Christmas Vacation - part one!

We still have a few days of vacation left but I've got a lot of pictures to post so I'd better get started. Here's all the pre-Christmas excitement.

Before posting the pictures, I have to say that I had a 97% normal upbringing. There were three really quirky things that I am sure ONLY my mother did - otherwise she just pretty much went with the flow. First, she never heated our Alpha-getti. (for the Americans, that would be Spaghetti-O's, but we get the whole alphabet instead of just O's) Those went straight from the can to the bowl, and I still love them that way. The second thing was breakfast. We were allowed to have the sugary cereals, but only if they were completely outnumbered by a slightly less sugary cereal. So I could have a handful of Froot Loops in a bowl of Cheerios. Or a half a cup of Cap'n Crunch drowning in a sea of Rice Krispies. When we had a babysitter and they poured us a whole bowl of Froot Loops, we thought we'd died and gone to heaven.

The third thing my mother did was make sure we NEVER saw Santa Claus. There are no pictures of me sitting on Santa's knee, because I never did. I suppose he used to show up at Christmas parties and at the school and I am certain he was in the malls -but my mother steered us in the opposite direction and we had no idea. I was completely in awe of my friends who had pictures of themselves on Santa's lap. Where did they FIND him?

This morning my six year old finally figured out the cereal thing - and asked why we can never have a whole bowl of the same cereal. I don't think she has any idea that Alpha-getti is supposed to be warm. But I gave up on the Santa thing long ago - he's everywhere, and I might as well just accept it, and take pictures whenever I have the opportunity. He's been showing up at our community's annual Santa Day (wonders never cease) every year, and my husband's work Christmas party, and at the school, and this year he showed up somewhere VERY special - but that's for later. For now, here's Santa day.

A. making sure none of the other children are harmed on Santa's lap,
also noting that they all get candy

Cecily seemed to make it through okay

Madeleine also seems to be enjoying herself
Santa passed security clearance. She'll sit.
But she'd prefer to get the candy up front.

and then, there was the hay ride

I don't know about you, dad, but there is no way in hell I'm going on that wagon.

Annique 'wrote' her first letter to Santa - glued pictures of her favorite things from the catalog on some snowman stationary. Cecily wrote her letter and asked for a Baby Alive, and marbles. I have no idea what possessed her to ask for marbles, but she was absolutely sure she needed some. Madeleine wrote her letter to Santa at school and the whole class went down to the post office to mail them. I wanted to get a picture of that but Annique was napping so I missed it - I did get a picture when Cecily mailed hers, though. Santa wrote back to Madeleine in French, and she was really impressed. She was very worried when her letter took forever to arrive - Dad teased her that SANTA KNOWS she didn't eat her supper etc. Thankfully it showed up on the last day before Christmas.

Dear Santa...

She addressed her letter all by herself this year

mailing her Santa letter - this picture was in the paper last week

Why toddlers should eat vanilla pudding only.

A few days before Christmas the girls painted their Christmas ornaments. Our little tree is full of handmade ornaments and the kids add a few of them every year. I make an ornament with a photo for each of them every year, too. Of the three girls, Annique actually painted most of hers all by herself - slathering on blue and purple and glittery paint everywhere. I wiped some of the paint off of the face and hands, etc. and painted those parts in but the rest was all hers. The older girls painted a lot of theirs but got frustrated with the details so they made Dad do it for them, and he wasn't much better at it so I just filled in the white spots and painted faces on when they were done. This was a really fun project so we'll probably pick some more up next year.

When they're all done, they're kind of pretty.

More art projects - I made sippy cups and scrapbook tumblers for the girls and my niece and nephews. I also did a calendar for both sides of the family - the printing is complicated and was probably more trouble than actually doing the layouts - I used Shabby Princess calendar QP's so that part was really easy.


A few days before Christmas (the last day of school, actually) my husband was home for the day, and got bored, and decided to tear apart our garage for no particular reason. There's supposed to be a workbench and cabinets along the far wall, under the shelves. I made him put it all back where he found it. I can't believe men actually have to invent things for themselves to do, three days before Christmas. What is wrong with this world?