We Believe

There is nothing quite like the soft glow of the twinkling Christmas lights and the excited eyes of my children on Christmas morning, especially when they know Santa has not forgotten them. As a mother, I just want to freeze time and never let my children grow out of the believing stage. It's magical--even for me.

For Christmas, our kids definitely had their wish lists.

Jacob hoped for a new Nintendo DS. He knew it would take a Christmas miracle, as he received a DS from us for Christmas last year and dropped it in the toilet (after being warned numerous times that electronics do not belong in the bathroom). He's been playing his sister's DS ever since and figured even though he'd probably never get another DS of his own, he could ask Santa for a DS game. You should've seen the look on his face when he saw the DS box, and then picked it up only to discover that it was empty. Priceless. "What?" he said. "Is Santa playing some sort of joke on me?" Josh didn't have the heart to keep up the joke, so he pointed to the end table where his new DS was charging. That Santa, he's such a thoughtful one. He even had the sense about him to plug the DS in the night before to charge for 8 hours, knowing Jacob wouldn't be able to stand the wait to play his new toy.



Sweet little Kaylee's wish list changed just about every day as a commercial would come on advertising the latest and greatest Barbie, Princess or Ponyville toy. Finally, we told her that if she didn't just pick one or two things and stick with them, Santa would be too confused and would end up leaving her boy toys. She settled on Bathtub Dora and a Belle dress. (Shhh...don't tell her that the dress Santa left isn't really an official Belle dress. The dresses in the store were all immodest and since our little princess refuses to wear any clothes under her dress-up clothes, this was Santa's best option.)




Little Landon's stocking was pretty simple this year. It was filled with Teddy Grahams and a new toy that he's already spent hours playing with.



Mom and Dad didn't ask for much this year. Santa got Mom a new Kitchen Aid with incentive points he earned from work. Mom got Santa a stocking with Itunes gift cards and a gift certificate for a few rounds of golf. And, Santa left a new Wii Fit for Mom and Dad (although, the tag said "Carver Family"...somehow we knew Santa was really leaving it for us...) Thanks Santa. Next year we will be giving YOU a Wii Fit too, instead of milk and cookies.

Here are a few more pictures of the morning.

Jammie Time! (Not to be confused with Hammer Time.)

We have a few Christmas Eve traditions around our place that will never change.

1. The kids will always get to open one present on Christmas Eve.
2. That one present will always be a new pair of Christmas jammies.
3. After opening their jammies and putting them on, they will set out their Christmas stockings for Santa.
4. They will always have the option of having a make-shift "slumber party" in one of the kids' bedrooms so that A.) all kids will be accounted for so Santa knows when the coast is clear and B.) all children will have an equal opportunity to come down the stairs and see Santa's surprises.

'Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas...Or Was It?

‘Twas the nightmare before Christmas, and all through the land,
Not a creature was driving, no chains could be found.
The ham and potatoes were cooked with great care,
But sat on the table, our family not there.

We children, all loaded so snug in the car,
Would have nightmares of snowflakes and wind from afar.
The moon that hung over the still falling snow
Cast an eerie gloom over the city below,
And Mommy’s loud laughter now sounded like groans,
And the jingling bells like grumbling tones.

Then what to our hopeful eyes should appear,
But a weather report that says, “skies may be clear.”
And an experienced driver so smooth and so rad,
We knew in a moment, it must be our dad.

To Nana & Papa’s, with a true sense of joy,
Dad courageously drove us and our presents and toys.
From side streets to freeways, he maneuvered and sped
Until we arrived at the holiday spread.
Unaware that the family was in panic and fear,
Dad merrily spread his own brand of cheer.

There were screams of excitement, but Dad didn’t hear it,
He was much too involved with his own Christmas spirit!
Our loved ones, our family were such a great sight,
And a Merry Christmas was had, and all had a good night.


So, those of you who are even vaguely familiar with that break from regularly scheduled t.v. programming referred to as the News probably saw Washington's unseasonably cold and wet winter weather featured a few million times in the days leading up to Christmas.



I actually liked the idea of a white Christmas because here in Washington, those are rare. However, when the winter storm warnings threatened to ruin the Christmas plans we had, I started becoming a little irate at the little white flecks that wouldn't stop falling from the sky. The neighbors didn't quite understand why I was outside my home yelling, "Go back where you came from!" O.k...that might be a little exaggeration. But what wasn't a stretch of the imagination was that the weather was threatening to turn our night before Christmas into the nightmare before Christmas.

As my poem described, however, the weather broke just in time for us to make our journey to my parents' home, with our fearless Daddy behind the wheel. We enjoyed a mouth-watering meal and fun, child-friendly version of the Nativity story. Thanks Mom and Dad for a memorable night.

FOUND: ONE BIG LAZY BUM. DO YOU KNOW HER?

Yes. The lazy bum is me.

O.K., so it's not so much that I'm lazy as it is that by the time I actually have had time to sit down and update my blog on the gazillion happenings including, but not limited to Christams, I've been way too tired. (And no...I'm not pregnant. Trust me. I've taken 4 pregnancy tests. All negative.)
So, if you all will forgive me, I'm working on some posts right now which will be added to the blog later today and in the coming days. That's all for now.

Signing out,
Your favorite "lazy bum"

Cookies For Santa

Kaylee and Jacob love making sugar cookies. (Hmm...I wonder where they get that from? Although, personally, I love eating them more.) Even though Christmas preparations seemed a little more frantic this year because of all of the snow, the kids didn't want to miss out on frosting a plate of cookies for dear old St. Nick. (Little Miss Kaylee was especially insistant on decorating several cookies herself for Santa. She probably thought she needed all of the brownie points she could muster up in the final hours before the sleigh headed in our direction since her behavior had been rather "questionable" the last few weeks. But, shhh...we aren't discussing that.)









Christmas Eve, we carefully set out the plate of cookies for Santa. I made a quiet plea to Santa to please remember to actually eat the cookies this year, instead of "forgetting" as in years past. Somehow, I knew the kids would be checking to see how Santa liked their masterpieces. Boy did Santa have fun with that assignment this year, lol.