Here are some of the scenes of Christmas from our house. Martha Stewart would probably be horrified, but the kids are relatively happy and we are surviving.
Growing up I always swore I would have a beautiful, elegant Christmas tree when I grew up. One covered in white lights and coordinated ornaments. Instead, we have a village of Charlie Brown trees on a bar in the corner of the dining room and they are bursting with colorful, clashing ornaments. And I can't help but love 'em cuz they are just so dang homey.
And so you can fully understand how small and cluttered the trees are, Pru and Max will help put them in perspective. The trees are behind the dining room table in this picture. (This is the dogs on Christmas morning. They are obviously thrilled with the whole holiday thing.)
Jeff and I have been married for 7 1/2 years and together for quite a bit longer, and we've never had a full-sized Christmas tree. We were too lazy and cheap (I guess) before we had kids, and we've always had a reason not to bother since the kids have been born. One of these years we will get around to it. Really.
Our excuse this year was a super grabby monkey toddler. Natalia is not walking yet. (Although getting closer every day. She is cruising with wild abandon, and like her brother Leon, spends a great deal of time standing and pushing things around the house). However, the girl can climb. And she practices frequently. We took the kids to the mall the Saturday before Christmas, and she got to play on the mall playground for the first time. She wasted no time figuring out how to climb up the little slide.
And it wasn't just the stairs. The girl actually climbed the slide too.
We did manage to get Christmas lights on the house this year. It was a wonderfully warm December, except for the night I finally got around to putting up lights. That night it was windy and the temperature was dropping into the 30s, and I pretty much ended up actually throwing the lights on the bushes after the kids went to bed. (And, of course, we had to decorate the willow in our front yard. It's had quite a year.) Still, the kids were completely excited about the lights and gleefully ran out to watch us plug them in each night, at least until the night we drove around and looked at Christmas lights done by people who actually tried. I thought Ree was pretty tactful when she said the people with nicely decorated houses, "Don't have kids, do they?"
On Christmas Eve, we finally got around to decorating some cutout Christmas cookies. With the exception of Jeff, everyone in the house had a cold and was coughing and sneezing, and I am pretty sure the cookies could've been considered biological weapons despite the kids washing their hands before decorating. But they did have fun. And yes, we had pink icing.
And there was a significant colored sugar-to-cookie ratio.
Somewhere along the line, Leon insisted I take a picture of Baby Mickey because he participated in ALL holiday events along with us. Thankfully Mickey is quiet AND potty trained. (Leon has him sit on the big potty several times a day.) We like Baby Mickey.
I don't have a picture of one of my favorite holiday scenes. The kids have a Little People nativity set in the toy room. I love it mostly because it's so darn cute, but it also lets them act out the Christmas story. Leon's play kitchen is also in the toy room, and one night while cleaning up, I found Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus all standing on the turntable in the microwave. I can only imagine the scenario that landed them there. I am just hoping they were riding the carousel and Disney World and no one was cooking up the holy family for dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment