I put the Christmas pictures on the photos
site: photos.datdec.com

Merry Christmas (a few days late!) We had
a great Christmas this year. We decided to host the festivities
at our house to make the day easier for us and the kids. It was
great not having to pack up gifts and food and clothes and
everything. Everyone came over on Christmas Eve for a delicious
dinner of pizza and cookies, and lots of hanging out. Normally
we decorate the tree Christmas Eve, but I put the tree up a few
weeks ago, forgetting that the festivities were at our house
this year. Oh well.

Lex is sort of into
the Santa thing this year. A few days before Christmas he
started telling me that he would laugh when he saw Santa “in
spite of myself.” Its so funny when he says things like that
because you know he’s quoting something (“‘Twas the Night
Before Christmas” in this case). No three year old comes up
with that stuff on their own. :) I tried to take him to see
Santa after he started saying that, but alas, Santa has limited
hours in our neck of the woods and apparently was no longer
available so close to Christmas. Lex did choose to leave a
plate of cookies and carrots out on Christmas Eve, but when he
woke up Christmas morning he didn’t seem all that amazed with
the living room full of gifts. In fact, he said “Mommy brought
the presents out of the office.” (I had a few wrapped gifts in
the office, but no where near as many as were in the living
room Christmas morning!) When people asked if Santa had come,
he said “No.” I think he’s skeptical because he didn’t get to
see Santa bring the presents. He’s a very literal boy.

I’ve been kind of indecisive about the Santa
thing anyway. I want him to have fun and believe in the magic,
but neither Alan or I are good liars and I doubt either of us
could keep up the Santa facade when faced with a doubting
little boy. On Christmas morning I started wondering how people
teach kids to be thankful to those who gave them gifts, when
they think that everything is from Santa. I was raised to write
thank you notes and I’m raising them the same way, so we talk a
lot about who gave them the toys that they play with. I wonder
how other people handle that.

Lex got
the trains that he so desperately wanted and has spent the past
few days happily building and unbuilding his train sets. He got
two wooden sets that fit together, but he is convinced that
they must be kept separate. He builds the big KidKraft set and
then builds the smaller Thomas set next to it. Lex insists
Thomas the Train can only drive on his tracks and the KidKraft
train can only drive on it’s tracks. He is a funny boy. Eve got
a tea party set and walks around all day drinking tea (like her
mommy). The other morning she yells “make tea now!” and ran
into the living room to make some tea :) She also got a baby
doll that she loves and lots of adorable clothes. I think all
in all it was a good Christmas.

Now the
extended family has left and we’re on our own to dig out the
living room and recover from our cookie-induced sugar comas.
Bring on 2009!

Lex was
excited to put out cookies, milk, and carrots on Christmas Eve.
He was less excited to pose for a picture. Luckily Eve is
always happy to pose for the camera :)

A
Christmas morning hug.

Feeding
the new baby doll.

Lex had
trouble getting through his presents because every time a book
was opened he was drawn to it (like a moth to the light!) and
we had to tear him away long enough to open more
presents.

Eve was
particularly silly on Christmas night and Aunt Katie, “the
instigator,” did her best to encourage the silliness.
:)

Reading
stories with Mema.

Wait,
who wanted a train set for Christmas?? ;) Really we’ve all been
enjoying this toy!

Yoga Eve
in her new sparkly pants :)

I’m going to go play
with the family now. Maybe I’ll put up all of the Christmas
pics on the photos site tonight. It’s been awhile since I’ve
updated that! We’ll see what happens :)

We are having a snowy, patient Christmas Eve.
When I was a kid we used to wait (patiently, I’m sure!) for
what seemed liked FOREVER (usually until 3:00pm-ish) for my
Grandma to arrive. The day felt so long as we waited and
waited. Today I’m having dejavu as we are waiting (patiently,
I’m sure) for my family to arrive!! It’s getting close to
3:00pm and I suspect they won’t be here by then. We started the
day with blueberry pancakes. Yum! I thought I was being so nice
and making everyone a treat, instead 1/2 ended up under cooked,
the shapes I tried to make failed miserably and it took awhile
to talk Lex in to even trying them. He flat out refused until
he realized that Jack, from one of his Eric Carle books, liked
pancakes. Then, and only then, was he willing to give them a
try. Not surprisingly he loved them! He even had more for lunch
and now, not surprisingly, won’t take a nap!! We have to go run
an errand in a few minutes so hopefully he’ll get a little car
nap in. Anyway, happy holidays to all!

