A Merry Little Christmas It Was!

Here's a little sampling of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in photos.  We had a Merry Little Christmas...here are some highlights:

Daisy guarding the fireplace hearth on Christmas Eve:




Baking cookies with Daddy:



Cookies baking (the girls thought it was so great to have the light on in the stove while they were cooking):



We kept Violet away from the oven, but once the cookies were done baking and were cooling down, we let her look.  Can you tell how much she loves sweets? Haha!



The big girls tucked into bed.  They were awake until about 1am.  Ginger ended up coming down to our bedroom and falling asleep in our bed- then we brought her back up to her bedroom.  They were both way too excited to sleep!




Santa arrived shortly after the big girls fell asleep.  It looks like a lot of presents, but I guess that's because we have more people now!  The girls got two gifts from Santa and one or two small gifts from us.  I have to remember this for next year because it seemed like the perfect amount.  I was worried that it wouldn't feel like "enough" - and I really had to resist going out to buy more stuff.  But in the end, I was so glad that we kept it to basically three gifts total per child. 





Santa's cookies the next morning (with a side of almond milk):





Grandma Pat came down in the late morning (around 10:30am).  Paprika had been up for many hours, but was fine with waiting to open presents.  Ginger woke up right as Grandma arrived. Violet let Grandma Pat hold her and kept giving her hugs.  It was so sweet!  The big girls were so excited to see Grandma Pat and to eat the Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread that she brought!




After some Cinammon Pull Apart Bread, we opened presents...stockings first.  Santa brought the girls each some crayons, play doh, and a dvd.  In retrospect, the only thing Santa really needed to put in the stocking were crayons!  Live and learn.



Violet had a great time being in the middle of everything, and she had so much fun opening presents.  I thought she would be too young to understand, but nope - she got it! She always surprises me with what she understands!



Ginger's present from us was a toy horse.  That's the gift she found in the closet a few days before Christmas!  I bought it on clearance at Target back in July and I had been saving it for her for Christmas.  So, of course, she had to discover it just two days before Christmas even though it had been sitting in the closet since July!  Haha.  But even though it wasn't a surprise, I still gave it to her.  She loved it - she loves horses so much, so I knew it would be a hit.



It was a year of dolls.  All three girls love dolls (all kinds) - so there were a lot of happy faces opening gifts!



The rest of the day we spent eating great food, talking, playing with presents, and otherwise relaxing.  It was a great Christmas - even though Daisy did jump into the Pumpkin Pie before any of us had a chance to eat it!  Oh, Crazy Daisy!  Still - it was a great Christmas!



The End.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a beautiful Christmas surrounded by the love of family and friends.



We are having an intentionally low-key Christmas - we're staying home, scaling back presents, and ordering in food to eat. I made the decision to slow down this holiday, and I admit it was a wonderful idea.



I was so glad not to find myself on Christmas Eve at Toys 'R Us with a six week old baby, throwing myself across the last plastic toy play kitchen in the store (like last year!) Or staying up until 5 am wrapping presents. Or fighting holiday crowds at an airport. Or slaving over a hot stove for five hours (okay, let's get real - that's never happened!  Haha!)



The only outing we did yesterday was take the girls to the beach to watch the sunset.  That's so much better than entering a riot scene in search of a toy kitchen!  ;-)

Here's Daisy waiting for Santa. I can't tell if she's playing guard dog or hoping Santa brings her a bone.  She's been such a good girl lately.  She definitely deserves a treat. Ha!



We baked chocolate chip cookies last night for Santa.  I have pictures (on my camera still) - all three girls were so excited to make them.  And then they ate half of them right before bed.  Which meant they were WIRED on sugar at bedtime.  And then I tried to read them Twas The Night Before Christmas and a few other Christmas books, and Violet was basically jumping on the ceiling.  No one was asleep before midnight - so needless to say, Santa came in the very wee hours to our house.  Haha.



This is the first year in many that Mr. M and I haven't stayed up all night wrapping presents.  We were amazingly way ahead of schedule this year and had everything wrapped about two days before Christmas!  We turned our guest room into a "staging area" - and just locked the door so the girls couldn't peek.  It took so much stress off, and made us a lot happier Santas.  Although, somehow it doesn't quite feel like Christmas unless Mr. M is cursing profanities at a some assembly required dollhouse.  I guess there's always room for new traditions.  ;-)



This year I am just so grateful for my family - for my little family here, and for my extended family and amazing friends.  This year has been full of so many hardships, pain, and loss.  The world is a broken place, and as much as we try to make it whole...it never will be. 

This Christmas, I am missing the many people I know who have passed away.  This past year, my stepdad Eric died in April at age 44 of colon cancer.  I think about how terrible it was for my little brother, Robbie, to lose his dad two days after his seventeenth birthday.  Eric loved Christmas, and never missed a Midnight Mass.  I have fond memories of going to St. Thomas with him and then driving around and looking at Christmas lights afterwards.  It is unbelievable to me that he was alive last Christmas and now he's not.

