Christmas in Decatur

This past weekend we spent in Decatur to celebrate Christmas with family up there. Madeline could not wait to get up there and spend time playing with Sidney.

Matthew helping MaMaw eat her dinner. He absolutely loved the dressing and was eating it off of her plate.

Uncle Tommy and Aunt Leslie.

Granny opening gifts.

MaMaw set this little nativity set out for Matthew to play with. He was so excited to have something set down on his level for him to get into! ha ha

Aunt Nancy and Jason.

Sweet Madeline opening gifts. MaMaw got her and Matthew swings to hang up outside under the deck. She can't wait for warm weather to get here so she can get outside and swing!

Emily opening gifts.

Madeline loved her knee socks from Justice. She wore them all day and then slept in them! As far as she is concerned Justice is the best store ever! =)

Matthew opening gifts.

Sindey and Madeline doing crafts. They played and played and played.

Emily and Hanna playing video games.

Sidney and Madeline camped out in the living room in sleeping bags. They had so much fun!

Welcome Princess Tiana!

Friday was Mommy Day with Madeline as her school was out for the Christmas break and her holiday camp at the Y didn't start until the next Monday. So, we went to see the new Disney Princess movie, The Princess and The Frog. We love having a new Princess to visit when we go back to Disney World in October! Madeline loved the movie and ate her ENTIRE kids snack pack!

Merry Christmas!

Mother had quite a few old Christmas books that she liked to use for decoration at the holidays. I love this one, you can tell by the colorful pictures that it was vintage.

These are our stockings, that's Jeff's, mine, Madeline's and Matthew's. Mine was made by Mother and she, Nan and Dee all had the same ones. There are sequins all over it. Maybe Madeline's gets her love of sequin sparkles from her mom! ha ha. Yes, I know that Madeline's stocking is larger than Matthew's. When we knew Matthew was coming I tried to get him one from the same place but they didn't make them anymore. I like his a lot and it looks very boyish to me. I'm sure down the line I will have to find him a large one to match the size of hers......

This felt Advent calendar was made by Aunt Judy many moons ago. I loved putting each one up in its place as a child. Over the years I have lost the list that explains what each one meant and the order they were to go in. Aunt Judy if you still have a list of this could you send it to me?

A Few of My Favorites From Long Ago

Here are some of my favorite Christmas ornaments that I inherited. A lot of the Christmas stuff is still in storage but Jeff got some out and luckily these were in there.

This is a glass sleigh ride ornament that Mother kept in a little velvet bag. Not sure what happened to the bag.... but the ornament is still intact. We always had to be very careful with this one and were not allowed to touch it. Not sure what the story is behind it but it's very beautiful.

Nancy is gagging now on this one. I have a lot of glittery and sequiny ornaments that we used on our tree as children. Nan hates them, I love them so guess where they ended up? There were 4 of these glittery bells and now there are 2. I still love them.

These two are part of the phase Mother went through with painting wooden ornaments. Nan and I both disliked these growing up. I wanted the sparkly/beaded ornaments and Nan wanted the clear matchy stuff. Neither of us wanted painted wooden ones on the tree. I managed to salvage a bag of them years later. Now I love them and they are safe for the kids to help decorate with.

This is from 1982, Mother made it out of felt and clothespins. It did have some eyes but they are long gone. Nan and I helped make these as well as 'crafts'. =)

This little bird is a set of old ornaments that were Dee's. There was a red, a green, a yellow and this little blue one. I always remember these little guys being on her tree. I have some ornaments as well that were my great grandmother's (Gram). Those I take special care of as they are very old, they are still packed away. I'll have them up next year.

Nativity

This beautiful nativity set was my mother's, it was painted by my grandmother. She made me one when I was very little that has 5 pieces. This one is older than mine which was done in the late 70's.

This weekend

Here we are visiting Dee. She was doing very well, playing with both kids and up and around. She will be 97 in March!

This is as far as we have gotten on our tree. All decorations stop at the 1/2 way point so Matthew can't reach them. Maybe I'll get more ornaments put on by Christmas if I get a chance.

My Solution

This is my 'rigged' solution to Matthew climbing out of the crib. I tied one of the bumper pads along the front top of the crib. So far this has worked and he does not like it! =)

Christmas Around The World Party

Friday was the Christmas Around The World party at school. Madeline had chosen Mexico, remember the poster she was working on in an earlier post. Here she is dressed like a little senorita.


