Christmas Day 2012

  Around 5:45 am, I heard the boys laughing and talking in their bedroom.  Our Christmas morning rule is that you can’t come into our room until 6 am, but of course that doesn’t keep them from waking up at 4:45 or so and anxiously watching the clock and listening for their brothers to wake up too.  At about 5:58 they ventured into our room.  Carina had been nursing back to sleep, but as soon as they came in, she was ready to party.  Chad checked to “make sure Santa came” and then the kids lined up, youngest to oldest and then galloped downstairs. 

After presents from Santa, we opened the rest of the gifts and it was a good, happy morning.  All the kids were pleased with their gifts for the time being – the jealousy and Christmas let-down came later.  We were all beat by lunchtime, and everyone took a nap. 

That evening we went to my parents house for dinner with all the Charlotte Jeppsons.  We had the cousin nativity with a little program organized by Bobby and Sabina, and a piñata.  As always, it was a delicious and fun evening, and as always, I felt very blessed to be able to spend Christmas with so much of my family.

                                          

Christmas Eve 2012

We changed our Christmas Eve traditions this year.  In the past, we have always gotten pizza.  Since we have started eating vegan most of the time at home, we have noticed that every time we eat pizza (which is still at least once a month), we just don’t feel too great afterward.  We always wanted to do something as a family to focus more on Christ.  So we decided to have a bread feast and talk about how the bread represents Christ and his atonement for us.  Chad picked up three loaves of yummy bread at Panera Bread yesterday morning right around the corner from his office.  We had a couple of soups (from a mix, for maximum Mom-ease), and Chad talked about Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.  Then I talked about Christ’s love for us, we sang Our Savior’s Love, and had a nice candlelit dinner. 

After dinner we moved onto another new tradition. We have always opened up one present on Christmas Eve, but this year we made them “Secret Santa” presents.  We all drew a name of someone in our immediate family at the beginning of the month, and we became that person’s Secret Santa.  It was so much fun for Chad and me to see the kids thinking up the perfect gifts for their person.  Yesterday I had everyone fill out a survey about their person and we took turns reading the answers and tried to guess who the person was before they got to open their gift.  The survey had a lot of questions aimed at saying nice things about each other (I am a sneaky mommy), and there were smiles all around as each one was read.  Here is Colin reading his about Chad – he said so many nice things about what a fun dad and good provider Chad is.  His gift to Chad was a key chain he made with the names of everyone in the family, and some truffles.  I am SO happy with this new tradition – it was the best part of Christmas for me.  Seeing Gabe and Ollie hug sweetly after Gabe’s kind words and thoughtful presents to Ollie, and seeing Ollie think about his little sister when he chose her name…..I get a little teary when I think of it. 

After the presents we drove around to look at lights and to deliver my parents’ presents.  When we got home we opened up new pajamas and took the requisite pictures.  Notice the pink necklace Carina has on?  Oliver made that for her and she loves it.

Then it was the nativity story and bedtime!! All the kids were asleep by 8:30.

Choose the Right

Every year, all the of "Primary" children (ages 3-11) at church present a program to the congregation.  They sing songs and each have a little speaking part.  It is always a fun and touching Sunday.  This year's theme has been "Choose the Right"  so the presentation was centered what it means to make good choices and how we do it.

This year's program started off with a bang.  Ollie had the first line, and as he made his way to the podium, another little boy in his class started throwing a fit because he wanted to say his line first.  Everyone in the congregation always sincerely loves to see what will happen when you put 50+ children up there together and you could hear chuckles throughout.  The boy had to be restrained while the other kids in front of him spoke, and then he calmly stood up tall in front of the microphone and said, "I can choose to be reverent."  Laughter erupted with that line.

My second favorite (entertaining) part came later during one of the songs.  Ollie stood with his class at the front row of the raised podium area whenever it was time to sing.  By the time they were four or five songs in  he had dropped all attempts at singing and either sat there with a glazed look or smiled at me with all his might.  As they sang "The Wise Man" with hand gestures (beating a fist on a flat palm to show the wise man building his house on the rock), I gave him my best stage-mom grinned and gestured at him to do the actions.  He started mouthing the words with a huge mischievousness grin and wide eyes, then pointed to himself, pointed right at me, and made a motion like he was snapping a twig.  I laughed out loud and he beamed at me from the stage, eyebrows raised.

My favorite serious moments were hearing them sing a beautiful arrangement of "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus"  and hearing the Primary President speak of her love for the children. I loved hearing Gabe and Colin stand confidently and say their lines, so old and mature. I am so so grateful that my kids have so many wonderful and loving adults in their lives to teach them to make good choices, love their Savior, and love their neighbor.

