A Very Merry Holiday

Is there a limit for post length or pictures posted? There's a possibility I may exceed that limit in this post... Lots and lots and lots of pictures ahead...

After years of begging, this is the first Christmas that each party had it's own day and we weren't expected to party hop 2-3 locations on Christmas Day. We were able to relax (as much as can be expected with two little ones) and enjoy each event. Thank you family for your flexibility! From everyone I talked to, I think this new schedule is very much appreciated. This is the best way to accomodate the "grandkid" generation, all of whom are growing up and branching out the family tree to include many new family parties.

Sunday, December 20th

We kicked off Christmas week with the Konesky Christmas at their home (mom's side of the family). Here's the extended "Skees" family photo:

My two little loves

The three girls, all dressed up in their holiday best, could not get enough of their tiny shoes! They had a shoe-sucking party on the floor. :)

Opening gifts.

Cousins playing "Would You Rather?"

Thursday, December 24th

Christmas Eve morning, I got up with the kids while Craig went in to work for the morning. So we had some Christmas French toast.

Ready for Christmas Eve mass (despite dreadfully runny noses from both kids)

Before we left, Will and Daddy tore off the last link on the chain. Tomorrow is Christmas!

Sophie should have been pretty tired considering she normally catnaps around 5:00, but she was so well behaved in church! Will, on the other hand, was good for about the first 10 minutes. We told him we were there to pray. He knows all about praying because we pray with him regularly at home. (In another post, I'll get into that topic. He's very cute about it and he's really starting to get good at praying.) So he had his hands folded and kept wondering when we were going to say "Amen" to end the prayer. He'd ask Craig "Amen?", like a question. And a few seconds later he'd say "Amen Daddy?" It was so funny. But then he started acting up as soon as all the kids got called up to the front to listen to a special story. Craig ended up taking him to the back of the church for the rest of the service. I confess that my kids haven't gotten as much church exposure as they should. Before we had kids, Craig and I used to say we'd start going regularly when our kids were about 2 or 3. Looking back, that's not such a smart plan because then it's completely new to them and they have no idea how to behave. We are planning to start attending more regularly now. Most likely on Saturday evening services because that's probably the kids' best time.

After mass, we made our way over to Grandma and Big Papa Riedeman's house for Christmas with the King/Powers families (Craig's mom's side of the family):

Aunt Kelly and Will check out the train.

Will opens his big gift from Grandma and Big Papa... a scale model of a G750 Minneapolis Moline tractor!

Grandma gives Will a little help getting the hang of pedaling. These pedals are a little more his size, 'cause he still hasn't been able to pedal his tricycle on his own.

And from there, he rode it all over the house.

Cousin Stephanie helped feed Sophie her dinner.

And then Soph opened a new push/ride toy.

And Will, the gallant big brother that he is, rushed over to "help" Sophie figure out how to play with it. :)

"Four calling birds, three French 'horns'..." (LOL)

The Cousins

Aunt Kelly and Uncle Steve gave Will the entire Toledo Zoo :)

Craig and I received some nice gifts too. I got an upgrade on my current kitchen cutlery with an awesome set of JA Henckels knives and a cozy pair of much-needed new slippers. Craig got some more pieces to his beloved, growing, SK tool collection.

It was a late night and Will was a walking zombie by the end of it, but I always remember Christmas Eve as the best part of the holiday when I was a child. All the anticipation, all the excitement...

After arriving home, Craig and I got our first real taste of what Christmas feels like to parents. This was the first year we waited till Christmas Eve with the kids asleep to put all the gifts under the tree, fill the stockings, etc.

At the last minute, Santa decided to put a new red sled under the tree. And it was a nice place to put the filled stockings since we don't have a mantle.

Will really only asked Santa for one thing: candy canes. So we hung them all over the tree.

Add to that: unloading all the gifts and stuff from the car, loading it for the next day, getting ready for bed... Craig and I both just want to say sorry to our parents for getting up super early on Christmas morning when we were kids. Now we know all you go through and how exhausting the whole ordeal is. And if it makes you feel better... Will and Sophie got up around 6:30...

Soph got some new activity blocks

Brutus got some candy-cane-striped chew toys.

Will got new puzzles. We're moving on to bigger and better things now, folks: jigsaw puzzles! (P.S. you'll notice daddy fixed Will's hair into a stylishly-messy spike for Christmas morning.)

Both kids got personalized growth charts to hang on their walls. I'm so excited about these - they're like art!

It's weird to think my kids will be as tall as (or taller than) me one day.

A cool, wooden car toy.

Here's an unusual, but especially cool toy: a bilibo. Check it out online at: http://www.hearthsong.com/product.asp?section_id=0&department=0&search_type=normal&search_value=bilibo&cur_index=&pcode=1952 And don't forget to watch the video. Basically it's a versatile bowl-like toy for rocking, spinning, and testing a child's imagination. It's won several awards and I (I mean Santa) thought it seemed like an awesome way to spark creativity for many years of use, since it doesn't have just one age-specific use. They show kids playing with it in the snow, at the beach, around the house, etc. In fact, I think we may get more in the future for even more fun!

Here's Will sitting in it:

Standing on it:

Mommy standing on it:

Making a skateboard-style rollercoaster for his wooden cars:

A hat to peek through... Once again, he told me he was a fire chief:

LOTS of new books including several search and find books for Will and board books for Sophie. Plus, Santa brough us hoola hoops! A big one for mommy and daddy and a little one for Will and Sophie.

