Christmas!

We had a nice Christmas here at home with our family.  We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with lots of tasty treats, went to the early Christmas Eve service at church, then came home for more food and the chance to give one special gift.  Anna has been participating quite a bit in worship services these days, now that she can read and follow along.  It's pretty special to see.

The girls chose to give gifts to each other again this year on Christmas Eve.  They're so sweet about it :)

Christmas morning was a whirlwind.  Ethan woke me up at 5.  Of course he went back to sleep, but I didn't.  The girls were up shortly after six.  By 9, we had gotten dressed, eaten breakfast, sung Happy Birthday to Jesus, exchanged gifts, played with gifts, had a snack, and were on our way to Christmas worship.  Whew!

This year for Christmas both girls got an American Girl doll.  Anna was thrilled.  She'd been asking for one for a long time.  Kate was excited, but I'm not sure that it meant as much to her yet.  Anyway, Anna received Ruthie and Kate received Kit.  Our girls have played with them nonstop for several days.

Ethan continued to receive trains and train accessories to go with his train table.  He likes the tunnel and the bridge, while the rest of us like all of the track and the trains :)

We spent the rest of Christmas day at our home and ended the day with some of our yummy pot pies.

Thursday we spent the morning hanging out at home, watched a movie while Ethan napped, and then went into McFarland to go sledding as a family after the boy woke up.  We went to the "medium" sledding hill that we've visited before at the middle school.  Anna did a great job being completely responsible for climbing up every time; Kate was good at first, but then would just sit at the bottom of the hill and watch other people for a long time before she walked back up; Ethan was a free-loader, but grinned every time he got to sled down (with or without a grown-up).  This boy is being trained early to be a thrill-seeker :)

Leading up to Christmas

The week before Christmas I came down with a nasty cold (or possibly the flu).  Matt worked from home, thankfully, on Thursday, since I couldn't do much of anything that day, but I had to muddle through the rest of the week.  Even two weeks later, I still have a lingering cough and a bit of a stuffy nose, but my energy is at least back to normal.  Thankfully, no one else in the family caught this bug and it was mostly past before the Christmas celebrations began.

While I was sick, Kate had a "guest day" at dance class.  Ethan and I had a nice time watching her show the parents the skills she's learned this fall. 

Ethan watched well for a long time, but then got a bit squirrelly, so I let him down from my lap.  He toddled over to Kate and proceeded to dance with her :)

Kate also had her Christmas party with her preschool class.  She's making some fun memories with that group of kids.

Anna finished up some units at school and then had a bit of a holiday party the last day before break.  Actually, school was delayed by 2 hours that morning because of an ice storm that came through the area.  I think the teachers were grateful for that delay :)

Once vacation officially began, everyone was pretty happy to just stay at home and hang out.  Matt didn't work the whole week of Christmas, and I was feeling tired enough still the first weekend that I didn't have many expectations for people.  So the girls played ... and played ... and played.  Anna didn't change out of her pajamas all day on Saturday; she was in heaven.  Kate has loved having a sister to play with.  Ethan is happy with having more people to entertain him each day.

Also, Matt was "hired" by some friends to build a grown-up train table as a Christmas present so he kept himself busy that first weekend of vacation getting that all ready.  Monday morning we delivered the gift and then took Matt to see the trains at Olbrich Gardens.

Christmas happenings, among other things

It's that time of year again and we've been able to participate in a handful of Christmas activities recently.

Last Thursday I took the kids to Olbrich Gardens to see the holiday train show and visit the warm, humid, and green Conservatory :)  In all of the years that we've seen the train set-up, this year was by far the best.  The theme this year was "Candyland" and the designers did a very elaborate, thorough job.  The girls were so excited to see the two large decorated gingerbread houses, the candy waterfall, and the large candy objects; Ethan was thrilled to see the trains.  We're planning on going back with Matt sometime in the next few weeks.

Friday evening Anna had a birthday party across town at a hotel's small waterpark.  I drove our kids and one of Anna's friends over to the hotel and the friend's mom brought Anna home.  It sounds like Anna had a good time, but she's usually pretty wiped out on Friday evenings and was especially tired at the end of this one.

Saturday morning the girls had their rehearsal for our church's Christmas program.  I took the girls and helped out a bit while they practiced, then Matt and Ethan joined us for the gingerbread event.  For some reason I thought we should switch things up a bit this year with our gingerbread, so I asked everyone if they wanted a train instead.  Of course they said yes.

Well, it turns out that to make a train you need to make three batches of gingerbread and then it takes quite awhile to actually put it together before you can even decorate it.  Oh, well.  The kids had fun just playing around while Matt assembled the train and then Anna and Kate still were able to decorate a car each before we ran out of time.

I'm not sure that we'll do this the same way again.

Saturday afternoon we were able to play outside for a little while as a whole family.

I think we've finally figured out a way for Ethan to stay warm and be relatively comfortable.  Even though he's not smiling in this picture, he really did have a good time.  Still, he doesn't last very long outside yet.

Sunday was our church's Christmas program and fellowship time afterwards, then we had a brief stop at home for Ethan to nap, for the rest of us to eat, and for some of us to change clothes before we went to Kate's preschool Christmas program.

We rounded out the day with a bit of family time watching the Packers before Matt and Anna went to Girl Scouts in the evening.

