Saturday, December 31, 2011

christmas broke

christmas break excites and frightens me at the same time. i love my kids but i love they both go to school pretty regularly. frankly, i like going to the bathroom with the door closed. heck, i may get crazy and bring a magazine. sometimes i even want to dash through the grocery store and only have it take 5 minutes because i am only getting one item! i think it makes perfect sense that while i was looking forward to christmas break, i was also a little nervous about the copious amounts of unstructured free time we would all have together. i figured that the best way to get the kids excited for christmas break was to tell them about a friend's christmas party that was going to be held after school on friday. complete with santa and holiday treats. i used it to my advantage for a few days. i held it over their heads for homework, screaming, being nice, sharing, eating dinner, cleaning up. whatever. the usual incentive parenting techniques(because you know "talking things out" simply doesn't work.) then, when friday finally rolled around, we stopped by the store and excitedly picked out our snack contribution. mostly stuff that i like to eat, because i am pregnant and can do whatever i want whenever i want. then i started getting the kids ready for the party. i double checked for directions and started food prep. at this point i realized the party was YESTERDAY. thursday. as in not friday. i then proceeded to repeatedly shut my head in the door of the refrigerator because i know there will be HAIL to pay when i break the news to the kids. i also knew that i would want to be deafened because i would hear for the rest of the day(weekend, month, year) "why did you forget?" in your child's nicest most innocent voice. over and over again. like a dull knife repeatedly stabbing your eardrums. so instead of the truth, i told the kids the party was cancelled because someone got sick and was throwing up. the kids are always fascinated by news of someone throwing up. in short, not only am i a forgetful mother, but i am also a liar. to compensate for all my maternal shortcomings, we headed to blockbuster. i even let them pick out 2 movies. and that is how we got ready for christmas break.

LET THE RANDOM CHRISTMAS BREAK ACTIVITIES BEGIN!!!

 on our way to blockbuster- scarlett in a random mismash of summer clothes and tights and reagan in his pajamas.

reagan visiting santa at our neighborhood party. he smeared the crumbs all over his face as a special touch.

scarlett in an outfit she didn't want to wear in the first place. and then she realized he friend jacqui was santa's elf and got to wear an elf dress and that only made matters worse.

CHRISTMAS SWIMMING
christmas always means swimming. both kids gave my stomach a couple of good kicks. that is what happens to parents in the pool. i'm sure the baby appreciated the kicks too. 


CHRISTMAS PARTY

we watched "shrek the halls"(a classic) about a dozen times and reagan decided he wanted a christmas dinner party, just like shrek. so on christmas eve eve we had some friends over. i decorated with the most tacky dollar store decorations i could find. that is going to be my new christmas theme. tacky tinsel and randomly strewn mulit-colored christmas lights. i think i eventually want to be THAT house in the neighborhood.  i even cooked dinner. it was a christmas miracle.

this was the dining room after the kids were done eating.

i made my red velvet brownie cake.

 thomas humored me by reading "scene it" game questions. naturally, i dominated. i have no other skillz besides useless trivia.


CHRISTMAS MORNING
started off with a thud with scarlett climbing in our bed at 4am. i DO NOT like kids in the bed. but i felt like a  grinch so i let her stay. and then i was cranky for the next 3 hours until i finally kicked her out.

reagan got the one thing he really wanted, the movie, g-force. talking guinea pigs=100% cinematic genius. after that present opening was gravy. 


sign #5425 that you are a mom: gifts for the home are gifts for you. i was actually pretty thrilled with my new stainless steel garbage can. i LOATHED and DESPISED the old one. thomas said the new one was for the "whole family" but we know what that means. 

really, reagan could have cared less about presents after g-force was acquired:

miraculously we were able to postpone the rest of present opening until after church. with no tears and no whining. another christmas miracle.

we reserved the whining for family photo taking. 3 family members whined about this. in fact, it was these 3:

next year i'm asking for a tripod so it can be a real family picture. if only i had thought of balancing my camera on my new stainless steel garbage can! 

scarlett had the best reactions to her gifts. i think we could have given her a box of rocks and she would have squealed with delight. 
she loved this light saber, even though according to her "girls aren't jedis".

 sign #3025 you are a mom: gift card to bed, bath and beyond with strict instructions to "buy a dutch oven". also included was a 20% off coupon. that is why i love my mother. there is never a time to not save money.

scarlett opening her easy bake oven. for months now she has been talking about being a chef and opening a restaurant called "the golden pumpkin" and cooking food for people with an easy bake oven. i wish i had gotten a better picture because this expression was priceless. she even let me cook some (NASTY) cookies in it later that day whilst she played with other toys. i was still under her supervision, of course.

thomas and his "back stretcher" that reagan picked out. 

and the requisite christmas gift- race cars and track that usually only work on christmas day and then never work again. another christmas miracle, these cars still work.

 and in an ironic twist: thomas got the most clothes for christmas. 14 shirts. i think it was his dream come true.

4 comments:

Jessica said...

i laughed out loud at the very first picture of the mismatched clothing whilst going to blockbuster. our kids should really hang out. hahaha. looks like christmas was a touchdown. way to go! and i totally would have lied about the party, too...

Emily C said...

i soooo wish we lived be each other. i loved this whole past so much. laughed out loud funny. miss you like crazy!

Jess said...

I was laughing out loud with this whole post, too!! LOVE IT! Kendall used to dress just like Scarlett....there is hope!

lrbodine said...

Love that you lied about the party! And the whole post in general. Looks like an amazing Christmas!