Christmas at our House

We had a great Christmas at our house. Adam did not get an I touch like he asked Santa for. He did get some legos that he asked Santa for. In the last few days before Christmas came around, his list of wanted items was so long he couldn't remember what he really wanted. By the time we were done opening gifts, he kept saying this was the best Christmas ever. I'm glad he was happy.

Michael got a DS from Santa like he asked for. When he saw it there was almost relief in his voice and he said, "I finally got a DS." Apparently he REALLY wanted one.

Nate got the Geotrax the older boys had played with when they were younger. When we got them out to wrap them up and give them to him I had a hard time keeping the kids from playing with them long enough so that we could wrap them. Nate was so cute on Christmas morning. First he didn't want to get out of bed. Then every little thing he got he would run off to play with. He got a sticker book and next thing we know he ran off to the front room and was gone for about 5 minutes while he turned the light on and started playing with it. We had to call him back so he could open more presents.

He also got a stick horse that plays a song he was quite enamored with.
Ellie got her Zhu Zhu pet that she wanted. She played with it for about 10 minutes and then was bored with it. That's about what I expected. She did get a doll with a couple of outfits that she really enjoyed playing with.

Adam spent most of Christmas day putting his Legos together. He worked on it some more today, but he still isn't done. I think its great.
The kids got some really cool things this year. They got some geodes in their stockings that we could hit and they opened up. They weren't as pretty inside as I had hoped, but it was still pretty neat. They also got some of that fake snow and other weird science type experiments. I really like to do these things with the kids because they fascinate me too.

Joe's favorite present was one my parents gave the boys. They each got a remote controlled helicopter. We had bought a remote controlled helicopter once before but it was made of Styrofoam and plastic and didn't last long. These helicopters are great. After every time they charge, Joe is fighting the boys to get to fly them. As soon as we put the kids to bed last night, Joe got out one of the helicopters and chased me around the house with it. Glad he can enjoy himself.
I got Rosetta Stone software, I'm going to attempt to learn Spanish, wish me luck. I also got a ton of books that I can read on a trip I am going on with just Joe next month....I can hardly wait!

The Nativity

We had a fun nativity on Christmas Eve. First we had the kids do a "talent" show. Nate showed us the cutest, lopsided somersault. Ellie favored us with a cartwheel. Lily and Michael did a duet on the piano and violin of Away in a Manger. Adam and Emma did a duet of Jingle Bells. It was good for them to figure out how to play together. We had friends over, and the other talents were an amazing piano solo by Elias, William showing us his "muscles" and Silas showed us how well he rides a ripstick.

Then we did a nativity program. The kids acted out the parts of Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepards, King Herod and the wise men. It was nice, this year we had friends who have 4 boys join our party, so we had lots of boys to play the parts!
Ellie was an angel.

Here's the whole cast!

Thanks friends for joining us on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Class Parties

This year, the boy's school did their Christmas parties on the Thursday before school got out for the holidays, so we had Friday open to get last minute things done. In Adam's class every kid got antlers. They also made gingerbread men and foam ornaments.

Michael's class got pizza and made a craft project too. Notice that he got new glasses! He wanted something different and I think this fits the bill.
Here is his whole class, with his teacher, Mrs. Adams.Ellie and Nate both go to the same preschool teacher, although at different times. In their Christmas parties, they sang songs- a little Christmas program, complete with ringing jingle bells, played games, frosted cookies and made reindeer food. It was cute.
Here is Ellie's class. The little girl to her right is a younger sibling of one of the boys in her class.

Here is Nate in his class. He goes to school with a set of quadruplets. One of them is named Nathan, and so he is the "Nate" in the class.

Nate ringing the bells. I have heard him singing a few times some of the songs they learned...it is very cute.

Ellie got to sing with Nate at his class party.

Merry Christmas!

Ice Skating

We went ice skating the other night. It was about 65 degrees outside, in fact, it was colder inside the rink than outside. Adam, Michael, Ellie and I skated and Joe and Nate watched.

Both Adam and Michael picked it up pretty well and were able to skate around the rink without using the walkers after a few laps to practice.

Ellie enjoyed using the walker.

Joe was a good sport. He didn't want to go, but I let him off the hook for skating because he recently sprained his ankle and he didn't want to hurt it again.

I even was able to skate around a few times with the kids holding hands and I never fell once. That is pretty good for me.

Austin and Koni came too! Emma and Lily were amazing on skates, they skated around really well without any walkers. Austin was nice enough to sit on the side with Joe and William.

Santa Pictures

Ellie asked Santa for a Zhu-Zhu pet (that's how you know TV advertising is effective...when your kids decide what they want most is something they have seen advertised on TV even if they have never seen it in real life).
Nate thought he wanted to see santa, but when he got close he decided that he didn't want to sit on his lap. He did say he wanted a choo-choo train.

