Christmas Traditions

Today I got to thinking about all of the holiday traditions I'd like to continue and start with the boys.  There are many from my own Childhood.

1.  Annual visit to The Christmas Place in Abington.  Each year the boys will get to have a piece of fudge and pick out an ornament, just as my brother and I did each year when we were little.

2.  Evening drive around town looking at the Christmas lights.  Many of the ones that were favorites when I was a child don't seem to light up their houses anymore, but we'll find our own houses to visit!

3.  Open sibling presents on Christmas Eve; everything else waits until Christmas Day!

4.  Stockings first, on mom and dad's bed.

5.  Christmas baking.  Every year we have to make Christmas cookies, Grandma's graham cracker fudge, and whatever other treats we want to eat and give away.

6.  Watching Christmas movies together every chance we get!  Favorites/must-see movies include: Home Alone, The Family Stone, One Magic Christmas, Rudolph, Frosty, The Snowman, Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, The Grinch (the animated version), and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (to kick off the Christmas season at Thanksgiving).

New traditions to start!

1.  Elf on a shelf.  We have one, but haven't used it yet.  I think I'll pull it out this year and see how the boys react.  I wish they'd had this when I was a kid!  I would have loved it...

2.  Visit to the Taunton Green and the Bridgewater Common to see the lights.  We used to go to the Bridgewater Common every year, but the Taunton Green is better, and we're pretty close to it now where we live.

3.  Book advent calendar.  Next year, I'm going to take all our Christmas books, which the boys won't remember anyway, and wrap them up, one for each day from Thanksgiving until Christmas--kind of like an advent calendar.  Then, each night they can unwrap a book before bed and we'll read it.  In future years, I'll stock up on used books and they'll get 25-or-so new books to read.

4.  Right after Thanksgiving, I plan on giving the boys a "Christmas box."  Inside there will be a new set of Christmas PJs, a new Christmas movie (or family movie), a bag of popcorn and/or other snack, and maybe some other little thing related to the theme of the movie.  Then we all choose a night and watch the movie together.  Sounds like fun to me!

5.  Ornament making sessions.  Every year we'll choose a different kid of ornament to make together. Pinterest will provide the inspiration.

6.  Every year, either through Milton or Meditech, we'll chose a child in need and purchase a few gifts for him/her.

7.  The Enchanted Village at Jordan's Furniture.  We may skip this one this year, though, because the lines aren't a good time with twin 2-year-olds.

8.  Trip to a museum, aquarium, etc. during winter break.

9.  Crackers (the kind that you pull open and they have presents inside--not the food!) on New Year's Eve, a fancy dinner, and a fire in the fireplace.

I know I'm missing some that I want to continue and start, but for now, here's my reminder for future years.  I'll keep adding as they keep occurring to me.

Adios, Noviembre

As usual, I have random photos that I'm going to post together.  

A few weeks ago, I started to try to trim the burning bushes along the border of our yard and the street.  What a project that was!  I worked for hours and really only did 2 bushes.  And, even those 2 need to be trimmed back a little more.  Those things were crazy overgrown!  I'm not looking forward to getting back out there to finish trimming.  The worst part, though, has to be the huge pile of brush it's creating.  I don't even know what I'm going to do about it.  I guess we have to burn it, but the whole idea of a brush fire scares me.  I don't want to do it!!

This is the "best" picture for seeing the before and after heights.  I think we actually need a chain saw to continue.  It would take forever to cut with a handsaw, and the tree pruner things are not getting through a lot of the branches that need to come down.   But the idea of a chain saw scares me almost as much as the idea of a brush fire so we'll see.

Here are two great pictures of Grumpy with James and Sebastian.  I'm not sure where Adrian was that he wasn't fighting to get on Grumpy's lap, too...

I took down the fall stickies and put up the Christmas ones.  I hate those damn things as an adult.  I loved putting them up as a kid, but I can't wait until the boys can take over.  How tedious!

Here's our sad Grinch/Mexican Christmas tree.  The tree itself has seen better days.  It's crooked, but I can't unbend it.

The huge light-up wreath was a $10 yard sale find.  Wish it had white lights instead, but for $10, I'm ok with it.  The boys call it "pretty" and Adrian likes to touch the apples and say "niiiiiice."

A student brought me those flowers in the mason jar on the island.  Thoughtful Thanksgiving present!

The boys now love Thomas the Tank Engine...they are obsessed.  They walk around with the DVD case for the one episode that we own (Thanks, Mini!) and hold their little wooden train Thomas cars all the time (Thanks, Natalie!).  They try to tell you the story of the episodes by saying, "Thomas, BOOM!  Crying..."  So funny how they try so hard to communicate now.

