And All That Jazz

I'm not even going to attempt to write about everything that's transpired during the past couple of weeks. It's been a whirlwind - a good one! I enjoyed getting ready for Christmas, I enjoyed celebrating Christmas, and I am now enjoying being done with Christmas. Here are a few "highlight" photos:


One evening last week, I had just gotten the girls out of the tub and into their jammies, when I walked back into the bathroom to find THIS. It's never been any secret that Malachi loves a good hot bath, but I had no idea how much until now! I also learned that spiderman slippers can hold a great deal of water.




The weekend before Christmas was a blast! We took the kiddos to the Piqua Mall (which Karis is still convinced is called the "Pickle Mall"), where they got to ride the Christmas train. Malachi loved every minute of it. Zekers, of course, absolutely would not be persuaded to remove his 3D glasses for any reason during our mall visit.


We came home for naps and then took off again, this time for the park in Eaton, where we drove around and looked at thousands of Christmas lights. Afterward, we stopped in at the lodge for cookies, hot chocolate, and SANTA! This was an historic moment for us - the first picture ever with Santa where one or more of our munchkins isn't red-faced and screaming. Even Moo, who I was sure would be terrified, sat there and grinned like a banshee. (And to think, we almost decided not to wait in the 30-minute line.) AND the kiddos got to see even more of Santa as we were leaving - we passed him outside taking a smoking break, which, to be honest, he looked like he desperately needed. Good times.



The next day, Sunday, was the kiddos' Christmas program. Zekers and Rach rang handbells, then Rach performed in the mini-musical and just sang her little heart out. It was so sweet. If only we could have gotten Zekers to actually pay attention and quit making faces . . . maybe next year.



We celebrated Christmas with my parents on Wednesday afternoon, ate dinner and went to the Christmas Eve service at church. Christmas morning we had pancakes and eggs, read the account of Christ's birth and coming sacrifice, and tore into the gifts. We went light on the presents this year. Due to some overzealous garage saling last year, we had a mountain of gifts waiting on Christmas morning, and I felt like we WAY overemphasized that part of the day, so this year we wanted things to be different. I felt a little guilty, though, when I realized that we hadn't gotten Malachi anything - until I saw how thrilled he was playing with the wrapping paper and boxes.





After lunch, we spent the rest of the day with Danny's parents and his sister & her family. Although she was loving having an afternoon without a nap, by the end of the day, Karis was pretty worn out!

The next couple of days have been exhausting in a wonderful sort of way. Friday we spent the day running errands in Dayton, and shopping at IKEA, where we purchased some shelving units and it absolutely inspired me to reorganize and clean the entire basement, which I spent most of Saturday doing. It was like once I started I couldn't stop: I also reorganized and cleaned out most of the kitchen cabinets, and made some changes to our bedroom. Thanks to our little trip to IKEA, I now have a long "wish list" for the rest of the house! Haha. I'm working on a new diet, where we live on one meal a day for the next 10 years, so I can buy all the new furniture I want.

Anyway, I hope you had a very merry Christmas. My next entry probably won't be taking place until next year . . . .