Happy New Year!

We had a GMT new year's party again this year, well attended. Started slow, but ended with a bang. The kids were all well behaved, the food was all good (urrrrggg) and the drinks were all drunk. A few no shows, for which I think we should be grateful, since the house was crowded enough.

I'm a wee bit late on the holiday review, but I will start with some photos of our visit to Grandma Lu at the nursing home. My favorite thing about these visits were that when I asked C5 what her favorite parts of the trip were, one of her three moments was visiting Grandma Lu in the nursing home. Well. I think that is great. I can tell you that I absolutely positively hated visiting my great grandmother in the nursing home.

Here are the pictures:

From our first visit, we had to leave Q3 in the car because a nap attached her about 5 minutes before we got to the nursing home.



And from our second visit, Grandma Lu was a little more out of it, kinda zoning in and out. She looks checked out here, but we did have fun doing some puzzles. But I think by the time this photo was taken C5 had had enough.

A few more Christmas moments

Just a couple more.

This tea set we gave to Q with the "At Last!" Belle dress:


Snuggles on the couch:

Christmas Afternoon

We spent Christmas afternoon at M41's house. Lovely lovely time.

And we brought gifts for K5, most importantly, a twirly skirt. I'd found these skirts from BOLD MARY last fall, and was so impressed with them (and the service at Bold Mary! Thank you Augusta!!). I loved them, wanted one for myself, but instead bought two for A6 & L6's 6th birthdays, and bought one for K5, C5, and Q3 for Christmas. But when C5 & Q3 opened theirs up on Christmas morning they were ... unimpressed. Perhaps in comparison to the Belle dress and the sewing machine.

So, upon leaving our house to go to M41's house, we threw Q3's and C5's skirts in the trunk of the car, just on the off chance that they decided they'd like to wear them while they were there.

Good decision. K5 put hers on right away (I think it slipped right off her, but she held it up) and then C5 and Q3 decided they wanted theirs, too. So, C40 trucked out to the car and brought theirs in. I don't think C5 has taken hers off for more than 5 hours since then.

And here is the video of two twirly girls and one gorgon. I have no idea where the gorgon came from, but she's stuck around.

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning Q3 (of course) woke up first. She found her stocking, and with a little help got it down.



C5 came down quite a bit later ...


Typical stocking stuff from Santa, tights/socks, toothbrush & paste, stickers. But the faorite? It just might be the tape and gum.


C5's favorite gift moment was the sewing machine we gave her:


My favorite moment of the morning was when Q3 opened her gift from us (a Belle dress) and she said (with giant, happy eyes) "At Last!"

Christmas Eve

The girls got the first of all their dreams fulfilled ... princess nightgowns and princess fleece blankies. Don't ask me, I just fulfill the dreams, I don't make them.

Photos and movies of hanging stockings and setting out stuff for santa and the reindeer follow:

Q3 couldn't quite reach, so C5 helped her out



Setting out cookies for Santa:


Bringing some whiskey for Santa (Sorry, no Dixie Beer up in Massachusetts):



The reindeer also needed a snack (with a cameos from my uncle & brother):


And I think that is all for tonight.

Another first

Flossing C5's teeth I noticed ... she has her first loose tooth! She was going around saying "it's incredible! I don't believe it!" and so Q3 decided to get in on it, saying, "I can't believe it! I have a loose tooth!" until C5 set her straight.

No school today ....

... or tomorrow.
... or Wednesday.

The reason there is no school: It snowed 18+ inches on Saturday.



Bad photo, I know, but it is nighttime, and we failed to take any daytime snow photos.

I love the snow! A great start to the winter holidays. Which would be even better if C40 & I had the time off, too. But, although we both had today off (and C40 went to work) we both have things to finish before the holiday. So into work for us on Tuesday. And although Q3 can go to school, both C5 & Q3 are going to a babysitter together.

Looking forward to the packing and driving!

