Christmas Eve

I've got to write this or I never will- even though I am exhausted and I know that we will be up bright and early tomorrow- I doubt our little munchkins will let us sleep in tomorrow morning! I even told Audra she had permission to wake us up. She is SOOOO excited for Santa- it is so cute!

Tonight we headed to a Christmas party with my cousins and their families. They are the only family of mine that I have within 800 miles, so it is always a treat to get together with them and they are very kind to invite us every year. We grew up in different states, so I really didn't know them well until I moved here and now over the years I am getting to know them better and it has been really nice. They are some really great people.

Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner and then we had a white elephant. Every gift had to cost exactly $3.43- that was the rule. We cheated- but don't tell anyone.

Claire got to go first. Everybody commented on how cute she was- and she was. As a bonus, this year she didn't break anything! Woo-hoo! Last year she did.(also notice that I finally decided to cut her bangs- it was not easy, but I think it turned out good and now her hair is not constantly in her eyes)

 Here was her gift. There were also some socks. She was SOOOOO excited about her gift. She kept going around to everybody saying, "look what I got! Look what I got!" and showing it off.

 Here's Audra opening her gift:

 She got a Broncos Nerf football. She was not nearly as gracious as Claire, much to our dismay. She kept complaining. So, somebody stole it from her so she could have another change. Instead of getting one of the toys that was already open, she decided to open a new one. She got a water bottle. Maybe that will teach her to be grateful next time.

It was a nice evening. Then we came home and made our final family preparations for Christmas. All month long we have been doing a "Christmas Box." I got this idea from a friend on facebook and thought I would give it a try. Here is the web address of the daily things to do with the Christmas box: http://christmasadventurebox.blogspot.com/

Basically, every day you teach one thing about Christmas and then they open up one gift each night from the Christmas box. For example, you talk about the Three Wise Men and then when they open the Christmas box the three wise men for the nativity are in the box. Because I am me, we ended up doing the Christmas box every 2-3 days, not every night. That's the way we roll in this household.

Audra has actually been awesome about learning the story of the birth of the Savior. She can tell you everything that happened, and she loves to pretend to be Mary riding the donkey and having the baby and such. With this box we have really tried to explain how everything about Christmas relates to Christ- from the lights on houses representing the light of Christ to candy canes representing the shepherd's crook, we have really tried to put Christ in Christmas, and I think Audra got it a little bit. Claire not so much, but she will.

For tonight's Christmas box I talked about Santa and why Santa brings presents. I explained that the greatest present the world has ever known is Jesus Christ, and that Santa wants to show how much he loves Jesus by bringing presents to everyone and that is why we give presents- as a reminder that Christ is our greatest present. Then they opened the box and there was a present for each of them inside. Here is what they got:

Christmas pajamas! I made each of them a pair. They are supposed to be that short on Audra, that is the design of the pants- I just made Claire's longer on purpose. I have heard of people who every year make their kids matching pj's for Christmas and on Christmas Eve they get to open that present. I thought that was a cool idea. Honestly, I don't know if I will do it every year. I am not a great seamstress (as evidenced by the fact that I sewed the two front pieces together for one leg and the two back pieces together for one leg and thus Claire's pj's are completely lopsided, but I didn't realize it until I was completely done so I just left it), and even though I like the idea in theory I am not sure how it will play out in reality. But, this year at least I made them matching pj's and the girls LOVE them and are super excited about them.

Then, we put out the plate of cookies and a super sweet note that Audra meticulously made for Santa:

 Here's the note Santa left in return:

 Dear Audra and Claire:

Thank you for the cookies. I have watched how you play nice together and how you share your toys. Keep being nice to everyone just like Jesus would. I hope you enjoy your gifts. Love, Santa

P.S. Rudolph (OK, Ben spelled it wrong- he spelled it Rudolf. He also asked me what day Christmas was on- as in, not what day of the week, but what the actual date was. For being such a genius, he sometimes really cracks me up) was getting hungry so he was very happy to get the carrot.

