Christmas Day

So, now that it's the end of January and no one cares about Christmas any more, I'm posting my Christmas pictures.

This is the scene the kids saw when they got up:

We kept it simple this year, and less expensive than normal. So we made oragami frogs, cranes, and paper airplanes for the stockings. And did you see that cool bike?! Here it is closer-up:

Bike Story

The bike is actually part of a cool story. Keeping it simpler than Really Complicated: Some really good friends in our ward called us one night in October or so and asked if we would like a bike for Elijah. They said they could hold onto it until a certain upcoming holiday event. We thought about it and said alright. They had bought the bike for their own son when he was Elijah's age, and he had refused to ride it. He's the youngest and now he's 12. The family had just cleaned out their garage and found this bike and thought of Elijah. They also had 2 bike helmets, and elbow and knee pads, too.

When they initially told us about the bike, I was wondering what condition the bike was in. They said it was "like brand new", but that means different things coming from different people. So when we picked it up I almost gasped. It was in such good shape, that the little "hairs" on the bike tires were still there! Incredible!

So we spit-shined it up a few days before Christmas and I'm still amazed that we ended up with such a great bike for free. It was Elijah's Santa gift.

A funny side story to the Bike Story: The bike tires needed air (because Santa doesn't bring bikes with flat tires), and Rob went out to the van to get the pump. It was the night before Christmas Eve, so on one hand we needed to know if the tires held air because if they didn't we needed to buy new bike tire tubes. On the other hand, there was a terrible ice storm that day, so it wasn't worth getting hurt over. Rob announced he was going outside anyway. I had just watched Cleo, our cat, trip all over herself trying to get across our deck. I told him he was going to break his arm or something! He went out anyway. He came back inside with the pump but also with a huge bruise across his shin from where he slipped across the driveway and right into the bottom of the van. Ouch! ... I tried to feel sorry for him, but, you know, I did tell him so. (And the bike tires did hold air, thankfully.)

2 Teancom Pictures

These two pictures are of Teancom with 2 of his gifts. One he really liked and has played with constantly since he got it: His green sparkly ball from Grandma (it's one of those balls with water and sparkles inside it--it's pretty cool). The other is his fireman's hat (each of the kids got one). You can see how much he likes wearing it:



This year, since the kids have been earning their own money, and since we didn't buy them many toys, we let them all take their money and pick out 1 gift a piece at Toys-R-Us. They didn't have much money, and we told them it had to be something they could afford. So this is what each of them chose:

This is Teancom's dog. It came with a bright red leash so he can pull it around. Who knew this was really TWO toys: the dog and a red snake!

Elijah wanted a camera. I told him this was just a "play camera", thinking he'd be disappointed that it didn't take real photos. He said, "It's not a PLAY camera. It's a pre-TEND camera." If you look into part of it, you can see photos of animals, and he thinks that's just as cool.

Miciah actually went with a single purchase in mind: Barbie and the Christmas Carol, the newest Barbie movie. And then she saw the duck. We had said only 1 gift, and we knew she'd be disappointed to not get the movie. She started crying when she knew she had to put the duck back. Rob was unmoved, but Miciah LOVES duckies, for some reason. So I suggested that, since she still had money left, we could make an exception. And she loves the duck. (Luckily our boys are nothing like Miciah and so there were no fits of "But she got more than me!" and "But you said...!")

Santa

Speaking of gifts, let's talk briefly about Santa. I'm not a huge Santa fan. In fact, this year Miciah was cornering me on some Santa questions and I couldn't redirect to Rob as I normally do, because we were in the car alone. She was asking how his reindeer could fly, etc., etc. I don't mind Santa being the Spirit of Christmas/Christ, in fact, I quite like the symbolism. But SANTA DOESN'T HAVE MAGIC REINDEER!!! I finally shouted to her, "Miciah, Santa is fake! He doesn't exist." She was quiet for a moment and then quietly said, "You're saying he's fake?" ... You'd think I'd ruined her Christmas, but of course she promptly acted like she hadn't even heard me and continued believing, just cause she wanted to. And I guess that's kinda cute.

