Merry Christmas!

 Happy Holidays! 

I knew I would be cooking plenty on Christmas Day, so we had our special red and green pancakes on Christmas Eve morning.  H loved the H on his!

On the day after Christmas, we had a feast of chickenturk (turkey), cornerbread (corn bread dressing), and comma pie (pecan pie).  Very yummy!

 C was having a Linus kind of morning bringing his blankie and owl around with him all morning.  I guess we can all use a little extra comfort some days. 

 Ready to go to Christmas Eve church.  I know I can't dress H like this too much longer, but I was so happy to find matching Christmas outfits for the boys.  I think they look pretty cute!

 When we got to church C had to bring his glasses and harmonica.  He entertained everyone with his songs and props.

 The whole gang was in the manger waiting for baby Jesus.  We had a birthday cake for Baby Jesus this year. 

 Santa brought the boys a joint gift this year - a zoo and some Anamalz.  Our woodworking neighbors helped Santa put together the zoo.  I think they did a pretty good job!

 Santa brought me a stomach bug in the wee hours of Christmas morning, so I spent most of Christmas on the couch or in the bed, but I think the boys had a pretty good day regardless.  

I had made the boys some matching pajamas, and they were had a great time being dinosaurs growling around the house. 

From H's camera: Christmas decorating

I don't often post from H's camera, but he takes a picture or ten about every day or every other day.  So it gets a lot of use.  There are a lot of pictures of darkness and toes.... C has even started trying to take pictures too!  I don't think he's actually taken any pictures, but he likes to 'tend (pretend) to take them.

 H took his camera to school for show and tell earlier in the school year.  This is a picture of some of his class mates.  I think one of the kids in the picture is Kylie, but I'm not too sure. 

 

 This is our tree.  It's big and green.

 That's brother!  He's putting ordaments (ornaments) on the tree.  He's too little.  I have to help him. 

 See our socks (stockings)? There's Santa too.  And some Jingle Bells.

 That's our Avent (Advent) Cander (Calendar).  I know which one we'll do tomorrow. 

There's Mary and Jovis and Abriel and the Why Men and some animals. 

(We saw a nativity in someones yard the other day and H I guess didn't know what to call it so he said "There's a 'Baby Jesus Born!'"  I think I'll be sad when the boys know all the right words.)

This is from last year,  H's first portrait of C on Christmas Day!

Never far apart

 Afternoon stamping.  If you look closely, or enlarge the picture, you can see a fair amount of ink on C's face.  Ever since starting school, H has been fairly into art - especially stamping, doing stickers and play-do.  Because of this, C is getting to participate in a lot more art at this age than H did.  And I am also very thankful for non-toxic art supplies!  Just about all mediums end up in his mouth at some point.  His favorites to gnaw on are crayons - so I usually try to give him colored pencils.  They are a little harder to bite...  H did a great picture of himself with hiccups the other day.  I need to try to get it on here. 

 Snuggle time with Leonard!  These boys love their cat!  They love him up and can be a little rough with him, but I think Leonard sort of likes all of the attention! 

 We went to story time at the Gingerbread Village.  It was very tempting to see all the candy on the gingerbread houses, but at least any missing pieces were not from our two.

 Quick trip to the park.  It has been so wet, cold and rainy lately that we haven't been able to get out too much, so this was a welcome adventure!  Both boys loved swinging together.  C liked how the wind made his hair feel, he kept rubbing his hands through it.  H always makes new friends at the park, it surprises me how quickly he and another little boy around his age can become fast playmates with only a few words shared between them!

 Stickers!  H has been bringing everyone in the house one of these happy face stickers a few times a day, saying "Here's a happy sticker for you because you make me happy!"  C found the sticker sheet and put about twenty or so on his cheek.  I found two up his sleeve and one in his diaper a little later.

We got a Christmas box in the mail today (thanks Bryan and Sheri!) and the boys had a great time playing in it and then decorating it with crayons and stickers.  I love to find activities that engage them for anything more than five minutes.  So when they were still going strong when supper was ready, I thoroughly enjoyed eating my supper in peace and then reheated theirs.  Quite a treat!

In all of these pictures, and throughout most of our day, the boys are never too far apart.  I hope that might be true through most of their lives.

Virtual Gingerbread

 After little brother went down for his nap, me and H whipped up some gingerbread!  It must have been super humid, because the gingerbread dough ended up a little more like cake batter, but it was still delicious!  (Maybe even more so!)  I used our trusted Cutting Family Gingerbread recipe and Nanny's sugar cookie icing recipe, both tried and true recipes that never fail!  H wanted to eat them "right now!" and not wait for them to cook and ice and take to the "eighbors."  

After "bunny woked up" (his tot clock) we cut out the pieces and he quickly gobbled up the scraps before I could say no. 

After supper, we got all set to decorate!

 

 Mmmmm!  It's delicious!  

H decorated and ate one of the little scraps, and I gave C an un-iced piece to eat.  They both loved them!  I didn't quite think C was ready to ice them yet without eating everything and smearing icing all in his hair. 

 

 H was our sprinkle man.  He loves sprinkles!  He calls them sprinklers and likes them on unsweetened applesauce for a special treat!  Here are two trees for you!  Grab one and enjoy!

C really wanted to help, and I started putting the tiniest dribble of icing on his fingertip and he would savor it and beg for more!  All in all, it was a great evening activity.  We might just have to do it again before Christmas!

