Christmas Day

'Twas the morning of Christmas, and all through the house

The creatures were stirring, even my spouse.
It was 6:55, the hour was here,
Santa had come, and there was wrapping to tear. 

The stockings were emptied, kids inspected their "loot",
Then onward, more presents, was the pursuit.
There were books, a toy snake, clothes, and more books,
Soon the wrapping was gone, and we all exchanged looks.



Christmas wasn't over, it barely had started,
No lazy day, there was a different course charted.
We packed a few gifts, and an offer of food
And journeyed to visit the Hobson brood.

The food was amazing, Con cooked up a storm.
We ate until our stomachs were in fine form.
Then the presents, they crested as a wave.
Leaving my children with nothing to crave.

Several hours later, we traveled on home.
We took a quick nap, no desire to roam.
Roam on though, we must, so we girded our loins,
Grabbed more food, and more gifts, my family to join.

We opened the church, wheeled my dad from Hillcrest,
Met with my family, remembered we're blessed.
Passed around the sweet babies; could hold them all day!
And watched as the grandchildren presented a play.





Ate lots more food, my stomach was done.
Empty calories had lost most of their fun.
More presents, more family, more joy and more glee,
Also "Can we go home now?" was the exhausted plea.

We wheeled my dad home, and tidied the church,
As we headed for home, our souls we did search.
It had been a grand Christmas, a glorious day,
What we wanted now was a bed upon which to lay.

We all brushed our teeth, our pajamas we donned,
We watched a short movie and openly yawned.
We crawled into bed, knowing Christmas was spent.
Sleep was the craving, of which we didn't repent.

Snoring quietly ensued from five of our clan,
Sleep did elude me, as my brain made some plans.
So I write crummy poetry before I turn off the light,
And I say with true heart, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Quinceañero

Just over six feet tall, one year away from being allowed to date, eight months away from high school (it starts in 10th grade here), Ethan loved his fifteenth birthday. I am a gobsmacked at how much he has grown, this little boy who used to curl around my pregnant stomach while I read "Where the Wild Things Are" on repeat, now towers over me and carries me away from conversations he deems are taking too long.

He's definitely not a baby anymore: Now he gets excited to receive clothes for his birthday!

He was even truly excited about socks.

We also gave him a book and a fancy schmancy wallet. He was well-pleased with his old man gifts.

His greatest gift, though, came from Michael's family. They all pitched in money and I picked up Ethan's new greatest love...

He has been taking lessons for a few months, but has had to play on my classical style guitar. He's excited to let his steel strings sing.

Happy birthday, my boy! I hope the next year is great. You still aren't allowed to date.

Not Christmas Stuff

Random pictures from random December days. There is no theme to this post, but there are interesting pictures, so there's that.

This is Ethan's science project. He created a slime mold cell out of his dad's random hardware bits.

Grace made a spinal column out of hard and gummy life savers. Then she ate it.

I put both girls' hair in French braids. Ethan wanted French braids as well. His hair was not long enough. We compromised.

Libby really likes shoes. I'm not sure where this child came from.

I just happened to find this picture.

and this picture on my phone. I really don't know what happened.

And one last picture of a beautiful baby. This is my new niece who was adopted just a couple months ago. She is perfect and beautiful and makes me all gushy inside. I love her so much, it is really disgusting. Thankfully her parents don't seem to mind and will even send me pictures on a random Tuesday when I need a pick me up.

Christmas Traditions Part II

Another yearly tradition is the making of gingerbread houses. This year we were invited to a gingerbread making house party hosted by Michael's friend and co-worker.  It was fun to decorate houses with a large group of people. There was a huge variety of candies, someone else made the houses and frosting, and we all enjoyed some delicious snacks. It was also crowded. I'm not sure if it was more or less crazy than making them at home.

The houses in their completed glory. This is before they ate most the candy off them.

One thing that remained the same was the fact the kids ate all the candy off their house within a day, and Sam destroyed his house within 24 hours.

His first hit only damaged his hand, and not the house. He persevered, though, and eventually wrought destruction.

**Sidenote: I need to mention that Ethan is red-green colorblind.  He sees most colors accurately, but does get confused when brown is mixed into red and green colors. I made a comment about the gingerbread houses being brown (I don't know why) and Ethan stopped in his tracks. "Wait! Gingerbread houses are brown?"

"Yes, son, we have made brown gingerbread houses for ten years now. What color did you think they were?"

"They're green."

"You thought we were making green houses every year? Why would we make green houses?"

"I figured it was to make them Christmas-y!"

Everyone was giggling at this point.

I continued with my questions, "How did you think they became green? All the ingredients are white and brown."

He shrugged, "I assumed it was some chemical reaction with the baking soda."

I am highly amused he thought we have been making green houses for years. Now I keep looking at the houses and imaging them green and it seems horribly ugly and creepy. I'm surprised he kept willingly making them.