And for those of you who are about to tell me, "Just say, "What do YOU think?"" I think that's a cop out and it plays on the believing nature of children, and that's just not nice or right. Santa just doesn't have flying reindeer.

However, flying reindeer or no, he still brings our children 1 gift a piece. Santa gave Elijah a bike. Miciah got the game of Life. And Teancom got a small tool set. The cool thing about getting the bike is that because you can't wrap a bike, Santa didn't wrap any of his Santa gifts this year. Less wrapping is always good. It did create a funny situation, though, when Elijah woke up and came out to see his Santa gift. We took a video of it, expecting this great reaction. You can watch the video if you want, cause it's cute. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhAiDpzgX_s ) But if you don't want to, the best part is that Elijah hardly reacted at all, since he was just barely awake and somewhat dazed. And even after he saw the bike, he got up closer to it and then saw Teancom's gift. He pointed to the tool set and said, "I've been wanting one of those." Figures. Teancom shares really really well, though, so they've both been enjoying the tool set.

Holiday Barbie and a Stuffed Reindeer

Miciah also wrote Santa a letter this year. Very cute. Unfortunately, she presented it to us a week before Christmas in a sealed envelope. This was of course well after we'd decided on and purchased her Santa gift. We opened it up Christmas night to read that she'd asked for a stuff reindeer (of all things) and a Barbie doll. The Barbie doll wasn't completely unexpected since while walking through Wal-Mart Miciah pointed out the $40 Holiday Barbie that she wanted. Beautiful. But $40. And we already bought Life! But the stuffed reindeer? Where did THAT come from?

So imagine our surprise and the humor surrounding the whole situation when R&C came over to give us their (mostly HOMEMADE) Christmas gifts (put me to shame). Gave us an onion chopper thing (it's genius!!!--one slam down and it's diced!) (the only gift not homemade), some bath salts and soaps (for me), a snowman and "snow balls" that you can throw at it and the balls stick (for Elijah), some hair ribbons (for Miciah), and for Teancom: a stuffed reindeer. Miciah eyeballed that for a long time. Then asked C if she could make her one, too. We explained to C that Miciah had asked Santa for a stuffed reindeer, but that she should NOT feel obligated to make her another one. C, thankfully, told Miciah no. Miciah then tried to talk Teancom into letting her have it, or at least borrow it. Teancom, the good sharer that he is, has let her borrow it several times and I find it just as often on Miciah's bed as in Teancom's room.

When Miciah had to pick a single gift to take to her class for a special show-and-tell, she chose? Teancom's stuffed reindeer.

Miciah and Elijah, opening one of Miciah's gifts from Grandma. We had curled Miciah's hair in curlers a few nights before and so it was still wavy that day. I think it looked really really cute and we should do it more often.

Aprons

My mom gave Rob and me aprons for Christmas (among other things that I'll talk about later). After we opened ours, Miciah said, "She didn't make me one!" So she was very pleased when she opened a package to find:

And my sweet boys. Elijah wasn't jealous at all when Miciah got one and he didn't, even though he's now in a stage where he loves to cook. After Miciah got hers, we just handed down the other aprons (also from my mother when she was getting rid of some or hers) and Elijah grabbed the one that used to be Miciah's and said, "This is mine now, huh, Mom?"

The Wii

Me putting the wii together. Great picture, eh? I need a haircut in this pic, and I hadn't bothered with putting myself together yet (not that I look much different AFTER I put myself together, but you know).

We saved the wii to open last, of course. The kids were excited to get it, but not near as excited as we'd hoped. I'll upload the video so you can watch if you want (and when that's done, I'll include the link here). And another gift got hidden in the pile, so the very last gift they opened was Season 3 of the Avatar TV show. They were just as, if not MORE excited to get Avatar. Oops. It made me think, "And we spent HOW MUCH on the wii?" We'd planned all year to get the wii, and it's ALL we got the kids for Christmas. All the other gifts you saw there, besides the Santa gifts, were from someone else or we got them for free/really cheap.

For instance:

When asked later in the day, after playing the wii and riding his bike (in the fantastic 60 degree weather), what his favorite gift was, Elijah said the fire truck. The fire truck was a wooden set that Rob got for free at Home Depot. Elijah and Rob built it together and had a great time doing the project. It just cracked me up that it was his favorite, and we didn't spend a dime on it! ... Next time I think our kids will be scarred by going simpler, I'm going to remember the fire truck.

