'Twas The Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

Sophia, Alexandra & Lucas were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out of Sophia's bedroom there arose such a clatter,
We sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Rolled up in a ball she wailed and she hollered,
Her tummy was hurting and her legs straight no longer.

So off to the ER daddy drove into the night.
He showed no signs, but inside full of fright.
While I stayed at home and cried at the sight,
Of my little Sophia having appendix surgery tonight.

She watched a few movies, was brave as can be
As they drew blood from both arms I wish I could see.
Tho daddy was there to give comfort and hugs
I called every three minutes to speak to my love.
  
After many an hour the doctors determined,
No surgery was needed her blood work looked perfect!
Joe gave me the news, she was in the clear
It was not appendicitis like all the MD's feared.
Then he went to a bar and they both had a beer...
(Not really but he wanted to & it rhymes :)

So that's how we spent the night before Christmas.
Thank goodness God heard ours prayers and our wishes.
Sophia came home and woke up the next morning,
To all of Santa's gifts and the greatest,
Her homecoming!

Christmas Eve

We try to incorporate both the magic of Santa and the true meaning of Christmas into our holiday celebration.  So what better way to celebrate Jesus' birthday than with a cake.  The girls agreed Jesus liked yellow cake with chocolate icing and LOTS of rainbow sprinkles.  So that's exactly how we spent the morning of Christmas Eve, baking baby Jesus the perfect birthday cake.

 

 

Later that day we headed over to Mass and visited the live nativity.  Sophia was especially excited to see the "burrow that carried Mary to the manger and the camels the three kings rode on to visit baby Jesus."  

The girls couldn't wait to touch the "white pigeon, like Noah"  Hmmm, that's not what I thought of when I saw it, but they're right!   I'm always amazed by what they remember and it reminds me to be the best I can be because I have three pairs of eyes and ears taking it all in.   

 

BAAAA BAAA ... one of the few words in Lucas' vocabulary.

Alexandra still remembers the little shy goat from when we visited Tanglewood Farm over the summer.  So when she saw this friendly kid she ran over saying "look ... it's the little shy goat!  She's all grown up now."

After birthday cake and bath, the girls went outside to sprinkle some reindeer food on the front lawn.  Sophia was a bit concerned how they would get to their yummy snack since Santa would be parking them on the roof : ) 

And of course their last effort to show just how good, kind, and polite they've been : )

Catch Air

With a few free days before Christmas we decided to head over to Catch Air, the newest indoor playground.  It's really quite fun and very different from other playhouses in the area.  They have everything from jumpies to ball pits, pint size exercise equipment and bumper cars.  At one point, they even turned off the lights, turned on the disco balls, turned up the music and the whole place turned into a dance party! Something for everyone and all ages! 

 

Sophia on the merry go round.  But rather than having to spin yourself, you hop onto one of these balls, hold on tight, and round and round you go!

Alexandra's turn to go round and round!  The faster it went the more she smiled : )

 

Lucas even had a blast!  Here he is giving hugs to an inflated horse he adopted!

Christmas Cookies

It's not Christmas without Christmas cookies.  This year, rather than turning my kitchen into a winter wonderland, we were invited to a friends house to bake and decorate the season's tasty treat.  So with some cookies, icing and sprinkles in hand, we headed on over.  Of course in the usual rush out the door, I forgot my camera.  So unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the process but i'm sure you can only imagine the mess when you see the final product.  Here's a hint: there was plenty of sprinkles on one cookie to cover about a whole dozen : )    

 

 

Though we all had fun decorating and tasting, my three each found their favorite job.  Alexandra, always the little helper in the kitchen, was eager to roll out the dough and cut the cookies.  While Sophia just wanted to do the decorating and Lucas was the official taster!  Yummy!  I'm sure Santa and Rudolph will get plenty of energy from this sugar high... we sure did!

Christmas at School

The girls have been busy with lots of Christmas activities at school too! A visit from Santa started off the week, then Sophia's Christmas Program and finally Christmas parties before the 2 week break!

