Happy New Year from my little knights and me.

May you always have enough protection.

Even if it is just a cardboard box.

Oh, yeah. Our Christmas.

Got busy and forgot to post Christmas. Then I went through my pictures organizing them, and had to put some up. Here it is.

First, Hannah's present to Ainsley.

My parents did something fantastic at Christmas. All ten of us kids gave a gift to all ten of our siblings. It made for a marathon present opening session on Christmas morning, but it did something wonderful for us. We all got excited about what we were getting, but were more excited about what we were *giving* and the response of the recipient. There was a lot of whispering, secret meetings, and giggling leading up to Christmas. My mom even involved the youngest by having them pick cookie shapes, decorate, box, and wrap them for each sibling. When you got a box with five cookies in it that were more icing and nonpareils than cookies, you were expected to be very excited about it. Ten kids on a sugar high for four days must have been a sight.

This year was the first that I saw Hannah (or Ainsley) really get into the giving. It didn't start out smoothly. Hannah found a mermaid and a truck for her siblings which she hid under her coat in the cart. She then spent the rest of the trip suggesting things that Ains could get for her.

Gray decorated cookies for both. Ains worked hard painting the nutcracker ($1 at a craft store) for Hannah, who has a thing for nutcrackers, and she made chocolate candies for our little candy vaccuum. Hannah assembled and painted a fire truck for Gray ($1 at the craft store) and she took four days to assemble this for Ains.

Folks, it was a masterpiece. That was a $3 investment ($1 for each of the castles that she assembled and painted, and $1 for the mermaid that she painted) and lots of creativity as she circled my craft room countless times looking for more ideas. It includes a board from our outside stash that had to be sanded and painted - which she happily did by herself, shells, glitter, a styrofoam ball with fabric 'patchworked' into it with the edge of a spoon, foam waves, a foam treasure chest, mouse and dinosaur buttons (with an elaborate story about underwater dinosaurs), pieces of fake flower stems that are seaweed... It's a regular underwater playground for that lucky mermaid and Ains has loved it.

Best of all, Hannah got to feel the joy of spending a lot of time and effort making something that was thoroughly enjoyed by the one she made it for.

Back to Christmas morning. This was the least blurry shot I got before they ran downstairs, youngest first.

They were thrilled with the dollhouse and spent varied amounts of time at it. Hannah was approximately 15 seconds before she looked over and saw Rosetta - ROSETTA!!! - peeking out of her stocking. Farewell, dollhouse.

Ains, however had to be dragged away from the dollhouse to empty her stocking.

Stocking stuffers are some of the most fun presents to find since they are so tailored to each person. Among Hannah's treasures were a magic trick, a science experiment, and a fan (she's been wanting a fan for weeks). Ains' most desired item was a box of 'fancy' earrings, the first earrings she's been able to wear apart from the ones she got when her ears were pierced. She was *so* excited, ooh'd and aah'd, put them in, admired them, took them out, put them in the box, handed them to Hannah and said "You can have dese. I no want holes in mine ears no more." I couldn't have been more shocked. Gray got wooden cars and noise makers. Oh, the big noise maker was a hit.

When Ains felt she'd done her duty by her stocking, she went back to the dollhouse and has rarely left it since.

*Mother sighs blissfully*

Gray's favorite present was this Spiderman 4-wheeler from his dad. Awesome.

My present for both girls was a little tin tea set that they'll be able to be a bit more careless with (as is not possible with the tea set patched together from thrift stores).

It was a quiet hit, not a lot of excitement, but steady play. The cups are the perfect size for Gray. It cracks me up how proper he is when he holds the cup. Matt says I should teach him stick his pinkie out.

The afternoon was spent discovering and rediscovering all that we got. This was a gamble - Mystery Garden. I'm always looking for good games. Some are instant hits, some are instant duds. This one is so much fun - even Ains can play (in her 3-year-old way). If you're looking for an educational game, this would qualify. There's a board with a picture of a garden on it that includes dozens of little details. There are dozens of little tiles with one detail (a unicorn, a hedgehog, a beehive, etc) on each. You draw a tile and everyone else tries to guess what it is by asking yes/no questions.

Ains worked with her 'sticker storybook'.

And the train track got moved downstairs where it became a 'viewing train around a dinosaur zoo'.

Sorry it's up so late!

Aw, yeah.

It took all of these books to get them to sleep tonight.

Cookies and milk left out near a chair. "Cause he's so tired from lugging that big sack all night, you know."

The children are snug in their beds. (While visions of chihuahuas, little plastic princesses, and trucks dance in their heads.)

Two out of three ain't bad. No chihuahua this year.

The magic is arranged.

This is what it's all about.

Sliding into Christmas.

Solstice has passed. We did more for Solstice this year, and both girls really got into it. An awesome Solstice gift didn't hurt. During the day, we had cousins over and we ('we' being my sister and I, for the most part) made treats for the birds.



The kids did make their pinecone feeders before running off to twirl.

Quick question for you - how many kids are in this picture?

After cousins left and Daddy came home, the girls got to open their Solstice present.

It was well received.



The last few days have been spent making ornaments,



experimenting with hair,



playing games,

writing letters to friends,

asking to go outside,

going outside,

and eating lots of brownies.

That was the last few days.

Last night saw Hannah adding last minute items to her Santa List.

A chihuahua and tulip seeds.

She's highly optimistic about the chihuahua. She shouldn't be.

This morning has already seen frantic last minute gift finishing for siblings, secret wrapping, screams of 'Don't let her come in here!!!', and Smurfs.


Happy Holidays to you and yours, readers. I've enjoyed sharing the past year with you and hope that next year is filled with all that you need.

Advent Obsession.

I adore advent calendars, so when I saw this little beauty at a thrift store, I grabbed it.

We had to fix it up a bit - paint a few little wooden balls and glue them on.

It was hard to part with, but it was purchased with another home in mind. We have my brother's name for our present exchange this year, so the girl's and I filled it up and sent it on its way.

We printed out a list of about eighteen fun Christmas activities, cut them into squares and stuffed them in different days.

We didn't do all 24 days because my brother's family is Christian, so we figured they'd want to add some of their own activities in. We added some fun stuff like candy canes and hot chocolate mix and popcorn to help them with activities we'd suggested.

We made and wrapped the easiest and cutest little ornaments.

The pattern says to use stiff felt. Since we didn't have any, we used foam sheets.

One foam sheet made about five little ornaments, so don't be surprised if you're one of Hannah's 'best friends in the world' and get an ornament in the mail. *cough*Ashley*cough*

And so the season begins.

The past few days ...

have been spent reconnecting with cousins over balloon tying (how I missed a picture of the enormous 'pet shop' that resulted from this, I'll never know), reading,

and ornament making.

There was then last trampoline jumping of the season,

and searching in the mountains for the perfect Christmas tree.



We'll have our tree up earlier than usual this year, but I'm ok with that. I'm ready to start listening to Christmas music and watching Love Actually once a day until the season is over. Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, and Emma Thompson .... it doesn't get *any* better than that.