He now understands the houses are brown, but they, of course, still look green.  Maybe we should be making them for Halloween.

Christmas Tradition

The Monday after Thanksgiving is the Idaho Capitol tree lighting. There is free hot cocoa, cider, and cookies. Choirs sing, the First Lady and Governor drone on for a long time, and then the tree is lit! It's pretty magical.

This year the speeches became a little much, so we stepped into the Capitol building and watched the tree lighting from above. We could still hear the music, but at a much lower volume. After the tree was lit, the kids were able to each select a free book! After receiving the free book, we vamoosed out of that place. I don't know if it was us, or if it was the event, but the whole thing seemed a little too loud and crowded this year. We were glad to attend, but also glad to leave.

                                     

We even managed to grab a couple photos in front of the poinsettia display. We still cannot manage to all look at the camera and smile, though. Maybe one day.

                                     

He has been renamed and shall now be known as Kevin.

Ethan proposed to Doug the tree. We brought Doug home, trimmed the branches, and put him in a stand. Ethan then renamed the tree Kevin because "Kevin is the name of a bald man, who lives in his mother's basement." Seeing as Ethan and the tree seem to have a special relationship, I figure he has naming rights. We then set about decorating Kevin. I find him charming. I am a lone voice in a wilderness of naysayers.

All lit up, Sam is jumping the gun a little and putting ornaments on before the garland.

Everyone started hanging ornaments.

After using the blog to ascertain who topped the tree last year, Sam gleefully announced it was his turn to put the angel on the tree! Last year we used a new star I picked up at an after-Christmas sale and the kids were heartbroken.  They begged to have the angel reinstated. I bought this angel back in my very early twenties, to decorate our household tree. When I went to select a topper, there were only about four varieties left, so I picked what I thought was the least ugly of the uglies.  I had no idea my kids would fall in love with her and insist she reside on the tree every year. She's been gracing a tree for almost twenties years now!

Everyone got new Christmas jammies this year. We are resplendent in fa-la-la-llamas, a tree rex, a penguin, and a santa cat riding a unicorn. Everyone picked their own jammies, in case you were wondering. Michael also has a santa cat riding a unicorn top but could not find it. Instead he took the picture. The Christmas spirit is strong at our house!

Free Christmas Tree

Grace is a fourth grader this year. Every fourth grader gets a pass to get into national parks free during their fourth grade year. Included with that, the National Forest Service offers a free permit to cut a Christmas tree with the package. Grace gets a free Christmas tree! The only criteria was that we needed to pick up the permit, drive to a national forest, hope we didn't get stuck on the snowy forest service roads, find a tree that didn't look absolutely pathetic, cut it down, tie it to the car, strip out of our soaking wet clothes and then drive home.  Her free tree took about four hours and a quarter tank of gas.

The mountains were gorgeous, we did not come close to getting stuck, and it was even snowing a little. Sam enjoyed catching the first snowflakes of the season on his tongue.

After hiking up and down step terrain looking for a tree, Grace lost her will to live. I pointed out getting wet wasn't going to make her any more comfortable. She thought laying down was worth the damp underpants.

Ethan is...

Libby is..honestly, I don't know what they were doing. Probably being grumpy I was taking their pictures.

We finally found the least shrub-like tree in the forest. Michael suggested the one further up the hill, that we had just come down from, looked better.  I said, "I don't care what tree comes home with us. No one's married to this tree. We can hike back up, if you want."  At which point, Ethan took off his ring and proposed to his soul mate "Doug". The kids were pretty much done looking for trees.

Michael bowed to the inevitable, and started sawing.

Ethan drug it back down the hill, with some motherly help getting it across the creek.

As Michael finished tying the tree off, I passed out the hot cider. It was deemed good.  The tree was deemed almost adequate.

Why Even Bother?

Why do I even keep a blog? It is such an outdated platform. When I first started blogging, it was what all the "cool" families did. They posted pictures of their kids, their successes, their failures, and we all followed each others' blogs.  Slowly, everyone joined Facebook and found it easier to share pictures and recent events with family and friends that way. Now Facebook is almost passe, as everyone is moving to less cluttered platforms.  Now all the "gucci fams" are on Instagram and Snapchat.  No one uses Blogger anymore. Of all those families I used to follow, only one has updated in the last three months! Only one! (Hi, Kortnai!)

Why do I even hang on to such an antiquated platform? Well, every year when it is time to put the angel on the Christmas tree, the kids pull up the blog and check the posts from last year so they can know whose turn it is to put on the angel.  They scroll through and laugh at the things their younger selves said. They remember half-forgotten events. I remember half-forgotten events. I know Facebook could do this, but just not as well.  This is a journal; Facebook is a text.  Past texts are sometimes interesting, but they frequently don't make sense without context. With this blog, the kids can scroll through past years and months with ease, searching for their birth announcement, an important birthday, or pictures of a past family trip.  This is our history. Facebook and Instagram can't replace that, as they only seem to focus on the present.

