A first Christmas asking for clothes

It is official, there’s definitely a teenager in the house. This Christmas Ellie asked for a lot of different clothing items and a lot of different baking items. She ended up getting everything she asked for and more. She has a lot of different sweat pants now, many colors. She also has a couple different strange pants that she really enjoys. She also has baking tins in all shapes and sizes. Now she wants to bake constantly. I’m glad she enjoys baking. I need to get her into the spirit of donating what she makes and then I can let her bake more. She wants to investigate if there is a homeless shelter that might take fresh baking which she could donate to. This is something we need to investigate. I’m proud of her kind heart and that she wants to share her treasures with others.

She also got a candle making kit from Santa Claus what she has quite enjoyed. She has made one candle a day for the past week.

For the love of Lego

Max loves Legos and over the years he’s become quite good at putting them together. This year at Christmas he has for a couple big sets and a couple little sets. I think this is the first Christmas day where he didn’t receive any big sets to put together and he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. It turned out he put his energy into helping Clair with her sets. Then, after receiving granddaddy‘s Christmas gift of $25 he found a set he wanted to order from Amazon. Despite the fact it said it wouldn’t arrive for several weeks, it arrived today. He was so excited and said loudly that he is very happy to have a Lego set to put together on New Year’s Eve because this is when he finishes them every year from Christmas. He still has one more set lost in the mail somewhere between here and Glasgow. Hopefully find him sometime soon and it presents him a challenge.

The finished Max Lego set! He was so proud and did it in just a couple hours. 

Introducing the twins

Clair goes in and out of fascination with baby dolls. As part of her Christmas gift from grandma and G she received twins. After some debate she named them. Introducing… Stanley in Vonita Cummings.

I will admit it’s a little bit strange talking about Stanley and Vanita has baby dolls. Clair have you fed Stanley and Vonita? Clair did you put Stanley in Vonita to bed? But it’s cute the love that she has for them. It’s cute that she came up with these names herself. It’s cute that she seems to have an attachment to the names Stanley in Vanita. I also think she has a bit of an understanding of their spirit as well based on the story she submitted as part of the young authors writing contest at the end of the school semester. I’ve included a copy of that below as well. Another memory. 

Gingerbread house plans by Clair

The pictures below have been hanging in my bedroom for about three weeks now. The anticipation of decorating gingerbread houses was high for the kids. One afternoon Clair drew a plan for her house. When it came time to decorate she did not actually seem to use this but for about three or four days she was really stuck on it and wanted it hanging in my bedroom. This is another one of those lovely little things she has spent so much time creating as a child that I have trouble parting with. So I’m posting it for my memory. This girl has the busiest brains. This is just one of many examples I have collected in her short lifetime. 

The sweetest things

Putting Clair to bed can be a bit like a wrestling match. I love to snuggle the girl and the girl loves to snuggle me. When it comes to settling down at night it’s very hard for her brain to stop. She constantly wants to tell me her thoughts and her ideas. Trying to sing to her and settle her is not as easy as it was the other two. Last night when I was putting her to bed I convinced her to let me sing a song to her. She lay still and listen while I sing a Christmas Carol to her. When I was done she said next year for Christmas I want you to make me a CD with your singing on it because it makes me relaxed and helps me settle down for sleep.

This has to be one of the sweetest request I have ever had. I know I don’t have the best singing voice. I love that my singing can calm her.

Celebrating Christmas Day 2020

Today’s Christmas was very nice. The kids let us sleep in until exactly 8 o’clock. They are so good about respecting the bed times in the wake up times we give them. That is a gift in itself on Christmas, especially when I see others who got up at crazy hours like 4, 5 or 6 AM.

We got ready and headed downstairs and started the present around 830. They were a lot of presents. We enjoyed Gramma and Ellie cinnamon bread for breakfast. And we wrapped up around 11 AM or so. We got our traditional pictures in the wrapping paper. Then we commenced playing with her toys. Max learning his new Rubiks cubes and trying out his new skateboard in the basement. Clair asking for help putting together a Lego set she got. And Ellie sitting up and taking pictures of everyone and everything with her new tripod.

After lunch I went to start the turkey and realized it was a rotten turkey. That put a kink in my Christmas plan when I finally decided I needed that thing for an out at 2:30 PM and we had no other meat in the house for me to make my husband for Christmas dinner. After a failed attempt at running to Safeway which was open according to google but really closed, my mom rescued us by sharing half of her roast pork loin. I am grateful for my mom saving the day. Not only did she provide some meat but it was truly delicious. I have to get the recipe from her. She says it’s simple. I’m always looking for good simple meals.