The boys love their racer from cousin "Kitchen."  Christian and my Auntie Carol *facetimed* the boys yesterday.  Boy was that a hit!!  What a great idea--I'm just sorry I didn't think of it sooner!  The boys loooooove Christian.

There in the background is one of the toy Thomas trains I was talking about.

Yesterday we set up the train track that Natalie brought to the boys.  They love it.

Carlos took some pictures of his own of the Christmas tree last night.  Here they are!

Unfortunately, he didn't think to take one of the whole house from outside...will have to get one tonight.

Today we went thrifting to see what the local stores had for the boys.  I can usually get great stuff used by going to a few choice places.  All the boys clothes are name-brand simply because I can get that stuff cheap.  I almost never pay more than $2 (and oftentimes less) for a shirt from Gap, Children's Place, or Gymboree because I get them at the local kids' thrift store (Keeping Pace with Multiple Miracles).  Today I found a lot of shirts, an awesome coat, and Christmas books.  Then, because we were on a roll, we went to the local Salvation Army.  I found a lot of great stuff there, too, and most was half off.  Got a Black Dog raincoat for $7, and that was the most expensive thing.  We also found some Thomas toys super cheap that we just washed and cleaned up, and they look like new.  I don't buy toys, but I don't mind so much when they are so cheap.  I felt like we scored big for the boys today!  The best part was that I used the boys' birthday money from Nana to pay for it all.  Nana will be very proud of our use of her money, I think!!  We got 10 times the amount of things that we could have purchased new.  I love that feeling!  Carlos just says I'm weird, but he enjoys a good thrift store find as much as I do--he is just reluctant to admit it!

Some of my scores today:

Happy Thanksgiving

 This morning we took a walk around the neighborhood to let the boys blow off some steam and burn some energy.  Yesterday it rained ALL DAY LONG.  It was windy, and that, combined with the torrential rain, kept us inside.  (Sebastian kept singing, "Rain, rain, go away."  Natalie must have taught him!)  So by today, we were all stir crazy.  Unfortunately, it was freezing out!

At 3pm we went to my mom's.  We had a true feast: stuffed dates, cheese and crackers, stuffed mushrooms, salad, cranberry bread, rolls, turkey and gravy, stuffing, squash, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, pecan pie fudge, pumpkin pie, and apple pie.  The boys watched The Snowman on my iPad, and it worked to keep them distracted while we ate.  They watched it for the first time ever yesterday, and they loved it.  They sat completely spellbound for the whole 27 minutes of it!  At the end, Sebastian pointed at the melted snowman and said "snowman" and sobbed.  I was shocked that he understood enough to cry.  It made me cry too!  Then I gave him The Snowman stuffed animal that we have.  He walked around with it calling it "airplane man" because the snowman can fly.  Anyway, the movie worked to keep them occupied today so that Carlos and I could eat.  Here, Sebastian is sitting with my Auntie Carol.

 Here they are in their Thanksgiving outfits before we left for Mini's house.

The boys were fascinated with cousin Christian today.  Adrian kept touching his hair and laughing.  And they both call him "Kitchen."

After we got home we put the boys to bed and then put up the Christmas tree.

We still have another one to put up--a small one--and after Christmas I may get another 7 foot artificial tree on clearance.  We need another tree for all the homemade/collected ornaments we have. We'll see.

Keeping Pace with Multiple Miracles Christmas Party

Last Sunday we went to the KPMM Christmas party.  It was an extremely windy night, and freezing cold, and when we arrived to the Shaw's Center (where the Rox play), they were without full power.   Only half of the hall was lit, and they didn't have enough power to give the DJ any juice.

When we arrived, the boys were looking all cute in their little outfits.  They started running around, like all the other kids, and Sebastian tripped and smacked his nose on the floor.  He got a bloody nose all over his shirt.   I had to put his sweatshirt on to cover it up.  All my pictures are blurry...and I don't have a good one from before Sebastian got his nosebleed.

So, the boys ran around, then a Music Together teacher came and led the kids in Christmas carols.  Then we had dinner (chicken fingers and pizza for the kids, pasta for the adults).  Finally, they brought in a generator for the DJ and the boys danced.

The highlight of the night was the arrival of Santa.  The boys were MESMERIZED.  They couldn't take their eyes off him.  They kept going up to him and saying "Santa!"  At one point, Santa sat down and Sebastian went right up between his legs and put his hands on both of Santa's knees.  And then he just gazed at Santa.  It was too cute.  

I have a video of them dancing, but I can't get it to upload.  I'll try again later.

Next year will be even more fun!

Natalie's Photos: Art Projects