Merry Christmas!

We are getting ready to drive up to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mike's, but I wanted to quickly post a Merry Christmas.

Here is a picture of the kids last night in their Christmas pajamas in our bed getting ready to watch Prep and Landing before going retiring for the night.  They were incredibly tired kids as they had not napped and had had a very busy day with our Perrysburg family celebrating Christmas.

I am Such a Proud Mom

I think that I am about the proudest mom in the world tonight.  Despite the fact that Isaac is fighting going to bed right now by telling Daddy that he has to go potty and then not leaving the bathroom.

This morning while I was driving the kids to daycare Mackenzie told me that she wanted to get her cousins Christmas presents.  I told her that I had already gotten her cousins presents from her and Isaac.  She then told me that she wanted to go to the store and use her credit card to buy presents for her cousins.  My Grandma Conklin sent both kids a $5 Target giftcard, which they call their credit cards.  My Grandma Krotzer also sent a $10 check.  Isaac opened that card and was very excited about the check and would not give it up.  So I told him that I would cash the check and that he and Mackenzie could spend the money with their credit cards.  So by the time we got to daycare the two of them had decided that they were going to buy gifts for all 7 of their cousins with their money and credit cards and I told them that I would take them to the store after school.

I figured that I would take them to Target where they could shop at the dollar section right inside the door.  Honestly, I expected that once we got there they would want to buy something for themselves.  But I was pleasantly surprised when we got there that they went right to work picking out presents for their cousins.  They even picked out something for all of their grandparents as well.  I was extremely proud that they stuck to their original intention and that they chose to use their presents to buy presents for their cousins.

 Merry Christmas to everyone!

Oh Bother

So, it was evidently a good idea for us not to go to Grandma and Grandpa's last weekend.  Not because of the kids' germs, but because of mine.  I was pretty sick last night.  I am not sure if it was the flu or food poisoning yet, but I am guessing within a couple of days I will know.  If no one else gets sick poisoning, yay!

Currently the kids are watching our annual Christmas showing of "The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town".  I need to separate the holiday movies out of our movie case and pack them up with the holiday decorations.  For anyone who doesn't remember "The Eater Bunny is Coming to Town" good for you.  The song "What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg" is terrible and it gets stuck in your head for the rest of the day.  I asked Mackenzie if this meant we could put our Christmas decorations away and she said, "No, I like Christmas and Easter."  I asked her if she knew what Christmas was about and she said, "Yes, baby Jesus."  I then asked her if she knew what Easter was about and she said, "Yes, eggs."  I guess we have a few months to work on that one.

I think Brian and I may watch "Christmas in Connecticut" if the kids go to bed on time tonight.  Much more seasonal.

Christmas is Almost Here

Our three months of Christmas is speeding by lately.  We went to see Santa last Monday.   The kids had a blast.  We went to Bass Pro Shop and they had a pretty nice setup so that the kids were occupied while we waited in line.  The baby in line in front of us had a classic "Get me off this stranger's lap!" pose, but Mackenzie and Isaac loved it.  Mackenzie asked Santa for Xia Xia Crabs and Isaac asked Santa for Lightning and Mater.  I have a feeling that Santa will deliver.

The kids and I were not feeling well all week as we had a really terrible cold.  Then on Friday Mackenzie's teacher warned me that the flu that had been going through the preschool class had hit Mackenzie's class pretty hard and that two children were out Friday.  I won't mention the gory details here, but it sounded terrible.  So Brian and I decided we shouldn't share our definite and possible nasty germs with my parents.  The kids were super depressed that they didn't get to go see Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mike, so I decided to try and have lots of fun things for them to do this weekend.

Yesterday we made a gingerbread house.  I made the dough in the morning as it had to chill for at least 2 hours.  I cut out the house pieces while the kids were doing their quiet time and then Mackenzie came down and made cookies while Isaac slept.  She rolled the dough out and cut out all of the small stars and gingerbread boys on her own, and then used the spatula to move them to the side so that I could put them on the cookie sheets after the house pieces finished cooking.  I was extremely impressed with how well she did.

Finally, once Isaac woke up we decorated the house.  The kids decided that each of them would have a side and Mackenzie decided that she would use the red candies and Isaac would use the green.  They each got a "boy", Isaac is under the double peppermints and Mackenzie is under the wreath.

Again, I was extremely impressed with my children's talents.

We were going to go to the mall today and I was going to let the kids pick out some Christmas gifts for their grandparents and godparents.  Isaac has never been to a mall.  However, we checked when we got up and most of the malls here don't open until 11 or noon.  We do most of our activities in the morning since Isaac still naps and since we get up at six am.  So that made a trip to the mall pretty unlikely.  Instead we did some online shopping, decorated the star cookies and played outside, which the kids loved.  Meanwhile I got some presents wrapped and Mackenzie put them under the tree for me while Isaac napped.  Bring on Christmas!