Christmas Is Not Over

We have not put away any of our Christmas decorations.

We have not stopped listening to Christmas music.

We have not stopped eating Christmas cookies. (Although sadly all of Jesus' birthday cake is gone.)

We have not stopped having Christmas parties.

In short, we have not stopped celebrating Christmas, because Christmas is not over. Almost, but not quite.

We went to the Zoo lights on Thursday night, and it was *cold*. I didn't take many pictures because I was too busy snuggling with Gussie to keep warm, but the kids are for the most part impervious to environmental conditions, at least when they're having fun. When all the rest of us had our thoughts turned to the parking lot and soon-to-be warm cars, Catherine begged Grandpa into a ride on the carousel. I think she could have stayed all night.

Saturday we had another Christmas celebration, this time with my parents and sisters and their families, which means Dema and Grampty T had all three daughters and all seven grandchildren in their house. Yay for Christmas!

For the kids' presents my mom put together large stockings stuffed to the brim with small toys. I think Michael's stocking was as tall as him, but he had a very fun time digging down to the bottom.

Catherine's ornament for the year was a soccer ball for her first season of sports. 

Mary's favorite thing in her stocking might be this electric toothbrush. Or maybe the butterfly wall decals. Or the giant stash of *real* raffle tickets for them to use for their shows.

Once Michael opened this train he almost forgot about the rest of his presents yet to be opened. I know it looks like he's angry at the train, but that's really just fierce concentration. Playing trains is serious business.

Somehow I missed all of Kali's delightful reactions to her stocking stuffed with Mini Mouse paraphernalia. I think she was a little intimidated by the giant stocking, but once she got Grampy to help her out she got the idea.

Magnifying glasses. Hours of fun.

We also had the kids draw names so they each got a gift for one other. Since Michael likes to play Mass at home he thought Christopher would also like a "priest dress". The girls helped me sew up a chasuble and Christopher put it to good use, after he convinced his papa to whip together a processional cross, of course. We have a tiny bit of tailoring to do (his head isn't quite as big as his mama claims) but hopefully it will fit him for a bit.

 Happy Christmas!

Christmas Cheer

Disclaimer: so far I've done a terrible job of capturing Christmas 2012 on camera. I hate to admit it, but I might have experienced a bit of camera burn-out, so I spent most of our Christmas thus far enjoying not being separated from the fun by a lens. Sadly, this means I have no pictures of Catherine and Mary decorating the tree on Christmas Eve, gasping as they discovered each ornament, debating about where it should go, and dancing and twirling their way to the tree to hang it. They sang along to the carols playing on the turntable, improvising or filling in with "Merry Christmas" or "Christmas cheer" or "Christmas is here" when they didn't know the words. On Christmas morning the kids were all very excited for me to open my gifts that they picked out on a special shopping trip with Daddy, and they got to ring the giant bell in the bell tower after Mass. Back at home we lit ALL the candles for our Christmas Feast and got a tad bit messy decorating a birthday cake for Jesus (which had to have candles, and we sang a verse of Away in a Manger -- Catherine's favorite Christmas hymn -- instead of Happy Birthday before the kids all blew out the candles together, and Catherine, who was in charge of bringing out plates for the cake, thought to bring the special Happy Birthday plate for Jesus). I don't think I have pictures of any of that, but as our first Christmas morning since Catherine was born that we were in our own house and did not have to get up at 4am for an entire morning of plane travel, I don't think I'll soon forget it.

Anyway, poorly documented as it is, we have had several wonderful Christmas celebrations already. Sunday we had a Christmas double-header: Gigi's for lunch and Grandma's for dinner, with a heap of presents at each. Before the festivities at Gigi's we tried to get a big family photo of that whole side of the family. I didn't take the time for any photoshop magic, swapping heads and whatnot for the perfect face on all twenty of us, but we're all in there (even if we're squinting).

After that we did a couple other photo configurations, and tried to get just the young cousins together at the end. We were clearly pushing our luck with that one. Olivia's headband only lasted a second, and Olivia herself didn't last much longer.

Olivia only wanted to run around, and I guess you can't really blame her.

Present time with the kids was very fun. Catherine and Mary worked together to pass out all the gifts, reading the tags and making sure all the opening opportunities were spread around evenly. The first thing Michael opened was a large model car. He saw it and yelled, "My char, my char, my char!" (some day he'll learn to say the "k" sound at the beginning of words).

After that, every time we handed him a present to open he would ask, "Is this a char for me?" before opening it. But he was surprisingly patient while Uncle Tommy freed his new cars from their boxes.

Their faces belie their excitement. We spent all afternoon today playing with the shrinkie-dinks in this box!

Gussie was pleased to be entertained by some new faces (and drool and spit up on some new hands and laps), and took an excellent nap with cousin Dane.

Later at Grandma's he had some happy time getting to know Aunt Jena.

And watching The Sound of Music on tv.

Thank you to everyone who has coordinated meals and gatherings and showered (deluged?) us with gifts already. If I have succeeded at all in impressing upon the kids the idea that we give gifts as one way of showing that we love and care for each other, then they should be feeling extremely loved right now!

Four Months

For a couple weeks now I've been answering that Gussie is about four months old when people ask, but it still surprises me when he does things a four-month-old does. A couple days ago he rolled over from his back to his stomach for the first time, and does it regularly now. He still wants to be held so his feet can march and jump on the floor, everything within his reach goes straight in the mouth (because he can actually coordinate his hands and eyes well enough to grab most things now), and he smiles and giggles at us pretty much all the time.

