House of Estrogen

Christmas Wrap-Up 2011

Christmas was good to us this year. My dining room table made a rare appearance to host Christmas Eve dinner.  If you know anything about my dining room, this photo in itself is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.

This is my parents' first Christmas here since their move from Texas, so they came over for Christmas Eve dinner. My dinner plans involved cooking a pork roast. Unfortunately, I forgot to pull it out of the freezer early enough to thaw it completely. Since I was hesitant about serving up roast ala salmonella, I ran out and bought a Paula Deen ham on Christmas Eve. That sucker was great! Thank you Paula Deen!

My parents were in luck. They got to hear Addie's harmonica concert. It was as lovely as you might imagine from a hyped-up four year old with a new harmonica.

After Christmas jammies were opened and donned, JoJo read stories.

Then, I had a little fun taking bokeh photos of the tree,

and late that night, Santa stopped by. He stuffed the stockings and set out the baskets o' electronics.

I usually prefer still photos to videos, but I do love videotaping the girls coming down the stairs each Christmas morning. This year, I think Nina's reaction was priceless. I'm so glad I caught it on video.

You think she like her iPod?

Elise was pretty happy with her stash as well.

One of the things on Addie's list (along with a roller coaster, a fox, and a giraffe) was "little tiny people that I can push on a little tiny swing."  After puzzling over this request for a while, I finally realized that she was remembering playing with some vintage Little People that my mom's neighbor in Dallas had. As always, Ebay can usually get me out of any jam. Who would have thought that in 2011, a four year old would be asking for 1970's Little People? When she opened the gift though, she exclaimed, "It is just what I asked for!!"

In the afternoon, we spent time with JC's family. All the testosterone bearing family members (they are few and far between) received remote control helicopters. Papa looks like he was having fun!

 Addie continued her streak of good presents.

Maybe she had just opened her Cars Play-doh set. That was a huge hit. Most other toys were neglected the rest of the day while everyone played with Play-doh.

After a couple of science experiments,

 

a few rounds of new video games, too many desserts, and saying thanks that nobody's hair got caught in the remote control helicopter blades, we all settled down for a long winter's nap.

A Little Christmas Spirit, Finally

I've been feeling a bit lazy and Scroogish so far this holiday season. My Christmas cards have been sent, and much of my shopping is done, but I just haven't been able to get myself geared up for the baking and decorating. The kids need a tree though, so putting up the tree was today's mission.  J.C. is the ultimate Scrooge when it comes to the tree. In his words, "It is a wasted weekend day putting it up, and another wasted weekend day taking it down. Bah humbug."  Nice. Clearly, I was getting no help from him. Elise and I tromped around the attic until we finally found the tree.  Those tree boxes weigh a ton. We managed to drag it over to the top of the stairs. Then I slid it down the stairs, nearly crushing Elise in the process. There's a nice holiday headline for you: "10 Year Old Girl Crushed by Artificial Tree, Mother to Blame."

Eventually, we got it standing and plugged in and got busy decorating.

Addie started off the morning trimming the tree as a ballerina... a Sugar Plum Fairy, perhaps?

At some point, she decided a Pocahontas costume was more appropriate for the event. Doesn't everyone have multiple outfit changes for these occassions?

Nina asked me to take this picture of her. I'm not sure what the expression means, but I obliged.

Although J.C. would rather not be at all involved in the tree decorating process, we force him to help put the angel on top. It would not be pretty if I tried picking up Addie like that. That headline would read: "Christmas Tree Collapses under Three Year Old Dropped by her Mother."

 

In years past, I have often hosted gingerbread parties; however, this year, our local Panera Bread was offering gingerbread decorating. How can I turn that down?

I didn't have to buy anything OR clean up the mess! Plus, a few of our neighbors were there too, so it was just like a party at home... kind of... well, if you ignore all the other people we didn't know who were there too. Really, it was just like home but better. Plus, they make lattes!

I think our day of Christmas cheer got me more in the Christmas spirit. I mean how can I look at this face and not get excited about Christmas?!

Only two weeks until Christmas! Are you ready?

Surf's Up!

A Proper Tea

"A Proper Tea is much nicer than a Very Nearly Tea, which is one you forget about afterwards"

~A.A. Milne

It is hard to believe that November is here, the leaves and temperatures are falling, the Christmas ads are upon us, and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season is beginning. Addison and I had plans today to attend our first holiday event of the season, the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea Party, with her good friend S. Unfortunately, S had to cancel at the last minute due to an illness in the family, so Elise and my mom joined us instead. Elise was the oldest child in the room by at least 5-6 years, but she enjoyed it regardless. Addie loved it all. She was awed by the ballerinas, gobbled up brownies and cookies, and took it all in with the wonder that only a three year old can have. Last time we attended this event was when Nina was three. I think that must be perfect tea party age, or... perhaps 40 is the perfect tea party age since I get the privilege of viewing it through the eyes of my three year old. It doesn't get much better than that.

A Post-Christmas Letter to Santa

 
Dear Santa,

I thought I'd send you a note to let you know how Christmas went and give you a few tips for  future Christmases.

First, I want to apologize for the sad state of our tree. 

   

We didn't decorate it before we went on vacation.

 

Christmas was fast approaching by the time we got home and settled, so the only ornaments that ended up on the tree were the few we bought in Disney World, a couple homemade ones from Elise's Girl Scout holiday party, and the angel on top. It looked a bit sparse. We'll try for a more festive fully-decorated tree next year, I promise.

