46-1 Is a Good Age

Sometime I might remember to get the candles we need in order to have the right numbers on any given birthday. My question is: how on earth could we NOT have a 5??

Anyway, Russell had a birthday. It was uneventful. Though he did like opening cards and gifts.

And he did get two things he wanted: the Jim Henson biography and an I Bike ICT (Wichita) shirt. When you're 45, that's really all you need.

Merry Movie Week

It seems that we've spent the week being lazy and watching movies. We must be on break.

It snowed on Monday, I think, which means that even though I went to work, most people were homebound. Including the kids. Which is why they watched so many movies. Kristen and Russell have basically finished Goblet of Fire, and so they watched that movie. It took several days, but they did it. She says the movie is just "eh".

We also had an impromptu fondue-night (fondue is so good, why don't we have it more often?) and watched the Sing-Off finale. Our favorite group (Home Free) won, so that made us happy.

Tuesday, we went out to the actual theater and saw Frozen. It's a terrific movie, silly trailers aside. It's got a great heroine, some good songs (so what if they turn it into a stage musical!) and some really fine moments. All the girls loved it. And Russell and I even teared up. Afterward, we ate our meal and went across town to a really nice service (with a handbell choir!) at St. James Episcopal church. It's in College Hill near the bookstore, so I saw a few regular customers there. That was kind of fun. The best part is still singing Silent Night by candlelight. It's not Christmas without that. We watched the George C. Scott Christmas Carol after the kids went to bed, because I'd had enough crying for the day. It's a Wonderful Life will have to wait for a less tearful Christmas Eve.

Wednesday, the girls were nice and didn't get us up until 7. We opened our few presents (they get smaller and more expensive as the kids get older...) and Skyped with Megan for a couple of hours, which was quite nice. The younger girls watched Monsters University, which Santa brought, and Caitlyn and I watched Pitch Perfect. Which is on the crass side, but has good music and some funny moments. And I love Fat Amy.

Thursday, I had to go into work, and I think the Chavezes came over. There was more movie watching, but I don't quite know what. Thursday night, Russell and I watched The Blind Side, which was an okay story. It needed more football.

Friday, we were lazy (yet again). I don't actually remember what happened. I fell into a vortex and didn't come out until this morning. The tree got taken down, the Christmas decorations got put away (with help from the elders), I climbed the stairs at work at least 20 times, and more movies were watched (The Emperor's New Groove and The Incredibles, I think.). The Chavezes were played with, as was Alison's friend, Sophia. Russell, Caitlyn, and I went to see Saving Mr. Banks, which is bad history but a good movie.

And today has been good. Cold, but good.

And now: on to January. Ugh.

The Rest of Christmas

It's not very often we get a white Christmas here. The last one I remember was 4 years ago. So, we need to take advantage of it when we do.

Also: the game Wayne and Rebecca got us was called Pandemic. Think Contagion in board form. We've had a lot of fun attempting to play it, even though we haven't been able to "win" yet.

We all ate too much chocolate and lots of yummy other food. It was a good day.

American Girl Dolls

It's been 10 years in the making (we figured, since it was the Christmas Megan was 7 when she got hers), but all four girls finally have their very own American Girl doll. Megan has long since stopped playing with hers, and even though Caitlyn's sits out in her room, it's more for show than anything else. But they all have one, and I guess that's the important thing.

From left: Kit (Caitlyn, Samantha (Megan), Molly (Alison), and Caroline (Kristen)

And because I feel like it, here's pictures from when they got the dolls.

2003

2007

2011

2013

Christmas Morning 2013

Our Christmas Morning:

Why yes, I was happy at getting a minion from Alison and Kristen! 

The tag on the present Caitlyn gave us. It "featured" Megan, which means that Caitlyn nagged her until she did what Caitlyn wanted. It turned out to be two very lovely letters.

We got socks in our stockings. Cracks me up.

The only picture I didn't get was of the Skype chat we had with Megan. To be honest, I didn't even think about it until everyone stated posting pictures of their Skype chats with their missionaries. *facepalm* Oh, well. We did talk to her, and enjoyed that very much. I love technology.

It was a great morning.

Pre-Christmas Fun

So, Monday, the Chavezes called: they'd found this fun Christmas program in the Friend, and needed us and the Kitchens in order to round out the numbers. It was fun to go hang out, and the program was cute (even though my kids were grumps about it; they thought we were going over only to play!). There was a video, but since it's just on Facebook, I can't share it here.

Anyway, discussion turned to fondue, and we realized that's what we wanted for dinner. And since my girls hadn't had enough of the Chavezes, we invited them over. (We watched the Sing-Off finale while we ate, which is why we are downstairs.)

They built a huge fort, and were justifiably proud of it.

Tuesday morning we realized that Santa didn't have cookies, so we quickly made some:

Yes, we are still all in our PJs.

Then we went to see Frozen, which we all loved and which is not nearly as silly as the trailers made it seem.

We came back, and the girls decided on sleeping arrangements:

Which ended up being on the floor of Alison's room. Mostly because neither Caitlyn nor Kristen trusted Alison to sleep in until 7, which was when we said they could get up.

And then it was Christmas Eve night.

And it was a good one, even though there was one of us missing.

The Joys of Christmas

Are plentiful, and this week was full of them.

There was:
baking
and gift-giving
and laughter
and friends
and stories
and plays
and good food
and carols
and singing
and family
and snow.

Sometimes I feel like December is "fake it till you make it" time. I do all these fun things for the kids, hoping that somewhere along the line, I catch the spirit of Christmas and start to enjoy it myself.

I think I finally did today.

Just in time, too.

Have a Merry Christmas!

A bonus Megan picture, if you haven't seen it yet. (She said when we talked to her this morning that Blogger keeps crashing, which is why she hasn't put up a blog post lately.)

The Rotary Club of Dibrugarh gifted me with a mekhela chadar!! It's gorgeous. 

I asked what a mekhela chadar was and she wrote this:

A saree is, besides a blouse and an underskirt, is one loooooooong piece of fabric.  A mekhela chadar is an underskirt, blouse, a piece of fabric for the skirt and piece of fabric for to wrap around the top. It's mostly seen in Assam, and is eaiser to put on than a tradition saree. I love it.

Let it Snow!

Last night it started doing this:

(Which is a big deal for us.)

And when we woke up this morning it looked like this:

So, even though Mom grumbles about it, there must be this:

Maybe tomorrow there will even be sledding!

Story Night 2013

We had story night on Friday, inviting some old friends --the Blakes -- who have moved back into our ward over.

We showed them pictures of Megan on the Internet. (Why yes, we do talk about our oldest daughter a lot. We try to balance it out by talking about the other kids as well.)

Then we read stories.

Alison read the Cajun Night Before Christmas. Which is a really difficult one to read.

Kristen read the 12 Days of Christmas.

Alison's such a goof.

Caitlyn read the Grinch. She's never going to be able to read anything different.

The Blakes read a couple stories.

And I read Emma's Christmas (it was requested.)

And Russell finished it off with Babushka.

It was a good evening with good friends. And it feels just a bit more like Christmas here.