Christmas Lists

I've finally gotten around to asking the kids what they want on their Santa List for this year. 

Eliza Claire was the first child I asked.  The first item on her list was an outside race car she could ride in.  I told her that probably wasn't in Santa's budget.  She informed me that he could make it. She would also like a ladybug shirt, a Barbie with a crown, and an alarm clock for Ruby!

The last item on Eliza Claire's list just cracks me up.  It sounds so nice and selfless that she has something on her list for her sister.  But,  in actuality there is not one nice thing about it at all.  Eliza Claire and Ruby have the same alarm clocks but the alarm is broken on Ruby's.  Eliza Claire does not like it one bit that she has to wake up for school with her alarm but I go in and wake up Ruby because Ruby's alarm doesn't work.  She wants to make sure Ruby is getting woken up the same way she is. 

To give Eliza Claire some incentive to wake up to the alarm, she has the job of coming to wake me up every morning.  She comes in my room and says, "Wakey, wakey!" She gets up much better to an alarm than she does when I try to wake her.  For me she just rolls around and goes back to sleep, for the alarm she hops right out of bed.

Before I left Eliza Claire's room, she told me I would need to get up extra early on Christmas morning.  That way I could check and see if Santa left Ruby a clock and move it over with Eliza Claire's gifts so that "Ruby will be extra surprised when I give it to her."

I also asked Charlotte what she wanted for Christmas.  To start with she told me she didn't know, that she really didn't want anything.  A few minutes later she came back and told me she would love it if Santa left money so that she could take flute lessons.  She has been asking for flute lessons for about a year now.  I guess it is time for me to figure out if that is a possibility and find a teacher.  If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Rehm is still thinking.  Ruby was in such a "great" mood at bedtime that we didn't talk about Christmas lists. 

Ah the joys of Christmas,
Jenn

...And More Sledding

I think this finishes up my Christmas/snow/NC trip pictures.  So hopefully that means I'll have some new and more current material soon.

I think this is my favorite of Rehm

No wonder Ruby got cold and was done early

Charlotte was a pro on the tube.

Cousin Zachary

Cousin Brady

Nephew Zander

Cousin Rosie

Rehm with shoes about 4 sizes too big

CHristmas Day: The Afternoon Edition

We spent Christmas morning and afternoon opening presents with my parents, sister and her family and playing in the snow that started mid-morning. 

It snowed most of the day and the kids had a blast rolling around in the snow, having snowball fights and trying to build snowmen.  They came in cold, tired and soaked!

Eliza in the foreground and Charlotte in the back

Rehm in the navy coat, Ruby holding snow and Zander in the red.

Eliza Claire with her snow man.  He is kind of hard to see.

Eliza Claire was a dedicated snowman maker.

Bottom and middle of a giant snowman that never got finished.  These two pieces did get stacked and took over a week to completely melt.

Cousins having fun

Christmas Morning

We have always been very fortunate with how patient our children are on Christmas morning. Again this year they did a great job. Rehm was the first to arrive in our room at 7:00 am on the dot. This was the earliest they were allowed to get out of bed. Aren't we mean? Charlotte arrived about five minutes later. Ruby showed up at 7:20. As each one came and crawled in bed with us, we talked about past Christmases all the way back to when Rehm was a baby. By 7:45 they were all antsy enough that we decided it was time to wake up Eliza Claire. She wasn't too thrilled about being woken up, but got over it fairly quick when she realized Santa had come.

I'm sure this is shocking to my family. I was the queen of getting up in the middle of the night to go see what Santa had brought me. I never could get my sister to get up with me. On the years we shared a room when I came back to bed I would make a point to tell her what she got as pay back for her not getting up with me. If I didn't get up in the middle of the night I was definitely up and checking out the Santa stash by 6:00 am at the latest! It drove my family crazy! So I'm sure they can not believe I am so mean as to make my children be up for almost an hour before letting them at the gifts. I think having a two story house is a large part of why this is possible.

Grandma arrived right as we were coming downstairs to see what Santa had brought. We opened presents, each taking turns, one gift at a time, so everyone could see what each person got. And also to prolong the excitement of present opening. After presents we had our traditional breakfast casserole and not so traditional Moravian sugar cake. Usually we have Grandma's pecan rolls and stollen. This year Grandma and Grandpa were supposed to be in Houston so I made the sugar cake. They ended up staying home because Grandpa was under the weather.

The rest of the day was spent in our pjs just enjoying our family and all our new toys. Grandma came back over in the afternoon to play games with us and have dinner. Dinner was ham and macaroni and cheese. This was the very first time I have ever bough a ham! And honestly I wouldn't have bought this one if the grocery store had not been running a great deal where I got as much free groceries as the cost of the ham. I don't know why I've never bought a ham before. For as much as I cook I'm kind of surprised it took me this long to get around to it.

It was a perfect Christmas day at our house! I hope it was at yours, too.
Jenn

PS On a interesting side note: I asked Ruby and Eliza Claire what Santa was going to bring them. Their answers: Ruby, a toy frog; Eliza Claire, a blue shirt. Apparently this is what the told their preschool teachers and it stuck. Luckily Santa did come through with both items. I thought they were quite random.