Nashua! The rest of us went along too. :)

We drove down Friday night to avoid a ridiculously early Saturday morning drive. Turns out we made a good choice because the weather Saturday was awful and it was nice to have a very short drive from the hotel. We got in late, basically went right to bed, and left early the next morning. Eve observed that we were at the hotel for less than 12 hours, probably our shortest hotel stay ever.

Saturday morning, bright and early, we were at the First Lego League Championships!

The trophy table!

The main event. This is where the matches were held. Also where the opening and closing ceremonies were.

Eve was a good sport and spent her day tagging along. She brought books, coloring supplies, and stuffies to keep her busy.

Just like the Dartmouth one, this competition consisted of three matches where their robots competed against other robots to complete missions and earn points; a design presentation where the team presented their robot and demoed it for the judges; a project presentation where their presented their FLL project; and a “core values” meeting where the team had to meet with the judges, without coaches or parents, and demonstrate their understanding of FLL’s core values. They are scored on all four parts.

The first match of three.

Lex setting up the first mission. He had the most reliable program on his team. They ran it first every time and it worked every time!

Lex, excitedly bouncing and flapping his hands as his program ran. :)

The design presentation where they tell the judges about their robot, how they made it, why, and demo some of the attachments.

In “the pit” (team table areas) all the teams had presentations of their FLL projects. Lex was fascinated by this one.

This project was about learning in a classroom and they built a whole Lego classroom with working parts and all. It was pretty cool.

This is their second match. It didn’t go very well, but the video gives you an idea of how it all works. The robot drives around the table completing missions (pushing, pulling, opening, closing, etc.) and earning points for each one it complete successfully.

They had five practice tables available that the teams could sign up to use. Between matches the teams can refine and retest their robot and programs before their next match.

They were all a little tired.

The main room had four tables, two by two, and two giant screens so everyone could see what was going on. They held matches on one pair of tables while the other pair was being set up for the next match. The whole thing moved very quickly. It took a few matches before the kids realized you could see them on the big screen… then they were all excited and waving to themselves. :)

Lex on the big screen, setting up for their third match.

Lex’s team was done with all of their tasks by mid afternoon, then we had a few hours to hang out and wait until the final matches and closing ceremonies. Lex and his buddies played hide and seek while Eve entertained herself with more coloring and reading. It was less then thrilling, but the time passed quickly enough.

Eve did this for a long time. She ended up laying down with the book on the floor. I thought she fell asleep for a bit. :)

Finally it was time for the final matches between the four highest scoring teams. It was amazing to watch. The top teams scored three to four times what the next highest teams did and they had some pretty amazing out-of-the-box ideas. After that was the awards ceremony, which was fun and entertaining. Lex’s team didn’t win any awards, but they did amazing and had a great time. I was so proud of them and Lex.

While waiting for the final scoring there was a lot of dancing in the aisles. Everyone had lots of fun!

Lex came home full of ideas and enthusiasm for next year. He decided to set up his own test mat and missions. He has been working on it ever since. I love his excitement.

Lex’s own mat and missions.

I have more and deeper things to say about Lex these days, but right now it’s late (I swear it’s always late!) and I’m tired (Story of my life these days!) so I’m going to bed. And by “bed” I mean to fold laundry, clean up the kitchen, have a snack, then go to bed. Sigh. Good night.

Quotes from Eve

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Tessa

While snuggling in bed last night she says, “I’m going to be an explorer when I grow up.” Silence for a few minutes, then “I guess an old fashioned explorer, one who uses maps instead of Google instructions.”

Just now as we’re heading into the big city of Manchester she says, “What are those big things up there?! The things ahead with lights on them?” Ummm… building, country girl, those are tall buildings.

Love my country girl.

Calm and Chaos: Life with kids

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