It goes without saying that the children from Sandy Hook Elementary are on our minds, and their families are held close in our hearts this Christmas.  I always think about Vivian and Annemarie at Christmas, and wish they were here.  Their stockings hang on the fireplace between Paprika and Ginger's (our stockings are in order from oldest to youngest) - and sometimes it makes me so sad that their stockings are empty - but I just can't bear to not hang them.  They are still very much part of our family, so it's just another way that we remember them.




Whatever you religious beliefs, it seems that one thing everyone can agree on is that Christmas is a time when people come together and we're reminded of how connected we all are.  It's a time of year when we pause to reflect on what family and community mean to us.  The presents are really a very small part of it - and once you disconnect yourself from advertising - the commercialism of the season falls away very quickly.

I am ever so grateful for another year of life - a year when I've been able to grow so much spiritually - and a year when I've been able to experience so much of this human existence.  Although the world is full of so much pain and darkness, there is also an abundance of light and love. 



I hope that you have the Merriest Christmas yet - and know how much you are loved and valued for just being yourself, exactly as you are.  I plan on spending today being present with those around me and focusing on love, laughter, and probably too much food! 

Merry Merry Merry Christmas!

The End.

Christmas Traditions!

I made a little list a few weeks ago of all the things I wanted to do with the girls in December. If we got around to everything - great. If not, no biggie.

Disneyland decorated for Christmas. Check. Visiting with Santa. Check. Decorating the house (inside and out). Check and double check.

But my favorite tradition of all is driving around to look at Christmas lights. The last few years we've made a few trips to see the lights.  Last year was the first year we took the girls to a local Candycane Lane with an insane light show that stretched for over a mile. This year we went again - and we went at the right time. We went the weekend after Thanksgiving (when it wasn't quite December yet) - it was amazing and there was absolutely no traffic (my favorite).



When we tried to go back to Candycane Lane a week or two later, it was packed. Cars lined up for miles. There was no way we could wait in that kind of traffic with three little ones. No way.



After that traffic fiasco, we decided to be a little more low-key about the whole thing.  If the light show isn't the MOST spectacular thing ever, the girls really don't care.  They are impressed with almost anything (in fact, Ginger will Oooh and Ahhh over streetlights and business signs).

So, the whole "looking at Christmas lights" thing has morphed into an almost nightly thing in our house. When Mr. M was working nights on the Ricki Lake Show, I would often after dinner get the girls dressed in their jammies and take them for a drive to see all the lights. When you live in the city (like we do), sometimes the lights looking down from the hills look as spectacular as Christmas lights.  ;-)

We know all the "good blocks" - and the girls each have their favorite house. We have a rotating soundtrack of Raffi Christmas and Josh Groban's Christmas Album. Mr. M can't stand Josh Groban (or Raffi, for that matter), but Baby Violet loves Josh Groban and whenever he sings, she's a happy girl! She often falls asleep to the sound of his voice. Yay!




Last night (of the many nights we've gone to look at lights) was probably my favorite. Why? Because 1) We went to the beach and saw the lights at the Pier:






And 2) Because we went here for the first time EVER before we went to look at lights:



Yup, that's right. Two words.  Krispy Kreme.

It was actually only the second time in my LIFE I've had donuts from Krispy Kreme - Mr. M picked up some after Halloween two years ago to make up for missing Trick or Treating with the girls (he had to work on DWTS).
 
Now, I'm not saying I haven't had donuts before...because y'all know that's not true. ;-) But it was my first time having a donut in over a year (since I was pregnant with Violet).

It was rainy and cold out, and we swung through the drive-thru and picked up warm donuts before we went to look at Christmas lights.

Chocolate with sprinkles for the girls. Original glazed for me. Apple Fritter for Mr. M.

So, that sealed the deal making it the best night of Christmas Lights Gazing. And thankfully (and I do mean thankfully!) - our nearest Krispy Kreme is like seven miles away, so we won't be back again for awhile. But it was good for last night. Once/year a little Krispy Kreme is okay. ;-)



So, today we have a few other little traditions planned. A few little presents left to wrap. A Gingerbread House to decorate. Cookies to bake for Santa. And maybe a little trip to the beach, too.

I know a few girls who won't be getting much sleep tonight. They are so very excited for Christmas. It makes me excited, too. :-)




Speaking of falling asleep, I know I have mentioned before that Violet always falls alseep in the Ergo at night. I basically hold her and rock her until she falls asleep. Anyhoo- I always either sing to her or play her music when she's falling asleep. Since it can take an hour (or more) for her to fall asleep, usually after I sing her a few songs, I get lazy and play videos for her on YouTube. Her first love was Adele, then she liked that Bob Ross remix video for awhile...and then she had her Mumford and Sons phase. Now she loves (I mean, is obsessed) with the group Celtic Woman.

