Getting the Girls Pictures (plus: Alison's Crazy)

Yes, we were insane, and went to the portrait studio the day after the day after Christmas, when it was jam packed with people. Yes, we were insane and tried to get four opinionated, slightly crazy, somewhat uncooperative (and one with a hurt neck) to cooperate and play nicely.

And yes, even given the above statement, we managed to get three (!) pictures that we liked enough to print.




There were a whole bunch we didn't get... a few of the cute ones:









Whew. That's done for another year!

The 13 Best Things About Christmas

The best thing, I think, was getting you to sleep in until 7 a.m. After that is was

1) The karaoke machine.

2) The Snuggi

3) Posters for the first three Harry Potter movies

4) a new "gumbrella")

5) Candy, candy and more candy (all chocolate, of course)

6) Unwrapping presents






7) The fuzzy blanket

8) The foam sword

9) Playing Life (at least 7 times)

10) Playing with the croquet set

11) Watching movies (and Firefly)

12) Losing a tooth

13) Christmas Dinner

Merry Christmas to you all!

25 Things About the Last 7 Days

1. Christmas sing-alongs are fun, no matter where they happen. Even if you sing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

2. Videos of the girls singing are here. I haven't checked to see if they turned out; the music was drowning out the kids...

3. How to Marry a Millionaire was more fun when I was a kid. It's a really stupid movie.

4. We got, but haven't rewatched, Bringing Up Baby and Holiday. I have higher hopes for those.

5. Story night with another rambunctious family is pretty chaotic.

6. We finally found a family that doesn't like Peasant Pasta. Wow.

7. I may need a new hot cocoa recipe... the last batch was pretty icky. Either that, or new cocoa powder.

8. In spite of all her stressing, and even though she only got a 90 on the biology final, and perhaps because of all the extra credit she did, Megan pulled off straight As for her first semester of High School. She was very relieved.

9. It's wonderful when your oldest all the way down through your youngest all are making cookies together.

10. The humane society is a smelly, loud place, but that's counteracted by the excitement Megan and Caitlyn have when playing with the dogs and cats.

11. Unfortunately, Megan is allergic to cats.

12. Have I mentioned that I really like Kristen's preschool teacher? The other girls teachers are great, too.

13. The movie Tangled is kind of silly, but loads of fun. The horse, Maximus, is the best character.

14. That said, Alison managed to find a reason to cry in the movie. (Though it wasn't as traumatic as Toy Story 3)

15. 14-year-olds may be too old to go driving in cars looking at Christmas lights. The rest of us enjoyed it, though.

16. Making Friday your "Saturday" errand day results in a bonus day which messes everyone up.

17. The Lutheran service was a lot more Catholic than we were expecting, but still quite nice.

18. It's wonderful when you wake up before your children on Christmas morning.

19. Even though there weren't many presents under the tree, the girls all had a wonderful Christmas.

20. Next year, don't get movies that not everyone can watch. It creates contention.

21. The game of Life is incredibly materialistic.

22. After twenty-five days straight of tradition, we're all a little burned out.

23. If your daughter loses a tooth on Christmas day, the chances are good that the tooth fairy will forget to come.

24. Coming down from a sugar high and going to church at 9 a.m. results in a lot of crying, grousing and snapping.

25. Two quotes: "The greatest wealth is contentment with little" and "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

Have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Here's hoping yours is wonderful!

Cookies!

Story Night 2010

For story night, we invited our close friends the Kitchens over. It was a lot of mayhem, and my food/hot cocoa didn't go over well (strange pasta/too bitter, even for the normal crowd), but I think it was enjoyed by all.

Caitlyn has decided that The Grinch is "her" story. This year, I talked her into doing a play version of the book, and roping Megan and the two oldest Kitchen girls into performing it with her. It was very fun; I only wish I would have caught it on video.

Kristen and Sam being silly.

Alison and Kenneth taking turns reading the 12 days of Christmas...

Rachel and Joseph did the actions. (This was 3 French Hens, which cracked me up every time.)

And all of us listening.

Christmas Sing Along

Every year the elementary school does a Christmas sing along. It's great fun, for both the kids and the parents (Kristen and I went last year and had a blast). This year, the new music teacher decided to do something different, and had each grade perform one song. So, of course, the girls begged me to go. And I'm glad I did!





Cute, no?

And Santa even came!

We have a good elementary school!

Counting Down

That is what the girls have been doing every. single. day. Kristen wakes up in the morning and says, "I really wish we could open the presents now." And every single day, we go over to the calendar (thank heavens for advent calendar) and count how many days it is until we can open the presents. Alison's been wishinghopingpraying for snow (doesn't look like it'll be likely; it's all going north of us) and actually was in tears when I informed her that it probably won't happen: "It can't be Christmas without snow!" (Hate to inform you, darlin', but it's Christmas whether or not there's snow on the ground...)

The rest of the week we mostly stayed busy, doing our little Christmas tradition stuff (like making candy and rosettes and going to Bradley Fair for the carriage rides) and school stuff (homework, ugh.) and normal every day stuff (volunteering, piano, no clarinet lessons, chores). Somehow, it all fits into a seven-day period, though there are days when I wonder exactly how it manages that. Megan's got finals on Monday and Tuesday, though she only has to take one in one class (if you have a B or higher, finals are optional. She's only taking her biology final in a last attempt to get the 89% over the hump into an A). The other three girls have two more days of school (which makes no sense; why go on Monday and Tuesday?) and then we're off for the next week and a half...

