Good Luck Sleeping!

It's Christmas Eve. All of the presents have been wrapped, all the cookies lovingly placed out for Santa, and 5 little angels tucked sweetly into bed. 

Naughty or nice, this is the zero hour. So here is our last appeal.

Dear Santa, Please bring me a train!

Dear Santa, Please bring me the biggest baddest Nerf gun you can wedge into your sleigh.

Dear Santa, All I want is the American Girl Doll Saige.

Dear Santa, Toys Toys Toys! I love them all!

Dear Santa, Please explain to these people that all I really ever want is to finish a nap.

I thought I heard a jingle and some crinkling paper. I peeked around the corner and it looks like the Jolly one views us generously! Morning will tell if we get our heart's desire!

Because It Pays To Be A Believer

Shortly after Santa Claus made his grand entrance into the church cultural hall accompanied by happy music and cheering children Abizella blurted out, "That's not Santa! That's Brother Harrop!" 

I was impressed because I was among the throngs of parents trying to put my finger on that one. But that makes sense, Santa doesn't have time to be popping in and out of parties this time of the year! Of course he is going to find a trustworthy representative to meet with the children! 

And this year all Toads were all smiles!

Well... it turned ugly fast for Jaws but I managed to get a decent pre-scream shot.

Traditions!

We have a couple of Christmas traditions around here that simply cannot be missed. One is fudge. Here we are initiating Jaws into the old family ways. 

He is an immediate fan. We all love it. The tradition is to make batches and batches and batches of it. We give it to our neighbors, friends, co-workers and actually now the kids prepare their own lists. Their school teachers, primary teachers, Spanish teacher, piano teacher and even the school bus driver gets it. I don't know what is sweeter, the fudge or the delivery. Tadpole always tells the recipient he will let them know the secret ingredient. The delighted recipient then leans in to hear Tadpole whisper, "The secret ingredient is love." It's true. We love our fudge and we love those we share it with. Because our list is so long, often the family is left to scrape the remains of the batch from the pan. This year Superkid wanted to learn the recipe so that he can eventually make it for his family... starting with a batch just for our family on Christmas day. Tadpole got to choose the family home evening treat tonight, he picked fudge. The recipe makes a ton, so I slipped half of it away to share with neighbors. The rest was left for the family to gorge. We actually found our limit, quarter of a batch.  

The kids were all tucked into bed begging for barf bowls to be set out next to them. Love that tradition.

Another tradition that hurts so good is the annual family picture. We've taken one every year since Superkid was born. Pops and I have this dream of one day lining a big wall in some-soon-to-be-bought home with all of the family pictures. This dream is what drives us past the pain of gussying up 5 wiggly cantankerous children and trying to pull off the perfect family picture every year. This used to involve strategically planning the event around nap times and meal times for optimal angelic behavior. As we've added children to the family, and hectic schedules to our lives only the stress and threats remain. Somehow, we always walk away with 1 picture where everyone is facing forward. That is what qualifies as, "perfect". Somehow, they have all turned out really cute. We reward ourselves by dining at a fancy restaurant. Our fellow Cheesecake Factory patrons are always very impressed with our fancy attire... which hopefully masks our manners!

My Little Eskimo

This girl talks about snow all year. She simply loves it. She prays for it. She prays that her best friend will remember her snow pants so they can play together in it during recess. She prays that it will never melt away. She spends hours outside. I'm not sure what she does, but she cleans off our cars so it's all good. She asks to go outside and play in it at 9:30 at night. I've actually consented, we've had a few years with little snow, so you gotta try to get your fill. But this one will never be satiated. In fact, I looked out the kitchen window and saw her laying face down in a bank of snow. I went out to see if she was okay, or just plain nuts. She lifted up her face with that toothy grin and said, 

"Mom, I wish I was an Eskimo."

School Picture Day

We finally got back all of the kids school pictures! 

For the Year 2013-2014 I give you the Toads:

Superkid: 4th Grade

Abizella: 3rd grade

Tadpole: 1st Grade

Little Chief: Pre-School

As Pops prepared Little Chief for his first school picture, he was tentative. You never know if this kid is going to like something or hate it. The only thing you can be sure of is that there is no neutral ground. After combing LC's hair, Pops held his breath and grabbed the hair spray. He gave a few quick squirts hoping he wouldn't notice.  LC rather cheerfully inquired, "Does that make me handsome?" Pops heaved a sigh of relief at LC's supposed approval and said, "Yes! You look very handsome!" LC quickly changed his mind, grimaced and snarled, "I hate it!" He grabbed a towel and rubbed it over his still sticky head leaving his tresses in a tangled rat's nest. Imagine our amazement at the resulting picture! 