This is the song she loves best, and so I listen to it every night about 10 times (or 20 times?!) before she falls asleep. I do love it, even though Mr. M thinks it's very cheesy. They remind me of angels singing. Seriously. Love this, and thankfully, so does Violet:




Merry Christmas Eve!

Lego Movies!

What are the chances that two days before Christmas, all three of my kids would get sick?   And then they would get me sick, too?!  Yea, that's what's happening in our house RIGHT NOW! 




So, Paprika's Christmas recital for our neighbors had to be postponed.  I put Ginger in my bed this morning and set up a movie for her to watch. She was so sick, it was pathetic. Then, about half an hour later I heard her crying and I rushed into the room to see if she was okay. She had an enormous accident on my bed (!) - on the pillows, everything. She was so upset and kept saying that she had not gone potty on the bed and please don't tell Santa.



I told her of course I would never say a word to Santa. A warm bath and a few loads of laundry, and everything was better.



Then we took the girls for a drive - first to Chipotle to pick up chips and guacamole - and then we went and parked at the beach and let the girls eat in their jammies. Silver linings. 

Despite being sick, the girls have been entertaining us...it's hard to keep them down!  ;-)

Here are a few puppets that Ginger and Paprika made out of paper and pens. They put on a little puppet show with their creations:



Violet on piano:








Paprika and Mr. M made a little stop-motion animated movie last night, and then Paprika made a little movie on her own today.

Here are a few behind the scenes shots:



Paprika behind the camera:



The Legos (these were Mr. M's when he was a child):



In progress:



They just used the point and shoot camera (Lumix) to take still photographs, and then uploaded into editing software on the computer (Avid).  Then they uploaded it to YouTube.  Paprika kept saying:  I can't wait to see this on YouTUB!  Haha.

Mr. M showed Paprika how to put it all together. I think it turned out pretty cute! :-)

Here's the first movie:



Here's the second little movie she made today:



They're just simple little movies...but Paprika's really proud of them and the important thing is that she had so much fun making them! She's already started storyboarding her next project.  :-)




The End.

The Winter Sing!

All Hail Christmas Vacation!  Paprika had her last day of school today before break, and Mr. M finished his last day/night of work until next YEAR!  ;-)

We have been celebrating today by making fresh squeezed orange juice from our prolific backyard orange tree.



Ginger actually picked the oranges all by herself.  She got about two dozen of them with no help from us.

 

She had to wear her tap shoes to pick oranges - of course!  ;-)



Baby Violet tried her best to help, but for some reason, she had a hard time!  ;-)  Doesn't this just sum up the frustrations of being 13 months old?!  I can't tell you how many times I've felt this way, myself!  Haha.



Paprika has been busy planting who knows what in the backyard.  She is intent on having a little garden and spends a lot of time planting seeds, digging, and otherwise communing with the soil.  It will be interesting to see what pops up! 



Paprika's school had their Winter Sing this morning at school, where all the kindergarten students did a vocal recital for the parents. All the afternoon kinders had to come to school almost four hours early. Paprika is NOT a morning person. Can you tell?!  Haha.



Here are some photos from a happier, more well-rested time.  Earlier this week, Paprika's class had an art lesson and they studied Picasso (one of Paprika's favorite painters).  I love seeing her in her element, doing the things she loves to do:

 

Voila! The finished product:



I am happy to say that I'm done Christmas shopping!  We're having a minimalist Christmas- which has taken so much stress off of me.  Ginger discovered her present in the closet last night (!) so that complicates things - Santa is going to have to find her a new gift, perhaps?  Ginger is one smart cookie - nothing gets by her.  Nothing!

But other than perhaps a midnight trip to the Target toy aisle in search of a new present for Ginger, my Christmas schedule is clear and we are in full vacation mode! 

Paprika has planned a Christmas piano recital for our neighbors on Sunday, so she has been busy practicing Up on the Housetop (her favorite), Jingle Bells, and a few other tunes. 




But mostly, I am excited about this:



Glorious Sleep!

Sweet Slumber!

Not having to wake anyone up for any reason for the next two weeks!

(It's the little things...)



The chlldren were nestled, all snug in their beds...while visions of Sugarplums danced in their heads...

This is how Ginger fell asleep in my bed a few nights ago.  Even though the master bedroom is the coldest room in our house, she doesn't care.  She just wants to fall asleep near me, and she'll crawl in bed and patiently wait for me to come snuggle her.  A lot of times, I am busy putting Paprika to bed or taking care of Violet, and by the time I come back to my bed, Ginger is sound asleep.

This Christmas, all I really want is to snuggle up with my three little girls and my best guy. And if I could freeze time, that would be pretty great, too!  ;-)



The End.