From the Mouths of Babes in December

Me:  Chess is a very old game.
Eileen:  Like from the 1970s?

Linus:  Do they still make tapirs?
Me:  Um.  Tapirs are a kind of animal.  You don't just make them.
Linus: Oh no.  I mean those things that have tapes that you can listen to.
Me:  A tape recorder?
Linus:  That's it.

Robin:  No no. Hate.  (his response to anything that displeases him or is not what he was thinking)


Today is the birthday of both my sister, Beth, and my father.  While Beth was out taking time to celebrate herself, I was home with all five kids.  While I was cleaning house, the kids decided they were going to form a band.  Linus wrote all the lyrics.  Sorry for the lack of video quality.

Why yes I do have a headache today.  Why do you ask?

A Letter To Myself About Christmas

Dear Future Charlotte,

    The bulk of your Christmas 2015 is over.  You've had time to reflect.  It is imperative that you remember this Christmas--for all its joys yes--but more importantly, there are things to keep in mind for next year...

    You struck a nice balance of Christmas adventures.  You were surprised to discover that there is a street full of over the top Christmas lights just two blocks away.  Next year please remember to just suck it up, spend the money, and go to the PNB Nutcracker.  Even if you think that maybe this year it will be okay to bring Linus, don't.  It won't be okay.  He won't like it.  He won't appreciate it.  Use the money you would have spent on him and take Eileen out to a nice dinner or go get mani-pedis.

   A big take away from this year.  Have an actual conversation with your husband about Christmas spending a gifts for children.  Consider just one big gift for each kid and one smaller gift.  This year the favorite gifts all cost $15 or less--the wood ball catch toy from the Target dollar bin, plastic steppers/stilts, a balance board, road tape, and a voice disguiser.  This might be hard to swallow, but maybe even skip the legos.  Someone will get them LEGOs.  You can't stop it, you can only control Santa.  Do you really want to spend all break assembly multiple LEGO sets for your daughter?

   Remember, you love your husband.  Even when under the auspices of getting the children out of your hair while you do food prep on Christmas Eve, takes them to Fred Meyer and lets them buy each other presents with no spending limit.  He lets his 5 year old buy a Wii U and Mario builder for her big brother and a singing dinosaur for her baby brother.  You love Dave.  You really do.  A year later you will have forgiven him.

  You gave Dave amazing presents, first a wearable sleeping bag.  You saved money in a shoe box for two years to surprise him with a box a cash on Christmas morning.  I hope you guys took a really great trip with the money.  (I did the thing where each week you increase the amount you save, $1 week 1, $2 week 2, etc)

  Your children looked beautiful at Christmas Eve mass. You looked pretty good yourself.

Robin provided entertainment for everyone around you, spitting, squealing, and blowing raspberries non-stop.

Uncle Tim spent Christmas Eve with you and woke up Christmas morning.  It was a special treat.

Robin really only wanted the candy from his stocking.  He was done after one present.  Robin really understood the whole present idea this year.  His face lit up every time someone talked about presents.

Nice job on the food.  The cranberry roast pork is a definite keeper.  The carrot pudding was not.  Make more chocolate peppermint gooey bars.  Skip the carrot pudding.  May I suggest the roasted balsamic brussel sprouts from Thanksgiving?  Try having a special holiday cocktail instead of the mulled wine.  Cards Against Humanity after the kids are in bed is still a winner and your mom can even handle playing with you.

You can't tame the beast that is Grandpa Claus.  No matter how much you beg and plead, he will buy tons of presents for the kids.  He will then be more excited than the kids about opening presents.  The new plan is you just leave him in a room with the kids to open their presents in a free for all and then later while the kids are playing in a separate room, have a nice calm grownup present time.

The holiday brunch and white elephant was fun.  Keep the menu the same.  Buy more orange juice for mimosas and only make a triple batch of gingerbread pancakes.

Finally, do get lots of sleep.  Stop trying to make Christmas perfect.   Just let go a little bit.  Sit back and enjoy.  Drink more candy cane cocoa.  You really like it.  Remember what Fr. Brad said while rapping Notorious B.I.G. during the Christmas homily, "Mo money, mo problems."

You did a good job.  Deep down everyone appreciates it.  You can do less and still have it be great.  Love yourself and Merry Christmas!

Love,

Charlotte

The Long Winter Break

The kids are now on winter break.  I have actually been dreading this for a month.  Two weeks without school to break up the day.  Two weeks of having each other for playmates around the clock.  Two weeks of erratic schedules, relatives, visitors, and sugar.  I love Christmas, but I do not love being a mama on Christmas break.

Yesterday was a long day.  I was at my wits' end by 3 pm.  The floor was made slick by puddles composed of melty children.  So many tears.  So many fights. The upside was that Eileen was fast asleep before 7 pm.