 

You know those cookies we leave out for you every year? 

 

Do they really have to be homemade? Would Candy Cane Jo Jo's be OK instead?  Or maybe some red and green Lofthouse cookies?

 

The whole baking thing just didn't go so well this year. I was looking forward to an afternoon of listening to Christmas music and baking with my children.

 

It sounded good in theory. We would measure, stir, crack eggs, laugh, and bond. Baking is one of those long-standing mother-daughter holiday rituals, right? 

 

Instead, I spent the entire afternoon listening to them bicker... "You got to stir for a long time, and I only got to stir for a short time!", "Hey! It is my turn to pour the sugar in.", "No fair! You got five chocolate chips, and I only got four.", "Mmmmommmm, she's using the good spoon again!" 

 

Nothing like listening to a fight about Christmas m&m's to put you in the holiday spirit. Santa, if you insist on home baked cookies, I will bake them myself next year after the children go to bed, OK?

Now, on to the gifts. We are thankful for all of them. Everything looked beautiful as we came down the stairs. 

  

Addie fell in love with her big stuffed Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba and her cool fairy tent.

 

Those were both big hits. I don't mean to nit-pick, but there was one slight problem. The whole "family gift" thing of the Wii and Wii Fit completely confused the other two. I'm sure you didn't anticipate that since it was such a nice generous gift and all, but instead of the "Oh WOW! A Wii! Awesome!" reaction that you might have expected, it was more like, "Hey, who got the Wii?", "If she got the Wii, what did I get?", "Whose games are whose? They don't have tags on them.", "What did Santa leave for me?" There was much confusion over the "family gift". Maybe next time, put out a family gift along with just a little something for each of them. Heck, even just putting name labels on the games probably would have solved the issue. Anyway, despite the confusion that morning, we are all enjoying the Wii. J.C. and I have been hogging it, but we let the girls play occassionally. My back and arms are sore from flapping my wings flying those crazy birds on the Wii Fit. J.C.'s abs are killing him from Wii hula hooping, and J.C. and I have stayed up ridonculously late every night playing Toy Story Mania.

I have a few suggestions for future gifts too. Although I know some kids don't like getting books for Christmas (like that little boy whose YouTube video went viral. He was on the Today Show this week), Elise is a bit of a bookworm and loved all her books. No need to keep books out of her stash.

 

Addison appears to be turning into a doll girl just like Elise, so I think you will have many Christmases in the years to come with American Girl dolls and doll clothing on her list.

 

I also have a recommendation for you for any rock-loving kids on your list. Addison gave Nina a Crystal Mining Kit.

 

It is basically just a big hunk of plaster with crystals in it. It comes with all the tools you need for "digging and excavating" to find the crystals.

 

I'm pretty sure no other toy EVER in the history of House of Estrogen toys has held Nina's interest like this one. The child sat perfectly still, patiently scraping away fine dust particles for HOURS. From the time we finished opening gifts until the time we dragged her from the table to get dressed for lunch, she never once moved from this chunk of plaster. I loved seeing her so engaged, but I'm still sort of flabbergasted by the whole thing. Addison and Elise were racing around the house, high on Pez, bouncing from one new toy to the next while Nina hammered, scraped, and dusted, and hammered, scraped, and dusted some more.

 

This is a great gift for any junior archeologists on your list next year.

My last recommendation is regarding stockings. I know you probably thought the Zhu Zhu pets were great stocking stuffers since the girls love them so much and they are just the right size. You nearly woke up the whole house though filling the stockings. Everytime a stocking moved or you added something to it, the Zhu Zhu pet started squeaking and yapping. I could hear you downstairs cursing them trying to figure out how to shut them up. Fortunately, I think the girls slept through it, but you just got lucky on that one. Those creatures were very noisy! No more Zhu Zhu pets in stockings.

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas. Please give our love to Mrs. Claus and the reindeer. I hope they enjoyed the reindeer food the girls sprinkled in the yard.

Happy New Year!

Ann

A Christmas Splash, a Look Back

After writing that last post, I decided to find the picture from our first "Swim with Santa" six years ago. They've grown a bit, huh? Look at those chunky baby thighs... I miss chunky baby thighs!

 

A Christmas Splash

One of my coworkers saw this picture and said, "That is way too strange." We've been going to the "Swim with Santa" event for so many years that I don't really think about it any more, but I suppose it is a bit odd, huh?

 

Three Little Elves

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Vocabulary

Elise is killing me with her vocabulary choices lately. The girls have chocolate advent calendars that they open each morning. This morning, they had forgotten them when they first came downstairs, so a little later in the morning, Nina yelled, "Anybody want chocolate? Come downstairs for chocolate!"  Elise jumped up and exclaimed, "Come on Addie! Let's go get chocolates from our Venn diagrams!"

I'm just going to hope that when her teacher asks her to draw a Venn diagram that she doesn't draw an advent calendar instead!

Christmas Comes Early...

...when your last day of school is December 3. Nina's holiday party was yesterday, and Elise's is tomorrow.  It is just barely December, but we're already having to gear up for Christmas. I'm still not quite there mentally. It feels too early. I spent tonight working on teacher gifts though, so they can be delivered tomorrow. I decided to try my hand at personalized hand sanitizer this year.  I hope the teachers like them. I figure you can never have enough hand sanitizer this time of year!