Media-rich Tidings of Great Joy

Tonight, Micah has been out shopping, both kids have been asleep since 8 and I have cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed three rugs, baked sugar cookies and am now devouring them. It's been a great Christmas season so far for us so far!

It began the day after Thanksgiving with putting up the lights

We caught a grasshopper

In order for Micah to reach the dormer windows, he had to use our ladder to climb on the roof behind the house where it wasn't quite so steep, then climb up and over the point and slide down to the top of the windows and then try to scurry back up to the top. It was crazy and he nearly died over and over again and it took all day and we are now contemplating just leaving them up year round. Or getting a longer ladder as a Christmas gift.

But it does look very nice.

 The girls' favorite game lately is called "snuggle pile". It involves collecting as many soft things as possible in a cluster and then wrestling on the ground until Angela's head get rolled on and she starts crying. I *HATE* snuggle pile. It's not so bad downstairs, like in this photo. But when it occurs in their bedrooms, they empty all the clothes and stuffed animals and blankets and pillows, often with a few toys strewn in that are NOT soft, and of course they can't be trusted to sort all their stuff back out into the right place, so I end up cleaning it up every. single. time.

 Our biggest adventure was going up to Atlanta last weekend for Micah's graduation. Angela got to sit front-facing for the first time. It didn't have the intended effect, she still whined and screamed the whole time. Also, I learned that chips are the worst car snack ever for a small child. I think more crumbs reached her carseat than were actually swallowed.

The girls were actually very well behaved considering they had to sit through 2 long, really boring ceremonies the day after being stuck in the car for 9 hours.

We're very proud of Doctor Daddy, as I am trying to get the girls to call him now.

We watched frozen on the car ride home on Micah's laptop and it reawakened our girls' enthusiasm for the movie. Angela has been singing "let it go". Natalie was intrigued by the ice cutters in the first scene. She asked what they were doing and what the tools were that they were using. She asked if she could have one. When I said no, she said she would ask Santa for one. We tried to distract her from the idea, but she was determined that she had to have one. Micah, in his wisdom, made her a "toy ice saw" out of paper to satisfy her. Because, no. Just, no.

I'm finding that Christmas is even more joyful as a parent of multiple young children because, instead of decorating just once, you continually decorate all month as your children keep messing things up.

 ...in some cases, even hiding the Christmas decor!

The nativity is from Gabby, who used to play with one at Christmastime when she was little!

Why the kids love the dog bed so much, I will never understand.

Trying to make sugar cookies with the children was a complete disaster. Maybe next year, I will just throw the dough straight into the garbage and send the kids out to roll in the mud. They will have just as much fun, make just as much mess, and I will end up with about as many cookies. But I will be spared the misery of having the oven on all afternoon in this 85 degree heat!

Natalie has been really into the Santa thing this year, and is certainly beginning to understand the commercial side of things

But she is also grasping more details about the real reason for Christmas, too.

This is the definition of being a younger sister

And, finally, I become so crazy during road trips that I revert to a twelve-year-old state.