We Interrupt These Birthday Posts for Christmas

December has been such a fun month!  In between all the birthday celebrating, we haven't forgotten to get excited about celebrating Jesus' birth.  We've enjoyed doing silly and serious things to anticipate Christmas.  These past few years and this year, we haven't traveled for Christmas, so we've established traditions of how we celebrate at our house.  This year, we went to our new church's Christmas Eve service for the first time and really enjoyed the Bible readings and traditional carols.  After we got home, we moved on to our next tradition:  opening our one Christmas Eve gift, which is always pajamas.  And they're not necessarily new every year, but this year they were!  (Thank you, Target, for reading my thoughts and stocking affordable matchy-matchy family pajamas.)  And, brace yourself.  I bought them in too-big sizes for all the kids and then took in the waists and hemmed the pant legs.  I'm hoping to get three Christmases out of these.  This year, too, there was an additional box for the kids:  slippers.  And the kids were thrilled, especially Jonathan.  (I almost didn't find any for him, but I'm so thankful I found some because he enjoys them so much!)

(Benjamin's are dinosaur feet.)

Jeff warmed up some tamales for a simple and yummy dinner.

I also put Mary Poppins into the pajama box - a movie all the kids adore, and now we have it for our very own!  We watched part of it before bed.

We had to try for a family picture.  Here are a couple of good ones.

Here's what our living room looked like after the kids went to bed.  I almost forgot to fill the stockings! Jonathan and Grace had secretly helped me fill Benjamin's earlier in the day, but then I forgot to fill Jonathan and Grace's.  Since Jonathan goes to bed a little later, he helped me fill Grace's stocking.

I may have stuffed the stockings a bit too full this year!

On Christmas morning, we get up and open stockings and then have breakfast.  I made a French toast bake, which was easy and yummy.  And, we managed to finish reading all the Bible stories leading up to the Christmas story in the Jesus Storybook Bible, which I just love.  The presents are so much fun, but we want to be sure to remember the reason for the presents.

And here's the gift-opening extravaganza.  Jeff held the camera this year, so you'll see a lot of me in the background.  Each of the kids gave a small gift to his/her siblings, and I thought it would be fun for them to hide the gifts they were giving in their own rooms overnight.  I hoped the hiding might help them get excited about giving…even if just for a few moments.  And, it did.  Benjamin said something like, "I can't wait to see my brother and sister open their gifts!"

Bribe them with gift-opening, and they will gift you a good picture.  And they did love their gifts from their siblings.

Partly fueled by the memory of how my parents gave Todd and me a My Friend Mikey and a My Friend Mandy one Christmas (probably 1983?), Jeff and I gave Grace and Benjamin a pair of Bitty Twins.  Todd and Corinne had already given them wooden IKEA beds at our earlier Christmas gathering, which both kids were enjoying, but they had no idea that the beds had actually been intended for dolls that were on the way.

I had to include two pictures because I just loved the cuteness here.  They named their dolls Luke and Maddie (after their much-admired older neighbor buddies, Luke and Maddie) and have been playing with them as much as I had hoped, although I must mention that Luke takes a lot more naps than Maddie.  Both kids will carry the dolls and their beds to any location in the house so that the dolls can be nearby while the kids play something else.

Again, since Jeff had the camera, I have the gift of this picture with my precious kiddos

Jeff captured some good expressions from Jonathan this year.

We had gifts under the tree from Cheryl, Michelle, and Jamie this year.  Thanks for the books, Aunt Michelle and Uncle Jamie!

And, thanks for these goodies, Uncle Jamie and Aunt Michelle!  AND, I need to pause for a moment and tell how wonderful the Play-Doh Fun Factory is.  I mean, we love the books and read it over and over.  But, the Fun Factory…he just loves it.  Grace loves it, too.  Benjamin calls it his stapler - and who can blame him, because it does look like a giant stapler - and played with it for a good hour, unassisted.  An hour at the table for a barely-four-year-old is a very long time!

Thanks, Cheryl, Jonathan loves his new Technic book!

"Everything is Awesome!"

I love that they (sometimes) took the time to watch each other open gifts.

Jonathan is set with Snap Circuits.  All his aunts and uncles gave him different sets.  Thanks, Uncle Jamie and Aunt Michelle!  He is a little intimidated by the complexity of these sets, which I think is good for him.  He needs a challenge.

Thanks for the doll clothes, Cheryl!

What did Jeff want for Christmas?  A replacement for his beloved LL Bean sweater.  His was chomped by moths and is not sold in the catalog anymore, but who found a new (to him) version?  This girl!  Thank you, eBay!

Here are the kids, enjoying their new loot.

I didn't catch a picture of them opening the Lego play mats, but they are a success.

And, here's my last picture to share.  We hope you had a wonderful Christmas…and that you, too, have the chance to snuggle with a good book and a good friend.

Legoland: The Driving Day

So, here's the thing.  More than a year ago, Jeff and I decided (and I was probably the one who pushed for it) that this year, we would do experiences for birthdays instead of parties.  Now, I love birthdays, and I love parties, and I love celebrating my kids, and I love Christmastime.  But, combining all of these, with my birthday thrown somewhere in the middle, does wear me out.  So, even though we made this decision in 2013 before the 2013 December birthdays had even happened, I started to get excited.  I've been excited for the whole year since then.  And, I have to say, I have enjoyed this December more than I have enjoyed a December in probably a decade.