Will attempts:

Daddy attempts:

Mommy shows the boys how it's done:

I'm not sure how to say this... buuuuut, I'm a pretty awesome hoola-hooper. It's kind of a hidden talent. Now I'm just showing off... standing on the bilibo, hoola-hooping, AND displaying one of Will's new matchbox cars. :)

Next up, Soph opens her big gift: a Leap Frog Learn 'n Groove music table.

Stockings!

A couple new movies, some books, matchbox cars...

A new harmonica!

Soph got a cute flower rattle and my favorite gift for her: a soft-knit owl doll named Prudence. It's her first doll and it's so cozy and cute - like those old sock dolls. I kind of have an obsession with owls since Sophie's been born - not sure why...

This year, Craig and I got new remote car starters put on our Jeeps and then just got a few, small stocking stuffers for each other. Craig got some movies, a couple golf accessories, and some candy. I got (a higher-priced item than expected) some new Versace perfume. LOVE it!

Oh, and of course, Will got a box of mini candy canes. He was in heaven.

Following stockings, we had a little sled ride in the living room :)

And then Craig helped Will pluck off every candy cane from the tree. That was a present in itself.

So that was Christmas morning! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. After a nap for Sophie and some mild straightening of the mess in our living room, we headed over to Nana & "Papa Looch's" house (my parents) for brunch, more gifts and hanging out in our pj's.

We arrived to find Mya and Stella already enjoying their lunch.

Mom and dad's tree with all the presents.

Nana, Sophie... and Prudence the cuddly owl. :)

A close-up of the spike- LOL

Stella, Sophie and Mya in their Christmas jams. We had to snap fast... Soph was poking eyeballs and pulling ears. :)

All 3 girls in their chairs while the fam eats brunch.

An overlook of the great room just before gift opening.

Wesley and his daughters

Zach, Amanda and Taylor

Craig and Soph

Nana and Papa Looch

My smiley Goddaughter

This year, it was decided that we'd start the rule of three. Three gifts for each person (children and grandchildren) and any dollar amount over and above those gifts that Nana & Papa planned to spend would go towards college funds for the grandkids and savings for us. I really like this new plan. There are SO many gifts to open at all these parties and it gets overwhelming. This keeps it under control.

Soph opening some new clothes:

A Puma suit! How stinkin' cute is that? It will go with her little, white, Puma sneakers next summer.

Will got a "name train" for his train table:

And his big gift: a wooden barn to store all his farm animals in!

The roof comes off to reach inside, the doors slide open and there's a ladder and corral.

The three baby girls also got a joint gift that will be kept at Nana's house: a little playhouse that talks whenever you touch any part of it, i.e. "open" or "close" when you swing the door. Very cute, lots of detail.

Casey and I also got gifts for each other's kids. We bought them a family membership to the Toledo Zoo so we can go with all the kids next summer. I also got the girls a music table and rattle just like Sophie's.

Will got a USA floor puzzle, some cute clothes for next year, farm lacing blocks, and some educational games for rhyming and counting. (Duh! Casey and Wes are both teachers - they're always looking out for learning opportunities.) And Sophie got some soft, taggie blocks, a grippy sphere rattle, and some more super cute hair clips. Casey even made us a hair clip holder! Isn't it SO cute!?

My gift from mom and dad was that bike trailer that I purchased last summer. It was something they knew I wanted and thought I'd like to get an extra season out of it by purchasing early. More tools for Craig:

Sleepy Brutus

A kiss from Will through the stair rails

Playing Scattergories

A very relaxing Christmas Day. Craig fell asleep at 8:30 that night while I cleaned up more of the house. I'm sure my living room isn't the only one that looks like a toy tornado blew through, but it's still embarrassing to even show the pictures. It was an absolute disaster on Christmas Day. :)

Saturday morning at home, I got up with the kids and attempted to use my holiday pancake molds that we received as a gift... for our wedding I think? They turned out okay I guess but they were a pain in the butt. I think I'll stick to regular pancakes and just use cookie cutters in the future. But it probably had to do with the thicker, whole grain batter.

While I'm displaying food, here are the new plates Will got from us on Christmas morning. There are two - one with zoo animals and one with trucks and trains. He loves finding a picture under each food item he eats and I love that they look like cute little Bento boxes.

We set up Will's barn in his bedroom and "fed" the animals some hay with cut up papers strips. I later found Will "feeding" more hay... only this time it was about half a box of tissues torn into shreds. Oops.

I hung Sophie's hair clip holder on her dresser for easy access.

I read a tip in a magazine once to put little girls' hair clips in an ice cube tray in a drawer for easy organizing and color-coordinating. Very clever!

So Saturday was a much-needed, lay-around-day. We ate leftovers for lunch and ordered pizza for dinner and just vegged and caught up on sleep. Phew!

Sunday, December 27th

Our final party of the week: the Riedeman Christmas at Pam & Johnny's in Napolean (Craig's dad's side of the family). The kids were very good at this party but still had those darn runny noses. It's an hour drive to Napolean and the snow had started to fall shortly before we left. It was beautiful and white when we arrived.

Pam and John have a beautiful home and it was really nice to visit with the family. Will got to know many new names of people he doesn't see often and he really took a liking to cousin Libby for showing him all the pretty ornaments on the tree.

He even got to go outside and see Libby's horses, Summer and Bea, as well as some chickens, ducks, cats and a dog.

The 3 Riedeman men - all look-alikes.

Aunt Cathy with Soph

Grandma feeding Will

Soph and her Papa. Jammies are on and we're ready for the long drive home!

The snow had continued throughout the party and the drive home was quite treacherous. It took us 2 hours and we saw several cars off the road. So once again before bed, we said prayers with Will thanking God for our safety and our health.

What a wonderful Christmas week spent with families!

See? I told you there'd be lots of pictures... this post took me about 3 days to finish!