The Toad Family Nativity

Every year we pull out our holiday decorations, and every year I am conflicted. What do I do about my most prized Christmas decoration, the hand-made nativity that Lisa Gillespie made for us when Sam was a little baby? Lisa's intent was to have little Toad hands handle this little nativity and love the Christmas story. Honestly, I freak out at the thought of losing a piece of this set. But I always put it out and miraculously it has always made it back into the storage box when all of the decorations are tucked away... even if the last camel isn't found until the couch is pushed out to vacuum up the last of the pine needles. While we have been house sitting for the Andrus' family in their palatial estate, I fear I will loose a piece never to be found again, so I've instituted the Sunday only rule. The kids love the set to pieces, as we have gone through the month of December and the kids have taken turns giving family home evening lessons, they have all chosen to tell the story of Christ's birth reenacting the story with the nativity. The nativity set only becomes more and more precious to me over the years as these young grubby, chubby fingers handle the pieces. Keep your fingers crossed that it makes it through another season, I just can't deny the kiddos the pleasure of pushing these figures around... and I can't deny myself the pleasure of eavesdropping on their imaginative play.

We're Doing This

We went out and got a Christmas tree and everything!

It just hasn't made the headlines because we've been buried in laundry and kids!

But now that we are all officially on Christmas break for the next two weeks we are ready to report on some Christmas fun. 

The festivities were kicked off with the annual choosing of the tree at our favorite local garden shop. Last year they added popcorn and a fire pit, this year they added s'mores. They know our number!

Then home to decorate the tree and watch, "A Christmas Story".

Let the Holidays begin!

Gorging

We may have a situation on our hands...

After feeding Little Chief 3 hot dogs and and 2 glasses of chocolate milk, LC patted his belly and said  to Pops, "Dad, I have a rock in my belly." Pops nodded in agreement, "Well, ya Little Chief, you ate a lot!" Little Chief looked terrible uncomfortable, that's when Pops noticed that only 2 of the 3 pebbles that LC was playing with were left on the counter. Pops said, "Oh! You really do have a rock in your belly!"

This, after the text I got from Pop's earlier today:

"Daddy, I got upstairs and ate all of your chocolate. 

Did you know that happened? 

Are you going to be mad?"

Klondike Derby

Saturday morning we woke up to a chill in the air. We stoked the fire and the kids pulled out the sleeping bags and snuggled in.

Later that afternoon Superkid and Abz took it to the back yard. They loaded up their sleeping bags and found a quiet place on the back lawn to set up camp. Abizella came in a about an hour later. I asked about Superkid and she said he didn't want to come in. Just as the sun was setting Pops asked where Superkid was, we hollered around the house, no one answered. I remembered he was outside, Pops went out to find him. Pops hollered out there, no one answered. I insisted he was there, so Pops put on his shoes and went to investigate. He saw a lump in the back corner. He trudged out to the heap, and called out again as he approached. The heap lurched and a dazed and surprised Superkid emerged from his little nest. We have a regular lumberjack on our hands!

Battery Friday

It comes each year the day after Thanksgiving. 

All of the toys are resurrected with new batteries. Just about as good as Christmas. This year it came a week early. Tad and LC went down to the basement and hauled up a big tub of tracks and trains that needed a little umph. 

The kids have been huddled around the tracks ever since.

Strange Dreams

Tadpole stumbled down the stairs this morning in a daze and said, "Tonight was a weird night, my nightmares teached me something." Interested, I pressed, "Oh ya, what did you learn?" Tadpole looked up with a crooked smile, "What eats crocodiles." I had to know this! "So what eats crocodiles?!" Tadpole shook his head trying to remember and said, "I forgot." and then charged for the potty.

Time to Brine the REST of the Turkeys!

Thanksgiving Day! Love it. We got up and had a French toast and bacon breakfast that couldn't be beat. Pops stuffed Tom Turkey while the kids and I grabbed our swimming gear...

And we had our second annual "Brining of the Turkeys". 

Then it was home again to prep our turkey relish tray. 

This year there were two offerings, Abizella's turkey and Superkid's duck.

We were super happy to have two of the Andrus Ladies join us for our feast! We missed Joe and Holly! We have had many a fabulous holiday feast in their home. But even though we couldn't have them, we were grateful to have their huge kitchen to prepare our feast.

Jessica taught us the secret of her cranberry, orange, ginger and bonus pomegranate sauce.

