Christmas is almost here and we’ve had a pretty good season thus far. The first weekend of December we went to Hood River. We have done this the past 3 years and have had such a wonderful time. This year we skipped the Polar Express…..thank goodness. It’s fun but it’s also quite expensive. We always stay at the Hood River Hotel with 2 other families. It’s right on main street and we occupy the 3 suites on the back of the hotel. It’s so cute and a great way to start the holiday. Everyone had a fine time. I went to bed with the kids at 9:30. I was so tired I couldn’t stay up. All the other adults stayed up until about 3 in the morning. As it turns out I ended up getting sick so that made a bit more sense. I thought it was weird that I was that tired!
Over the next 2 weeks we got ready for our Christmas Party, I shopped and got most everything fairly early. Bob is our primary decorator for the holiday and spent a few evenings decking the halls. A few years ago we got out the decorations and realized that we needed more lights. I was sent out to get them. Well being a mom and a woman, I couldn’t just get lights and zip right home, no no, I had to shop. I ended up being gone for about 2 hours. When I got home the whole house was decorated. Bob managed to do the whole thing without my “assistance.” Hummm, go figure. And I didn’t have to direct him on how to do the lights properly or anything. You know, once everything is on the tree you don’t even see the wires! I had been a total loon about wrapping the wires around the branches for YEARS. Who knew?
So with the house all decked out, about 200 cookies and 4 gallons of stew we had our Christmas Party! What fun. I usually have gifts wrapped and under the tree. I am a bit crazy about my gift wrapping. This year I took a new approach, there was a Fed Ex Package under the tree. My attitude was, “It’s a gift and it’s wrapped. Why ruin it?” We had about 80 people in and out of here. There were kids everywhere and a great time was had by all. I had a great time
The kids are all very excited for Christmas. Kees and Coulter still believe in Santa and are so cute about the whole thing. They talk to each other about how Santa will get here, when he will arrive and so on. Coulter's stocking is hidden behind a large poinsettia and he is quite concerned that Santa will miss it. I assured him that it will not be missed and that we can move it just to be sure. He seems much relieved.
Last week I went onto a web site called Portable North Pole TV. On that site you input info on your kid and add a couple pictures. Then they email you a link to a video for your child. When the kids got home on Thursday I told them Santa had sent them an email. Kees was home first. We sat down and watched. Kees couldn’t believe that Santa had pictures of him in his book. Late in the video the elves insert the kid's file into the "Naughty or Nice" machine. Kees was a bit apprehensive about his potential outcome. It turned out that he has been.....NICE! He was very relieved and said, "I thought I would be on the naughty list!" He lucked out I guess.
When Sophia and Coulter got home Kees told them to "come quick" to see their videos. They all watched with amazement, even Sophia. After they had seen the videos a bunch of times the boys took off. Sophia snuck over to me and asked with a big smile, "How did you do that?" Even she was taken aback by that. There are still times when she is still my baby girl. She was mystified. I love that she still has a little belief and that she's still naive.
Last night Bob and I wrapped all our gifts. Actually I wrapped, Bob kept me company. Sophia and Coulter had sleep overs, Kees was next door decorating cookies until 11:30. We had some wine and had a fine time but stayed up too late. Oh well. The job is mostly done now and that is great!
I am preparing for my dad and Sally's arrival on Friday. We're all looking forward to time together. We have a party on Friday Night, the Nutcracker and church on Christmas Eve and then we're having almost 20 people for Christmas Dinner. I have cooking, cleaning and prepping to do. It will all be fun.
The boys have been hilarious with their antics and sayings. I'll get some up here soon because they are too funny not to share.
Merry Christmas to you all!