I keep writing this for myself and my family.  I share with others, but it is mostly for mine and my family's benefit.  This is where I keep our memories safe.

Halloween

We didn't get pictures of all the kids this year. My phone camera is currently close to useless, and we didn't have enough time when Michael was around to photograph all the kids. I guess you can try to use your imagination. Grace was a kangaroo, reusing Sam's costume from last year. Sam went as Zeus for our co-op party but deemed the costume impractical for trick-or-treating. He then dressed up as a fire fighter for Halloween night.

Ethan dressed up as an old man and found a costumed old woman (who was a male friend) at the school dance. They spent the evening yelling at their peers and saying "Are you my grandchild!?" together and won the costume contest!

Libby decided to dress as a unicorn; a really colorful unicorn. She did not win any contests, but still loved her costume and looked great!

The Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins, and every kid other than Sam carved their pumpkin by themselves! Woohoo! I feel we've reached a milestone. From the left the pumpkins were carved by Libby, Ethan, cousin Amanda, Grace, and Sam/Michael.

Halloween night my kids scattered to the wind. Libby invited six friends over, they grabbed Sam, and went trick-or-treating. Grace went door to door with her friend in the neighborhood. Ethan went over to his friend's to watch a movie. He didn't get home until 10:30 because they were watching "The Godfather"! When I looked at him disapprovingly he said, "But Mom, we turned off Saw." Michael and I enjoyed a quiet evening at home by ourselves. It was fun but also a bit surreal.

Nap Time

There's that moment in the life of all parents of a toddler: They are outgrowing naps and won't nap in the afternoon, but right around dinner time they collapse somewhere. We then struggle with deciding to let them sleep or wake them up and deal with cranky, miserable people until bedtime. I remember vividly when Grace and Sam went through the stage at the same time. I was so thankful when we passed it.

I didn't know it would happen again when the kids became teenagers. Excuse the blurry photos. I seemed to have ruined the lens on my phone. Michael is trying to remedy the problem.

My poor, tired humans. They are almost as cranky as toddlers when I have to wake them for dinner.

End of Summer

It's always a little sad when the hot air balloons float over our house. It means summer is really over. No more swimming or camping. It's time to pull out the jackets and watch the leaves change colors.  

Being inside a little more, I've started a couple crochet projects. This little octopus is a baby toy, meant for kids in the NICU. I'm still working on making the stitches small enough to pass muster.

The kids pulled out the blocks to play with now the evenings are getting darker. The kids still play with the jumbo sized building blocks. I would have thought we had outgrown them by now.

I guess it's very rewarding to build a tower taller than yourself in just a few minutes.

Before we lost all our summer weather, we biked down to Camel's Back Park. Ethan still thinks he fits in the little kid toys. He is wrong. We all enjoyed a good laugh when he couldn't get out. 

We also had Goody's certificates it was high time to redeem, so we stopped for ice cream on the way home. Goodbye summer days of parks and ice cream; I'm ready for hoodies and pumpkins!

Corrupting the Kids

Michael and I bought season tickets to the Idaho Shakespeare Festival this year, because we thoroughly enjoyed the couple plays we were able to attend last year.  After we purchased our tickets we won a couple more at a school raffle. Hooray! We figured Ethan and Libby were old enough to enjoy it with us!

After perusing the play options, we decided a musical would be most enjoyable. We rearranged our tickets, added their tickets, and were able to get four seats together to Mamma Mia!, on a school night, with the play ending at eleven, and Ethan having early morning seminary starting at 6:30 the next morning. Sometimes we just have to make a bad decision or two.

When we got to the ticket office, about thirty seconds before the play started, we discovered our seats were not actually together. As Michael and I started discussing who would sit with whom, the lovely ticket agent offered us a table! Heck yeah!

We managed to make it to our seats while the director of Idaho Shakespeare Festival was still talking, so we didn't miss a moment of the play. We even managed to snap a couple photos:

Then the play began. Michael and I kept shooting glances at each other, "What have we done?" "Oh, my gosh, is that all they're wearing?" "Now they are dancing, and it ain't ballroom!" "I hope his short shorts don't ride up while he's hip thrusting, I already have enough guilt!" Our glances can say a lot. Ethan and Libby also have very meaningful glances "I don't want to see that forty year old woman's cleavage." "I didn't know it was legal to dance like that on a stage!"

We didn't realize quite how risque the play would be, and neither did our children. I apologized after the play and Ethan pronounced, "Mom, I go to junior high; it's not anything I don't see everyday." That didn't really make me feel better.

The play was more than we expected, but actually really enjoyed it and going as a family. If we do it again, we might opt for a little more research beforehand.  I don't need the guilt of corrupting my kids; that is why I send them to public school.