Please make it stop!!! Just kidding! It’s
been snowing for days now and it feels like winter should be
over by now… but wait, it’s only just begun! Happy Winter!
It’s actually been really nice snow. A lot of it, of course,
but its light and fluffy and not too windy, so we’ve been
having fun playing outside. Today I bundled them both up for
some outdoor fun. Eve ended up angry because our neighbor was
not home (she really wanted him to come out and play!) but Lex
had a blast. We walked around the yard for awhile (that in and
of itself is an adventure!) then up and down the street, then
headed into the back yard to play on the “snow slide” and try
to find the picnic table. I think I need to get Lex a scarf
though. He spent the entire time licking the top of the zipper
on his snow suit. Almost every photo I took has him with his
tongue out. Crazy kid! I’ve been lucky so far that they seem to
get bored/cold/tired/whatever after 30-45 minutes, which
coincides with when I’m getting bored/cold/tired/whatever :) So
we all go in and have warm chocolate milk and life is
good.

A little
boy in the front yard.

Flop!
Down he goes!

I tried
to get a picture of them sitting together on the picnic table
(see it?) I don’t know why I ever bother trying to orchestrate
pictures of them sitting together… it never
works!

She sat
patiently for awhile while I tried to talk him in to joining
her…

And as
soon as he headed for the bench, she started crying. I, of
course, snapped a quick picture then consoled
her.

Down the
snow slide! This swing-set is an awesome four-season
toy!

Whee!!

Tired
kids trudge home.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKda5A_ket0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLSkN5SxAYY]

Here are a few videos that I didn’t have a
related post for already (scroll down to see more!).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlvk3zxfwGQ]
This
is Eve “looking” at the sticker chart. She does this alot and
it cracks me up! She says “looking!” and then squats down and
shakes her head back and forth. She does it in the grocery
store, at the bookshelf, the sticker chart, etc. Hysterical.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bucp5YeRQc]
Just a
little silliness with the stuffed animals.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-14RNGJOWk0]
Daddy’s idea of doing laundry is to grab the camera and
put the kids to work! They don’t seem to mind much. The video
is pretty long (7 minutes, I think), but it’s cute.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMewK31q2xA]
I
don’t even have a comment for this one. Silly kids.

Our day is going relatively smoothly (so
far!), especially considering we’ve been up since 4:00am! When
the kids started losing interest in the Pampered Chef boxes, I
decided to take things to the next level. Welcome to the
Pampered Playhouse! They love it! They decorated it with
crayons, Lex drew a blue sky on top and wrote “in” and “out”
above the doors in “fancy writing,” which just means his
scribbles. He writes his name in “plain writing” (real letters)
and everything else he writes in “fancy writing” (scribble
characters, his own symbol based language perhaps). Anyway,
they have been launching airplanes out the windows and Lex
brought as many toys as he could fit into it :) Whatever it
takes to get through the day!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpDUT8S6q_Q]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O14DdQccObA]

In addition to the architectural work we’ve done today, we
also made eight loaves of bread…

and uploaded eight videos! Look for them in the
updated posts below. I’m trying to get Eve down for her second
nap of the day and the snowstorm is rolling in. We’ve got all
sorts of winter weather advisories, so I guess we’re settling
in for a long winter’s night.

Check out Eve reading Highlights magazine!
Such a smart girl! Then check out her messy hair :)

We’ve had some funky sleep issues lately.
I won’t go in to detail, but the result was Eve took a nap from
9-11am this morning (they were both wide awake at 5am!). Lex
and I played Trouble and ate popcorn. Popcorn is a special
treat that Lex only gets when Eve is napping. It was such a
beautiful day that we decided to go outside. I wanted to get
the driveway shoveled before tomorrow’s snowstorm. We had a
really nice time. Lex cleared off the Saturn (“Daddy’s little
black Saturn car.”) and hit the snow off trees with sticks and
practiced his snow angels, while I got the driveway and porch
clear. Then we played for awhile. I pulled him around on the
sled and then he decided it was his turn to pull me on the
sled. That lasted for about 30 seconds. I’ll post the video. :)
Then we came in, Eve woke up, and they had apples, raisins, and
sunflower seed butter for lunch. Some days things just go
well.

Lex is
taking “a quick little nap” in the snow. (mostly he was just
trying hard NOT to look a the camera)

Lex
tried really hard to pull me on the sled.

Lex does
not ham it up for the camera like Eve does.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATZS_1ravOI]

I like
taking pictures of the messy kids.

My Pampered Chef party resulted in the delivery
of three large boxes today. The kids always get so excited when
we get a Pampered Chef delivery and I think its hysterical, but
it occurred to me today that its really the boxes they are
excited about. They were moderately interested in unpacking,
but got bored because I wouldn’t let them play with the
products (they aren’t for us!), but when the boxes were
empty… the fun began!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygP7NA35rEA]