Alexandra with her class in front of "the humongous Christmas tree." She loved the "sparkly butterfly ornaments and twinkly lights."

Sophia also got to pose with her class after her visit with Santa. She was thrilled to know Rudolph loves carrots too and said we need to makes sure we leave him some along with one red M&M for dessert!

Santa Letter

Alexandra got a letter back from Santa!  

Of course as soon as we noticed Sophia didn't receive one I panicked!  Surely she'll get one too!  Well rather than share my excitement, I decided to wait a couple days to see if one would come for Sophia.  Sadly it never came : (  All I can assume is he couldn't read her writing.  And I can't say I blame him.  I'm sure he receives hundreds and trying to figure out a 4 yr olds handwriting is a bit time consuming.

So what to do now?!?!?  Do I try to retype one with both names? Somehow add Sophia's name to the original?  Just put it away and not bother showing them at all ... no way!  I honestly didn't know what to do but not showing them was not an option!  I went back and forth for several days but before I could make my decision, the "right time" just came.  I can't remember now what was happening but whatever it was, it just seemed like the right time to share Santa's letter. 

I read the letter but never mentioned any names.  After all, the only time Alexandra is mentioned is in the salutation, and it worked!  The girls were just surprised and excited that Santa had written them back.  I was still a little fearful Sophia would notice when she asked to see the letter but I guess she was distracted by all the little pictures. She never once acknowledge Alexandra's name!  Heww!  We got lucky this year but I'll be sure her name is eligible for Santa next year!  

Ice Skating

Clara a friend from our neighborhood started taking ice skating lessons earlier this fall. Then Rachel, also a neighborhood friend joined her. We were told about the lessons as well but the thought of being on the ice by 9am on a Saturday just seemed like too much so we decided not to join them. However, last Saturday was bring a friend day. Of course, everyone knows if one of my girls is invited somewhere the other needs to tag along. So Clara invited Alexandra and Rachel had Sophia come as her friend.

Who knew we had 2 future figure skaters! Well not quite (yet) but almost. The girls did great! For their first time on skates and ice for that matter, we were all very impressed! First of all we had no tears which was an accomplishment in itself. I was expecting a little fear but if they were scared it never showed. Then once they got on the ice they picked it up as if they'd been doing if for months. Of course they had a few falls but they didn't seem to mind them. They just got right back up and tried again!

Sophia and Clara skating toward their instructor. Sophia was SO happy to be on the ice!

Oops! After this initial slip ...

Alexandra quickly learned how to balance!

And here she goes ...

So who knows, maybe we will have to give up our lazy Saturday mornings and sign up for 9am ice skating : )

Rudolph

We spent the morning at The Center for Puppetry Arts watching "Rudolph", another one of our Christmas traditions. This year however, rather than going with our usual group, we went with a few friends from Sophia's class. The girls enjoyed every minute! Lucas on the other hand would get a little fussy if the play stayed on any particular scene for too long. So rather than risk disturbing everyone around us, we watched the show from the very back of the theater, near the door!

After the show, we had a picnic where the kids enjoyed climbing a tree and coloring a Rudolph activity book, compliments of Jack!

Alexandra was so proud she was able to climb with the "big kids"

After seeing his sister's, Lucas just had to join in.

Sophia was the ring leader! She had no problems climbing up but needed a little help jumping all the way down! It was rather high : )

After the show & picnic we headed upstairs for the craft. Rudolph rod puppets! How fun! Another successful Friday Funday!

Trim the Tree

The Heilman's invited us to their first annual Christmas party!

The theme was retro white "trim the tree" in hot pink and lime green! Perfect for my little girls! However, finding 3 suitable pink and green ornaments turned out to be more of a challenge than we expected. After shopping around and not really seeing anything they felt was sparkly (flashy) enough, we decided to make our own. I wish I had taken a picture of their creations. Needless to say, they were VERY festive with plenty of sparkles to spare : )

Here's a not so clear picture of some of us on our way out. Sophia was too busy playing with a big bouncy ball to join us but then cried the whole way home because she wanted to be in the picture. The drama of a four year old!