\

He's even trying to sit up, although he's pretty tipsy in all directions still.

And I think Michael Jr is trying to teach him the "surprise face".

Is it possible that the time goes by even more quickly with each one?

O Fir Tree

We lit the third candle on our wreath yesterday, which means Advent is more than halfway over and we can really start gearing up for Christmas. We had another round of cookie baking at Dema's last week, and with a few extra kids on hand, got even less done than we did the first round. The kids actually did a great job on a batch of ball cookies. Catherine and Mary rolled out the balls in various interpretations of the correct size, and the rest of the kids coated the dough balls in coconut.

Apparently rolling them was easier on the table than in the bowl.

Daisy was a little too young to succeed at the rolling, but not at all too young to succeed at sneaking a taste!

 After that group effort, we got a little distracted by all the toys and books at Dema's, and I think only Catherine and Mary made it back into the kitchen now and then for the rest of the morning.

We also hunted down a Christmas tree this weekend. We have a fake tree, but it is very large and didn't make the cut for the limited space in the moving trailer, so it's still in the attic on the Cape. So we embraced the whimsy and went back to a real one.

The kids lost interest in choosing the perfect tree the second they decided the rows of trees were running lanes made just for them. See that little blue dot right in the middle of the picture? That's Michael Jr.
And they had a lot of fun popping in and out between the rows.

After they ran a couple miles we got them focused back in on selecting a tree. Daddy let -- actually, made -- each of them try their hand at the saw. Catherine is the only one that managed to get the teeth to bite a bit in the wood, but she quickly tired and switched to holding the lower branches out of the way so Daddy could finish felling our tree.

 

Then he had them drag it back to the wagon since he did all the work sawing.

Ha. Not really. But they did manage to move it a few feet before Daddy stepped in.

Doesn't Mary look right at home on a tractor?

 So now we have a tree in our living room that looked remarkably smaller out in that field. We'll begin to decorate it this week with our O Antiphon ornaments and finish up on Christmas Eve. Yay!

Christmas in Branson

Wednesday evening we arrived in Branson and shooed the kids straight to bed to prepare for the couple busy days.

Thursday we spent the morning watching Christmas movies and swimming in the pools and hot tubs at the condo. The girls love the water time.

Michael's favorite part of swimming is his swimming suit with a red tractor on it.

Then we spent the afternoon and evening at Silver Dollar City.

The kids want to live in Silver Dollar city forever and ever.

The 4 million Christmas lights were a big hit, of course, as were all the other Christmas decorations for us to look at before it got dark enough to see the lights.

After Mary got to hold Gussie for a picture, Catherine insisted on trading places so she could hold Gussie for a picture also.

We saw two shows: a living nativity musical, and a Frosty the snowman show. It's the same show the kids saw last year, but they loved it no less.

I love that Michael makes his "surprise face" on demand.

What surprised me about the day, though, was how much the kids loved the amusement park rides. We started in the little kid section, which they loved.

But then a little further into the park Catherine spotted the big people swings. Once she got all excited about it, Mary wanted to go also, which meant Grandpa got to go because Mary was big enough to ride but only with an adult. There they are, even higher up than they look!

Catherine looked terrified for about two spins around right in the middle when it was going fastest, but was laughing right along with Mary the rest of the time. They were so pleased when they got off that Michael wanted to go also, so we all went again. Michael snuggled in next to me and stated repeatedly, "I'm scared!" for about twenty seconds in the middle, but in the end he liked it more than he was scared.

The success of the swings made them brave and they wanted to try everything after that. I flat-out refused a couple that I knew would make my stomach turn, but we all ended up riding a small roller coaster, known as a Whirly Train if you're Michael, and a few others. The only ride that truly did terrify anyone was in the tiny kid section, some frogs that hopped up and down as they went around in a circle. The girls were ok, but Michael cried the whole time after the frogs started hopping. I don't blame him - it looked a little rough.

Once it started getting dark we had to cut them off from rides to see the light parade (all floats lit up with Christmas lights parading through the park), then we took a quick break for dinner and finished up the day with Mary's long-anticipated favorite thing ever: the giant Christmas tree whose lights flash in patterns along with the music it plays. It was everything she had remembered from last year. These are bad pictures, but they're for Mary.

Friday we spent the morning making crafts and playing games at the condo, then went to lunch at a diner where all the servers sing whenever they have a minute. Our waiter knelt down next to Catherine's chair and tried to sing to/for her, at which point she immediately put her straw in her mouth and turned her back to him, and refused to stop drinking until he had left the table. I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

Then we saw Santa (one of several) and the giant rocking chair in the nearby shopping plaza.

We also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Titianic-shaped Titanic museum, and the kids still talked Grandpa into another long swim before dinner.

That sounds like a long day as it is, but after dinner we rode the Duck tour of Christmas lights. After that, I was officially worn out, but the kids had no problem wearing their santa hats and blowing their duck kazoos like crazy ducks when we got back to the condo.

Gussie has been dealing extremely well with being toted everywhere and fed-on-the-go. I think he even liked his Santa hat.

Although he doesn't look too impressed with the duck lips kazoo necklace Catherine have him.