She still believes

The older girls, Avery and McKenna and their 2 cousins are watching The Grinch right now. I just heard Avery say that she believes in Santa b/c she heard the reindeer on Christmas Eve. My heart is melting. It was a precious conversation between all 4 girls about Santa and (b/c of the movie) heart size. lol

Tonight is another family night. June 25. 1/2 way to Christmas!

• The girls decorated their little trees. We got out the Little People nativity set. I put one strand of lights over the fireplace. We have lots of library books about Christmas. I got out the Christmas coloring and activity books. I got the caroling piano books out. And Elf and Grinch DVDs. The house smells like cinnamon, thanks to leftover holiday candles.
  
• Made white pretzels. And Christmas cupcakes. I got Christmas cake mix and frosting in January for 33 cents each! That's when I got the idea for today.
  
• We usually have snack food on Christmas eve. So that's on the menu tonight-queso and chips, cheese, sausage, and crackers, shrimp dip, artichoke dip, and little smokies. I'll throw a few carrots on the table just for fun.
• Making hot chocolate after supper to have with the cupcakes. Plan to watch Elf and enjoy the rest of the evening.
• Kevin said no to making a fire and gifts. What a scrooge :) Our temp outside is reading 111 degrees, so I guess I don't blame him...
  
• The girls are playing dress up by wearing old Christmas dresses. They look so cute!

The girls explained the characters in the nativity set to Presley. Another precious moment I got to enjoy today.

I'm starting to love family night. So are the girls...

The last 2 weeks

These last 2 weeks went way too fast! Here's a recap in pictures... We make a birthday cake every year to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Christmas morning. This is what Santa brought the girls-Avery, a new bike. McKenna, a dollhouse, Presley, an activity mat. They all loved their gifts. Avery just about lost her breath when she saw the bike, she was just overwhelmed with joy.

Great-Grandma Viola holding Presley at the Osborn family Christmas. This is my favorite picture.

Presley all bundled up

Grandpa Keating reading the Christmas story in the Bible on his I-phone at the Keating family Christmas. The girls are waiting patiently to open their gifts.

Avery posing-

Abby is exhausted after a busy Christmas morning!


We had a wonderful time with family and friends over break! My favorite part was getting to spend time with Kevin. I love having him home with us. We spent time watching movies, playing games, painting and redecorating our bedroom (pix coming soon!), bowling, staying up late, and sleeping in. Presley sleeps about 10 hours at night now, so it was nice. We let the girls stay up later than usual and they slept til 9 most days.

Part of me is ready to get back into a schedule, routine. I'm ready to have my house back to "normal." Ready to get Avery and McKenna back in school. Ready for some snow!!!! Hope you all had a great Christmas season and are ready for 2009-

Had to do it-

We went to the mall yesterday. I had no expectations. I did tell the girls they could ride the train after we went to see Santa. McKenna had 2 meltdowns before we even got to the mall. She didn't want to sit on Santa or stand near him. I said that's fine. No big deal. We get there, she sees Santa giving kids candy canes and she decides he's not so bad, after all. Avery was ready to talk to him. We met Marla and Reese there. Reese went first. Here are the resultsAfter Reese, all 3 of my girls hopped right up to Santa. Avery talked to him for a while. She told him she wanted a Barbie (aka peek a boo petite) and McKenna said she wanted My little Pony. Santa called Presley a boy, and so it begins. None of my kids have hair for the first 2 years of their life, so everyone thinks their boys. Whatever.

I had a moment of weakness and I paid for a picture with Santa. I wanted Kevin to see it (he was at work) and wanted proof of the memory. $14.87!!!!! for one picture. I had a stomach ache afterwards. I can't believe I spent that much money for 1 picture that will most likely go in a box. Here's what $14.87 buys-Actually, we got 2 for the price of one. When we went to pay for the pix, the computer for the camera somehow broke and we had to wait for 20 minutes while the lady called someone to fix it. The other lady said she didn't know how to work the cash register so she just stood there. Ugh. When the first lady came back to check us out, I asked if we could just have the pix since it took so long. She said no but she'd give us another one for free. Anyone want a 5x7 pix of some cute girls with Santa? I'll sell it for $35! Just kidding, kind of...
Big plans today-the girls are going to a friends house for a Christmas party. I need to do some shopping and I hope to make it to the Y. Kevin should be doing some shopping, if he knows what's good for him :) Then we'll go out and look at lights tonight.