Elijah also loved this toy:

It's a Spider-Man nerf gun thing. It shot those darts pretty fast, actually. Of course, he broke it by the day's end. It was a clearance toy that I got for like 50 cents. Rob promised we could buy him a "real" nerf gun type toy that hopefully won't break in a few minutes. I have no faith in the toy lasting any longer if we spend more money on it. But, I guess we'll find out! (And check out Elijah's tongue in that picture! Totally cute.)

Keeping it Simple

This is the kids eating breakfast at the table, with Christmas goodies everywhere. We cut back in terms of candy and food this year, too, so most of what is on the table is from others. We even saved some Halloween candy to put in their stockings. That's pretty lame, even I admit that. But it meant things were simple, and yet we still had a lot.

For instance: The kids get cereal every year (Rob's family's tradition). Usually we get them some brand name goodness, but this year opted for the cheap stuff. Not only were they just as happy to get the cheap stuff, they got like 5 times as much that way! All 3 kids still have some cereal left, and since there was so much in each bag, they've also been really good about sharing.

Christmas Gifts for Each Other

Another side to Keeping it Simple was our gifts to each other. In November I started telling Rob that what I wanted for Christmas was for him to grow a beard. He kept looking at me pitifully and saying that I KNEW he couldn't do that. No, I didn't know that. And Yes, yes you can. You just stop shaving. He kept telling me no, and I kept telling him that's all I wanted.

So finally he turned to me and said, "You know, I just looked at the calendar and we're going to be out of town for 2 Sundays in a row, so if you want, I can grow my beard for 3 weeks [Sunday night to Sunday morning 3 weeks later]." Fantastic!

My Christmas gift from him, then, was a beard for 3 weeks. It was amazing and I LOVE his beard. The Saturday before he had to shave it, though, was painful. I cried. Rob kept saying, "There has GOT to be some other reason you're upset." Nope. I just really really like the beard. ... For that reason--the pain of having and then losing his beard--I took no special pictures of him with the beard. ... And I will ask for a different gift next year.

My Christmas gift FOR him was, as it turns out, nothing. For yet another year, the gift I planned didn't show. But he loves me anyway.

The Best Gifts for 2008:

* Finances Taken Care of in December: My mom came in town for Thanksgiving and set us up really nicely. She bought some nice gifts for us (like the renewal of the Museum Pass!) and took care of groceries for several weeks. She didn't have to do any of that, but it made it so we were able to save quite a bit of money in December, and since we have such intense financial goals, that was a FANTASTIC gift!

* New Pots and Pans: We were given almost $300 in gifts from others and were setting out the Saturday after Christmas to buy needed pots and pans. So imagine our surprise and delight when on Christmas Day R&C brought over another few gifts from my mother. One of them was a new set of pots and pans! They're wonderful and beautiful. Bright red.

* The wii: Needs no explanation. It's fun.

* Rob's beard: Though after crying for an hour over the loss of it, Rob's beard also qualifies as the WORST gift for 2008.

* Clearing up a Misunderstanding with a Good Friend: I had been stressed for over a month because of a complicated misunderstanding with a good friend. On the Sunday before Christmas, we had a long conversation and it not only cleared a lot up, but also took a huge weight off my shoulders. Starting with that Monday, I felt like I could think clearly again, like I'd been given my life back. So this DEFINITELY qualifies as one of The Best Gifts for 2008.

* Canned Chicken: Grandma Thacker usually gives all the grandkids $50 for Christmas. This year she gave us $50 worth of canned chicken. Excellent!! ... If you're not understanding why this would make my Best Gifts list, just know that it's an exceptional gift. Trust me.

And here's where I should add something sappy about how one of the best gifts is always the love and support of our family and loved ones. I'll skip the sap. You guys already know we love and adore you. (Though, if you don't know, or if you're doubting for some reason, send me an e-mail and I'll tell you again.)

Thanks for indulging me on this long post (though I guess you're all used to it). The next post will be back to funny kid stories, like normal.