As you can see, Lucas was not really cooperating either! Like most toddlers, all he wanted to do was run around. And after a little coaching Alexandra was content in daddy's arms but by the end of the night we all just really needed to head home. It was worth the try! Oh well! There's always next year! I can't imagine another tree theme but whatever the theme I know it will be fun since Donna's in charge! Merry Christmas!

Santa again ...

Santa again, or .... not!

Right around the corner at The Avenue they were offering free pictures with Santa and horse drawn carriage rides. So to end Friday Funday we decided to give Santa another shot. Who knows, maybe after our introduction earlier in the day, Alexandra and Lucas would feel a little more comfortable and I could get a better picture with the three smiling. However, when the kids noticed the horse drawn carriage, there was no way we could pass that up and Santa was no longer a priority.

So after a quick 20 minute wait and three happy kids we hopped on the carriage and went for our first annual Christmas carriage ride. If you live in Atlanta and haven't taken your kids, I highly recommend it! It was so much fun! I think we'll have to make it a new tradition and add it our Christmas to do list for next year!

Visit with Santa

I love having Friday's "off" because it gives us the chance to do something fun with no crowds! Last Friday Funday was the perfect day to check "Santa" off from our Christmas to do list. So, I got the kids dressed in their coordinating Santa outfits and off to the mall we went to visit the jolly ol' man himself.

It's crazy to think I haven't been to a mall in 3 years. My last visit was right after I had Alexandra and ironically enough it was to see Santa. Honestly, besides not having any real need, the thought of taking 2 preschoolers and a toddler scared me a bit. Not really sure why, I take them everywhere else?!?! I guess it's because if I was to go to the mall it would be to shop and how could I possibly shop with 3 kids?!?! Lucky for them (and me) our first mall field trip was not to shop but to ride the train & carousel, play on the soft playground, and most importantly see Santa!

The picture speaks for itself and is a true representation of our kids current state and personalities! Sophia was completely excited, no hesitation at all and very eager to tell Santa exactly how well behaved she's been and what she would like to see under the tree Christmas morning. Alexandra as usual was a bit timid and shy with strangers or in new surroundings, but quickly warmed up to the white bearded man. Once she heard how confident Sophia was, she too told Santa what a great helper she's been and how much she would love to have anything Hello Kitty! (her new obsession) Lucas seemed excited as we waited our turn in line but as soon as he sat on Santa's lap, the tears started flowing and the screams began! Separation anxiety at it's finest : ) Awwwww the joys of the season!!!!

Thanks Santa for making our trip to the mall such a fun event! Have a safe ride back to the North Pole! See you next year!

Alexandra's 3!

After going back and forth between a Wizard of Oz party, a Fairy party or a Jerry, (our cat) party. Alexandra finally decided on a Hello Kitty party! It was the closest thing to a Jerry party I could think of and it turned out to be the purrrfect party for my little kitty!

One of the activities we had was face painting. After all, it wouldn't be a kitty party without some kitties! All the girls had white ears with a pink hello kitty nose and bow.

And the boys were little puppies!
Lucas didn't mind having his face painted but he wasn't too happy about those puppy ears.

The purrrfectly cute Hello Kitty invitation set the mood.

Pink, pink and more pink! From the cupcakes to the popcorn everything was in pretty pink with a little Hello Kitty splashed in the mix!

And what do kitties drink? Milk of course!
The puppies and kitties had fun sipping out of pink paper straws and glass bottles.

Miller in his puppy ears and face paint : )

Maggie surprised us all when she asked to be a kitty. So cute!

Patterson insisted on being a kitty. Stating very matter of factly,"it's not a hello puppy party it's a hello kitty party."... and whose going to argue with that!

Hello Birthday Kitty couldn't wait to take the first bite of her strawberry cupcakes with pink icing and pink sprinkles!

Happy Birthday!!!!! ... SWEET girl!
I hope you liked your kitty party as much as I enjoyed planning it for you!