Before all of the Christmas events, we had a few memorable evenings last week, too!  First, on Wednesday evening Anna lost her first tooth!  The tooth had been slightly loose for awhile, but about a week ago it started to look crooked because it was so loose.  As soon as Anna realized it was really loose, she started wiggling it, and wiggling it, and wiggling it some more.  On Wednesday evening she was rough-housing with Matt when Matt noticed he had blood on his arm.  When we realized it was from the loose tooth, Matt offered to pull it out and Anna agreed without hesitation.  The tooth came out quickly and easily; the tooth fairy came on Wednesday night; and Anna has enjoyed showing off the gap in her mouth since then :)

Thursday evening on the way home from work, Matt's car battery and alternator died.  So instead of driving home without lights or gauges, he called home and we offered to come and rescue him.  Dinner was eaten in stages that night :)

The girls are gearing up for the last week of school before the holiday break and we're looking forward to some more relaxing days.  Hopefully the cold Kate caught doesn't spread to too many more of us!

Updates

Here's a few quick updates and stories from our lives recently.

Ethan had his 1 year check-up last Wednesday.  He's a big guy; we already knew that.

Height - 30 inches (~50%)
Weight - 25 lbs. (90%)
Head circumference - 48 cm (90%)

He's doing great otherwise.  However, he did NOT like being stripped down to be weighed, nor having the doctor check his eyes/ears, nor being set on the examining table.  Silly boy.

Last week Kate said "Mom, I can't wait until Christmas!  Then I get to play with Baby Jesus!"  (In our toy nativity set, we set aside baby Jesus until Christmas since he's too little for Ethan to find and Jesus didn't arrive until Christmas morning anyway.)

Ethan likes to toddle around the house, always holding some kind of car or truck or train.  Up until now we hadn't noticed too many boy-girl differences with him, but I don't remember either Anna or Kate having such a fascination with things that move.

Thursday night/Friday morning St. Nicolas visited our house.  The girls are wise to the whole set-up, I think, but it's still fun.  This year he brought candy, ornaments, and a bigger, family-sized snow tube.  Just in time, too; yesterday we got almost 5 inches of snow!

Friday after school I took the kids downtown to see the Capitol Christmas Tree.  Boy, oh, boy, Ethan is in a crazy stage.  He was so excited to walk, but the Capitol is not exactly a baby-proofed facility.  I couldn't take my eyes off of him for a moment, otherwise we would have climbed under the tree to play with the train set or found his way to one of the many sets of open stairways.  It was memorable, to say the least.

Saturday we did a Christmas shopping day.  The girls and I headed out in the morning to take care of some miscellaneous items while the whole family went shopping in the afternoon for the kids to find things for one another.  This is taking more and more coordination than it has in years past.


Sunday afternoon the girls and I went to a performance of the Nutcracker Dream at a local high school.  The dance studio Kate attends puts on this performance every year, but this was the first time we went.  The girls had a wonderful time, with lots of magical moments.  It's fun to experience these things again through the eyes of a child :)

We tried playing outside in the snow before dinner on Sunday, but still have a few kinks to work out with Ethan.  I tried again this morning with him and Kate, but he hasn't quite figured out how to walk around in snow boots, snow pants, big coat, etc.  He kind of reminds me of the boy from "A Christmas Story" who can't move in his snowsuit :)

Thanksgiving and more

My parents came down for Thanksgiving again this year.  They met us at church for worship in the morning and then came home with us for the rest of the day.  My dad and the girls watched a terrible Packers/Lions game while Matt and I got a lot of the food prepared.

At one point, Ethan got to open the dump truck my dad made for him; he loves it :)  It's the perfect toy for a little boy.

My mom took Anna and Kate for a walk outside and explored the field with Anna for a bit while Ethan napped.  Dinner was yummy and we hung out for awhile before my parents left for the night.


Friday they came back and helped entertain the kids while Matt and I worked on the food for the day.  Matt's sister, Miriam, and her family, as well as Matt's parents, came for lunch and the afternoon to celebrate Ethan's birthday.  We had a great time with everyone.

It's always good to see the Navurskis family and give the cousins a chance to make memories together.

Ethan enjoyed the experiences, but didn't know what to think about everyone singing him "Happy Birthday".

Matt's parents stayed overnight on Friday and spent some more time with us on Saturday before they had to make the drive back to South Dakota.

We had a busy few days, but they were well worth the work and preparation.

Saturday afternoon the girls and I worked on getting Christmas decorations out.  We're not quite done, but we're starting to feel a bit festive around here.  The best part is how excited Kate and Anna were to play with the nativity scene.  They must have played for hours over the last two days with all of the characters.  It's been a lot of fun to listen to their imaginations and story telling :)

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Last Wednesday our little man turned 1.  Wow.

We had a good family birthday celebration.  Ethan woke to Anna and I singing him Happy Birthday. and then he got to check out a few of his gifts before breakfast.

He seemed to enjoy his birthday muffin.

Anna had school all day and Kate had preschool in the morning.  After getting Anna in the afternoon we picked up a couple of pizzas for dinner and then had tasty chocolate cupcakes for dessert.

What more could you ask when you're 1?

As a one year old, Ethan walks, tries to talk (sometimes), enjoys being around people, likes to put things in and take things out of containers, eats most of the food the family eats (hooray!) except meat (we'll work on that), and sleeps decently.  He's a pretty special guy and we're very blessed to have him in our family :)