In anticipation of grumpy children, I booked almost daily playdates to help break up the day and entertain the kids.  I honestly prefer hosting since Robin likes to take a long nap.  Yesterday he fell asleep on me in a store at 10:30 am and then slept for another almost 4 hours.

Today was better.  We all woke with a resolve to have a better day. The kids played nicely in the morning while I cleaned upstairs.  They wore costumes, played all sorts of games, drew pictures, and danced to Christmas music.  They did not fight.

A new favorite spot in our house is the bottom shelf of the toy cabinet. The kids like to take a flashlight in with them and hide out there.

Our friends, Katie, Rylan, and Declan came to play.  Katie teaches math at my kids' school.  She and I are kindred spirits.  Luckily, her boys are the same age as mine.  She and I drank coffee while the kids ran themselves ragged.  It was great.  While Robin napped, the big kids and I rested on couches, snuggled up with books.  Eileen and Linus were then inspired to earn their screen time.  It was all so weirdly peaceful.  Once Robin was awake, they all continued to play nicely together, building forts and pretending they were a family of "spinasauruses."

The kids like to wear coordinated jammies.  It's cute.  Linus tends to dictate what the theme for their evening attire is.  Tonight it was cowboy.  I love that although he is growing up, Linus is still a little boy at heart.

Today was so nice.  I just don't even know what to think.  Perhaps the best part of the whole day was when I served broccoli and meatloaf for dinner and not a single person complained and everyone tried everything.  Maybe we've all been swept into a parallel universe?  Given how today went, I am hopeful that tomorrow's playdate renders equally pleasant results.  Otherwise, 4 days down. Many more days to go.

A Christmas Card from Linus

The Christmas season at Catholic school is very festive and fun.  A natural part of this would be the annual Christmas pageant.  The kids' school switched it up a bit this year.  The result was truly amazing.  Amazing that is unless you talk to Linus.

You see, it was decided that all of the first graders would be angels.  This meant even the boys would be angels.  Linus was not pleased.  He begged me to "opt him out" of the pageant.  Sadly, I don't have photographic evidence of Linus as an angel.

Meanwhile back in the classroom, students have been busy making gifts and cards for their parents.  Today I received this card from Linus.

A festive tree.  Lovely.

Until you open it....

It reads:

"To: Mom and Dad  From: Your most annoyed son Linus.  I will never be an angel again."

I find the skull and cross bones to be a nice understated touch.  You have to admit that the spelling is pretty impressive.

You better believe I will be keeping this card forever.  It currently resides in the branches of our Christmas tree.

Holiday Bucket List

There are just way too many options of things to do in the Puget Sound when Christmas rolls around.  I've been trying to strike a balance so it doesn't feel more exhausting than fun.  We've tried some new things like Snowflake Lane while keeping with a few traditions.  Sometimes I wish there was another weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas to have more time for everything.

Linus is starting to question the existence of Santa Claus.  He has not given up on the big guy just yet, but can readily identify impostors.  I knew getting him to go along with Santa pictures was going to be a problem.  I sat him down the night before, fully prepared that I may have to divulge the truth.  We talked about keeping the magic of Christmas alive for those younger than us.  In exchange for having Kraft mac n cheese for dinner, Linus agreed to be enthusiastic and cooperative for Santa pictures.  He did great and I credit him for helping Robin to stop crying while on Santa's lap.

 

Last weekend we headed out to Whidbey Island for the Holiday Fair at Whidbey Island Waldforf school.  I loved the Waldorf take on the season.  It felt festive without being commercial.  The kids got treasures from the Pocket Wizard, shopped for homemade treasures, and crafted.  We didn't have time for all the crafts and settled on three--peg gnomes and angels, fairy house, and felted soap.  It was the type of stuff you see on pinterest, but don't feel like you have the ability to quite do without guidance. I love the fairy house we created and the fact that Linus contributed the toadstool he purchased.

The felted soap works great and makes bathtime smell wonderful.  The kids love using soap they created themselves.

Last year we went to PNB Nutcracker.  It was really expensive and the kids got bored.  This year I decided to try the Nutcracker Sweets at ARC Ballet.  The kids and I got holiday cupcakes at Cupcake Royale beforehand.  In order to be diplomatic,  I will say this.  I liked that this production for relatively inexpensive, much shorter, and we got to sit close.  My inner critic gets less nice after that.  Ask me in person if you want a stronger opinion.  Anyways, I promised Linus I would never make him attend the ballet twice in one day again (Eileen had a short performance earlier in the day) and next year I would only take Eileen.  Eileen and I will definitely be going to PNB next year.  I heard the new show is great. My experiences the last two years have made me miss the Tacoma City Ballet production of the Nutcracker. Sigh. The evening was redeemed when we took advantage of our Ballard location and drove through Olympic Manor and looked at Christmas lights.

