I Got Mail

I got another box in the mail today.  What could it be????  I already got a new panel for the dishwasher.  I've had almost every other part repaired in the last 60 days.  Of course, there's the heater element, the arm that sprays the water and a few other items that are still original parts.... 

Wow, you guys are so cynical! The box wasn't full of dishwasher parts.  It contained a group Christmas gift from our wild and crazy kids----a new camera!!! We are so excited!

It's not that our old camera isn't working.  It just has a few problems.  There is an extremely long pause between the time you push the button to snap a picture and when it actually takes a picture.

This allowed for endless bad pictures,

pictures of nothing,

and the opportunity for Megan to make it halfway around the world in an effort to avoid having a picture taken at all.

 Here is the very first picture I took with the new camera.  Isn't it wonderful???  Hailey said "That lady looks like you when you were younger.  Now you're old, really, really old, but it's ok, I like old, too." 

Umm, thanks, Hailey. I think.

 Here's my second picture.  I managed to take it after reading through the first 8 pages of the instruction book.  There are 62 more pages to read through, but being the techno wiz that I am, I was able to snap a few practice pictures.

Here's one I took in the dark.  I carefully followed the "taking pictures in low light" instructions.

Here's one of Megan's slightly puffy post-wisdom teeth face. 

She's off to a basketball game, even though she should be home icing that cute face. Look! Megan can no longer run, duck, or dodge fast enough to avoid my picture taking.

Here is another one:

Here's what I'm cooking for supper:

Oops, I was so busy snapping pictures I forgot to start cooking.

Here are some small children, with pants halfway off, playing with sharp kitchen tools.  Someone should be supervising them while I play with our new toy.

And I hope someone is tending these two youngsters who are turning my bathroom into a swimming pool and using my toothbrush to clean the sink out.  I would stop them, but I'm trying out the "how to take a picture without a flash" instructions. 



Good riddance bye, old camera!  You're going to the Backmans so that they don't have to borrow a camera to take pictures of cute little Krew anymore!

Thank you, children, for spoiling us with such a fabulous new toy!  We love it!

Here We Go Again--Part 3--Grand Finale

Oh Christmas morning, our tradition is to sleep in.  I've taught my family that Christmas day doesn't start until 8 am at our house, so there is no point in getting up before then.

We begin the day by eating a big family breakfast.

We traditionally eat whole wheat waffles with strawberries, raspberries, and whip cream.  Just to start out the day by overeating right, we also have sausage, bacon, chocolate milk, and eggnog.



When we get done with breakfast around 9:30, we move on to presents. We take turns opening presents; after you open a present, you choose the next present for someone else to open.  As you can imagine, this part of our day takes forever.

We have discovered that Christmas is a lot funner when you have little children around that you can watch open presents.

Megan opened these gloves last week so she would have gloves to go skiing with.  Naturally, I rewrapped them and regifted them on Christmas morning.

Stan got some cool sunglasses. 
Sorry, Honey, this particular pair of glasses didn't come with a motorcycle.

We have one major tradition that comes from Stan's childhood. It is, hands down, my least favorite tradition because it guaranteed Stan and I would not be done setting up Christmas until 2 am.  Unfortunately, it is a tradition my kids LOVED growing up.  It is the famed "Christmas Present Treasure Hunt".  Each child had one gift they would go on a treasure hunt for.

This year, Amy sent Hailey and Makayla on a treasure hunt.

\

Hailey was pretty excited to look for clues.

 You know what this means, Amy.

This is the beginning of staying up way too late on Christmas Eve

to continue the family tradition

of over-tired moms and over-excited kids 

 on Christmas morning.

Here We Go Again--Part 2

Note to my absent children:  If these posts are making you nostalgic, and you are wishing you were spending the holidays with us, we promise, we're not having any fun.  We are bored, tired of Mom's cooking, and wishing we could go get a root canal--anything to get away from these people!  If, however, these posts remind you why you are glad you couldn't come home this year, well, we're having a BLAST!  You should have been here!

My favorite day of the holiday season is December 24.  I love our traditions of this day.  Since the time when our kids were young, we have begun the day's festivities with a service project.  This year we did one we haven't done before--we went to work at the local food bank.

We signed away our life at the front door,

and then we were led into the refrigerated backroom where the real work began.

We started out by moving piles of stuff from one area to another,

then we tore down hundreds and hundreds of empty boxes.

There were heaps and heaps of boxes. 

We'd finish one pile and the food bank would send us to another pile.

I was a little concerned when I set this up with the food bank, fearing Hailey and Makayla would quickly become bored.

 Quite to the contrary, they pitched right in and were lots of help.

They worked the whole 2+ hours we were there.

They were our very effective box crushers.

We ripped boxes into flat pieces

while Makayla and Hailey kept everyone at the food bank entertained by

their excitement and silly antics.

Here they are, doing the "full body flatten job".

We did learn a few things today:  Don't trust Stan with the box cutter (and his new jeans!) and

given the right tools, Makayla can easily pull Grandpa around.  It was hilarious!

We shoveled and swept the floors

 and went to Fudd's for lunch

By evening we were ready for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner: Hawaiian Haystacks!

We use our after Christmas sale 75% off Target china

and eat until we're full.

Then we eat some more.

Next comes the stockings.  Years and years ago, I sewed six Christmas stockings for our kids. 

Over the years I've added princess stockings and manly plaid to accommodate our expanding family.

The stockings are filled with necessities: toothbrushes, socks, gloves, maybe a toy or kitchen tool and of course, chocolate!

After we read a Christmas story, or watch a church Christmas video and read the pertinent parts of Luke, we pass out the stockings.

 Megan found a million dollars in chocolate in hers.

 Makayla made sure her toothbrush was working,

Hailey really likes the loud, shrill flute in her and Makayla's stocking.

I'm pretty sure Amy was really grateful we gave these flutes to the girls.

Finally, we pulled out the traditional mud pie

We managed to fill our overfilled stomachs some more.

Merry Christmas!