The Christmas Pagent

For weeks now Q3 has been singing christmas carols, in preparation for the Christmas pagent at school. She knows the words very very well. And the pagent was adorably cute, although most of the time Q3 was either pushing the person next to her, forgetting the lyrics, or looking slightly perturbed.

For the last few weeks Q3 has told us she was both Mary and a shepherd in the pagent. It turns out she was a shepherd, as were all the 3-4 year olds.





And here are the songs:
Let's get ready, the savior is coming


Go tell it on the mountain


and
Bells are ringing

With a ...

Q3 was given a Ukelele a couple of weeks ago. She cried when she got it, but it has become, of course, a favorite. Here is today's song. A classic. Q3's favorite.

head scarfs

Just made these. I like them!

Q3's houses

E41 and I went into Q3's classroom and decorated gingerbread houses with the 3 year olds. It was very cute. I took lots of cutie photos and realized I can't use them because they are not my children! So, here at the ones of Q3:





her house when done:


E41 and I had expected more children ... so we made enough houses for the entire class PLUS 2 extra for breakage.

Only 10 children this morning, so I came home with an extra 4 houses. So Q3 got to do another, and I got to do three.

If you can't tell which are mine then I guess I need to work harder on my presentation skills. I'll only post two of mine, though. The third photo was fuzzy.

Finally. Is this a good thing?

The girls have been asking for over a year, probably closer to two, if they could sleep together. Here's how our responses went.

No
No
No
OK, we'll try
Well, that was kind of a disaster
No
No
No
No
You'll sleep together at MeMe's house. Or Ninoo's house.
Well, that didn't go so well.
No
No
OK, we'll try
Urg, that was a failure.
No
No
No
OK, sure, we'll give it a try in C5's big bed.
!!! It worked!



They are up there again tonight. It was a little rougher tonight. But we'll see how long this lasts.

Jingle Bells

Now for some Christmas Cheer next to the decorated tree!

Bounce bounce

Today was grey, wet, and cold. A perfect day for a movie. So we took the girls to see The Princess and the Frog. I liked it. I would have liked more princess time and less frog time, but overall the movie was very enjoyable.

Of course, that only took a few hours of the day. The rest of the day remained cold, wet, and miserable. So we broke open a Christmas gift for the girls ... we had asked C40's parents to buy them a small indoor trampoline so they could jump somewhere other than the couch on days like today.

We had to set a timer so they'd share, they liked it so much.

Tree

We did finally get a tree. Or, I should say, C40 bought one. It isn't a cut your own. It isn't from a parking lot. It is from a nursery. I didn't even ask the price because I think I'd probably get sticker shock.

But it is a gorgeous tree. It is full all around, there are no holes anywhere, the branches are lovely, the color is good, and the smell is fantastic. I don't think we've ever had a tree this nice.


So at this point, with the lights on, the angel on top, and with a full bowl of water below, the girls decided that instead of putting the decorations on it that we had, they wanted to make decorations for it. So, C5 got out the paper and scissors and tape and she made paper chains. Lot of them. And Q3 made paper trains.

Gingerbread houses

This year I don't get a house. But C5 & Q3 did. I made 9 small houses for Q3's classmates to decorate, and then I made two houses for us to decorate.

Here is before:


And here is after.

This is C5's house front:

And back (notice the lolipops holding the house up!)


And Q3's house (notice all the gummy worms on the roof. Her favorite part of doing the house!):

What is strange about this photo?

No, it isn't that C5 is playing with a boy. It is that she's wearing my shoes. She sought them out and put them on and walked around with them on. Yes, I know that it is usually 1 year olds who do that. Whatever. This was a milestone for C5 who NEVER did that before. She's usually more comfortable in her own fancy clothes.

Not the stork

So, sitting, having dinner, Q3 says to me, "Did I come from a store?" I'm not sure where that came from exactly, but there it was. So, I said no, you didn't come from a store, and explained that a sperm + an egg creates a baby and the baby grows where? and she cutely gave me a coy smile, circled her arm wide and pointed to her chest/tummy. I agreed and said, yes, the uterus.

