Christmas 2010

Another Christmas has come and gone at our house. We had our traditional Norwegian Christmas Eve dinner the night before. We invited over our friends the Coopers and one of the residents John-David works with. It was a lovely evening with good food and great company. Santa dropped a present for the kids at the door. This year Santa took a little different route and with with robes instead of pajamas. The kids loved them. Kelsey thinks they are pajamas.

Christmas was much anticipated at our house especially by these two. Jackson wrote a letter Santa and was lucky enough to get a letter back. He even reminded me to put cookies and carrots out for our visitors. They couldn't wait to break into the stockings.

Kelsey in her Christmas robe.

We tried to do homemade gifts for each this year. We discovered it was a little hard for some based on time and creativity levels. Jocelyn and sort of Kelsey made Jackson this stool for Jackson so he can reach his clothes in his closet.

Jackson made the girls and Bryce this picture. They may look like frogs

but it's actually a picture of them. He is a budding artist.

We also did some regifting. Kelsey gave her ball popper to Bryce.

Not only was it economical on her part but it prevented one less toy from

finding it's way to our home. He loved the gift.

Jackson wanted a DS but got a Leapster2 instead. He was pretty funny about it because when he opened it he said, "This is like a DS but it's better because you are learning the entire time". That's why we love this kid. I think that it helped that he got a Star Wars game to play too.

The girls each got a Barbie. Jocey got a kid doctor Barbie and Kelsey got Barbie the Vet. I think Santa is trying to steer the girls into certain career paths. What a thoughtful man.

The kids and I decided that we would surprise Dad with a Blu-ray player.

We had an old one since we got married and it had some special problems. One of my favorite ones was that you had to give it a firm but loving hit on top to get it to open. The kids were surprised to find out we didn't have to do it to the new open function.

Santa was good to us this year, as always. After presents we had the traditional Christmas Brunch of quiche, cinnamon rolls, orange juice and french chocolate. We had invited our home teacher and his wife over, but they got sick so they stayed home. In the afternoon we headed to Doylestown to hang out with John-David's sister Alycia and family. It was a wonderful day and we were fortunate to spend it with both family and friends.

Jackson's 6th Birthday

When Jackson was born, Cottonwood Hospital gave this stocking to us (minus the gingerbread man) since he was born at Christmas time. We took a picture of him in it but we have yet to scan it in but here he is at 19 1/2 inches and 5 lbs 3 oz. Here he is 6 years later at 45 1/2 inches and 44 lbs.

He has grown a lot in these past six years but he still as cute as the day he was born. Jackson is truly fit for the role as big brother because he always watches out for his little sisters and brother and he loves to tease with a capital "T". He is very responsible and I think he is going to be the neat freak of the bunch. He tells his friends when they come over that they better clean up when they are done. He makes us laugh with his silliness and cracks us up over his sport obsession. We love this little guy and glad he is ours. Happy Birthday Bud!

Happening in Christmas City, USA

Bethlehem is the official Christmas City USA so I thought I should update with what Christmas things we have been doing this month. Jocelyn's preschool put on a Christmas performance. The asked the kids to wear their holiday best. Jocelyn wanted to buy a new dress but I suggested we just buy new tights instead. She was happy with this and wanted to curl her hair too. To curl her hair with a with a curling iron takes about 20 minutes so this doesn't happen often. We had to document her curly locks.

Jocelyn also had the only speaking part in the show and did very well.

She has come along way from this summer when she wouldn't even

stand up in front of her cousins for a talent show.

Kelsey didn't want to miss out on a chance to dress up.

She was being really silly and we had a hard time capturing

a real Kelsey smile.

The Christmas divas.

I wanted to get some pictures of Bryce's first Christmas.

The lights on the tree were so mesmerizing.

He loved them.

Jocelyn and the kids singing "Jingle Bells".

Jocelyn loved her new holiday tights she wore them

everywhere, even to dance. She said she was a chocolate covered candy cane.