Miss Abizella recently attended a table etiquette class and learned several fancy napkin folding techniques. Pops charged her with table setting and she took it to new heights. 

The napkins look just like turkey feathers!

THE FEAST!

The tryptophan  nap.

A Thanksgiving day that couldn't be beat. Other than all of the food preparations, we filled our day listening to Alice's Restaurant, tinkering on the piano, sitting by the fire and chatting on the phone with our loved ones. Life is great, we have a lot to be thankful about. As we reflected about the year, we all agreed that Jaws was the biggest blessing of the year. 

Pretty tough to top that one. 

We love them all, we've got the 5 best ones!

8 Sticks of Butter and T Minus 20 hrs. to Thanksgiving Dinner!

Last week Pops texted me the following:

That's right. This year we are brining the turkey. Pops, Little Chief and Jaws went out and got all of the essentials, including an over sized Patriots brining bucket! 

Tonight we are making it all happen! We looped the BEST Thanksgiving movie of all time, Planes Trains and Automobiles, and started turning out the good stuff. In a measly 5 consecutive viewings I cranked out a shell for Grandma Sherrie's banana cream pie, Glama's apple crisp, Todd's Yummy Yummy Yams Yum Yum Yum, and the Lion House pumpkin pie. 

Okay, I may have crashed on the couch occasionally to take in a few laughs. 

This one made Superkid and I laugh our guts out:

"He says we're going the wrong way." 

"Oh, he's drunk. How does he know where we're going?"

"Ya, how does he know where we're going!"

Good times.

Pops has all things Turkey covered. Earlier today he prepared the brine and chilled it. Tonight he made Grandma Rula's stuffing and prepped the bird. He was a little disappointed that he could only find a 20-pounder, but that is bigger than our little butterball who is now tipping the scales at 19 lbs.

Time for splash down!

Mmmmmmmm... turkey brine!

Humble Supplications

One of the best parts of being Tadpole's mom is listening to his prayers each night. For a long time now he has been brief but thorough with, "I'm thankful for everything except the bad guys and the devil.  Amen" But he is back on a poetic streak. Particularly, he has been thanking God for his beautiful mother with her long pretty hair. Last night he delved for the first time into repentance. He said, "Please forgive me for all of the bad things I did today." Then he paused to reflect and said, "And please also forgive me for all of the bad stuff I am going to do tomorrow." Then in defense of his statement he supplicated, "What?! I don't know what I am going to do tomorrow, but it might not be good!"

A Star is Born

Abizella was served a serious blow at piano lessons last week. Her teacher mentioned that she most likely would not be holding a Christmas recital this year becuase she hadn't assinged songs and time was running short. She tossed us a book and said to see if there was anything that looked interesting. Since then Abizella has been campainging hard to get a recital. She went last year to Superkid's recital and thought he was a rock star (he was). Who doesn't want that? She selected "Frosty the Snowman". In about a day she perfected it, and even sings along. She moved on to outfitting her back-up singers for their parts. Here she is decking LC out in toilet paper for his part as Frosty. He's pumped! You can tell he may have a little "star fever" as well.

She has selected the perfect recital froc and is even practicing the perfect curtsey. What do you think? Can you deny this?

The Baby Grows the Fastest

Barely 9 months and walking. Our youngest biped. His first steps were on Veteran's Day. He was standing next to me, holding onto my shoulder, turned and took a few steps over to the chair. Part of me jumped with joy to see my baby hitting a milestone and part of me wanted to push him over and keep him a baby forever. I love this little guy to pieces. He has brought so much joy to our family!

Creative Expression

"Do you lub it Momma? Are you happy?"

Gobble Gobble

I came home to find some gobblers roaming through the house... 

Our Artist in Residence, Miss Abizella, suited Tadpole, Little Chief (not pictured) and Jaws out in feathers. I have a great video of these butterballs strutting through the house, but sadly can't get it uploaded onto Blogger. But you can imagine how cute it is to see these little tail feathers swagger about!

Tadpole is dead set on hunting our Thanksgiving day bird this year. We have a cute little Turkey family living in the backyard that we have been watching all summer. Tad has been licking his chops and talking about our Thanksgiving feast. One afternoon during the homework madness, Pops spied one of our turkeys and pointed it out to the kids. 

Tadpole grabbed a long carving fork from the butchers block and charged into the yard to bag his bird. Pops says that he didn't know turkeys could fly until just then. Our bird made it to the very tippy top of the 3-story high tree next door. Tad was disappointed, but not discouraged. He continues the watch. He has told me on numerous occasions not to buy a turkey. He's got it covered. I told him he better learn how to climb trees!