And really, that's about it for us.

Have a great week! Merry Christmas!

Rosettes!

In which we survive another year making this Danish traditional treat (which really only about 1/3 of us like) without a major accident (though there was at least one minor one) involving hot oil. And in which I realize that I really ought to wear an apron when supervising this process.

Alison has decided she wants to be a chef when she grows up. As a result, she was our biggest helper this year.

The final product:

Out To Bradley Fair

It wouldn't be Christmas without driving across town, waiting for an hour in below-freezing temperatures, just so we can ride for 10 minutes around a parking lot in a carriage, would it?

At least we can run around while we wait...


(No, she's not dead or injured. She's just dramatic.)





FINALLY... we get to the whole point of the outing.

The smoke-like thing in front of Megan's face is breath from a horse.



The camera's battery died or else we would have gotten a different one where I don't look like I've been imbibing too much egg nog. I would have left this off but Alison would have been VERY disappointed.

I love traditions!

A Talent Show

Caitlyn actually volunteered to play the piano at something. I was surprised (and impressed), so I had to get it on video. It's at the school's Wendy's Night, so it's pretty hard to hear... but she is actually playing!

For My Dad

It's Not Terribly Religious

But at least we have fun doing it. (Now in its 10th year, I think.)

In Which...

Russell goes to Hong Kong (and took lots of pictures; hopefully, he'll put something together on his blog, but if not, I'll stick something up on the girls) and comes back again (very confused about time) to the last couple days of classes and a division party (which was fun).

Megan has a band concert (videos here) and a basketball game (not as fun as football games) and gave a talk in church (and did an excellent job, too).

Caitlyn spends half the week sick (throwing up) and the other half recovering from being sick (she was quite grumpy and sure she was dying, but still managed to have a friend sleep over on Friday night).

Alison enjoys being seven (she's very proud of that fact), decides she wants to be a sous chef when she grows up (seriously. And I am impressed she knows what a sous chef is!) and loses a tooth (it's been loose for a while, but she didn't want anyone else to pull it out, so she finally worked it out yesterday morning. There was much celebrating).

Kristen goes to her first Nutcracker (with the family. The first half was great; she only got concerned when I told her the mice weren't coming back.The second half, not so much, mostly because of an altercation in the lobby during intermission in which we found out that we couldn't get hot cocoa due to a lack of cups. This threw off the rest of the ballet for her.).

Melissa survives by going to bed earlier than usual (only watched the John Denver Christmas -- there really isn't a point to the toy soldier/Miss Piggy segment -- and Castle), discovering the secret to sleeping in the winter when Russell's gone (hot pads!) and getting all the Christmas shopping and most of the mailing done (only two packages left! Hooray!).

Halfway to Christmas... Have a great week!

Band Concert Time Again

So, we still miss Mr. Goter, but that said, last night's band/orchestra concert went really well, and was quite quick, all things considered.





Enjoy!

To Dad

For our Christmas cards this year, I decided we'd all write about each other rather than one person writing about everyone. (Mostly because Russell was in China when it needed to be done.) I assigned Russell to Megan. What she wrote didn't actually make it into the letter, but it was so sweet that I thought it needed to be shared.

I’ve thought and thought about what to write about for dad. When mom first told me about her idea to have us write about other people in the family for the Christmas letter, one of my first thoughts was “I hope I don’t get Dad.” Don’t get me wrong – I love him, he is amazing, and a wonderful father. But I have no idea of what happened during 2010 in his life!

So I’ll write my thank-yous, and see what comes.

Thank you dad, for getting me driving me to seminary, now that it’s cold outside. Thank you dad, for waking me UP for seminary when I hit the snooze one to many times. Thank you, for deciding to be a Girl’s Camp dad and making my experience that much more awesome. I’ll have to get severe Alzheimer’s before I’ll forget when we got the family bead and you picked me up on your shoulders and swung me around, even though I’m almost as tall as you. (Just kidding!) Thank you so much for coming and faithfully teaching my Sunday School class, even though we drive you crazy – I’m gonna miss you next year. Thanks for being a good sport and playing Bucking Bronco with Alison and Kristen; they love it, and I remember how much fun it was.

Since you’re in Hong Kong right now, I realized how much I’m gonna miss your little quirks, when I’m gone. Kristen broke a plate yesterday, and I waited just for a split second to hear your “BAM!” that was sure to come, had you been here.

Thank you for peacemaking presence. We are all getting tired and short tempered, and I know it’s because we’re missing our daddy.

I miss you, daddy. I love you.

Seven? Already??

We started out the morning intending to open one present before church.

She also started with the one present that she knew no one knew what it was (well, except mom) because it was from Grandpa and Grandma. It turned out to be exactly what she wanted.

So, that meant she had to open the rest. (Don't get that reasoning, but there it is.)



With her two favorite presents: the snorkel gear, and her "hippy skirt" and leggings.

She adores Harry Potter. In a way much like Megan did, though Megan was a bit older when she was first introduced to the world. Alison and Russell have read the first three books, and she's convinced Russell to read her the fourth, saying, "I won't be scared. Promise." Anyway, because of this, she really wanted a Harry Potter birthday cake. This is what we came up with:

A note about the crown: it's from her birthday celebration at school on Friday. She adores the crown and wore it as much as possible all weekend. (She would have worn it to church if I'd have let her!)

Happy birthday, Alison!