Saturday night with the Colemans

Oliver, Carina, and Gabe are in bed. I know the little ones are fast asleep, but Gabe might possibly be laying in his bed, eyes open, with the blanket pulled up to his neck, as he does until he falls asleep. Or he may be finding a way to sneak and read the new Magic Treehouse book he bought today.

Colin is up later than usual, working with Chad to type up a project that is due next Tuesday about the North Carolina economy. We know he won't have much time on Monday because he has piano that day, so today has been get-it-done day. He is getting goofier by the minute and needs to go bed, and Chad needs/deserves a break!

They are using my laptop, so I typing this on my phone, waiting. Then I will edit photos as long as my tired eyes allow. I have three photo sessions waiting to be edited, and having that much pile-up makes me very uncomfortable.

Chaddy and I will probably catch up on some TV while I edit. Exciting times.

Chad and Colin just informed me that there are 138 "Colin Colemans" in the US. I think they officially need to get off the computer.

Election Night 2012

I took the kids with me today to vote. I didn’t want to wait ‘til Chad got home in case the lines were long, and I heard via facebook that there there were no lines around 2 pm, so I rounded them up and headed over. As soon as we got out of the van, I saw Bobby and Sabina pull up with all of their kids. It was a quick process. My kids had lots of questions to add to the many other questions they have had about voting over the last couple of weeks. Sabina was voting for the first time – she became a citizen since the last election, so I snagged a picture of her.

Now Chad and I are chugging Diet Dr. Pepper and sitting in front of the TV, bundles of nerves. I don’t think either of us have ever cared this much about an election, and I gotta tell you, I don’t like caring this much! I am supposed to be editing photos and planning preschool (for tomorrow)….I have SO much I should be doing right now, and I can’t. I think I am going to have to watch some Parks and Recreation on Netflix to get my mind off of it for awhile. Leslie Knope for President!

How about the rest of you? Are you staying up late or making yourself go to bed?

October Instagrams

Halloween 2012

I felt a little grumpy yesterday – still recovering from our vacation and struggling to be enthusiastic about my to-do list. After I put Carina down for a nap, I figured I would give Ollie one too, and I snuggled up with him and fell asleep. When I woke up, I ignored my to-do list, and instead decided to do this:

And then I drove through carpool and surprised the boys. It actually took them a view moments to realize it was me in line, and their reaction was worth the work. I know that someday stunts like this will only embarrass them, but that day hasn’t come yet. The staff member near them was laughing and they joined right in. I gotta tell you, I don’t have many opportunities these days to tap into my theatrical side – being able to sure cheered me right up.

Carina was originally supposed to wear a Tinkerbell costume I got on clearance a few years ago for a dollar or so. With the weather as cold as it has been, I decided it was just too skimpy. So just yesterday I called up Lindsey and asked if I could borrow the monkey costume that Mayan wore last year. It fit Carina perfectly, and after I dressed up as a witch I decided to make her my flying monkey.

At the beginning of the month, I knew that October was going to be really busy for me, so I decided I wasn’t going to sweat it trying to make the kids’costumes super creative. I dug out the costumes I bought on clearance last year and they each found one that they were more than happy with. Colin was a vampire, Ollie was a “shark ninja” and Gabe was a “ghost pirate.”


Chad went as himself, after a long road trip with me. A girl can only take so much Pink Floyd and MPG talk before she cracks!

My parents hosted a Halloween party and dinner for all the grandkids who are here in Charlotte. My mom had all her wonderful Halloween games, in addition to a very cool piñata that she made. As usual, the kids had a blast, even when the men took over the beanbag game.

After the party, we went trick or treating in my parents’ neighborhood and then our neighborhood until around 8 or so when all the kids started whining.

It was fun to see Carina’s first real Halloween. When we first started trick or treating, it was her bedtime and she just zoned out in her stroller for awhile. Then she caught a second wind and I got her out to walk up to each door. She started to really get into it, and refused to let me hold her precious “buh-et” of candy. By the time it was time to go in, she was hyper enough to try and run into the street, so it was a good time to end.
We let the kids eat some candy while we watched some mom-approved Treehouse of Horrors, and then did showers/baths and beds. They all crashed pretty quickly, and this morning were up when I got up at 6:30, watching TV and eating candy. KIDS! Love ‘em.


The program that I usually use for blogging isn't working, and I had to completely re-do this blog post....ugh. Just when I decide to try and blog more!  Trying to format these pictures has made me remember why I stopped using blogger in the first place.