Most of our Holiday

 Spent playing with the projector and computer games.

This is Dragon's Lair, circa 1983 when you had to put quarters in a machine for each short life.

 Eating snack food for dinner while watching movies.

And introducing the classics.

The Six AM Wake-up

A Pretty Cool Christmas Twist

 Christmas Eve, the children run outside to scatter their reindeer food all over the lawn.

I was inside locating the broom for the later sweeping I would have to do, perhaps shaking my head.

And Patric comes in, "Hey Soose, you might want to see this."

And magically, as two houses on our block had stepped out to spread glitter and oatmeal for the reindeer, Santa came riding up on a scooter.  And I found myself running about in an excited frenzy looking for my camera, tripping over the broom I had left in my wake.

(We'll pretend David is Nicholas, who was a little too skeptical to hop on the stranger's bike.)

Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas

We are not a bah-humbug house.

Really.

The minivan has been transformed into a reindeer with horns and shiny nose (even though when you roll down the window to flip in the mirror while entering our garage they fall off every time and make you nearly curse, and we're not smart enough to install them on the rear windows three inches away).

The stockings are hung by the chimney (maybe not with so much care, but we have these four little people who keep taking them down and pre-filling them with their own stuff, anticipating the coal I guess).

And we are lit outside (even though a few strands have perhaps gone out and a couple of wreaths have blown off the windows in the wind.  Perhaps you've even noticed that one is laying on the porch roof having tumbled from the second story window, but really it's cold outside now).

We don't have don't-touch decorations. Our real tree is loaded with a history of ornaments of all shapes and colors, my favorite the bulbs with little hand prints that have been painted into snowmen.  (And by loaded, I mean loaded down from about three feet high to the point that it is kind of sick and droopy looking from the weight down there and fresh and sparse the higher you go.)

And we loaded up with hot chocolate, Christmas music, and blankets for our annual light show review (even though they complained about the music, don't like hot chocolate, and fell asleep five minutes into the drive.  And, this was one of the more successful light show drives, at least we didn't get pulled over by the cops this time.  But we'll re-tell that story later).

We made Christmas cookies to share with the neighbors (even though decorating was fun through about the first third of the cookies, and I was left to smear icing and sprinkles over the rest while they periodically asked me when they would be finished).

But then they come home with reindeer food.  Whoever came up with the idea to fill a baggie with oatmeal and glitter and call it reindeer food--thanks, thanks so much!  A cheap way to brighten the magic a touch.  Well, we now have 8 bags of reindeer food sent home from various places--school, scouts, daycare.   I don't even mind so much that one child, who shall remain nameless because I haven't figured out which one it is yet, has already scattered the reindeer food outside. And by outside, I mean in a pile outside the door. And every time you go in an out, you track oatmeal and glitter across the floor!  No, I don't mind that so much.  It's what our piles of oatmeal will likely attract that gives me pause.  So, while the children are nestled all snug in their beds this evening, I'll have visions of creatures running through my head.  Armadillos and mice and ants, yippee! All creeping about for the food they see.

 

Because really, aren't the reindeer supposed to stay on the roof?  Perhaps that is the answer I give when there is still glitter and oatmeal strewn about in the morning?

Bad Saturday Morning Entertainment Ideas

 Just keep welcoming kids into the house, because why not?

(Nope that's not even all of them.)

 Think it's pretty funny/inventive when they start tearing up birthday gift Styrofoam to make snow...

(You see where this is heading.  But you'll also notice please that they did clean up the toy mess first...kind of.)

And watch them make it snow and then make snow angels...

Yikes.

But, really it's a mess in here anyway.

Something A Bit More Girly

Mommy Pedicure

Run For Your Lives!

 Zombie infested 5K obstacle course

Before

 And After.

 And the girls, who were just chatting away with the nurse zombie, wouldn't get their picture taken with her unless I joined.

 Trying to explain the race to my mother...

"Well, that sounds weird."

I didn't even bother mentioning Zombie Thor, who the children were cheering on to attack the racers by the end.

Bowling a Spare

Let the Birthdays Begin

 Baking daddy's cake, while he worked...

 Wishing him happy birthday.

 A little late night cake.

 And then the next weekend, the boys.

 Worn everywhere.

 And  yes, junior bow and arrow sets of course.

And, some more late night cake.

To which Nicholas (who asked for Ghost Rider out of Ghost Rider season), advised me that he could draw a better skull than that.

Not sure how I don't have a label for coming across the table to strangle Nicholas.

Ben is thoughtfully still making his wish up there.

And yes, my birthday passed quietly in there too.  Quietly is good.



Multi-talented

smiling and crinkling my forehead all at once.

My appliances, however, look pretty darn clean from this angle.

Shrinky Dinks

Or some project extremely similar in design,

still super fun on a Saturday morning.

For the Record

The kids can take pretty good pictures now.

Mostly, make-up and hair are still not done on Saturdays.

There is a pot of coffee always near-by.

We're still exhausted.

But we've loved having him around this past month. 

 And look forward to another month of it.

Home for the Holidays

 And after a long trip home after the Thanksgiving break,

 Our first order of business was to begin preparations for the biggest holiday of the year.

 We put up the tree and let the kids loose to decorate it.

And to take the pictures it seems.

And now, we're mostly ready to snuggle up and enjoy the month.

Here Comes Santa Claus

 We bundled up the night after Thanksgiving to see Santa arive in Lawrence...from on top of the department store and down a fire truck.

 We arrived early, bundled and ready.

 And you forget sometimes what a simple time together can do for smiles.

 And wonder.

 Ha--a family photo.

And, being Texans now, we just wrap up in blankets since our weightiest coats are hoodies...

Thanksgiving

 We loaded up, and visited grandma and grandpa airplane.

 And I was finally talked into riding in the experimental plane when Alida asked me giggling.

 And the view at 78 mph above the campus really  is pretty amazing.

 There was chess of course.

 And our annual four Stuber birthdays all in two weeks began.

 Art supplies for Nick; and a castle for Ben.

Perfection.

 (And maybe a new perfectly-fit outfit for me!)

 A ride in the John Deer for the ladies.

 A girly sort of nature hike in Southeastern Kansas.

 And never forget the golf cart, which kind of got abandoned when it failed not far from here.

 And Patric's glee, a bit of target practice with the boys.

And maybe a few shots fired for himself.

And even this lady reclaimed her status after a few years away.