This was the Christmas that was going to pass us by if we weren't careful. It's been a surprisingly fun and relaxing holiday, given our mid-move-and-homeless status. We got to visit the Opryland Hotel to see the lights.
It was the girlies' first taste of mid-thirties weather and their first time wearing their new coats from Auntie Naomi. Devon could not be convinced to keep his hands in his pockets.
Devon: I need some gloves, Mommy! Go get me some gloves! Go to the store right now! I'll wait right here until I get some!
Mommy: I can't just leave you here by the side of the road. If you got lost I would look and look and I might not find you!
The cold is making us trot out some new rules. to reinforce them, we say horrible things to our children.
Mommy: Keep your socks on or your feet will turn black and fall off!
Carrie: No! I do NOT want my feet to turn black and FALL OFF!
Devon's early morning activity has been tending the kitty in the laundry room while the rest of the house is still asleep. He and Mommy feed her, brush her, and say soft things to her so she won't get too sad this week.
Usually he and Ally kitty don't mix much, so he's really happy for this opportunity.
Really, really happy.
All of the kids are enjoying time with their cousins this week.
Devon got to see his first theater movie,
Frozen, with his cousins.
Stella (sitting on the couch with Carrie and Devon) is working on a loose tooth this week. It's hanging by a thread and bleeding like crazy. Devon's never seen a loose tooth before and he's reacting to it.
Devon: Mommy, brush my teeth!
Mommy: It's three in the afternoon, Devon! Why do you need your teeth brushed?
Devon: We don't want my teeth to rot out of my head, do we?
Several times a day we brush his teeth at his request. Finally, we figured out that he thinks Stella's teeth are rotting out of her head because she doesn't brush them. Where did he get the idea that his teeth would rot out of his head if he doesn't take care of them? From Mommy and Daddy, who were tired of holding him down nightly to brush his teeth. Why do we say such horrible things to our children? Because, if he's inherited Mommy's dental genes, they are true.
Our Christmas Eve tradition is to have Cioppino, a San Francisco inspired tomato and seafood soup.
Small children don't know that this Christmas was hastily thrown together, thank goodness. They still nestled in their (temporary) beds and visions of sugarplums still danced like they were supposed to.
They still enjoyed waking Daddy up to open presents on Christmas morning.
Devon had already test-ripped most of his presents, but still acted very surprised on Christmas morning.
Carrie was all round eyes and surprise.
The surprise hit was several little containers of playdoh. Thankfully, they just wanted to stack them and didn't seem to excited to open them.
Melina kept batting her "pretty" out of her hair. Mommy replaced it over and over, and finally opted for a rubber band.
Several gifts were very pointedly "car friendly", looking ahead to the drive to Maryland.
We're still trying to get the kids to sing Away in a Manger instead of Jingle Bells forty times a day, and we had to read the Christmas story to all three strapped in their car seats on the way to the park, but we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and tried to remember the reason we celebrate.
We'll have many more reasons to celebrate soon. We've decided to have a special Christmas celebration in our new home on Epiphany, which is on January 6th. It is traditionally observed as the day the wise men came to see Baby Jesus, as well as the Twelfth Day of Christmas from the song.
That will give us time to fill our stockings, wear our Christmas outfits again, and hopefully get some more pictures!!
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