movie night with friends - Dec. 20

Several weeks ago, two friends and I started talking about the movie "White Christmas" and how very much we loved it.

We decided at that point to do a White Christmas movie night.

The original plan was to borrow Youth World's video projector and have the movie outside at the Jensen's house..... invite a bunch of families, have popcorn and other snacks, etc. and indulge in the sheer delights of the classic Christmas musical.

Since it has rained and been freezing cold for the last two weeks it was decided that it most definitely needed to be moved indoors.

We were going to host, but another family really wanted to....

I thought to myself "But I really really want to be able to clean up my house, be stressed over having everything ready, play perfect hostess and then clean up all the mess afterwards."

But, being the kind, sacrificial and thoughtful person that I am, I reluctantly gave in and allowed the Tassy's to have their jollies hosting the event.

It wasn't really part of the gig, but we decided to go in pajamas.

Well, some of us did.

Eric and Maddy didn't want to participate in that aspect.

Truth be told, Eric didn't want to participate in any aspect.

But he did!!

These pictures are on our way out the door.

Everyone brought snacks.

There was a lot of popcorn.

I'm thinking that everyone thought that they should bring popcorn because everyone else would bring Christmas baking.

Most everyone brought popcorn.

Including me.

Ah!

But I brought caramel popcorn (and chocolate dipped marshmallows).

Count on me to bring the stuff with the most sugar!

Now, as you will remember, the event was to be a White Christmas deal.

As you can see in the above picture, we are indeed watching White Christmas.

We put it in even though there was a great uprising from all the kids.

No, no, no.... that's boring!

(Even though I don't think any of them, save my children, had ever seen it before. And my kids have always loved it and wanted to watch it... that is until their friends, who haven't ever seen it, told them how boring it is....)

But we still watched it.

For five minutes.

Since no one could hear it (we have no idea why - all the techy type people - no, not me - tried everything, but it was really quiet), we were forced to put on Elf.

I love Elf.

Completely different category than White Christmas, which I also love, but it really was a great movie to watch with the kids.

They laugh so hard and it is so fun to watch them watch it.

That is Cade watching the movie.

The only bad thing about watching Elf is trying to hold your tongue -

trying not to say every line along with it.

Why is it so irritating when people sing or talk along to the movie, but so fun when you do it yourself?

We went home, much, much too late having enjoyed a wonderful evening with wonderful friends.

And I didn't have to clean up a thing!

shopping, cooking and baking - Dec. 22

The activity for today was shopping.

Yipee, yahoo, and hip-hip-horray!

(Please include plenty of sarcasm on the part of the parents and down-right anger on behalf of Cade.)

Unless it is at Target or "treasure hunting" at TJMaxx, Old Navy or a thrift store, shopping is just not my thing.

It is even less of Eric's thing.

And nothing of Cade's thing.

Although, actually, he really wasn't that bad.

We went shopping for our "ticket" gifts.

We pulled names with the Casa G. guys as well as amongst the four kids.

Since we all had to go together, the purchasing of gifts for the siblings didn't go too smoothly.

Next year please remind me to start really early, make sure I have my driver's license by then, and take one kid at a time.

But it is done.

Well, almost.

Most of the guys wanted headphones and we couldn't find anything within the price range.

Now Eric has to do it on his own tomorrow.

He's excited.

Before shopping, while Eric was blissfully off at work, I cooked, baked and dealt with kids.

Some of it was like this:

and this

but some of it was also like this

"'Tis the season to be jolly..."

I wanted to put some other words into the "fa-la-la-la-la" part.

I think Cade wanted to as well.

Fortunately he got over it.

So did I.

And on we went with the rest of the day.

I told the kids early on in the day that I was going to need their help.

At first, on of them was very disgruntled about the whole thing....

trying to argue about why they should have to do anything.

By the grace and work of God, this same child apologized later and cheerfully went on being very helpful.

Lucy pitched in and "helped" make pie crust.

Maddy and Mia (and Lucy) happily did dishes.

And everyone took part in cutting, peeling and coring apples for the pies.

It was really quite lovely to have the help -

especially when it is happy help.

school Christmas parties

One of the things you will notice about this entry is that there is no documentation of Maddy's parties.

That is because Maddy is in middle school.

Maddy is too cool for school (or, rather, too cool for her mom).

I jest.

There is no possible way she is too cool for me.

I'm just that cool.

