Christmas Fodder

Here are some of the kids' special treasures from Christmas Morning:

Claire with her porcelain doll and giant stuffed Unicorn:



Josh and Andrew playing Josh's new (to him) game of Battleship:



The 'Car' that goes with Peter's new driving toy:



Josh's crystal making kit:



Another floor puzzle in the making:



Too much fun at our house...

A Race with Peter

Peter LOVES to be chased. He LOVES it. He also loves to have his picture taken. So, today, I chased him around the house with the camera. He would stop at random points and turn to me with a huge smile so I could take his picture. So, let's chase him around the house again...and again...and again...and again...

I'm gonna GET YOU!!!







GOTCHA!!

Balloons and Static

Josh got a book on making balloon animals, along with a LOT of balloons and the pump... Our house has been covered in multicolored animals who pop at any time without warning.



I got a little tired of having the animals all over the floor. As Andrew threw one of his 'swords' over the stair rail, it stuck to the wall, and I realized I could teach the kids a cool trick and get the animals off the floor once and for all! The secret: Static Electricity! Who hasn't rubbed a balloon on their hair to see it stick straight up in the air, or to make it stay on your head?? So, I taught them to rub it against their shirt or pants very quickly, then stick it to the wall.



Perfect.

Bring out the Spoils!

Christmas Morning:




(Devin turned off the flash...)

MY big gift!!!!! **SQUEAL!!!**



Peter wants to help make Christmas breakfast!



Josh got a remote controlled helicopter!! It is SOOOOOO cool! Watch it go! :)





He also got a snap circuit set that he loves...



Claire is showing off some of her pretty things:



This is actually Peter's toy--and he LOVES it! It lights up and he can 'drive'...



My mom sent the kids these lollies (aka suckers) that have the mouths of either Rudolph or the Abominable Snowman... Peter stole most of them and ate them without anyone looking, but I managed to get a few pics of how funny this looked!




After that 4am wakeup call, I think it's time for a nap!!!

Traditional PJ's

Every Christmas Eve as I was growing up, we got to open ONE present on Christmas Eve...and it was ALWAYS pajamas. I think maybe one of the reasons this tradition was started was to hopefully excite the children into going to bed early so they could wear their super cool new pj's. Well, it works for us! We opened our pj's, changed, took a drive around to look at the lights and see if we could spot Santa flying through the air, then the kids went to bed so Santa could come and visit! Another tradition we have is to open walnuts. Now that may not sound too exciting, but growing up, my grandmother would carefully break open walnuts, take out the meat, and put little toys or money inside, glue them back together with a little ribbon to hang them up on a special tree! It was always our favorite christmas Eve tradition, and my family continues to do it! My little brother is the walnut connoisseur now, so we still get the walnuts to open! Here we're throwing some of the animal capsules that were in the walnuts into hot water to watch them grow:






Santa Claus is coming to town!

Christmas Eve

We had some friends over for christmas Eve...it was great fun! We ate reindeer (*cough* sorry Rudolph!), the kids played, we had a nativity presentation, the kids watched a Christmas movie...











Dinner, the Nativity, friends...you can't ask for more! :) Come on over, Santa!

Snow Day--Part Deux

Our second snow day in Helsinki this year! Once again, the kids made the most of it, scraping up EVERY SINGLE LITTLE TINY FLAKE in order to make a snowman...and even have a small snowball fight!




We even went 'sledding' in the driveway! :)





Good clean fun!