St. Nick's Day

December 6th is St. Nick's Day. Chris and his brothers grew up hanging a sock on the fireplace mantle every December 5th so that St. Nick could come fill it with treats while they slept.

This year, the girls hung their socks for St. Nick.

Upon finding their socks in the morning, the girls were overjoyed to find, "CANNY!!!"

 

 

 

Who Took the Chocolate?

One morning in December, I left the girls downstairs momentarily while I ran upstairs. I came down to quiet, and I assumed that they would still be watching Sesame Street, as it was a brand new episode and they seemed pretty interested in it when I left the room.

But instead of being on the couch where I left them, they were around the corner crouched over an orange bag. When they noticed me coming, they each popped something in their mouths and then began arguing over the orange bag.

What were they up to? Well, I quickly realized the orange bag was the bag of Reses Christmas bells that I had very recently opened. Then I began noticing little crumpled foil balls scattered around the kitchen. Apparently, they'd been popping the bells in their mouths, sucking out the melted candy, and then spitting out the foil wrappers.

The girls were quite disappointed when I put an end to their morning snack.

Shadow Friends

Around 4:00 in the afternoon these days, we get some great afternoon sun that streams in through the family room windows. For a short time, it shines on the white garage door, creating the perfect backdrop for shadow games.

 

 

 

 

Christmas Art

Painting has become a requested activity in this house. If Emily sees a paint brush or a picture she or Addie painted, I will hear "pain? pain? pain? peas? pain?"

While Addie hasn't started requesting craft time yet, she always enjoys it when the paint comes out!

 

Candy Day 2012

We had our annual candy making day at the Palte house this year. With four kids to play with and distracted adults, we had a couple batches fail and didn't produce as much candy as we have in the past, but we had lots of fun!

 Callie started things out right by enjoying marshmallow fluff leftover in the jar while a batch of fudge was on the stove.

 

 She then humored me by posing for a marshmallow face picture by the tree.

 
Chris was good about following the candy rules, and buttered his pan before starting a batch.

In all the excitement, Addie had a hard time keeping her pants on, so she got a Hello Kitty duct tape belt for the evening.

Ummm, yea, Britney, that toffee isn't looking like toffee.

Addison had plenty of Annalea snuggle time.

Making candy with the brohas. Good times.

Then DeeDee decided it was time for a bath. (DeeDee just can't resist the splashing good times that come with a bath!) And then we had three crazy hyper (but clean!) kiddos running around, waiting to open their Christmas pjs.

It's been a Christmas tradition since before I was born: a pair of pjs for the kids on Christmas Eve. My mom's grandma used to get pajamas for her and her siblings, and then I grew up with the tradition, too. Dylan and I usually got to unwrap two presents on Christmas Eve: our new pajamas and a calendar for the new year. It's quite a special feeling to wake up on Christmas morning in brand new Christmas pajamas.

This year, DeeDee got coordinating pajamas for all four granddaughters. Being the oldest, Callie got to be Santa, with Emily, Addison, and Annalea as her elves. Since the Paltes would be in Michigan for Christmas Eve this year, we decided to open pjs early on candy day. It was so fun having new Christmas pjs to wear all through December that we might even do it again next year!

 

 

Does it get much cuter than this?

DeeDee and her crew from Santa's workshop.

Sisters looking quite precious by the tree...

...and Addison decides to photo bomb!

And what must follow all that fun? A Dance Party, of course! 

After all the little elves went to bed, Santa and the adults gathered round the tv for a special viewing of A White Christmas.  While the story and singing brought some eye rolls from the younger generation, DeeDee was overjoyed to finally watch one of her Christmas favorites with her kids, and she and Callie had a great time dancing during the many musical interludes.

The movie was briefly interrupted around 9pm, when the doorbell rang. The doorbell? We were all so confused, but when we went to the door the confusion quickly turned to excitement when we realized there was a float of carolers coming down the street, followed by Santa Claus handing out candy canes. What a special night!

Play Dough

We brought out the play dough for the first time last month. We had snacks while we played to lessen the chances of the play dough becoming a snack. It was pretty fun, and we will definitely be doing it again!

 

 

 

"Sad Face"

Chris taught Addie "sad face" last month, and has had a great time watching her face morph from happy to sad as he shouts "Sad face!" "Now happy face!" "Now sad face!" 

Here she is giving a great sad face:

While Emily began by just observing all the facial expressions, she eventually started mimicking them, and now when Chris calls out for "sad face" Emily plays right along too.

 

JoJo the Elf

JoJo came to our house on Thanksgiving, and moved around the house almost every night until Christmas. Every morning throughout December, the routine became coming downstairs to "ooooo!" at the tree and then hunt for JoJo. Once he was spotted, a loud and excited "JO!" could be heard (usually coming from Addison).

Meet JoJo, the merry little elf

The day before this picture was taken, JoJo was sitting by the TV. Before taking this picture, I asked the girls where Jo was. Addie pointed to the TV room with her usual "Jo!" Only Emily knew that sneaky JoJo had moved, and was now sitting high above them. Her pointing eventually led Addison to find the new hiding spot.

Later that day, I took this picture of Addie pointing out JoJo's new spot

This was quite an exciting morning, when we found JoJo hanging from the ceiling fan

He's up there!

Jo!

HeHe!

On Christmas morning, JoJo was sitting in our tree. The girls only had eyes for the presents, though, and went right for their gifts from Santa

Getting Ready for Christmas

Chris and I put up the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving. The girls hung out at DeeDee's house so that we could get out all the ornaments and sort out the breakable ones. The breakable ornaments went in a box in the basement and only non-glass ornaments went on the tree this year. 

When we brought the girls home from DeeDee's, we had them come in the front door so they could walk in and see the tree right away. It was pretty fun to see their reactions to the lit and decorated tree. We started out with a "one finger poke" rule, telling the girls that they needed to be very gentle with the ornaments.

There were lots of "oooos" as the girls gazed in awe at the pretty tree.

 

 

The next day, Chris took advantage of the nice weather and put up the outside lights. Addie and I went out to watch while Emily napped.

The look on her face here just cracks me up

Woo hoo! Christmas lights!

That evening, the sky lit up with a beautiful sunset, and when I went out on the porch to take pictures, the girls came out with me and immediately climbed down into the yard to admire the tree up close.

Coming downstairs each morning brought "ooooo!!!s" from the girls when they saw the tree. If I hadn't turned on the lights yet, they would point to the light switch and say "light," requesting that I turn on the beautiful sparkling lights.

Addie crosses her arms in restraint after being reminded about the "one finger" rule

Emily is transfixed by the lights

As the days went by, the girls became a bit more bold with the tree, and if Chris or I weren't in the room with them, they often forgot about the "one finger" rule and began grabbing ornaments off the tree. They would come marching into the kitchen, treasure in hand, proudly offering up an ornament for mom to put back on the tree. After putting the same ornament back on the bottom of the tree multiple times, I began putting ornaments back on the tree closer to the top.

 

Our neighbors across the street had some great lights in their front yard, which the girls enjoyed peeking at through the window.

 

After being up for a month, most of the ornaments had migrated up, leaving the tree a bit top heavy.