Christmas 2013

This past Christmas was...a blur. But it was a delightful one, with Amy and Tyler and their families and my parents here to visit. Food, fun, presents, anticipation...One highlight was having two of the kids throw up on Christmas eve (Beau - coughing led to puking, Bekah - her green and red puke spoke for itself...and the volumes of candy canes she must have eaten). But everyone was well the next day...
Here are the pictures of the good parts:
Christmas morning, excited kids...

Marianne's main gift was the Leapfrog phonics set. I can tell you now, two months later (almost), that it's not really her favorite toy. She may enjoy it more when she's just a little bit older. If I had given it to Beau, she might have liked it more, too. It's always more fun to steal your big brother's toys. The Marianne Bug was not super fun this Christmas. I'm hoping next year will be THE year....we'll see.

Jacob was THRILLED to get this remote control helicopter. He had seen us looking at them on the internet and tried to act nonchalant, but he really, really wanted one. Again, the bonus of posting this months after Christmas is the added insight I can offer on how this toy really fared on the scale of "doesn't even remember he received it" to "still sleeps with it every night"...He doesn't play with it very much right now, but that's because it needs a new propeller. I'd suggest ordering the replacement parts kit with the actual toy. That's how I'd do it next time...
(Because you're my friends I know you won't even notice the dirty window behind my Christmas tree...crap, well now you will...don't judge me.)

My Bekah girl is too grown up for toys now it seems...So here we have started down the treacherous road of electronics, starting with a Nook. (Santa got a killer deal at Target on black Friday!)

 Beau's face says it all...He was SO excited to get this remote control car!

 Another gift he got was from Nana, and I have to say it was THE favorite gift, hands down. All of my kids took turns playing with it. He still plays with it! It's this really cool drill set with a battery powered drill, threaded screws in four different colors, a board with holes, and big pattern cards that he can follow to make cool designs and pictures.

Marianne got princess shoes! I'm actually really excited to dive back into the world of princesses. I've been on a boy-driven hiatus, and dress up and high heels sound so much simpler than reassembling disembodied transformers.

I received exactly what I wanted (I made sure of it by picking it up myself)...A Cuisinart food processer. (With 11 cup capacity!!) I talked Santa into okaying this purchase by promising a pie a month, a drastic improvement in my pizza crust, and improved overall kitchen efficiency. I also received another gift from Rus and the kids. He hinted at what it was - "a little skimpy, and mutually beneficial." I was aghast at thinking he had purchased lingerie for me with the kids present! But it turned out that on Christmas morning I received ankle socks ("a little skimpy") and a Pioneer Woman cookbook ("mutually beneficial"). That rascal.

The Pioneer Woman cookbook has proven to be fantastic! It's her "On My Frontier" book, and everything I've made from there has been delicious! I'd highly recommend it, but if you're on a diet, it may not be the safest place to go for a recipe, as she is an artist at incorporating cream and butter into various concoctions.

Rus got what he wanted, too, although if Santa had been more generous, she'd have purchased him a Timney trigger. As it was, he received a scraping plane insert for his hand plane, and bullets from each and every relative who decided to gift him something. If we were to compare Christmas hauls by weight, he would have one.

Every year we rotate who we give gifts to in my family and in Rus'. We gave to my sister Amy's family and Rus' dad, and we received from my sister Amanda and Rus' brother Jacob and his wife DeAnn. DeAnn is a terrific gift giver and she didn't disappoint this year. She looked on Pinterest and found several different projects that she thought our family might do, and then she printed out the tutorials and bought all of the supplies for each project. We had a lot of fun doing the wire-art project, and we are looking forward to doing a concrete planter, canvas night light, and an acid-leaf project.

My sister Amanda gave us money to go see the movie Frozen. It was a big hit with my kids, Bekah especially. And I loved it too - best Disney since Tangled.

Rus decided to make a box for his dad for Christmas. (The man is hard to purchase for because he buys whatever he wants.) He made it out of soft wormy maple with walnut insets in the corners. It was small, just right for Roger's wallet and other pocket items. I don't think I have a picture of it, sadly...

I decided to make terrariums for all of my sister Amy's kids. I knew that they would love the mini ecosystems where plants can thrive without regular watering. I made the terrariums - 12"x12"x15". I purchased all of the plants and dirt and charcoal and rocks, and on Christmas day when Amy's family came over, they were able to put together their terrariums.

They really, really were happy with them!

Later we used sculpey clay to make little figurines that could go in their terrariums. It turns out my sister in law Gina is a sculpey clay genius, just check out her adorable elephant!

Rus also spent a great deal of time making a table for my mom. It is a side table, dimensioned to perfectly sit on the side of her couch. It is made of curly maple; you can see how beautiful the top is. It has a long narrow drawer that houses Rus' first set of hand cut dovetail joints. Not perfect - he would be quick to admit - but still very well done. My mom loved it so much that she has traveled with it on her last two road trips so as to be able to enjoy it in Sierra Vista as well as Los Lunas. She's so proud of Rus turning into a woodworker!

 All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. I feel blessed to have people in my life to love and be loved by.