We still have Santa at our house, with one true believer, one on the fence and 2 who think they know everything...and since Eli forgot to buy Santa some caviar, Lucas made sure that he had a little plate of goodies. We left carrot sticks for the reindeer, 2 chocolate truffles for the helper elves and a nice brownie for good ole' St. Nick...and wouldn't you know they only left crumbs! Lucas was so detail oriented that he moved some of our Christmas decorations away from the fireplace so that Santa could step over the screen...
I love it that Lucas wanted to leave Santa a note...and the only reason all of the kids' names are on it is because Autumn came in to the art room while it was being written and made him add their names...see how much bigger his name is? He wanted to be sure Santa knew who was naughty and nice...see the heart? (such sweetness there)
After Santa's plate was ready, the kids tried to bribe us so they could sleep in the living room...they REALLY wanted to catch Santa...but contrary to popular belief...no matter how many times you beg...the answer is still NO... :) We read the Christmas story from Luke, talked about the true meaning of Christmas and then all the kids were off to bed. While they were supposed to be brushing their teeth I heard lots of commotion...it always sounds like elephants are upstairs...and when I peeked around the corner all of the kids were dancing...and not brushing...so we wrangled and finally got them to bed...
Proof that Santa was here...WHO ELSE would move the fireplace screen??
On Christmas morning the kids were up at 7:30 and Santa Mom had only been asleep for 3 hours...but we all got up and made stuffed french toast for breakfast...and the kids begged us to eat faster...and reasoned with us and tried to convince us that they weren't really hungry...and that they couldn't wait one. more. second...but the new recipe turned out great and we ate as slow. as. we. could.....
Because this has been such a hard year for us financially we decided to make most of our Christmas gifts for each other. We drew names and worked on special presents but were pleasantly surprised by the extra gifts that were left by Santa. I painted miniature MU paintings for Noah, made several bracelets for Autumn, one for mom, one for Eli, made Christmas ornaments for each of the kids, made business cards for Scott, painted a Jayhawk on Eli's bulletin board and painted a pirate ship wheel for Lucas' room (it was supposed to be a birthday present last Sept.). Scott painted Andy Warhol style Jayhawk paintings for Eli, Lucas painted a ceramic fish for grandma (to replace Boomerang), Noah wrote a comic book for Scott about his HERO and his battle with Lyme Disease, Eli made me a bracelet, necklace and earrings (so beautiful), Eli and Lucas made a bracelet and necklace for Autumn (that they made with their mom), Autumn made a recipe book for Noah with personalized recipe cards and grandma made Lucas a tshirt with his very own Jayhawk drawing. Autumn even got duck tape (yes, it really is duck) in her fav. colors so she could make a purse. It was a lot of fun to make most of our gifts (with things we had) and I think/hope they meant more to the kids. I know it meant more to me to be creative than to worry about the money we didn't have.
We were also very blessed this year in that we still have Grandma to celebrate with. She has been living with us for 2.5 months now and she is getting stronger every day. She has been pushing herself with her "chores" and she is steadily increasing her stamina. In the past month, she has washed dishes, loaded/unloaded the dishwasher, folded clothes, made breakfast, lunch, dinner and done some kitchen cleanup. She still has bad moments where she is sick to her stomach and once she got over her winter cold, she bounced right back. I wish we could figure out what was making her feel so sick because that seems to be the main thing holding her down. Since Grandma loves to sing, we splurged and got her a book of Hymns that tells the story behind each song. She loved it. We also got her little barbels so she could get stronger. She did pretty well on Christmas and pushed thru her sickness to celebrate with us...we even got her to pose for a couple photos...
Merry Christmas family & friends!
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