The auditorium was set up with tables/stations from other countries for the kids to move from one to another and get to try foods, play games and do crafts for each country. They each had little passports with their pictures and birthdates on them and each table stamped their passport to show they had traveled there. It was really cute.

Here is Madeline at the food table where the kids sampled wares from each country. Since we had Mexico we had to bring in cinnamon tortillas.

At the England table they made snowmen out of rice, cotton stuffing, tube socks and buttons. Complete with felt scarves. Too cute! This little guy is now part of our holiday decorations at home.

At the Israel table they played the dreidel game. Here is Madeline spinning her dreidel. They made the dreidels out of milk cartons with pencils pushed through them and spun them on the eraser end. Very cute!

More dreidel spinning. I was the parent in charge of this table so I had to learn how to play and memorize the Hebrew symbols pretty quickly! ha ha

At the China table they made Chinese dragons out of masks, accordion paper and straws. At the U.S table they made bear ornaments out of sandpaper pieces. At the Mexico table they made poinsettias out of construction paper, sequins and glue. There was another country table there but I don't remember what it was. All the kids left their shoes in the classroom and when they got back they had gifts in their shoes like they do for Christmas in Holland.... I think, or maybe it's Russia, anyway.

Santa!

Special outfits picked especially for the Santa picture laying in the back of the car. Check.
Day picked out to go get the picture done. Check.
All to no avail. By the time I got them both picked up from school and all the way down to Brookwood Mall and into the mall and into the bathroom and back out to Santa's line the special outfits were left in the car, I couldn't get them both wrangled into them. THANKFULLY there was a sepia tone option to the final print I bought so you can't tell that Matthew is not in Christmas colors or anything actually remotely Christmasy. Oh well. At least we got the picture done! A for effort!

Madeline told Santa she wanted a computer!

Matthew was little unsure about the whole experience.

Madeline was coached to keep smiling at the camera no matter what Matthew did! ha ha We ended up with an ok picture.

She loooooooooooved the reindeer antler crown thingy she got at the check out.

Christmas can be exhausting! Here she is in her crown and candy cane- konked out asleep on the way home. It can wear a girl out going to see Santa!

KCS Christmas Program

Thursday was Madeline's Christmas program. It was singing by 1st-3rd grades accompanied by the 4th-5th grade band as back up. They sang two songs. =) Madeline was bribed again and managed to get through the production standing front and center without crying or having to come back down. And she is the proud recipient of an extra present to open at Christmas! ha ha

Madeline and Nicki before the program.

A little hesitant about the singing......

but she warmed up and pulled it off.

Oh Boy

Matthew has learned how to climb out of his crib. Last night he did not want to go to bed and usually he will lay there and go to sleep after he cries for a few min. I laid him down and was on the couch with Madeline when I heard a 'thunk'. He is known for throwing his toys over the side in frustration so I assumed he had tossed the Baby Tad over the side to make his dissatisfaction known. Nope. Next thing we know he had pulled open the door and comes running down the hall!! We are in for it now. He did it again after I laid him back down so now he knows he can get out!
The teacher told me yesterday afternoon that he had tried to crawl out of the crib there so they had to move him to the cots to sleep on (that is what the 2-4yr olds sleep on). Should have known he would try it at home too! We never had this problem with Madeline. Boys are a whole other ballgame!

Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

Last night we braved the elements to go out and get our Christmas tree- finally! At least due to the weather there was no one else there so the lines were not a hassle. Madeline picked it out after determining that another choice was too 'pokey'. This one is a Douglas Fir.


Here we go off to the house with the Christmas tree on top, just like the Grizzwolds.

And also just like the Grizzwolds, Jeff drove right on in to the garage with the tree still on top of the car! There was no room or way to back it back out...... he almost knocked the tree right off the top of the car.

Just letting it settle. Tonight we will start putting on the decorations- but only on the top 1/2. Mr. Matthew is too able to get everything pulled down if it is in his reach.

Lollie sent Madeline an Advent calendar and this one has little pieces of chocolate to eat when each door is opened. Thank you Lollie!! She loves this!

Mr. Man playing with some of his new toy trucks/firetrucks from this weekend. They both make siren noises and he loves them. =)