More Preparations!

We did a little more decorating today, boxed up the candy to take to our neighbours & a whole lotta hyping ourselves up on Christmas! The girls are getting so excited. Every day they're checking to see how many days left. When they get tired of that, they start asking "how many days will be left when it's tomorrow?????"

Murray went to meet his dad and pick up the presents from them & brought home a truckload. Nooooo we're not spoiled much at all. When they helped move the gifts from the entryway & down to the tree, they were soooooo pumped up. Every time they found a present with their name on it, it was a huge thrill. The gifts had been bagged together according to who it was for. Lovey & Honey's bags were the first ones unloaded from the car & so were the first ones that the girls were unpacking. Poor Sweetie was convinced the Nanny & Grampy had forgotten her! Finally we got to the bag that had hers in it & of course, Honey & Lovey promptly forgot that they'd already taken 47 armloads of presents for themselves & burst into tears when suddenly ALL the presents were for Sweetie and "none" for them. No wonder we don't remember much about being 4 years old, it's TOUGH! LOL

The downside to all this excitement is that it tends to leave them a little on the volatile side. They expend so much energy bouncing off the walls that they come down quickly and are in tears over the smallest things. Overall, we're enjoying the wonder & magic of it all as we celebrate this season though! : )

Fun & games! I think it's so strange to see the summer toys out while they're in winter coats & mittens!

Lovey playing "avoid the camera".

haha, didn't work! Gotcha!!!!!!!!

We had playgroup this morning and when we got home, I felt yucky & tired and they were playing busily & were full of munchies from the Christmas party soooooooo I thought I'd just lie down and have a little rest. Sweetie was quite concerned with how I was feeling & wanted to help me rest better and kept fetching me an assortment of comforts. She brought me some water in case I got thirsty. She brought a flashlight & turned it on in case I got scared in the dark. She drew me a colourful rainbow picture to cheer me up & left it on my pillow. She covered me with her dalmation blanket AND her fleecy bunny blanket. and the piece de resistance..... she tucked Bunny in with me to make me feel better. She must have been in and out of my bedroom a dozen times, checking on me, rubbing my back etc. It was so sweet! I was barely awake for most of it & didn't even know I had a flashlight turned on beside me until I got up an hour and a half later. I was THAT tired!

On that note, I'm turning in now! Obviously these late nights don't agree with me! :)

C is for Cookie!

After Boo's big photo shoot yesterday, we all baked cookies. I had whipped up the dough in the morning before preschool (pretty good eh?) and it was chilled & ready to go so it was just roll & cut.

I totally forgot to put aprons on them before starting so it was messier than usual but no less fun. They were cookie cuttin' machines! Teena & I could barely keep up with getting dough rolled out and moving cut outs to the pans for baking. They were done the huge batch in no time! Now I see why child labour is popular in some places, when they have the right motivation, 4 year olds can be darn productive!!!!!!!

We ran out of time and they didn't get to do the decorating but they got to eat dough and had cookies for supper so they were pretty happy about that. Group baking is definitely the way to go though, so Teena, I need you guys to come back over when it's time to do shortbread! We can double the batch & you take half home and we all have fun & get stuff done at the same time. Deal?

Speed post tonight! Here's the cherub video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m6LyKVzo9U

and Boo came over to have her picture taken for their Christmas card:

and that's all you get at 12:30am! : )))

Cherubs Strike Again!

Our darling cherubs blew the roof off this morning! They sang "Come On Ring Those Bells" like nobody's business. Sweetie was almost doubled over in her efforts to project her voice to the back of the church. They gave it their all and it worked. The congregation heard every word. The people out on the sidewalk heard them and if Old Nanny was still in Florida, I bet she could have heard them, if only faintly ;) Murray's already shut down his computer for the night so I'll have to upload the video footage later. For anyone wanting to see a live repeat performance, they're doing this piece again at the Christmas Eve service. Definitely worth coming out for!

This afternoon Murray ran out to do some Christmas shopping and was home in an hour. He went to the MALL. He went to WALMART and at least 3 other places. and was home in an hour. That man can speed shop like nothing I've ever seen. Most people can barely get in and out of the Walmart parking LOT in an hour! He says he's not all done though, he's got to go back out to finish up (so.....??? what? another 20 minutes? ;))) I suspect he's actually done a lot of online shopping as I had sent him a few suggested links for me!

Once he was back, we headed to M&D's for supper. My well mannered & tactful children walked in the house and immediately asked "WHAT'S that awful smell????" Oh well, that's just your dinner! Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. At what age do they figure out when NOT to say stuff like that!??!?!?! I still remember Sweetie opening her birthday present (a fancy sundress from Children's Place that a friend from playgroup gave her) and pulling it out of the bag and loudly declaring "I don't LIKE black!"

Supper, contrary to what my kids' noses thought, was absolute yum! Roast beef dinner is never wrong! They actually ate pretty well and everyone managed to score some dessert and that doesn't always happen, unless Grandad's in charge. Luckily tonight Grammie put him in a time out before he could cause any mischief. ;))

I thought I'd gotten quite a good start on decorating around here, until I got to my mother's. That woman is serious about Christmas! The mantle is done, the village is set up (the lower and the upper villages!), the tree is decked out, the fancy tablecloth is on and there are twinkling lights in glass bowls full of tinsel and pinecones!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hung up some glittery snowflakes and thought I was all that but I see I have some work to do yet. I'm not match for her but I can do a little more yet.

We've been decking!

The place is starting to look a little Christmasy! We got our tree last night & put it up today and had a munchie marathon while we decorated. Sweetie was the only one that wanted any supper after that. Even Murray declined a meal, practically unheard of!

Murray worked all afternoon, outside to put up our lights, on one of the coldest days we've had yet. Some he had to duct tape around the new front door because the clips wouldn't hook on to the trim. However, he is aware that the duct tape will leave behind a terrible residue and he is prepared to clean it afterwards. (this statement for evidence purposes when he later balks at this painstaking task). The lights look great & I added some stuff to the window and the kids love every bit of it!

After the non supper tonight, Sweetie and I took Murphy for a walk and she was thrilled to be out afterdark, on her own with me. She was in awe of the pretty night sky, the stars, planes flying overhead (or rocketships as she decided they were), the neighbours decorations, you name it. She thought it was a pretty special time and says she wants to do it every night!

When we got home, the other 2 then of course wanted to go for a walk, at 7:40! I got them dressed and let them run around in the yard for a few minutes to see the lights. Murray did all that work, practically got frostbite on all his fingers! The least we could do is admire his efforts!