Dear Santa

Still looking for a few Christmas activities to keep the kids busy, we decided to work on our letters to Santa. Of course with most kids this age the list gets longer and longer with every visit to a friends house or commercial they see on tv (which by the way it seems they try to squeeze in even more this time of year).

However, when the girls realized they would have to write everything down, they decide to shorten their list and only include the most important items. After all Santa has Sally (our elf. yes last years Elfie now has the more sophisticated name of Sally) watching to inform him.
So, this is what they came up with.

Dear Santa:

I have been a very good girl. May I please have :

a hello kitty blanket with lots of sparkles on it and lots of hello kitty stuff. (Alexandra)

a crazy hair lalalopsy and lots of princess stuff (Sophia) ... notice even with her shortened list she still got tired of writing. especially when she saw how quickly Alexandra finished with mommy's help.

Thank you,
Love

And off they went to the North Pole! My neighbors said they got a letter back last year so hopefully our postal worker will be so kind to do it again this year.

That would really be soooo exciting!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

Tree: check
Ornaments: check
Wreaths: check
Elf: check
Nativity: check
Garland: check
Lights: check
Stockings: check
Nutcrackers: check

So now what do you do with 3 sick kids ...

Gingerbread house!

I know it was little early, but what else was I to do?!?! So, out came the left over Halloween candy, gingerbread walls and roof, and we began to mix the icing. Messy, messy ...but fun!

Building our traditional gingerbread house actually turned out to be the perfect Christmas activity for my 3 sick architects. However, I must warn you to nibble at your own risk when you stop by . Our house was made with lots of love and germs : )


Wait at least an hour for the icing to dry. Yeah right! Try telling two anxious preschools we can't decorate our gingerbread house. Not going to be very merry! So mommy had to improvise. Thank goodness we have a little invention known as the hairdryer!



But even the hairdryer wasn't quick enough for my little builders. So once again we had to figure out a way to keep our house together while we worked on the fun part ... candy decorating.

All it took was a tall vase and we were good to go! No more waiting for icing to dry. We could dry and decorate at the same time. We just had to remember to keep the heat away from our chocolate doors : )

Our final creation! A gingerbread house Hansel & Gretal would be proud of!

So Thankful!

We spent our Thanksgiving in North Carolina with The Barker Cousins (Ryan, Kevin & Eric), Aunt Judy & Uncle Chip, Grandma and Aunt Elaine. The girls started counting down "sleeps" since the first day of November. To say they were excited is an understatement! In fact, they each had pictures of Ryan, Kevin, and Eric in their rooms and would talk to them. Sophia was especially excited about seeing Kevin. She would hug and kiss his picture and would say she "loves Kevi because he does magic." Joe and I just hoped the feeling would be mutual when we arrived, otherwise our little turkeys would be very disappointed.

Luckily, the boys were happy to see the girls too so that was one less obstacle we had to face. However, our Thanksgiving still didn't turn out as we had hoped. Alexandra had come down with a terrible cold and by turkey time on Thursday, all three kids (and Joe) had a horrible cough and fever. Alexandra was the worst. She was on round the clock Motrin and Tylenol and would still get up 3 to 4 times a night. Lucas was sleeping but when he was up all he wanted was mommy. Sophia dealt with it the best (until we got home). She was just thrilled to be with cousins.

Needless to say we cut our trip a day short. Still, between Thanksgiving dinner and trips to the medicine cabinet, it amazes me how we were somehow still able to celebrate Alexandra's birthday and Christmas! I guess cupcakes and presents make everything better! So, after a long 5 days, we're just so thankful everyone is finally feeling better!

Truck and Cars make everything better!


The best seat in the house!


Go Tigers Go! Uncle Chip was very proud!


Clemson's #1 fan!


Shadow doesn't typically hang out but I guess he felt comfortable around Lucas.


Happy Birthday Alexandra!


The purrrrfect Christmas present!


More trucks! So excited he could take these home!


Sophia and her books!

Thanks for having us Barkers! For all the wonderful gifts but most of all for the memories! We love coming to visit!