Up bright and early, the kids and I were ready for more adventure.  My friend, Beth, was not deterred by her experience last year, and wanted to join us on our yearly downtown trek.  We parked at the Seattle Center (free street parking whoop whoop!) and took the monorail into downtown.

I think the gingerbread houses at the Sheraton this year were the best I've seen there.  I'm pretty sure the designers are all secretly Star Wars nerds because the attention to detail was ridiculous.  Thanks to Linus, I know way too much about Star Wars.

Forest moon of Endor

Linus was excited to rescue Hans Solo from carbonite.

We were sure to visit the Teddy Bear Suite.  Eileen really wants a giant teddy bear for Christmas.  It's what she told Santa she wanted.  I'm hoping her desire was satiated by sitting with this one.

 **Note**   anyone caught giving anyone in my family a giant stuffed animal will be hereby banned from all gift giving occasions.

Is it wrong that I kind of want this in my room, minus the teddy bears?

Linus is starting to rediscover the fun of photo-taking.

From the Teddy Bear Suite, we headed to the Carousel. The look on Eileen's face says it all.

We made time to peruse Top Ten Toys before lunch and taking the Monorail back to the Seattle Center.  From there,  everyone passed out asleep.  I admit that I drove around for an extra 30 minutes just so the big kids could nap.

We did manage to add another new thing this year.  I've always wanted to do Christmas lights for the house--not the level of Clark Griswold, but lightly festive.  Luckily, my brother-in-law, Carl, does Christmas light installation as a part of his business and gave us the family discount.  Linus was so excited to help, he even put on jeans!

The kids would like to see us step it up a little.  Add some colored lights, maybe an inflatable snowman or light up nativity scene.  Hopefully, we will be able to strike a compromise.

So much to do.  So little time.  Someday I would like to do the Christmas ships.  Linus nixed a trip to Swanson's nursery so I think Robin and I will enjoy it this week while the kids are at school.

And then Holiday Madness ensued

I got approximately a 12 hour break from holiday festivities.  I had planned to take it easy on Black Friday, a slow jammies and coffee filled morning followed by putting away fall decorations.  My children had other plans.

Linus is basically an elf in training.  He loves holidays.  Dave had gone into work.  Linus single-handedly rallied the troops.  He got them all dressed in their holidays sweaters, with teeth brushed and beds made.  From there, he turned on a Christmas movie to entertain them while I put away autumn decor and pulled out the Christmas/winter stuff.  He even made sure to try to keep down any noise.

Linus helped me rearrange the living room and move furniture.  As soon as he found the stash of Christmas music there was no stopping this decorating/dancing machine.  It all came together pretty quickly.  We tried a different set up from last year and I think I like it better.  My house feels so so very cozy and wonderful now.

On Saturday evening, Dave and I decided to surprise the kids with some holiday fun.  Dave was at work all day so it was nice to have some quality time together.  First we went to the Garden D'Lights at Bellevue Botanical Gardens.  We got there before it started and since it was still light out, we played at the park next door.  There was lots of winter cuteness happening.

The kids loved the lights.  I thought it was pretty and loved how inexpensive it was.  They were so excited as we moved through.  I also appreciated how much less crowded it was than zoo lights or wildlights.

After the lights, we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  Linus had never been and believed it to be one of the most magical restaurants ever.  It was a long long wait.  I was ready to throw in the towel.  Note to self, do not go to Bellevue Square Cheesecake Factory during the first weekend of the holiday shopping season.  Our waitress was great.  Linus was in heaven.  Eileen and Robin could have cared less since they have been there before.  I left Dave to order the cheesecake and then took the kids outside to witness Snowflake Lane.  Again, this is something we had never done before.  It was wonderful, amazing, fun, festive, so many things.  It was nothing like I expected.

We loved every moment and then just as it was about to end we headed inside for cheesecake.

Not one to end an overstuffed weekend of activities, on Sunday the big kids and I went to Seattle Children's Theater to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Linus was intent on hating it, but by midway through the first act he was loving the show.  We enjoyed ourselves and the kids still keep giggling about "children" being a bad word.

I've never been so happy for it to be Monday.  There was no school last week.  The first half went great, but by Friday the kids were falling apart.  Too much fun, not enough sleep.  I admit there were so many times I just wanted to scream, "Can you please quit complaining and stop being difficult!?! We're trying to make memories here!!!"  I know all parents can relate.

Next year I think I will aim to make Thanksgiving weekend a little less busy.  Going to the theater was poor planning.  Maybe next weekend we will find time for a holiday pajama party--Christmas jammies, cocoa, Christmas movies,a roaring fire, cozy blankets, and wine.  We can all practice being asleep so Santa can come.  It will be like the game, coma, only more festive.