Merry Making

 Our little elves (and their Mama) have been busy making our home merry and bright!

We've hung stockings, put up lights, hung up all of H's Christmas artwork from school, put up our decorations, and more!

 

We put up the Advent calendar (H and SweetHart have been calling each other "on the Pad" (on the iPod) each day and hang up that days ornament from our calendar and hers too!  C even gets a turn every couple of days!

 We picked up a tree after ice skating and I put lights on during nap time and hung the ornaments after everyone was awake.  The boys took their job of decorating the tree very seriously.  They hung about twenty or so ornaments between the two of them and they hung all twenty of them within the same area on the tree.  Sometimes a few of them on the same branch!

 Daddy got home just in time to help H hang the star on top.  H was so excited about being the one to put the star on top!  When we were talking about decorating the tree, he put on his most mature face, did a whole lot of eye blinking and told me all about it!

 The boys area.

H is very into Christmas and our preparations for it this year, which makes it a lot more fun for me too!  C really has no idea what is going on, but likes all of the excitement.  

We also got out our nativity.  When I ordered the set last year, it didn't come with the stable.  We have some excellent wood working neighbors, and I asked them if they could make me a simple A frame for a stable, and they came back with this!  I will take a better picture of it, but there is a fenced in area for the animals, a cute stable with an awesome star on top!  I am so glad I asked them to do this!  These are on the counter where we eat and H likes to move them around.  For awhile all of the people - the shepherd, wisemen and angel were all watching the animals.  But lately H has been arranging them in a Heavenly huddle.  H told me "Jovis (Joseph) feels sad because there is no room for him."  But his buddy, Mary, made a little space and he was happy again....  H likes to tell me how the Angel "Abriel" says "You will have a baby."

He's been singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus for months now and says we should make a cake for him with chocolate chips, peaches and raisins.  Anyone have a recipe for that?

Ice Skating

 On Saturday we bundled up and headed to the Square.  We heard that there would be ice skating and we had to check it out!  We had to wait quite awhile for our turn, and H was so patient!  He didn't complain once!

 It was a little colder than we expected, and sooo windy so it felt even colder.  C and I kept running into Square Books JR. to warm out and listen to Santa reading a story.

 It took a couple of minutes to get H's legs both going in the same directions, but regardless the huge smile didn't come off his face the whole time he was skating!

 It wasn't real ice, but some kind of plastic that acted like ice.  They wore real ice skates, and it was a great experience.

 The parents didn't have to wear skates, but could just walk with the little guys.  We didn't attempt to put C in ice skates - we were pretty sure he would hate it!  After a few minutes, we put him on in his regular shoes and he was okay for about a minute, but then was ready to get off.

When we left, H was asking when we could go again!

Come to the Grove with us!

 (C goes in circles or claps his hands when he is happy about something, 

H was so happy to have space to RUN!)

 (chocolate milk break)

(leaf throwing)

I couldn't resist

Too cute not to post!  

H's Christmas Program

 We're here!  Where's brother?  

C just thought the excitement was wonderful!  He saw a little girl about his age and went over to her and smiled and then started laughing and walking in circles... We might need to work on his flirting style!  I think C has about three teeth coming in now, so he just about always has a finger or if he can get his hands on them, my sunglasses, in his mouth. 

 The kids came in looking so cute!  Each class was dressed a little differently, and they were all precious!  On Monday they had the dress rehearsal for the Christmas program, and H's teacher told me that he just flat out refused to put on his costume.  We talked about it and were a little worried that he would still refuse today, but she told me when they started putting on costumes, he ran over and asked for his.  We were all so glad that he was willing and ready today!

 The twelve little cows from his classroom. 

 

 Singing "Go Tell it on the Mountain." 
You can hear H singing a little louder than the other kids.  He also tried to sing it a third time.  His first mini solo!

They started practicing for the program a couple of months ago, and occasionally at rest time I would hear H in his room saying "Let's practice guys.  Ok.  1-2-3.  Go Tell it on the Mountain..."  They sang Silent Night, and a couple of other cute songs.  The program lasted about 12 minutes.  Then there was juice and a birthday cake for Baby Jesus. 

 The kids made the decorations for the tables.  This was H's Christmas tree.

 The kids made sweet little presents for the parents, C was so excited to see his brother's picture on the little wreath.  He loves his big brother!

H and Miss 'Tephanie (Stephanie).  He told her "Happy Thanksgiving" when we left!

So, now we have a whole month off before school starts back in January.  I am thinking we will have our own little school in the mornings and lots of play dates too!  

Christmas Parade

 The Christmas parade was on Monday night.  Two years ago it was freezing, and I was pregnant and tired so just H and Daddy went that first year.  Last year we went and huddled in the music building until the band came by because it was freezing.  This year it was a balmy 70 or so degrees so we went to the square to watch the whole thing!  Most of my pictures didn't turn out very good, but we had a great time!

 

 We saw our buddy, Henry, and C enjoyed throwing leaves in the air while we waited. 

 We also saw Kylie, H's best friend, and you can see the excitement on his face!

 Watching the parade go by.  There were so many marching bands and cheerleading teams, even the Audubon Society had a group - and every adult in the group was dressed up as a different critter: butterfly, hummingbird, salamander, frog, owl and more. 

H loved the whole thing, and C did okay, but I think it was a little loud and bright for his liking.  He clung very tight to us.  

H said over and over all the way home "I'm sad because I didn't get any candy..."  I think he was still in a Halloween mindset.