Christmas Eve

It's so magical, isn't it?

We have a Christmas Eve tradition in our little family.

Bright & early, Brian leaves with the kids for a day out on the town.

They always get breakfast at Matt's Big Breakfast in Phoenix.  Then they go see a movie.  This year it was Tangled.  Then they usually do a little Christmas shopping for me.  Get some lunch somewhere.  Get a treat somewhere.  Basically, they're gone most of the day.

Now, this is usually a smokin' deal for me.  Since, if I ever fantasize about anything, it's being home by myself for a length of time.  But now we have Caroline.  And she needs naps & baby food & stuff, so she stayed home with me.  And it's not like I have nothing to do on Christmas Eve day.  I have to make our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and the chocolate bundt cake and finish wrapping presents and grab those last few things at WalMart and clean up the kitchen and take a shower......and take care of Caroline.

So basically, I was in hyper-drive the whole day, knocking down cans of Diet Coke, Caroline on my hip, trying to get everything done before everyone came back.

Brian walks through the door with the rest of the kids, thinking he's some kind of hero for going to breakfast & sitting through a movie, and he says things like,  "Soooo, have you had a nice time with all of us gone?"  And I wanted to open a can of crazy on him.......... now I'm realizing I'm not doing very well with one of my New Year's resolutions,  More Wag, Less Bark.  Dang it!

Well, anyway, everything turned out great.

It's our celebration of Christ's birthday.

The dinner was yummy.  Chicken roll-ups/crescents, green beans & cherry jello, all the kids' favorites.  They love it. 

And of course, the chocolate bundt cake, the birthday cake.

Crazy delicious.

Caroline tried her first chocolate cake.

Then the kids open the presents they got for each other, with their own money.  It's probably my favorite part of Christmas, seeing them so excited to give their gifts & hugging each other with gratitude.

I thought I was so smart this year talking them into not buying anything at the elementary school's Holiday House so they wouldn't blow all their money on a bunch of junky stuff.  Because they can get much better stuff at Target for less money, I told them.  What I didn't realize was that I would have to make five seperate trips to Target so they could each pick stuff out without anyone else seeing it.  Sheesh!

But anyway, after our dinner party, we go on a little drive to look at Christmas lights, put out some cookies & milk for Santa and carrots on the lawn for the reindeer, check Santa's progress on NoRad a few times, before getting to bed, all of them, in Marlee's room.  Then we booby-trap the hallway to catch any sneaker-outers.

It's all so exciting......

.....and  so magical.

A Not-So-Silent Night

It was our turn to host the Mason family Christmas party this year and we thought we'd try something new & have a Christmas Minute-To-Win-It competition.  It was  so fun!

The see-how-many-marshmallows-you-can-get-through-the-wreath-and-into-the-bucket-in-a-minute game.

The Can-you-stack-the-cups-with-one-hand-in-a-minute game.

So intense.

The How-many-ornaments-can-you-balance-on-a-yardstick-and-papertowel tube-without-it-falling-over-in-a-minute game.

The Can-you-get-the-red-pompom-on-a-string-up-on-your-vaseline-covered-nose-in-a-minute game.

So much harder than you would think, by the way.  And Mason totally rocked it.  Look at how into it everyone was!

I think competitiveness runs in this family.

My precious, slobbery Christmas baby.

The Nut-stacker game.  Get it?

The How-many-ornaments-can-we-hang-on-the-string-without-using-our-hands-in-a-minute game.

And probably my favorite......the Can-you-get-the-cookie-from-your-forehead-into-your-mouth-without-using-your-hands-in-a-minute game.

So dang funny.

And then the Try-to-open-the-present-with-ski-gloves-on-before-doubles-are-rolled.  Then your turn's over & the next person puts the gloves on & tries to get it open.  Around the circle.  But inside one box is a smaller present to open & so on & whoever gets down to the final gift on their turn gets to keep it.

The games were so much fun, and then we tried to end things on a more spiritual note with some beautiful Christmas music from some of our more musically talented family members (which would not be me).

