Christmas Chaos

Christmas has got me like...

For some reason, I feel like time is moving at twice its normal pace this Advent season. I can't explain why, but everything feels hectic and more complicated than usual. As a result, I've been feeling frustrated more than I'd like to admit.

Despite all that, we have been managing to have some pretty amazing days and spending quality family time together. Check out what we were up to the first 2 weeks here.

Sunday the 11th started out with a dead battery thanks to one badly aimed thrust of my T-Rex arm. Our attempts to jump start it only lead to the anti-theft alarm to sound endlessly, much to our neighbors' dismay. Our fun was not thwarted, though, and we got a new battery installed just in time to go ice skating. Despite a few blisters, the boys loved it.

And to top off the fun, the hubby was handed 4 box seats to see the local hockey team play that afternoon! So the kids enjoyed watching their first ever hockey game and $80 worth of pretzels. Yikes.

The 12th brought us a fun evening of (not homemade) cookies and all of our favorite holiday story books cuddled up together in the living room. The kitty even joined us for the fun. This day gave me all the warm fuzzies.

On the 13th we painted a Christmas lights masterpiece, went on a Christmas lights scavenger hunt, and incorporated a little Bingo into the mix. We got changed into our PJs, put on our Santa hats, grabbed some burgers at the drive-thru and headed out and about. We found so many amazing displays!

December 14th was our day to assemble care bags for the homeless and load up the car. The boys always insist that we spend some time driving around specifically searching for people in need to kick start our bag giving. The highlight of the night for me was to see an immediate need met, as a young girl immediately opened up her bag and put on the gloves we gave her.

On the 15th we said "Meowy Christmas!" and headed off to the pet shop, where they were collecting donations for a local shelter. N picked out a dog toy and some dog food. W and L each picked a cat toy and a huge bag of litter. I'm proud of their hearts for all creatures. While we were at it, we bought a few special treats and toys for the Iz and got her a stocking for the first time in her 14 years.

She's so excited.

Friday the 16th was gingerbread day! We made ninjabread men, built a gingerbread house, and decorated ugly sweaters. We had a messy lot of fun, and my heart was a full.

The boys really like icing. Can you tell?

Poor Hansel looks like he's coughing up some blood. Guess they didn't push the witch into her oven soon enough.

December 17th was The Muppets Christmas Carol and playing in the snow. We don't see much snow here, so this was quite a treat in our Santa hats and rain boots. When it got too cold, we warmed up with some cocoa and the movie.

 We even painted our very own blizzard with gouache and hot glue!

This was our last week of trying to fit in all the things. That is, having a regular school day plus the Advent activities. I'm really hoping that the more relaxed pace of this last week helps me feel less stressed out and focus my heart a little bit more on the birth of Christ.

Let the countdown begin!

It's that time of year again, and we are SO. EXCITED.

We like to take the days leading up to Christmas as a time to prepare our hearts to worship Jesus and thank God for the greatest gift He has given us, His Son. We also like to sing at the top of our lungs and have more than a little bit of fun along the way.

Here's how we spent the first week of Advent this year.

December 1:

We hauled boxes out of the garage and decked our halls. We don't have any balls of holly, but we do have stories to tell for each and every ornament on our tree. Around here we don't have the energy or patience for magazine-perfect trees. We each get a new ornament every year, and on decorating day, we remember where we were and why we picked what we did. And no decorating day would be complete without mugs of steaming hot cocoa!

December 2:

A trip to the library to pick out some new-to-us Christmas books began our evening of reading holiday books together, singing carols around the piano, playing "mystery carol" pictionary, and "hide-and-sing" (a musical version of hot and cold). This day was so simple, but has been one of my favorites so far!

December 3:

We found a local pet shop that had an "angel tree" for adoptable rescue animals. Since we aren't really in the market for a pet (well, one of isn't, anyway), we wanted to find a way to help out some sweet creatures. Each of the boys picked one adorable fur baby from the tree and bought several items from its wish list. Then we loved on some rescue animals for several hours. I was strictly warned not to "get any ideas." It was (is) hard not to!

December 4:

The nature center here had a lovely Christmas party filled with crafts, carolers, snacks, stories, and games! Not to mention the displays and critters that are always there. Daddy got to come along with us, which is always a treat, and we had a delightful evening!

December 5:

It's Gingerbread Day! This year we baked and decorated Ninjabread cookies and decorated a house. What house doesn't need ninjas protecting it?

December 6:

Happy St. Nicholas Day! We learned about the true St. Nicholas and participated in his spirit of giving by filling shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. You can, too! The boys are always very generous in theory. They do get a little look of panic on their faces when they realize they are giving some of their own money, but manage to get over it pretty quickly. Then we made some adorable Santa ornaments with paint and duct tape. The highlight of the evening for me was a mini recital of "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" by the twins.

December 7:

We took another trip to the nature center and learned about the different ways that animals cope with winter: migration, adaptation, and hibernation. Back home, we used pinecones and felt to create our own winter creatures: an owl, a mouse, a penguin, a cardinal, a squirrel, a snowshoe hare, and a fox. They are adorable just sitting on the shelf, but the boys love to play with them, too!

First Blood

in my attempts at a creative title for this post, i thought up what i thought was a jean-claude van damm movie title. being entirely ignorant in regards to the action genre of film making (can you even call it a "film" when you are talking about such quality acting and writing?), i decided to educate myself before publishing anything. it turns out i was wrong:



rambo. i don't think i've ever seen a rambo movie. i didn't know they had a title other than "rambo," "rambo part deux," and "rambo: we should have quit while we were ahead."

oh, well, i digress.

this post is really about izzie (or, "the iz" as she prefers to be called).



our princess.
she's nearly 7 years old and, although she still has every single talon-like claw, has never managed to hunt down anything except the occasional fly. and for the past 4 years, she's been pretty lazy when it comes to the fast ones.
our little girl is pretty good at finding things like spiders or bees and staring at them until we notice what's going on, but anything bigger -- well, she hasn't really been tested.
once, when we were living in barcelona, a pigeon flew into our apartment. yes, a pigeon. straight through the french doors from the balcony, through the living room and into the bathroom. and there it stopped. the iz, keeping a safe distance (about 25 feet, if i had to guess) cowered in a corner and clattered away at the bird and at me, as if i were the one whose natural instincts ought to urge me to chase (and perhaps even kill or eat) a bird.
she was useless & i was forced to chase that thing back out onto the balcony and into the air.
well, after nearly 7 years, she decided to prove her worth to us this week.
on tuesday i noticed that she was staring at the oven all day with such a fixed gaze that she would even let the boys crawl up and grab her tail. i was suspicious, but heard nothing and saw nothing.
on wednesday morning, she had moved from the oven to the pantry, still staring with the same intensity. again, i wondered if perhaps we had a squeaky visitor, but still heard & saw nothing -- even in all the times i was in and out of the pantry all day long.
yesterday, she was back to normal, lounging in the sun and worry free.
until...
after i went to bed a scenario unravelled that i am glad i was not there to see.
according to b, he was playing chess against some online opponent and noticed nothing strange. now, there have been times when i have tried to talk with him while he has been playing, and he hasn't heard a word i said, but he swears he neither saw nor heard anything out of the ordinary.
and then he felt her eyes on him.
he got up from the desk & turned on the light to see her mouth clamped down on the brown furry throat of a mouse.
eek!
good girl. i think we'll keep her.