And really, she doesn't treat me that way either.

I just wanted an opportunity to reiterate how very cool I am.

So I made up an opportunity.

But they just really don't make a huge deal out of the parties for middle school and up.

Which, while I want them to be educated, I think it stinks.

Just because they are older doesn't mean that they don't want fun parties.

Or maybe they don't.

What do I know.....

First, Cade's big bash.

Fairly goofy that guy is.

While it seems like his party started with coloring a stocking picture, as seen above, you would be deceived if this is what you believed.

I didn't bust out my camera (I was too enthralled with a new craft his teacher taught be before the party started.... in the other pictures you'll see some big white staryish-snowflaky thingys hanging from the ceiling. They are really quite pretty and she showed me how to make them.) Anyway, I didn't take pictures of Cade showing off.

He was doing flips, handstands, walking on his hands, etc. in the classroom.

He really was quite awesome

(and I only say that with a teeny-tiny bit of sarcasm, because he really was impressive).

More stuff he learned from the Casa G. boys.

Cade was quite taken with the snowman cupcakes from the other party, so I made them again.

The parents that were there were quite smitten with them as well.

I mean they are cute and all, but really not that hard to do.

I didn't quite get how much the swooned over them.

Each child brought in a stocking and every child was supposed to bring in a little something for each classmate.

Apparently, according to Cade's teacher, stockings are not something that they typical do here.

(Which I really do believe as today, I looked high and low for stockings for the Casa G boys. I found a grand total of 2..... I might be sewing 9 stockings.)

They played "Santa says" (as in, Simon.....).

Cade won the first round.

That means he became Santa.

He had them do some more extreme things -

like have them raise their chairs above their heads.

The teacher didn't even seem to mind too much.

Then they played "stick the ornament on the tree", as in "pin the tail....".

Mrs. Ayala spun the kids around three times first....

Cade fell flat on his booty.

Then stocking time.

Cade gave each of the boys one of his hot wheels cars.

He gave each of the girls one of the flower clips that I made.

The girls really liked them and kept coming up to him and giving him hugs.

He was having a good time!

And finally, Mrs. Ayala opened her presents.

We made her a shirt, because, of course, 1st grade rocks!

Mia had a party too, but it wasn't quite as entertaining (for me, that is) as Cade's.

Mrs. Bulmer, her teacher opened her gifts.

Notice the Canada paraphernalia? (.... once again, thank you spell check).

Okay, well, it is just the thing around her neck.

But she is Canadian.

It makes me like her even more.

We made marshmallow treats for her class.

They look nice, but personally, I'm not partial to marshmallows.

Mia's friend, the only other gringa in the class (and who is from Winnipeg!!!), seemed to enjoy them.

They watched Rudolf and did a few other things.

But I didn't really spend much time there.

They also did stockings and Mia got quite a haul... as did Cade.

Lucy's party was sweet.

It was all a birthday party for Jesus.

They started with making sparkly trees.

I made some cupcakes with little signs on them.

And amazingly, all they had to eat were those and some oreos.

And they drank milk.

As a mom, I love it.

As a child, I might have been ticked off when I found out all the stuff my siblings had at their parties!

Miss Ortiz lit a candle and they all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.

And then they had the cupcakes.

They didn't do stockings or exchange gifts, but Lucy didn't want to be left out, so she gave all her classmates a gift.

The boys got hot chocolate packages that we had left over from the sale.

The girls also got flower clips.

Here is Hillary modeling hers.

And Miss Ortiz also got a shirt.

Because, of course, Kindergarten also rocks.

Ya, okay, I couldn't figure out what to put on the shirts.

At 11:00 there was a school wide assembly - a bit of a Christmas program.

It was nice....

but a little long for a few kids I know.

It was a very fun morning -

I thoroughly enjoyed running back and forth between parties and seeing the smiles on the kids faces.

And I'm glad to have the kids home for two weeks.

It will be a wonderful Christmas.

the Christmas concert

Thursday night was the school (elementary part, that is) Christmas concert.

Quite an extravaganza, let me tell you.

(and side note: try to buy or sew nice, fancy dresses for the girls for next year....

They were ever so slightly out of place in their hand-me-down sundresses. They were playing the role of "the poor missionaries getting old clothes from the Christmas barrels" very well. Truly speaking, it didn't seem to bother them, or me, that terribly much... )

Here is Lucy, in with the three kindergarten classes.