Max said it was the best Christmas party ever.

But then he was the one who won the cash in the gift-opening game.

Then, one of our favorite families in our neighborhood, the Arnetts, invited everyone over for cookies & cocoa & then they heard that Santa might stop by........

......and sure enough!   He did!!!

We thought for sure that Caroline would take one look at Santa & start screaming her head off, since she's in that I-don't-like-strangers phase.  But she didn't.  She saw that candy cane & didn't care about anything else!

Thank you Arnetts, for the super-fun shindig! 

And especially thank you that I don't have to take any kids to the mall Santa!

We're so lucky to have such great friends & neighbors & family to spend the holidays with.

Do As I'm Doing......

When all of my family was in town after Christmas, we tried to get a picture of Caroline and her two little cousins who were all born within a couple months of each other.

It didn't go that great.

One started crying immediately.  Caroline quickly joined in.  Then the other.

All I got were crying pictures.

And some drool & snot bubbles.

Caroline threw a major hissy.

Oh well.  We tried. 

I'm posting these & ignoring all the pictures from Christmas that I haven't even downloaded yet.  I hate being so behind.  It stresses me out & makes me wish I didn't even have a blog to worry about! 

Then earlier today, we were trying to remember what we did for Max's birthday last year, so I suggested we look it up on our blog.  Then we ended up gathered around the computer screen for half an hour, reminiscing & laughing as we looked back into our lives.  So many things I had forgotten.  So many moments we would have all probably forgotten if they hadn't been captured & frozen in time.

So it's a little stressful, but so worth it!

2010 Christmas card

the front

and the inside

I've wanted to do this card for years!  But I needed the 6 kids to do it right.  This is really why we decided to have Caroline.  Kidding!!!

Our boy/girl ratio is a little off, I know, but I love how it turned out.  And so glad that it's all done.  It was a lot of work.

And here a few outtakes from the photoshoots.....

Brian's are my favorite.

The camera really loves him.

And saving the best for last.........

My personal favorite.

I almost put this picture on the back of the card.

It makes me laugh  so. hard.

And we really wished these sweet pants could be seen in the family picture.

I call it  'Portrait of the Father of Six Children'.

Can't you just feel the exhaustion, the sense of wanting to be anywhere else but here, maybe the loss of self respect?

Brian's just such a great actor.

Because he really feels the exact opposite.

Right, honey?

It's The Most Wonderful Day Of The Year!

The last day of soccer games, that is!!!   Woohoo!!!

Brian and I were making up our own version of the song as we were heading to the soccer fields.....

It's the most wonderful day of the year.
No more shinguards and snack turns and "there goes my Saturday" and hauling our chairs,
It's the most wonderful day of the yeeeaaaar!!!

What horrible parents we are to be so excited for this!

Once we're there and set up, I do love watching these guys.
Soccer is Zane's favorite sport and he's surprisingly aggressive when playing.  Maybe a bit of a ballhog.  He plays like it's up to him to win the game.

It was a tough season this year.  I can count on one hand how many games both Max & Zane's teams won combined.....and still have a finger or two left over.  But I was impressed at how good they were about it & still enjoyed going to the practices & games.

The 'get out of my way' move.

I kinda miss that hair......

Zane is really cute about patting his teammates on the back when they make a good play.

Whoops!!!

His soccer buddy Chandler.

A goal!

Yay!!!

Cheers to the final game of the season!

And the favorite part (besides the after-game treats)......the victory tunnel!

And this is what Gus is usually doing during the games.....

....rolling down the dead-grass hills.

Or begging me for money to get junk at the snack bar.

I have a hard time saying no to that face.

Max is a fast little sucker.

He loves the fact that he was the earliest walker of all my babies (9 months), and now he's a super fast runner.

He also makes some great faces when he's running.......

He was so glad to have his buddy Braxton on his team.

They really had a good time.

And I'm so glad to put the shinguards & cleats away for a while!