So, as our discussion of what the experiences would be grew and changed, we ended up deciding to go to Legoland for the three birthdays, and we kept that a surprise.  (Well, really just for the boys, but I was going to soak in the fun, too!)  When we looked into which dates the park is open, we realized that the dates in the winter are very limited, and started looking into the possibility of the Legoland hotel.  As it turns out, the Legoland hotel's rates are much more affordable on weekdays, especially when they're near a date that the park is not open.  So, we decided to drive to Legoland on the first weekday but just go to the hotel the first night, attend the park on the second day and the hotel the second night, and then leave on the third day.  Of course, we left the hotel a surprise, too.

We didn't even tell the kids that we were going on a trip.  We got them ready for school that Wednesday morning - Jonathan's birthday - the same as usual.  Jonathan had begun to get curious about what we were doing for him for his birthday, but we told him we had it covered and we'd tell him what was going on after school.  I had all the kids' stuff - including schoolwork - in the van already.  Jeff and I drove the kids to school, but we didn't end up stopping at school…we told them we were driving to Legoland.  They were SO surprised, and it was a really special experience to do that for them.  I got it on video, but I can't get the video to upload.  I'm sure it's user error, but whatever the reason, the video isn't here.  I'll share it when I figure things out.  Anyway, we drove to Legoland but still hadn't told them we'd be staying there.  The kids saw the Legoland Hotel and wanted to go in to look around.  We told them that they could, and then we revealed that we would also be staying there.  They were so surprised again!

And, we were so happy with our choice to stay there.  Everything about the hotel was designed to make sure the parents and kids all had a great time.  Here are the kids checking out the entrance right after we told them we'd be staying there.  They were in awe.

As soon as we got into the lobby, the kids knew what to do.  There were pits full of large Lego bricks, and they jumped right in.  Meanwhile, the clerk at the front desk gave us five lanyards to hold our Legoland admission passes for the next day, three "Happy Birthday" buttons for the boys and me to wear, three mini figures for trading, and three scavenger hunts.  I'll explain about the mini figures and scavenger hunts later.

Jonathan thought the big Lego tree needed a label, so he made one.

The hotel had an evening full of activity options for the kids, including a building contest and pajama party.  The older kids whipped something together quickly so that they could participate after dinner.

Benjamin loved this display of Lego water.  When he pushed the button, it sounded like water flowing.

The kids spent awhile completing the aforementioned scavenger hunt.  It asked questions about things throughout the hotel, and when they answered the questions correctly, the numbers gave them the code to open this treasure box in our room.  Each day, the treasure box held something new.  The first day, it held mini figures.  The workers at the hotel and the park wore lanyards and name tags with mini figured attached to them.  (Look closely in the pictures that follow, and you'll see them.)  If a kid wanted to trade mini figures with a worker, they could!  So, each of our kids had the start to a little mini figure collection to keep or trade as we went about our fun at the hotel and park.  And, Michelle and Jamie had the brilliant idea to send mini figures as birthday gifts so that the kids could enjoy even more trading.  (She had read the park website, which explains all this, and for once, I had not done my research, so I hadn't heard about the trading.)  I secretly packed the mini figures, so the kids were thrilled when they had more to build and enjoy.  She included Grace, too!

Since we were staying on a Wednesday night and the park had been closed, there were not many guests at the hotel (more fun for us!) and the buffet dinner was closed.  We ate at the Skyline Cafe instead, where the food was delicious, the servings were big, and again, the Legos were abundant.  There were even Legos for the kids to play with while we waited.

Jonathan's pretending there is something gross in the cup.

The rear of the lobby had a giant play structure - not for climbing but for building.  This front part was like a pirate ship, and the back, which you'll see in the next pictures, was like a castle.  I think I missed getting a photo of the whole thing.

As I mentioned, our kids hastily built something for the contest.  (The winners had spent more than an hour on their beautiful creations.  My favorite was an elaborate crown - the girl who built it said it was a Wise Man's crown.)  The workers hosting the contest made each kid feel important by giving him or her a chance at the microphone.  This guy introduced and interviewed every single kid who participated...

which Grace loved...

and even Jonathan enjoyed.

This first night, we wanted a good sleep before our big day at the park, so we skipped the pajama party and headed to bed.  Each of the rooms, fancy or not (and we opted for a not-very-fancy one,) had a kids' sleeping area that was separate from the parents' sleeping area.  As you can see, ours had a bunk/trundle bed combination.  It's funny what kids love, but ours were thrilled that the beds were equipped with individual reading lights.  And you can't see it on the left, but the kids' room had its own TV, too.  Here is a picture without the flash...

and with it.

 I'm typing this quickly, so I'm sure it's sprinkled with typos that my mom is sure to find.  But, I wanted to post it sooner rather than later.  And, soon, I'll post about Thursday, the day at the amusement park.

Jonathan's Tenth Birthday

Our firstborn is ten…and we have been parents for ten years.  I can't describe how thankful we are to be parents in general…and especially how thankful we are for Jonathan.  His interview is here.  As is our tradition, we got him up in the morning on this school day by singing "Happy Birthday" to him in his room, and then having him open his birthday gifts in his PJs at the breakfast table.  Family and friends were so sweet to give gifts to him and remember his birthday, even without a party.

Here are some of his gifts, which emphasized Origami...

good books...

and drawing.

I was touched by how each gift showed that the giver had really thought about our boy and what he loves.  The pictures are taken on our old camera, because my "big" good camera…and everything we needed for a secret birthday getaway…was already packed in the car.  Jeff and I didn't have a gift for Jonathan to open.  The kids knew nothing.  Jeff and I were so excited.  The suspense was killing us.  I'll post about it next!