Good Advice

Gotta be careful when you throw away the Christmas wrappings that you don't toss out important instructions, gift cards, small toys, or babies.

10 things about our Christmas this year

1- My favorite family christmas activity this year was visiting the Midwest City Holiday Lights Spectacular. It was a drive through display set up in a city park decorated with millions of lights. Due to traffic, you had to drive through it at a crawl, but amazingly after 45 minutes my kids were still not bored of it. I loved the flashing lights that were set to music on their special radio channel, the Santa riding on the Loch Ness monster, and the forest of lighted deer, but my very favorite and most amazing part was that my kids all got along!!! They were happy! Singing together! Being nice! Wow! Definitely one of those times you wish you could bottle up to keep forever!

2- For Christmas this year we got a blizzard. In the spirit of giving, we decided to share our snow with the rest of the city. The snow started coming down on the morning of Christmas Eve and continued all day. The wind was whipping around like crazy out there and even managed to find a crack in our skylight and start snowing into our living room. Luckily most of our errands were done, because if we had saved things to do at the last moment, it would have been too late. We just hunkered down and enjoyed the snow. I read that in the last 106 years, there have only been 6 white Christmases in Oklahoma City. Inconvenient, yes. But what perfect timing.

3- As usual, we stuffed ourselves with home made lovin' fresh from the oven. Gingerbread houses, the Lyon family traditional cake that looks like I log that I always feel like an idiot saying the name for some reason, and cookies, cookies, cookies (we volunteered to make the treats for both Nina and Grant's school parties). As usual, I made a bunch of treats to give to neighbors and friends, Chocolate chip pumpkin bread, and most of them were eaten by us or just did not get delivered.

4- We had a great Christmas morning together. The kids actually managed to stay asleep until at least 7:30 am this year- a record I think. There was lots of oooing and ahhhing and even dances of joy. Everyone was happy with what they got and excited about what they gave. Minimal fighting and impatience. What more can you ask for?

5- On Christmas Eve I was reaching out of bed to get Meg for a 5 am feeding and OUCH! My back! I felt like a senior citizen hobbling around all day- when I could move enough to hobble. Dave was so kind and took care of everything, and two days later I feel almost back to normal again, but much older somehow.

6- Due to the snow our Christmas plans were thrown all up in the air. We had been looking forward to driving to Kansas to visit Grammy and Gramps and all the rest of the Lyons the day after Christmas. The terrible road conditions cancelled that (or hopefully just postponed it?). I read that there are only 14 snow plows in all of Oklahoma City!

7- Speaking of things being thrown up, the kids have all gotten sick. We got some unique symptoms this year. Along with vomiting, coughs and sniffles, we also have red, blood shot goopy crusty eyes, and mysterious mouth sores and ear aches. Rachel even threw up all over Nina's new Leapster game thing that she got for Christmas-ugg. I am hoping that we have seen the worst of it and are all on our way back to health soon.

8- We visited the Christkindel Markt in Tulsa again this year at the beginning of the month. Honestly, we had fun last year, but, in my opinion, not enough fun to do it again. In the name of Tradition, Dave insisted we go this year.

9- Ladies Dancing (can't think of anything else- it's getting late)

10-Rachel asked today when we could have Christmas again. I guess it was a hit.

SNOW!

This Christmas eve I had so much snow! It was waist deep! I.... I... I .....Oh forget it !

what I want for christmas by Nina

a bike and a helmut, a computer, princess things, a pretty dress, pretty shoes, two balloons (one a boy and one a girl), a special cup with a christmas tree on it, a wallet, some doll house sized christmas decorations, that's all.

The incredible liking of Harry Potter

You might of not Known but I have become obsessed with harry potter books. I have already read books 1-5.Post for questions.

A Visit From St. Nick

Guess who stopped by our house to visit? Apparently he hadn't received our letters in the mail this year and decided he had better drop by and ask us what we wanted for Christmas before it got too late in the month. What personal service! IT WAS quite a surprise! Santa in OUR HOME! It was Meg's first introduction to the big man and we got to TEACH hER about the way things work. Even Rachel who describes herself as "shy of Santa" felt perfectly at ease with him in our home and felt no hesitation to hop onto his knee and whisper in his ear. Lucky for the kids, he was in a bit of a hurry and did not have time to check if their rooms were clean, but said he would be sending the elves to follow up on that while they were sleeping. THe Only thing we were left asking was why He used the frOnt door instead of coming down the chimney?

Nina gets a library card!

Nina got her very own library card this week! Our family tradition is that each child has to wait until they are old enough to read before they can get their own card. Lately Nina's reading has been improving by leaps and bounds. Some of the first books she checked out with her own card were Elephant Has a Bird on His Head, Green Eggs and Ham, and Go Dogs Go. I think she is even surprising herself at what she can read on her own when we find books that are at her level. As she is reading she will just stop and yell " I love reading!" or " I can read, I can read!" Today at the library I saw Nina with at least 25 Dr. Suess books in her basket, she did have to put most of them back, but her enthusiasm is great! Go, Nina, Go!

Laundry Time

What do you do when you have got a busy morning, 10 loads of laundry waiting, and a baby that needs some attention?

Monday is my laundry day. After especially dirty weeks the washer and dryer will be humming from 7 am to 6 pm. I am VERY grateful for my washer and dryer. If I had to wash our clothes by hand my children would just be wearing dirty pillow cases most of the time. However, washing and drying is just part of the job. The clothes never seem to sort themselves and jump into the drawers on their own. (You are right- I forgot to mention fold and iron- I stopped caring about folding and ironing right after Grant was born) When Grant becomes that inventor that he wants to be when he grows up I'll commission him to invent a sort-and-folderator. In the mean time, hopefully my own kids will be able to help me with the job soon.

As you can see, I'm starting training Meg while she is still young. I think I waited too long with the older kids, I must have missed their impressionable laundry development months. I'm hoping with a few more months of intensive training I can leave all the laundry to her.

Rachel's Photoshoot

Her nursery leader needed some help on a photography class project...