Then, here is the Christmas tree after Santa came to visit. I am very happy that he did not go too overboard this year. It should be a wonderful, happy, not too ridiculous of a Christmas tomorrow morning!

Just one more quick story before I go to bed:
At the Christmas party the other day, I asked the girls' friend what she wanted for Christmas. She is three and she gave me the most specific list of toys she wanted that I have ever heard. Down to colors and sizes and everything- it was impressive. If you ask what my girls want, they won't say really anything. Claire has no idea, and Audra just has one wish: a music box. That's it. Ben thinks it is because they never watch commercials (yea for a DVR!), but I like to hope that we are doing a good job of not pushing the commercialism. Don't worry, we know it will come in due time. My list as a child was at least 3 pages front and back long. But if we can hold it off for as long as possible, that would be really nice!

Outsmarted

Here was today's conversation with Audra:

Ben: Audra, we have to go to the grocery store.

A: I don't want to go to the grocery store!

Ben: Do you like to eat food?

A: Yes.

Ben: Then we have to go to the grocery store.

A: I like to eat at restaurants!

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to life in about 9 years with this one around...

Christmas Party!

I know I have been posting a lot lately, but I really do want to write about all the things that have been happening. In reality, this blog is about much more than simply updating friends and family on what we are up to: It's a history of our family that will hopefully be read by generations, so I like to post about a lot of things- including the little things. I won't know and I won't be offended if you don't read all these posts- sometimes a little Christina can go a LONG ways!

Anyway, with that great introduction, today the girls were invited to a little Christmas party with one of their good friends. As mentioned earlier, we woke up to A LOT of snow- much more than we are accustomed to. When it snows, I cancel all plans and stay home. But I hated to cancel on this little party because when else would we squeeze it in before Christmas? I knew the mom had put in a lot of effort, so since Ben was going to work so late (because of all the snow he had to shovel) he took us to the party and then the mom who hosted the party took us home. It worked out great. But, the roads really were quite bad- I was glad I was not driving!

It was a small, simple, and perfect party- just Audra and Claire and A. They did a few crafts- they decorated some fairy wings and made a Christmas ornament. They danced to the Sugarplum Fairies, ate a lot, and PLAYED and PLAYED. Specifically, with princess dress-up clothes. It was fantastic- especially on a day that we would normally be stuck at home all day. The girls had such a wonderful time, and they all love each other so much. It was a fantastic day!

 The only way to get a picture of all three of them was to have them sit and watch TV- they all got jingle bells and then they watched a short jingle bell sing-a-long that they sang and jingled too. They LOVED it!

Some Quick Snapshots

Here are some pics of the FOURTEEN inches of snow we got overnight. By far, this is the worst storm of the year. Ben has spent over an hour shoveling snow, and it just gets covered up with more snow. Looks like we will be having a white Christmas!

Here you can see that the snow comes up to his knees. Poor guy!

 Audra is helping- she thinks this is fantastic:

 And, I am throwing this in because, seriously: how cute is our little Mrs. Claus? My brother Matt bought this dress for Audra for Christmas a few years back, and we LOVE it- it is the best dress of all time!!!!

Gingerbread Houses

When the family was here we made some gingerbread houses. This turned out so great, and the girls had so much fun! This is a tradition that I want to have for our family. Growing up we always made gingerbread houses, and it is one of my favorite memories. We will have one change, though:

We will be buying the gingerbread kits from Bed Bath and Beyond every year instead of using melted sugar and graham crackers! The kit made it SOOOOOOOOOO easy (though my friend said the train kit is a disaster, so I will avoid the train kit and stick to the Christmas Village kit which is tried and true). I was worried about the frosting, because I know you need a really strong frosting to hold the gingerbread together, and this was perfect. Plus, the kit came with all the candy, frosting, etc.- all for 8 bucks! How can you beat that?