A Christmas Quiz

Heather at Whittaker Woman posted this list of Christmas questions. I joined in and here are the results.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper! Bags are no fun! Although I did use a bag for my nephew's gift this year. Simply b/c it was such an odd shape and I had one from last year.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I live in Kansas. The best trees here are artificial!

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the day after Thanksgiving. Or the week before...
4. When do you take the tree down? sometime during the week between Christmas and New Year, or right after.
5. Do you like eggnog? No, but Kevin and Avery sure do!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I wrote about it here.

8. Easiest person to buy for? My husband and kids. I know what they want, need, don't already have, etc....

9. Do You have a nativity scene? Yes. Emmanuel gave me a beautiful nativity a couple of years ago. The girls have a Little People set under the tree they can play with. The girls also have one in their room they got from Church last year.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Christmas cards? Our family didn't do that when I was growing up, so I haven't gotten into that tradition, yet. I enjoy reading the ones we get, though!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? No comment

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I have a lot-Right now, it's probably Elf. Last night, we all watched the Grinch, I like that one, too.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I wish I could say all year. But this year, it's been in the last 2 months.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Again, no comment.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Anything my mom makes. She's the best cook. Some year I want her to fix mexican and we can sing Felix Navidad!

16. Lights on the tree? Seriously? We put 3 extra strands on our prelit tree, and put 12 strands on the tree in the basement.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Oh Holy Night. I just like singing that one. I love to hear Avery sing Away in the Manger.

18. Travel for Christmas or stay home? Going North to Abilene on Christmas day. Spending Tuesday night with Kevin's family.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? You know Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen. Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. And Rudolph, too.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither and let me tell you the girls are not happy. They really want either a star or angel. I like my trees just the way they are. Fashion trumps theology on this one.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Hello, Santa delivers them Christmas night so Christmas morning is when you open them! The kids open one gift on Christmas eve every year. And every year that one gift is a pair of pajamas.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Last year, I bought ALL of the gifts for all of our families by myself. I didn't like it. This year, Kevin help a little. He does most of the wrapping of the gifts so I shouldn't complain.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I used to just like white or gold. Now I like all of the colors, as long as they coordinate.
24. Favorite Christmas dinner? Last year we had beef tenderloin for the first time. It was good! And we eat homemade Chex mix alot during advent and epiphany every year.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I know this sounds corny, but I just want to watch my girls open their gifts and experience Christmas with my family. Wait, I would like to paint our bedroom, too. And I want some black boots at Target that I told Kevin about, showed him in the store, emailed him a link. I wouldn't mind some jewelry either. And I want a better pencil sharpener than the one we have. When you school at home, you use pencils and our little sharpener isn't cutting it anymore....Oh, yeah, and peace on earth-good will toward men.

I hope you all are able to spend this Christmas with your family, and that you'll experience the true meaning of this special time of year. Merry Christmas.

Save the Date!

Homemade Gourmet Christmas Open House!

the Osborn abode (leave a comment if you need directions)

Monday, December 15, 2008

6-8pm

This is a great opportunity to shop for those on your Christmas list. There will be great food, drinks and more gift-giving ideas to make the holidays extra special. If you can't make it, feel free to browse Sally's website and place an order. Or call me and I'll place an order for you. RSVP by leaving a comment. Hope to see you there!

Homemade ornaments

Last year I bought this book, and I loved reading the history about all of the traditions we do to celebrate advent and Christmas. Kevin wrote a little about it here. Last year we made homemade ornaments. We can't eat these, b/c of the glue. It was so fun we decided to make them again this year.

