It's all downhill

Keeli was a daredevil on the sledding hill. She went down the hill with mom about a dozen times and was constantly yelling, "FASTER! FASTER!" We finally let her go down the bottom half of the hill alone on her sled at the end of the day.

Tatum and Rikard braved all the jumps, dips and ruts in the sledding hill and had a great time. Tatum was the first to try the jump the bigger kids made from compacted snow.
Not to be outdone by his sister, Rikard went straight for the jump.

Apparently it was a good ride!

Speed wasn't always their friend. Both of the kids had their share of tumbles off their sleds or collisions with other sledders.
The trick is getting right back up and going for it again.
The fun wasn't only for the kids. We had our fair share of speedy trips down the hill.

Christmas in review

Christmas Eve was an eventful time at our house. Santa Claus knocked on the door just as we were preparing to have sugar plum dreams... He left candy canes with the kids and told them he would be back later that night. We had to get to bed quickly as Tatum was monitoring the NORAD Santa Tracker all night and had only about 30 minutes before Santa came to our general location.

We barely got the tree decorated by Christmas Eve, and then we had to wrap a few gifts.
We spent the weekend at my parents and had a mini-Christmas there. Tatum, Rikard, Keeli and their cousin Bailey had a great time together. The boys got Nerf guns and were blasting things all around Nana and Papa's house.
At home, the best gift by far was the Speed Stacks. Tatum and Rikard have spent hours upon hours playing with these. These are a lot more educational and developmental than I had thought.

My fave things 12.19

School music programs! This year's program was titled "One Day in December" and was familiar, almost like we saw nearly the same show last year.

Tatum and the rest of the 3rd graders sang "One Day in December" and "Jingle Bell Boogie."

Rikard and the first graders sang "Island Christmas" and "Hip Hop Reindeer."

My fave things 12.18

Decorating the tree is an annual, happy event.

Everyone was ready with their special, personalized, annual tree ornament from Nana. This year it was snowmen.Keeli picked her favorite branch and began loading it, and loading it and loading it with ornaments. We have a great assortment of ornaments. However, we have more tree than ornaments so after the kids were done they had to be reorganized a bit.Keeli dropped two glass balls. As soon as they shattered, our holiday-tree-decorating-bliss shattered.

When the first one dropped and shattered Keeli said very clearly and curtly, "d@mn it!" and stomped her little foot. I had to stop the other two kids from laughing and let Keeli know how bad it was to say things like that. No serious discipline while decorating the tree. A short while later, Keeli dropped another ornament and it shattered. She quickly looked at me, looked back at the broken bits of glass on the floor, threw out her hands in exasperation and yelled, "sh!+."

While trying to again explain to her that she shouldn't do this, Rikard asked me where I thought she learned these words. Why, probably from some foul-mouthed-terrible-person of course.

Oh, the lessons our children teach us. I just didn't realize they could tag team so well at such a young age. So, Rikard was rewarded with the job of putting the star on top of the tree.

Team sports

This weekend was our first foray into the wide world of team sports. Tatum has tried t-ball, but wasn't crazy about it. Rikard resists team sports. So, off to basketball we went!

Rikard was fighting it all the way. He proclaimed to "HATE" basketball all the way to the high school gym. Once there he leared a few things and got to like it so much he was sad when it was time to leave.

This is the first attempt he's ever made to shoot the ball. The height of the rim may be a little imposing for him. BTW, his attempt was not successful.

He spent a lot of time bouncing the ball off his toes and chasing it down.

The session for girls followed the boys. Tatum started the day with simple ball handling skills. Right hand and left hand, pushing the ball across the court.
She got so good and so quick, my camera could barely follow her!

My fave things - 12.9

A chorus of little angels!

Keeli and her preschool classmates at Sunday school posed for their photos this weekend.

Like most little girls put into the situation of dressing up these little ones had a lot of fun with their halos and long dresses.

The Christmas program is next Sunday. We have broken with tradition and the children will not be acting out the story. They posed for several photos over the past couple weekends for all the important parts of the story. These will be displayed for the entire congregation while the story is narrated. Kind of like a digital storybook.

My fave things - 12.7

Sometimes I find myself longing for vaulted ceilings, thick pile rugs, overstuffed furniture, a set of holiday china and professional Christmas decorations. Then, I realize those just aren't the reality of our lives.

Our holiday decorations are a bit more traditional, a bit more from the heart. How can you not love all the GREAT holiday decorations kids make. The time they invest, the creativity, the love.
If you take a closer look, these aren't leaves. They are cut-outs of Tatum's little hands.

Thankfully these replicas all have the strange little alien fingers. The ones attached to her hands are fairly normal.

My fave things 12.4

Few things say "holiday" like gingerbread with whipped cream. Mmmmmmmm...

My fave things - 12.2

The right of passage of the church Christmas program ranks right at the top of the list of my favorite holiday things. This year the kids are involved in a traditional portrayal of the birth of Jesus.

Here you have a coy shepard, dedicated to the protection of the baby Jesus.
The only chance Tatum has of wearing a halo is as part of the angelic choir.

My most cherished childhood memories of this event begin with me dressing up as a sheep and crawling on hands and knees toward the altar for the program. Then, my little sister was a sheep and I was an angel. One year I even got to play Mary. Then, one year I was a raggedy ann doll dancing in the toystore at night for a non-traditional portrayal of the arrival of Jesus.

My fave things - 12.1

Snowmen and snow - piles of snow!

There still isn't quite enough snow to build a snowman of our own.

The holidays shouldn't be as commercialized as they are. Halloween and Thanksgiving should get their fair share of attention. The retail side of Christmas should wait until Dec. 1. I detest having decorated trees in the grocery stores before the jack-o-lanterns are taken off the porch and carols in the elevators before Thanksgiving arrives.

Holidays should be about quality time with your family, time away from the tedium of your job. Time to enjoy life and reconnect with your beliefs and the important things that make us the special individuals we are.

Make time to enjoy your family. They are the best bargain you'll ever find.