These pictures are from MELISSA'S camera (thus causing all of my confusion and my lost camera as described in the post below):

 Notice the frosting on Claire's mouth. All the girls may have been sneaking some

goodies while we made them:

Bad Mom, Good Treats

I'm not exactly winning "Mother of the Year" today. 

Due to scheduling problems, I wasn't able to make our annual Christmas treats until today. I thought it would be fine. I was wrong.

I REALLY need Ben to be home to keep the kids entertained while I bake! Otherwise, crazy things happen- and I don't mean that in a good way.

It started out OK. They helped unwrap the candy canes that needed to be crushed. All of Claire's ended up still having all the wrapper still on, but she had fun and it was no big deal. I was in charge of quality control.

 But then Claire decided she would eat/drink anything from the dirty dishes in the sink- even the ones that had already had soap put on them. So, yes, she drank chocolate soap water- and apparently liked it because it was impossible to stop her.

 They also both kept insisting on eating everything in sight. In fact, when I put Claire down for her nap, she said: "I don't want to go nigh-nigh. I want to eat more food!" I bet you did, Claire!

 Here's Audra eating more and more:

 They "helped" with the sugar cookies. They got to take turns choosing which shape they wanted made.

 After Claire went to bed, I let Audra decorate the cookies. I didn't want Claire trying to do this- that would have been a disaster!

Admittedly, I eventually just turned the TV on and let them watch because it was too hard to keep them out of everything. I hate letting them watch too much TV, but today they got a lot of TV time. Sometimes that just happens, I guess.

But, the treats are done and they are a success! Whew! It is always nice when they are done. Ben told me last week, "do you have to make treats? That ruins Christmas." He really hates this tradition. But then today he called me from work and asked if I would have some extra that he could take to work. Being the wonderful and nice wife that I am, I made him beg and tell me how grateful he is that I made Christmas goodies so he could take some to work.

Tomorrow we will do the deliveries, and then I think I will be done with just about everything for Christmas. I love it when I can say that!

I Found the Camera!!!!!

WOO-HOO!!!!!!! The camera was FINALLY found!!!!

My mom, sister, and niece came to visit a couple of weeks ago. We had a fantastic time. But it was during their visit that the camera got lost. Ben thought my mom stole it and was refusing to return it, but I was pretty sure my mom wouldn't do that.

Anyway, I KNEW the last time I had the camera was when we made gingerbread houses because I had taken a ton of pictures of us making them. Then I remember putting the camera on the kitchen island and that was the last time I saw it.

Then this morning Melissa sent me pictures from her camera. With those pictures were a ton of pictures of us making the gingerbread houses. Ben then thought Melissa was the one who stole our camera. But, it got me thinking. Maybe I didn't use MY camera to take the pictures, maybe I used Melissa's camera to take the pictures. If that's the case, then when was the last time I had my camera? At the bouncy houses! So, perhaps my camera was either at the bouncy house or in the diaper bag. Ben went and checked, and it was in the diaper bag! I can not tell you all how excited I am to have my camera back!!!!!!!!!! (and to know that neither my mom or my sister are thieves. And to realize how little we use the diaper bag.)

So, here are some pictures from my camera. I'll post more from our visit with the family when I figure how to download pictures from Picaso to our computer.
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Audra has decided that in order for her to be Rapunzel she needs to put a boa in her hair and therefore have really long hair. At first, it was really cute. But, after it has fallen out a million times and she cries each time, it is not so cute.

 Here's a couple of pictures of Claire when we went to the Littleton Museum:

 Claire and Olivia made a Christmas craft while Audra was at school: A marshmallow snowman. This was a great idea, and both girls loved it. They glued the marshmallows on the circles of the snowman, coconut was glued to fill in the circles, and a Candy Corn was the nose.

 Claire's doesn't look much like a snowman, but she's only 2- what do you expect?

 Then here's a couple from the bouncy house- where the camera chaos began: