Carriage Rides and Carols

My favorite neighborhood activity is the annual carriage and carols.  Everyone interested in participating pitches in $10 and we rent a horse and carriage.  The carriage has 4-5 benches so we can smash a lot of people on each ride.  The horses pull us through the neighborhood while we sing. 

My friend, Liz, spearheads the event so the boarding point is in our cul-de-sac.  There is a table set up with hot chocolate and cookies and a patio fire pit.  This year Liz even got a group of choir students from either the college or the HS (don't remember which) to stand in the cul-de-sac and sing to us. 

Last year, we had some issues with remembering words to songs so this year Rita and her family made song sheets for everyone.  The kids and I have a blast!  Jared tolerates the activity for our sakes.  I think Bella went 3 times this year.  She couldn't get enough. The first time we all rode as a family.  When we got off the carriage and walked to the hot chocolate table, Jacob was already missing.  As we looked around trying to find him before he got trampled by a horse I found this scene

I should've realized if Murphy was out, that's where Jacob would be.  Jacob LOVES Murphy! 

More December Activities

The girls and I made 27 dozen cookies in a 48 hour period this December.  That's what happens when you keep telling people "Sure I can bring a few dozen cookies" to this and that.  When I sat down and added up how many dozen I had committed to bake for events, I was floored.  Add into that what I needed for the neighborhood cookie exchange, and the platter I always send to work with Jared, and there you go...27 dozen.  It was a lot of fun though.  I got some good bonding time in with the girls. We even recruited Dad and Jacob to help with some of the decorating.

We were gone for Thanksgiving, and Jon and Elise were leaving for Christmas and New Year's so we had a Holiday meal with them mid- December.  We went to their house this year.  Elise made a wonderful beef brisket with a blue cheese sauce, and homemade rolls.  I made a my favorite cranberry, orange, candied pecan and feta salad with poppy seed dressing. I also made an orange cake my friends had coerced me into trying a few days earlier.  Its is so moist and yummy its evil.  Elise and I must've been on the same wavelength that day, cause we were dressed the same. Katy and Paul are missing from the picture.

Goshen (Xandy and Bella's school) went caroling at a nursing home nearby. I thought it was a worthwhile cause so I took the kids (even the reluctant ones). I was so glad we had gone when I saw how happy the elderly people there were to have the little children singing to them. Jacob though one "grandpa" (to use his words) was hilarious cause he kept laughing and cheering during the songs. Katy was a good sport for helping them sing even though it wasn't her school. (The nice thing about the way this city divides the school district up is that everything is so close to you. The school and 90% of the kids attending it are within 2 miles of us and the nursing home was half a mile away)

Christmas Eve we got a nice surprise.  It started snowing and snowed just enough to give us a white Christmas.  The kids and I went sledding on Monday after Dad had to go back to work.  We sled down the rentention basin behind our cul-de-sac.  Its convenient to not have to drive somewhere.

School Parties

Since Bella and Xandy are at the same school, I've been able to sneak back and forth between their Halloween and Christmas parties. Its been nice to be able to see at little of each of their parties. I'll be at Katy's school for Valentine's.  With three school kids this year, they each get me at one party.   I love how this district doesn't limit the number of parents at each party.  It really does help to have extra hands to help keep some semblance of control.  Here's some random pics of their parties.

Ward Party

I wasn't going to blog about this since I'm so behind, but I wanted to record Jake's story from the night.
After dinner, the primary kids dressed in costumes and sang songs about Christ's birth. Jacob was very upset that he was not old enough to participate. Katy won the tug a war with a couple other girls and got to be Mary (back row). Bella and Xandy are both angels and on the left side of the picture.

Jake was stuck sitting with us but, at least Lisa and Rich were sitting with us too.  All the kids, but especially Jacob love Lisa.  Jacob gets jealous when her granddaughter comes to town. 

Anyway, immediately after the primary stopped singing, sleigh bells were heard and Santa walked in.  The primary kids were good and stood waiting for some signal that they were released and could go see Santa.  Santa meanwhile went and sat in his chair.  I was watching Jacob to see his reaction to Santa's appearance.  I saw a train of thought pass over his face that took about 2 seconds.  He looked at Santa, back at the kids, and back to Santa again and then he took off.  I could see the wheels turning and can just imagine him saying "Fine, if I can't sing, I can at least capitalize on the fact that I'm not standing in the front of the room in a costume right now."  He ran right up to Santa and was first in line to sit on his lap.  This caused a chain reaction in the room as all the kids raced to get in the line.  I might have been embarassed that my child initiaited the mayhem if the whole thing hadn't been so funny.
I barely had time to pull my camera out it all happened so quick so Jake's picture is pretty blurry

My Sunbeam

Its official, we no longer have a child in nursery.  This is not the first time its happened, but its the first time we haven't been anxiously waiting for the next one to enter nursery.  Bella was not happy when she graduated from nursery to primary so I was curious to see how Jacob would take it.  Since the girls are in Primary and his best bud Tyler was moving up with him, he did great.  He was actually, incredibly excited.   The other funny difference was Bella refused to participate in Sharing Time for about a year.  She sat quietly and watched but was not interested in doing anything else.  Jake came home excited the first day because he had gotten to put a scarf on a snowman.  I love how individual they all are.  Here's pictures of him ready for church that first Sunday.

Katy's B-day Part2

Since we will be moving sometime this year, we decided to let the kids of B-day parties this year even though our family rule is every other year. December was too crazy so we had Katy's party the weekend after New Year's. We were brave and let her have a sleepover. All and all in went great. We had a few minor mishaps..spilled orange nailpolish on the off white carpet, and a poor little girl who got sick and threw up rootbeer also on the off white carpet. Besides the fact I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees scrubbing, it was fun. They ate pizza, giggled, made eye masks,giggled, painted their nails,giggled, ate homemade icecream cake,giggled, watched 16 wishes, and giggled some more. We did finally get them settled down around 1am. We finished the party with cinnamon rolls in the morning.

Katy's 10th B-day

I can't believe that I have been a mother for a decade now.  Katy turned 10 two days before Christmas.  I used to think I did a great job of making her B-day special despite the fact her b-day is two days before Christmas.  However, I found myself dreading asking her what she wanted for her b-day dinner.  I always  make the kids the meal of their choice on their b-day.  Why was I dreading it so much, because I knew what the answer would be--lasagna.  I already was making our big traditional Ukrainian dinner on the 24th, and we had friends coming for a ham dinner on Christmas.  The last thing I wanted to do was make a lasagna.  Three days of big meals did not sound fun.  Then there was the matter of the cake.  Really???  My house was already over run with cookies, candy, fudge, caramel popcorn, etc,etc.  A cake??  The thought of more sugar made me sick.  As I pondered the situation, I remembered something that would create an ideal solution but it had one drawback...it cost money.  I needed to get her Dad onboard my plan.  I called at work and described the situation.  Before I could even present my solution, he came up with it on his own! Score...although I did wonder why it took me days to figure out and only took him about 10 seconds.  On the night of her B-day, with the kids coupons for a free meal at the Pasta House in hand, we headed out to eat.  She got lasagna, cheesecake with a candle, and a restaurant full of people singing to her.  I got the satisfaction of giving my daughter what she wanted without overworking myself 2 days before Christmas.  I didn't even have to clean up.  It did cost her Dad the price of 3 meals (we only had coupons for the three little ones) but overall a success.  (On a side note: our wonderful pixies left Katy's second favorite meal-chicken pot pie- on our porch while we were out.  Guess I should've been patient and it would've worked out on its own)
We also finally took the kids rock climbing at the YMCA on her b-day. She's been asking to go since we moved here and we never got around to it. Not sure why, it was free. They all had a blast, except poor Jacob who was too little but he was a great sport and watched a movie on my phone to pass the time. After dinner we went and saw Tangled.  A couple other families from our street were randomly at the same showing.   It turned into a fun little neighborhood activity.

 Our neighbor Liz happened to be rock climbing with her boys so she helped belay the girls while Jared and I took a quick course on belaying.  If the children don't have someone to belay them, they have to wait in a long line for one of the two staff members to do it.

 The pillowcase Grandma Reed made her.

Overall, I think it was a fun day for her.  Besides, it was the first days of Christmas break, so that should've made it great on its own