Christmas #3 - Messy Reindeer

Christmas morning was filled with new jammies, books, toys, and treats. I think this was our latest start ever, though. We have so much fun on Christmas Eve that we are all exhausted the next day. We told the kids they had to stay in their room until we got them, and I checked on them at 8:30 thinking they would be beating down the door. Nope. They were passed out. According to my camera, the first picture I took was at 10:25am. V slept through the whole thing - I'm not even sure she saw her spread before we left for dinner. My favorite gift was a Momma Mia DVD. Santa always seems to know what I want.



Wii pants for my Wii boy with a Wii pocket for his Wii remote:

On Christmas Eve the boys had decided that instead of leaving cookies (since we didn't have any in the house anyway) that they would cater to the reindeer - they left a bowl of carrots and a bowl of water with a note for Santa. The next morning there was a note of thanks from the big guy but no bowls. We later discovered them on the front sidewalk, bits of carrots strewn around and hoof marks in the grass. We're glad the reindeer enjoyed their treat. :)

Christmas #2 - When Pigs Fly

Every year we have Christmas Eve at T’s parents’ house. Here is the collection of grandkids that gets bigger every year as well as our own crew:


We had a dee-licious ham and mashed potato dinner (we are still talking about how good that food was) with Julian pies for dessert. Mmm-mmm good. We had all chipped in to get T’s mom new Christmas dishes, and T’s sister had the bright idea for me to bring them over pretending they were mine and set the table. She then wrapped the empty boxes for her mom to open during present time. She was very surprised and happy to discover that the set was actually hers!

After dinner we sang Christmas songs and tried to convince the kids that we should just wait until the next day to open presents. There were no takers. The biggest hit for my kids this year was that they each got a Wii game from Grandma and Papa Butler. E was the most excited by this and told us that “Grandma turned my frown upside down!” We had rented his game, Boom Blox, before (fun game!), and it meant a lot to him that we can keep this one and not have to give it back. All night and the next day he sang Grandma’s praises.


I have to mention my nephew E. He is the coolest kid to have around at present opening time because he gets really excited about EVERYTHING! Even at our E’s birthday party he was whooping and hollering at each present like his team had just won the Super Bowl. We do a name exchange for the cousins and he was one of ours this year. We got him some blocks, but I also threw in this pj set even though I felt a little guilty because pj’s just aren’t very fun. But we all knew when he opened it because he started yelling, “Pajamas! Whoo hoo! Yeah!!!” I was so happy to see that I had caught the moment on camera.

A while back I saw these great toys at our friends’ house and knew that I wanted to have some, so I ordered one for each of the cousins to open last on Christmas Eve. They are Flingshots – animal slingshots that make noises when you fling them. Pretty soon we had barnyard animals flying all over the living room. Here is V holding a duck and a cow, and I love that you can see the pig in midair as it oinked its way from one end of the room to the other.

Finally, here is a montage of some of the other Christmas Eve photos. Feel free to skip it if you like, but hey, it's only 21 seconds of your time...

Christmas #1 - Apple Bottoms

My favorite thing last week was that my sister B and her husband and son were here visiting all the way from Okinawa, Japan. They stayed in town for about a week before leaving for Idaho to see their first grandbaby! My niece had a baby boy last month (Congrats!) so now I am a Great-Aunt. I mean, I was always a great aunt, but now I am a GREAT Aunt! Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Anyway, before they left, we exchanged presents with them at my parents' house. Among other things, they got each boy a cool Hawaiian shirt (from Hawaii) and a pink Hawaiian dress for V, who was asleep by the time we got to this point in the festivities.

I got this homemade snowman light-up glass block and (drum roll, please) a carpet cleaner!!! I love it! It was a total surprise to me and dwarfed the presents we got for them. She said she decided to get it after reading my blog a couple of posts back. So apparently I have a wishing blog. I think next year I will write about how V ripped up my million dollar bill and that I will have to borrow one from someone else. What would you write about?

Now to explain the title of this post: The boys were taking turns helping Auntie B pass out presents. When it was E's turn, he started talking to her about which one to hand out, then stopped mid-sentence to say, "Look, apple bottoms," then went back to what he was saying. It took us a second to figure out that he was referring to this box of mango cakes on the entertainment center that features a picture of two mangoes which together do, in fact, resemble an apple bottom, if there were such a thing. The funniest part was that he said it as though it were the most normal thing in the world. It's always interesting to get a glimpse into the mind of a five-year-old.

Cel-looo!

J and I started learning cello this semester through AWC and the Yuma Orchestra Association. J had wanted to be in band at school, but it just wasn't going to work out. Someone told me about this class, and when I saw that it was for all ages, I signed up, too! I always thought the cello was a gorgeous instrument with a sound to match but never thought I would have the opportunity to try it out. We recently had our final concert where we played some of the great masterpieces such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and "Jingle Bells." I'm still quite squeaky and a bit out of tune sometimes, but it is still fun to play. Thanks to EB for lending me his beautifully refurbished cello.

Don't Cry Over Spilt...

Last night I went to the grocery store to take advantage of some 10 for $10 deals, such as cream cheese, butter, ice cream, cake mix, etc. When I got home, the boys helped me bring in the bags and V "helped" T put away the food by pulling it out of the bags and carting it around the house. Every time he thought he had all the cold stuff put away, she would show up with another item. (I found what I'm pretty sure was the last can of breadstick dough near her room this morning .)
At one point she had a single-serving size container of Blue Bunny ice cream in her hands - I think she liked feeling how cold it was - but I wasn't too worried because I like melted ice cream so I figured I would let her play with it and then share it with her later when it was nice and soupy. So the boys went to bed and T and I went back to work on our computers while V played. Several minutes later I heard T shout something and turned around to see V sitting in a pool of ice cream on our carpet! We had no idea she could open the container, but boy was she happy with herself! She was eating up as much of that stuff as she could and did not appreciate being pulled away from the sweet gooey mess. My first instinct was to take a picture, of course, but neither camera was close by and we had to get her out of there before she started walking through it. She had Bunny Tracks all over her hands, face, hair, toes, and her second clean jammies of the night. I took her right to the bath and T cleaned it up as best he could. We had to put our rocking chair over the spot so she wouldn't go back and smush it more into the carpet. Luckily T's mom has a carpet cleaner - you can guess how I will be spending my morning tomorrow!