The Rest of the Day

Once they got over the shock of the Barbies, they went on to open the rest of their gifts, which they were very happy with. Lots of Transformers, lots of Thomas, some Legos, some books and DVDs. The oldest 4 got shirts with Lego Star Wars on them, that was a popular gift.

Christmas Morning

After getting to bed around 4 AM (I was up wrapping, but to be honest, I wasn't moving too fast. I interrupted myself a lot, to read, or change the CD, or have a piece of candy LOL), the kids got up around 7. Actually, Samuel woke up at 5, because the baby was stirring. Instead of ignoring him like usual, he got him out of bed and started playing with him. He says he didn't know it was so early LOL. Chris got them both back to sleep and then they were the last ones up for breakfast.

Christmas morning breakfast here is just candy. I have tried making something special, but the boys have no interest in putting off presents. This year they ate the second gingerbread house. Keep in mind that we made it over a week ago, and that Levi is very sneaky. Here is what the house looked like when I served it:

The back

Not too bad, just a few candies missing here and there...

The front


Well well, notice how the gumdrop windows are gone? LOL

They enjoyed the house anyway, along with candy canes and Hershey's kisses.

This year is the first year we've done stockings for the boys. We don't teach them that Santa is real, so there wasn't a point, especially since we didn't have a fireplace. This year, since we put the tree up downstairs, stockings made sense. I bought cheap ones and put candy in. We also added a surprise...

Eager to open


What the heck???!!!


Oh yes, those are Barbies! LOL See how the 13 yo has fallen completely over? I think that was an allergic reaction LOL. The boys had been acting pretty badly the last few days, and very much as if they were entitled to their gifts. We thought this variation on coal could be a teachable moment LOL

Worse Than Coal

Scenes of Christmas

These are from Christmas Eve, before I wrapped any presents.

Christmas Cards, Round 2

Ok, we tried it again tonight. I used a slightly different camera, and played around with settings a lot. I didn't really find any settings I liked. Basically, flash indoors = evil; no flash indoors = grainy and/or blurry LOL. I think I should have given up on the white t-shirts. They threw the lighting off too much. But in the end, this is what I have:



I didn't have to cut and paste this time, I only adjusted for red-eye. Pretty impressive, huh? lol To make up for that, though, I spent *forever* playing with photoshop, adjusting the brightness and color. Ugh.

I like both of the pictures about equally, for different reasons; so I just put copies of each in the cards. I guess people will think I'm egotistical for thinking they want 2 pictures of my kids LOL.

Christmas Cards, Round 1

Chris came home reasonably early tonight (around 7, which is only early because lately he's been having to work until 10 or 11) and helped me round up the boys and throw them in front of the tree for pictures. It was almost 8 before we actually got started, so a bit late for the younger ones. I didn't really get any great pictures. I wanted the tree to look lit, so I didn't use a flash. My camera can take low light pictures, but you have to stand reeeaaaallly still LOL. And none of the boys can move. Yeah, right. Good luck. Well, after almost 50 shots, they were tired of standing in one spot and Jacob was just plain tired. I let them go, promising that if I couldn't photoshop a good picture tonight, they'd be called down for round 2 tomorrow. Here's what I came up with:



I had to cut and paste a smiling Jacob and a standing-still Levi. I don't think it came out too bad, though it doesn't look as good printed out on paper as it does on screen. It looks bright, but it prints darker. I'll let Chris decide if he likes it enough or if he's up for another go tomorrow.

Gingerbread House, Version 2

We let the boys eat the gingerbread house last weekend. Yum, it was good. Since they did so well decorating it, I bought a second kit for the younger ones to make. I didn't realize what a nice job the older kids did until I saw the result from the 3, 5, and 7 year olds! No symmetry, no color patterns, heck, the two halves of the roof don't even match! But they had a great time with it, and they love how it looks. We're saving this one for Christmas morning.





Notice how the snowman decided to play Santa? LOL

Baby's First Christmas

When my first baby was born, my mom started a tradition of buying a Baby's First Christmas ornament for him. She bought one for each grandchild, up until the year she died. That year I took up the tradition and have added an ornament for each new baby. I never realized how hard it was to choose a good ornament. The year Levi was born was the year we didn't decorate for Christmas, we didn't even put up a tree, so I never got around to getting him an ornament. I had to go online and find a site that sold past year ornaments.

This year is Jacob's first Christmas, and so I began the search for a new ornament. Each year it seems harder to find one, but I suppose that is because I am so picky. I'd like the ornaments each to make a good set together, but not to be too much alike. That is very hard. I found a cute stork ornament, but I bought a stork for Levi, so I didn't want to have another. Each of the ornaments is a ceramic animal with a toy or stocking, so I didn't want a glass ball with writing on it, and I didn't want a flat disk or star. Of course, the ornament also has to just appeal to me.

Finally I found a cute Boyds Bear ornament. The bear is plush, but Boyds has a special meaning for me, because my mom used to collect the bears. Today the ornament arrived in the mail, and I am a bit disappointed. It is bigger than I expected, and the bear is not at all poseable, which it said in the description that he would be. However, when I showed it to Jacob he got a huge smile on his face; so I guess it will do. :-)



Here is the bear on the tree with the other boys' ornaments:


The stack of blocks is 1994, the baby bootie is 1996, the bear hugging a christmas stocking is 1998, the mouse in the nutshell cradle is 2000, the bunny in the blue knit stocking is 2002, the stork carrying the baby is 2004, and the bear in the blanket sling is 2007. You can see how it is a bit bigger than the others. Still, it is cute :-)

Snow!

We got our first accumulating snow fall on Wednesday. The boys couldn't wait to go out in it. Unfortunately, we were short one pair of snow pants, so Samuel couldn't go out. It turns out that he and Caleb are wearing the same size, but I only had one pair in each size. He got to have his turn in the snow yesterday while Caleb stayed inside. I did go out last night and buy a second pair, so next time he won't have to wait.

7 Santas

We decorated our tree last night. Once again, you can tell the boys did their share, lol. This is a new ornament that my sister bought for us last year. She bought it before Jacob was born, so she couldn't add his name yet. I wrote it in just before I put it up. It isn't often you find anything with 7 boys on it!