And then C5 came in and said "In the woahmmbh. The wooom-b" She was having a difficult time saying womb, because of the silent b.

But then C5, who gets the sperm + egg, man + woman thing, (and has a book called What's the Big Secret? which I know she's read a couple of times, and I've read it to her a couple of times, asked "But. What about two women? How do they get a baby? K39 & T don't have sperm"

Uh. No, they don't. So I explained how K39 went to the doctor and the doctor helped her get some sperm so she could have a baby. Get it? Got it. Good. No further explaination needed.

Ahhhh. Explaining how two daddies can adopt a child was a little easier.

Water

So, a continuation on yesterday's adventure.

Coming home after not getting a tree, we started driving home, stopped at Target to get a couple of gifts for a toy giveaway, and headed home for lunch.

But then C5 got thirsty, and I gave her the water. Q3 said she was thirsty, too, so I reminded C5 that the water was to share. And she slowly, very deliberately, tilted her head up and sucked the rest of the water down as best she could.

Q3 started bawling. Of course.

So, after telling C5 that we were upset with her, that she had been selfish, we pulled into a Dunkin' Donuts and C40 went in with Q3 and bought her a water and a chocolate donut. Devestating for C5. Unfair, she claimed (although I told her it was fair, but not equal). But she got it. She cried over it, and said she should have given Q3 ALL of the water so she (C5) could have had a donut, and not Q3.

Even if it doesn't quite work that way, she would have done the right thing. Maybe next time.

Our Christmas Tree

So, the thought was to get our tree this weekend, set it up, and decorate it. Of course, we started late, and ended up going on Sunday, instead of Saturday, so we wouldn't be able to have it soak in a bucket of water for 24 hours.

I could live with that, so off we went on Sunday to a local-enough cut your own Christmas Tree place. The website indicated a number of tree species ... but when we got there they had only two varieties. Growing, the Douglas Fir, and precut at about 8 feet tall, from North Carolina, the Fraser Fir.

We got there, walked a bit through the trees, enjoyed the view, and threw a few snowballs.





But then Q3 got a little cranky. See her refusing to look at the camera?



So Q3 and I walked back to the car, and I left C40 & C5 together to pick a tree, even though Douglas Firs aren't my favorite. Once we sat in the car the crying stopped and Q3 said she just didn't want to be outside. So we sat and listened to Christmas carols.

But then C5 had to use the potty, and the Port-O-Potty is NOT an option. As you'd know if you'd ever been in a car with us. So, they soon came down the hill after us. And into the car we went. Without a tree.

First snow of the season

Leopards.

I picked up Q3 this afternoon early so we could have lunch together. While we were sitting together I was zoning out a bit flipping through a catalog, since she was playing with her computer. But then she started talking and this caught my attention:

Q3: How to they turn back into people after being leopards?
E39: [??] What people? Where did you hear that?
Q3: In a song
E39: People don't turn into leopards
[pause]
Q3: Why did Jesus touch the leopards?
E39 [Lightbulb!]: Oh, lepers ... people with leprosy, not leopards.

I tried to explain love, and compassion, and bacteria, and society. But I think Q3 just heard "blah blah blah" and had more questions.

Q3: Who gets leprosy?
E39: Oh, men, women. Nobody I know has leprosy.
Q3: We never. [she was positive about this!]
E39: No, we don't have leprosy ... Armadillos can get leprosy.
Q3: Did Jesus touch them?
E39: I don't know, but I'm sure if Jesus had seen an armadillo with leprosy he would have touched it.
Q3: Why?
E39: To heal them.

So, it was an interesting conversation. I'm not sure how I handled it. I don't actualy mind that the kids learn this ... but they don't seem to have the full of it it they are really thinking that people are turning to leopards and then back again.