Amidst all our holiday cheer, we discovered that our happy baby had a double ear infection and even ruptured one of his ear drums. I don't think I would have ever taken him in if a friend hadn't something about the dried discharge we found on his ear. He was so calm and mild compared to Kelsey that I figured it was teething. I was wrong.

Bubba's enjoying his first Christmas sugar cookie.

As you can see he liked it!

The kindergartner's also had a little Holiday Show. Unlike the girls, when asked to wear his holiday best, he went with the bear minimum. After he told me several times that he was going to wear what he wanted to wear, I gave up and he finally conceded to wear a red sweater with jeans only if Bryce wore his red sweater. He looked very nice and they did a wonderful job. I recorded most of it so I only have a few snap shots that actually turned out.

Jackson before the show.

Santa showed up for the event but only had enough time to give each kid a high 5. It was pretty cute watching all the faces of the kids in the performance went Santa walked in. They were so surprised he was there. Kelsey started yelling to Santa some last minute requests, "I want a Barbie" from the audience. I am sure he heard her request.

After the kindergartners left to go back to their class rooms, he remained around for just a little bit. We thought that we would take advantage of the opportunity and went and said Hello. Bryce wasn't so sure about this big guy in red.

Even though this is Christmas City, USA I have felt that a lot of the things they have her in December are very commercial. I really have been looking for some events that would remind us of why we even celebrate Christmas. Last year I saw a sign at a few of the local churches that said "Christmas Putz". One night I dragged the family to go discover what a Putz is. The word Putz comes from the German word Putzen which means to decorate. A Putz is like a nativity diorama. The Moravian churches here each have their own Putz each year. The one we went to last year was OK but I decided to take the family to the main Moravian church's Putz display. It was very neat and I thought really helped to bring the Christmas Spirit. Our camera battery died when we went to take a picture of it but I have decided that this will be a new family tradition so we'll get a photo next year.

Jackson's 6 year old Birthday Party

Since Jackson's birthday is on Christmas Eve, this year we thought we would switch things up a bit for his birthday party. Our original plan was his half birthday this summer that got changed to August and well to make a long story short, we ended up doing it on Kelsey's birthday with her party. Dad has only so many free Saturday's and Kelsey could care less. Kelsey's party was in the morning and Jackson's was in the afternoon.

Jackson is just slightly obsessed with Star Wars so naturally that was our theme. He is more of an original Star Wars fan so we tried to keep to the traditional Star's Wars stuff. Having a birthday party right after Halloween is also helpful because you can get sweet Jedi costumes for 75% off.

Trying on the costume before the party.

While we were waiting for everyone to come,

they made space picture frames.

After all the guests arrived, I explained that they were going to do a Jedi training camp to test their skills. The first test was testing their force skills: they had to get the bean bag in the hole.

They were very serious about this.

Next was an obstacle course to test their speed skills. You can see the first part of it in the above picture and the second have in the picture below. They each did this several times.

Who wouldn't want to jump into a pile of leaves?

Next we had to test their light saber skills. We used foam swimming noodles cut in half as the weapons. It was a much safer alternative to the real thing. Each kid got a balloon and the goal was to keep it in the air.

10 kids with foam swords was a little crazy!!!!

Then Yoda arrived with some words of wisdom.

Well.. he didn't really speak but he looked cute.

What kind of Stars Wars party would this be with

out obliterating the Death Star in pinata form?

All this training had to lead up to something and that's when Darth Vader showed up. Each kid got to test his Jedi skills against the ultimate Sith Lord.

Love the look on this kid's face.

Jackson got on his Darth Vadar costume so the two Vadar's could fight it out.

After all this fighting, the kids took a break and came inside for some present opening.

All the kids were so excited to give Jackson their gift that

they were literally throwing them at him to open.

After the presents we finished things off with a light saber cake.

I think it's safe to say that everyone had a really good time and

that our birthday boy enjoyed himself.