She is so very cute.

And I'm not biased.

Not at all.

And Cade with his first grade class.

Making his "stink-face", as his kindergarten teacher in Fairfield called it.

Fortunately we haven't seen the "stink-face" nearly so much any more.

He looked very handsome in his preppy shirt.

Took a little force from the father-figure to get him in it.

During the last song of the concert, the teachers set off about 12 huge crackers that sprayed out confetti everywhere.

It was pretty fun.

Cade naturally started piling it all on top of his head.

Some of the Casa G. boys came to see the kids.

Here is Mia stealing Lucy's new best friend, Alejandro.

Somehow Alejandro makes it into most pictures.....

And Mia again with Ricardo.

She's not very happy with him right here, because he stole her sunglasses and she chased him around for a few minutes trying to get them back.

Fatigue set in and so did the tears of frustration.

She got over it.

And got her sunglasses.

We did do some videotaping of the event.

Maybe I'll see if I can figure out how to put that on here....

Oh, and there aren't any pictures from during the concert because it was not allowed.

Only about 146 people disobeyed that request.

We, surprisingly, weren't one of them.

ineffective punishment

Our most effective form of discipline for Lucy is now officially ineffective.

Part of me is rejoicing

part of me is very very sad.

She has now voluntarily worn pants on three days.

Here she is at school, on the playground (talking with her brother, none-the-less) at recess.

She likes pants.

Pants look good on her.

I kept thinking how cute she looked in those jeans.

But now, what in the world do we do to discipline her?

How will we ever get her to cooperate again?

Making her wear pants was a fabulous punishment.

And now it is gone.

more Christmas activities - Dec. 15 & 17

Since St. Nicholas Day is the same as Quito Day, we celebrated late.

We usually read the history of St. Nick - how he was a good man, helped others and loved Jesus.

Then we watch a Santa Claus movie of some sort and then, in the tradition of the Dutch, they put their shoes outside their bedroom doors.

"Santa" or St. Nicholas.... or his representative, puts some treasures in the shoes.

This year is was a bouncy ball, two one-dollar coins and a big chocolate Santa.

I think maybe next year I should wash the shoes first...

eww.

Yesterday, Friday, the last day of school for the year, was a half day.

And it was all parties.

More on that later.

Because it was a half day, and the kids went to bed very late the night before (School Christmas Concert.... more on that later, too), and they got all amped up on sugar at their parties, we had a kick back kind of afternoon.

The activity as to move the couch around, make our cozy little nook, and watch a movie, lay around and generally be lazy.

I made some chocolate caramel popcorn (with left over choc. and caramel from other treats I've made previously.... yes, I gave them more sugar...stupid, stupid)

Our neighbor boy joined us in watching "Jingle All the Way" - a fairly lame Christmas movie that filled the need for a movie we haven't seen often.

It also filled the need for an activity that would not cause the kids to go into fits of negative emotional expression -

aka: complete and utter breakdowns.

five-year-old potty mouth

Life is really good.

But sometimes I wish there were a constantly rolling video camera so that we could relive moments over and over and over again...

and share them with others.

(although with other moments, that whole idea is very very frightening!!)

The absolute hilarity of a certain 3 minutes of our day was such an occasion.

Oh how I wish I could have it recorded.

I'm sure I will completely slaughter the telling of this story, but work with me here.

You have to imagine it happening....

Lucy comes home from school today and as soon as she enters the house she says something I hope that she didn't say.

It sounded a lot like "damn".

She said is a few more times as she got closer and closer to me.

"damn, damn, damn..."

I ask her what she is saying.

"Damn"

Eric walks in the door, wondering what is going on.

"Where did you hear that word, Lucy"

"From ______ , at school. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn...."

She starts to put it to song.

"Damn, damn, damn, damn..."

Eric and I are desperately trying to keep a straight face.

It isn't working.

She continues to sing.... and now dance, to her new song.

We are not quite sure why she is suddenly fascinated by one new word.

"Are you singing about a beaver?"

"No. Damn, damn, damn, damn..."

Between suppressed smirks and snickers (fortunately Lucy hasn't noticed us trying to contain ourselves), Eric kneels down to explain to her what is the nice form of dam and the not so nice form of damn.

Without missing a beat,

and no thought of remorse, repentance or embarrassment, the song changes.

Barely.

"Beaver dam, dam, dam, dam, dam....."