1 cup cinnamon

1 tbs each of ginger, nutmeg and ground cloves

1 cup applesauce

2 tbs glue

mix together to form dough. you may need to add some flour, we did. roll out and cut into shapes. make a hole at the top of each ornament, we used a straw. Let air dry for a few days, turning often.

Productive weekend

We had a great weekend putting up the trees, ornaments and decorating the house. I'll post pix of the outside tomorrow, hopefully. We've watched Elf 5 times so far. We've eaten more Chex mix than I care to admit. We had wonderful food and special times with our families and friends.

Here is our tree in the living room. Avery is playing with the little people nativity set.
Here is the tree in the basement. Kevin also painted the bathroom downstairs and it looks awesome! We found some $5 paint a few weeks ago in a color that we thought would be fine. It looks really good.

Yesterday, the girls and I made ornaments for their trees. They take a couple of days to dry, then we'll hang them and post more pix.

Presley had her 2 month appt. today. She weighed 11lbs, 12 oz. Hard to believe she had so much trouble gaining weight after she was born. She is doing great. Cried a lot after getting her shots. I've spent most of the afternoon holding her, which I don't mind a bit.

I'm making breakfast for dinner tonight. Chex mix for dessert! I'm hoping Coke is on sale at Dillons this week, b/c we are dangerously low! Good thing we don't drink pop with our biscuits and eggs!

x-mas thoughts

Caution-this is a rambling post-

My brother in law called last night and I think we've got Christmas plans taken care of. We'll spend Tuesday night (the 23rd) with Kevin's family, do Christmas morning with just the 5 of us, then head North to Abilene Christmas afternoon. I'm so excited to decorate our house, make cookies and fudge with the girls and do advent devos and light the purple and pink candles as a family.
So, Kevin and I are brainstorming gift ideas for everyone. I really struggle with this, because I WANT to give gifts and presents to everyone. My heart wants to show my family how much I love them and how much they mean to me. But I/we usually don't know WHAT to get everyone. We don't NEED anything. No one in our family NEEDS anything. I want to give the girls something to open on Christmas morning, but in the back of my head, keep thinking they're gonna get so much stuff from everyone else. Why spend money on stuff that I'll probably toss in a few months? Avery wants a new bike. If we get Ave the bike, we need to get something big for McKenna too, right? We could get McKenna a dollhouse. We already have a dollhouse that Avery got when she turned 3. Where will we put another dollhouse? We need to get Presley something, but she doesn't need anything, but diapers and wipes. Do Kevin and I need to exchange gifts, just to show the kids that Santa didn't forget us? Kevin and I usually don't do gifts, just b/c all of the money goes to everyone else (there's 21 people in our 2 families). Do we buy stuff for each other for the girls' sake. Ugh, the thoughts in my head go on and on about stuff that doesn't even matter, long term. I guess I'm growing tired of buying stuff. Wow-never thought I'd say that. I'm tired of de-cluttering my house and throwing things away that we spent money on, then decided we didn't need (read-mostly the older girls' toys)
We didn't make it to Abilene today, hopefully tomorrow though. Didn't get as much school and laundry done yesterday, as I'd hoped. It's 11:30 and I'm still in my pjs, so today's not looking much better. Thank goodness, Avery's teacher can wear pjs to class!

It's beginning to look a lot like ....

Not really, but Kevin mentioned that we needed to start thinking, and purchasing Christmas gifts so we don't end up doing it all the week before Christmas, like usual. We have 21 people in both of our families. For the 11 years that we've been married, we always buy gifts for everyone for b-days and Christmas. Last year, I suggested something different for Christmas and it backfired, bad.

So, I'm curious...How do you do Christmas and the holidays with your families? Do you choose names? Only buy for kids? Buy for everyone? Buy for no one?

Leave a comment and let me know-

1. What do you do for Christmas? With your immediate family, then with the family at large


2. What do you wish you did?