Around 3:30 PM we FaceTime with Hazel Miller Miller so that we could open presents with them. It was not the same as having Hazel here, but it was nice to be able to spend a little time with them over FaceTime.

We sat down to have our Christmas dinner around 6 PM. Everybody was a bit tired and crazy. Ellie helped me prepare the dinner by making homemade macaroni and cheese. I made homemade cranberry sauce and a cherry pie. I also made sure David had his oven roasted potatoes which he says were his favorite part of the meal. I don’t make them very often for him. I know he likes them, but no one in the house really does so he doesn’t get them very often. All in all, no one complained about dinner and everyone seem quite happy. We finish the evening off with a cherry pie and a round of happy birthday to Jesus. 

I wasn’t very good with pictures and films this year. It felt like the day was still crazier than I expected it to be. We didn’t have time to sit and watch a movie or play any family games. I’m looking forward to more of that over the next week while we’re all off and home together. It is strange to not go out and see people. 

It was very strange to be alone all day with just our family. And I’m learning to also appreciate a piece of it. It won’t be like this forever. I’m happy everyone is staying safe. And I’m looking forward to the FaceTime connections we will have if the cousins and my mom later this weekend. The children wrecked by bedtime. Clair was especially tired. She put a lot of work into this Christmas. She had so many presents for everyone. 

I asked each of the kids what was their favorite present. Max said his was probably his new bike. Clair said her iPad. Ellie said her ice skates and skating lessons or and then she went through the list of everything else she got. I think she’s pretty happy with what she got. My favorite gift was a very cute wooden Celtic knot art piece that David got me. It is now hanging above the TV.

Merry Christmas to all into all a good night!

A different Christmas

This year preparing for Christmas and having Christmas has been different. Our family made a decision, a tough decision, not to get together this Christmas. With Covid, Hazel was also unable to travel here. This is the first time we have been alone for Christmas since 2007.

I feel so blessed to have the kids and my husband at home with me to be able to celebrate the holiday. I feel blessed that we have jobs that I’ve been able to us to spoil our children yet another year. I feel blessed that I was able to stop work two weeks before Christmas and truly relax and enjoy the preparation with the children. We made cookies, I enjoyed wrapping a few presents a day, I had time for Christmas cards, I had time for coffee in front of the fire and the Christmas tree instead of the computer. I have had time to play games with my children every single day. We’ve learned a couple new games as a family and I have been there for them during their school breaks to hang out. I’ve been able to make them nice lunches. I was there with them to remind them to practice before their piano recital and help them to feel more confident in their music. We were able to make the newest thing, hot chocolate bombs, and they had them when they came in from the first snow of the season. I was able to let them go out and play in the snow every time they wanted to go. I was able to help them get ready and find their stuff. I was able to watch them sled and go out and take some pictures and just enjoy life. It was wonderful!

It is so nice being able to focus on them instead of my work. I constantly feel guilty that they do not get the attention that they deserve while I’m working. However if it weren’t for work we wouldn’t have what we have. We chose in this lifestyle. I hope that we are making the right choices. I hope I am there for them enough. I hope they know they mean the world to me. I hope they know how precious this time is to me with them.

 I have experienced so many blessings this Christmas and I am grateful for that time. I can even see the blessing in the downtime I’m not going anywhere and doing everything at home. I do miss my family though. I still call my family my mom and dad and brother and sister. I consider their families part of my family that I miss so very much this holiday season. I love being with David and the kids. I am grateful for technology that allows us to connect via things like FaceTime in zoom. But there is no substitute for hanging out in real life and enjoying the holidays together.

I’m thankful that Ellie got two big bread with my mom this year. My mom makes the most wonderful cinnamon raisin bread before Christmas each year and this year, she taught Ellie. Ellie loves to bake and he’s really good at it. Apparently after the second batch my mom let Ellie make the third batch on her own. Ellie says she could easily make it at home now. I believe her and I’m excited that she had this time with my mom.

I’m thankful that we all got to bake sugar cookies with my mom as well. it was on this day that I learned that I could make my own sprinkles, and that meant I could make them any color I wanted, and henceforth we have teal sprinkles. What a exciting day that was for me! My mom is probably the only one we’ve spent any time leading up to Christmas. With Covid I made a choice being able to be around my mom and knowing that we weren’t going to make her sick was most important. The kids have only been allowed to play with a few people outside over the past month. I will probably keep it this way until spring time comes and the virus becomes less prevalent across the area.

A few pictures of our preparations are below