Michael has only wanted one thing for the past year, a Nintendo DS. Adam got his when he was in 2nd grade, but he also happened to be 7. I told Michael last year that he can't get one until he was in 2nd grade, but Michael figured out that he would be 7 just like Adam was 7 when he got his. Finally, we told Michael that we wouldn't buy him a DS, but if Santa got him one, then we would let him keep it.
Adam asked Santa for an I-touch (a portable device that has internet access). His best friend has one. I have had mulitple lengthy discussions with Adam about how I will never get him an I touch. He said that he figured since I wasn't going to buy Michael a DS, but if Santa would give him one he could have it, then he should ask Santa for an I-touch and when Santa came through he would have one. I assured him that if that were to happen he would not get to keep it. He decided he would still like it, because then he could sell it on e-bay and get $200! All I have to say about that is....Wow!

I'm not sure if I want Santa to come through with all this this year or not....

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Joe was really nice this year, and took the kids all Thanksgiving morning and let me stay home and cook and decorate for Christmas. This was the first year that I had a pre-lit tree and the difference was about 2 hours in assembly time.
A few days later, I laid all the Christmas decorations out on the couch and let the kids put them on the tree. They had a great time doing it, and it was so much fun to watch...

After every ornament that Nate would put on, he would skip back to the couch to get another one. The kids even did a good job and putting ornaments higher on the tree.
When they were all done, Joe put the star on top.

This year, I was wiser (or maybe just busier) but I didn't redecorate after the kids went to bed.

Last night for FHE, we made a gingerbread house. Can't say it was our best, but we had a really busy evening and barely had time to squeeze it in.

One of Life's Lessons

Yesterday, while we were at Joann's checking out, the lady had to go check a price. It was taking her forever, so Nate and Ellie decided to start playing in the bins behind me at the register. They seemed harmless so I didn't pay too close attention to them. Finally the cashier figured out the right price for the item (it probably took 5 minutes) and I helped the kids to put away the things they had pulled out of the bins and we left. Later that afternoon, I saw Ellie pulling something out of her pocket. I looked and found that she had a bunch of these pink heart erasers. I asked her where she got them and she explained that she took them out of one of the plastic ziploc bags at the store and then put them in her pocket. I gave her a lecture about it and told her she was going to have to go back and pay for them.
This morning, before we left, I had her go get her wallet. I was surprised at how much money she had in it, but I looked through and pulled out a $5 bill since I wasn't sure the price of the erasers, but I knew they would be less than $5. I gave the money to her to hold and she said, "only one?" (That should have been my first clue).
We went to the store and explained to the cashier and she was able to ring up the item so Ellie could pay. It was only a$1, but with tax, it came to $1.08 so she gave her her $5 bill. As the cashier counted out and gave her her change Ellie's face lit up. When we got in the car, Ellie said to me, "Look Mom, I got more money- 3 instead of 1!"

Lesson NOT learned....

Persimmon Strawberry Freezer Jam

Every year for neighbor gifts, we make freezer jam. Last year we bought some land that had a persimmon tree on it. Unfortunately, we have the Hachiya type which means it has astringent properties. If you eat it without first freezing it, it makes your mouth feel a little puckered and dry. I don't want to waste the fruit, so last year I made persimmon freezer jam. The first bite was great, but then after a few more bites, it really was kind of a bland jam. This year we tried something different- strawberry persimmon freezer jam.

I used a recipe I found for peach strawberry freezer jam, but substituted persimmons for the peach. First I froze all of the persimmons to destroy the tannins in the fruit. This made them very mushy and easy to use for jam.

Here is the recipe-

2 cups sliced frozen strawberries
1 1/4 cups previously frozen persimmons
4 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup

I chopped the fruit roughly with my food processor. I then followed the recipe in the pectin container. It turned out very nice. It tastes very similar to strawberry jam, but has a subtle sweet taste in the background!

The Zoo

Right before Thanksgiving, when the boys had the day off of school, we all went to the zoo. It was a perfect day for the zoo, not too hot or too sunny. The kids did better than a lot of times at the zoo, we usually only had one that was whining at a time instead of the regular three or four :)

Michael is practicing to be a prairie dog.

Only Michael and Nate were interested in the petting zoo. Perhaps when you have had your own goats for a few months petting someone else's aren't as interesting.

Since I had been there last, they had made a new cage for the giraffes. It was nice, and there were a lot of them out walking around.

Grandpa of course had to buy all the kids an Icee. They really enjoyed eating it.

There were two baby elephants and they were a lot of fun to see too!

Hmmm, that is the second time in 6 months I have been to the zoo, if I can just work in one more visit then it might make my year long membership worthwhile.