Weekly Wrap-Up - December 27

This past week was, of course, all about Christmas!!

We were busy cleaning, getting presents ready, making cookies, cooking and such.  We did continue with school, to keep up with our review items, and our Jesus Tree devotions.

Rodney was home on Wednesday & Thursday so that gave him and the big girls a chance to make dozens of cookies and other such fun things.

The girls were very proud of themselves for making the alpine casserole for Christmas dinner "all by ourselves" (though Mommy DID chop the onions, they haven't yet found a way to do that without "crying" so they don't like to do it)

We celebrated Christmas, with all the grandparents and such here, on Friday, so did our typical "Christmas Eve" traditions on Thurs evening.

They eagerly opened their new Christmas nightgowns (from Mama & Papa, Mama made them and sent them home with us after our anniversary weekend). Little Bit, despite being a confirmed nudist, was excited to put it on (she likes clothes in theory, she just doesn't like keeping them on LOL). And then was VERY excited when, abit later, she realized that hers was just like big sisters' nightgowns. It was so cute to see her realize it and "tell us" by pulling on her nightgown and then pointing to A1's.  And with the incentive of being "just like sisters" she actually kept hte nightgown on ALL NIGHT (and most of the next day LOL, the big girls also decided to wear their new nightgowns all day Fri. instead of getting dressed).

Then they moved on to their Christmas Eve gifts. Which are always books, games or videos, that we can play, read or watch on Christmas Eve. This year I opted to get a game the big girls would enjoy, and a video, Elmo's Christmas Countdown  that I figured was primarily for Little Bit. My thought was that she could watch the video while the big girls & I played the game, without her "help".  As it turned out, while they liked the game, they also liked the video, so we started it over after we finished the game, so they could see the whole thing LOL. I must admit, if we must watch the world's most annoying red monster, this video was less annoying than most Elmo things. After that we made our annual monkey bread, read their new book, and sent them off to bed.

So that was our "Christmas Eve". Friday morning everyone actually SLEPT IN!! We're in a nice little pocket of time where the big girls are big enough to figure the stockings will still be there, so they don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, and Little Bit's too young to know she needs to wake up at the crack of dawn LOL. Got up, the girls opened their stockings, the monkey bread baked, we did some final cleaning & dinner prep type stuff, then read the Christmas story out of the Bible, and the girls put Baby Jesus in His nice, soft manger. At the beginning of the month we made a paper nativity set (since all my other nativities had the baby attached to the manger), minus the baby, and any time I "caught" the girls being kind without being told, they got to add a piece of "hay" (yarn) to the manger, so Christmas morning they got to put Jesus in the manger.

By then family was starting to arrive, and so the present-opening began. I realized when I looked on my camera just now, that I really didn't take any pictures, will have to get pictures from my Dad and SIL. The big girls were thrilled with their new American Girl dolls (A1 got Ruthie, Kit's friend, and A2 got Elizabeth, Felicity's friend (not that she has Felicity, but she wanted Elizabeth because she has "removable earrings" and Felicity and co were being retired as of this Christmas, so if she was going to get Elizabeth it was going to have to be now). My mom surprised me by giving me Felicity (my favorite), so now the girls are quite sure that I should "play American Girls" with them sometimes, we shall see LOL. They were also thrilled with the AG accessories they got from each other, and from us, as well as the plethora of books, Schleich animals, etc. Another hit was the doll A1 got for A2.  When we were in Goodwill a week or so before Christmas, Little Bit was loving all the dolls, and A1 said she wanted to get her one for Christmas. I have to admit, I was less then thrilled, since I knew she was getting several other dolls for Christmas and felt like another one was really not needed, but also didn't want to discourage generosity, so agreed. The doll she chose was a larger, nicely weighted baby doll. Little Bit loved it, and enjoyed carrying it around. But A2 *also* fell in love with it because of it being a good size to be a "real baby" for her, and being weighted enough to feel more real as well.  At some point (I'm not sure when, A1 decided to give it to A2 instead of Little Bit, which was fine with me, though A2 has had to "share" some, since Little Bit does love the doll as well).  A1 was excited to give A2 the doll and A2 was thrilled to get it, so it was a hit all around and fun to see A1 being excited about the "giving" side of Christmas. The picture on the right shows A2 "wearing" her new doll in my Kozy Karrier.

Little Bit loved her dolls and Schleich animals, the obnoxious Elmo puzzle that will be going to live at Mama & Papa's house next time we got there, TWO stuffed Elmos (and yes, we must bring them BOTH with us, everywhere we go), and the felt house that my mom made. It's a fitted "table cloth" to go over our card table (the idea being, it can be folded up and put away when not in use, but that seems to be several months down the road, as much as she's loving it LOL). It's currently in the middle of our (rather small) living room, I'm trying to decide if I should make room for it in the girls' room, or in a corner of the living room. I'm thinking for right now, the living room is the better option. It will allow the big girls to play house in it during Little Bit's naps, and give her more time to play in it since she can't go upstairs to play w/o the big girls up there with her. I THINK with a little rearranging, it will fit into a corner where it won't be TOO in the way, we shall see . . . But she definitely LOVES it!

After presents were open and Little Bit was napped, we fixed, and ate lunch, then visited some more before everyone headed home.

After everyone left, the big girls got dressed (after wearing their new nightgowns all day), and we put together a plate of cookies to take up to our neighbors, and adopted grandparents, the Butlers. I'd told Judy ahead of time which dolls the girls were getting, so she'd made an outfit for each of their new dolls, as well as getting Little Bit a very cool book, and making her a basket bed for the doll we gave her for Christmas.  Then the big girls & I (and the Butlers) headed to the church to go caroling, while Rodney took Little Bit home (he decided watching Little Bit was preferable to being out in the cold, singing LOL. And I was just as glad to not have to keep track of Little Bit during caroling). The girls LOVED caroling, and want to do it every year (I told them that would, obviously,  depend on whether the church does it every year, I don't think they have in the past, so not sure if this was a one time thing because Christmas Eve coincided with Friday night).

It made for a late night after a busy day. Sabbath morning I had to wake all 3 kids (and Rodney) up at 8:30 which meant we didn't make it to church in time for the big girls to do a craft at 9:15, but it was my week to provide the craft, so the girls just did it in church instead (using pipe cleaners and red & white pony beads to make "candy canes").

And that was our week. I hope all the rest of you had a wonderful Christmas as well!