We are at Jeremy and Leslie's for Christmas. I can't imagine it any other way. The kids got lots of presents and a little too much sugar and had the usual heated moments, but they have such precious moments, too. Xander comes away from every visit with Bailey with a new expression that she uses. This time it seems to be, "I love you, too," nice and clear. What a great one to pick up!
Xander, Nick, and I are kind of sick and Erik and Leslie have bad allergies. Nick has been screaming instead of sleeping at night. These are the things that happen, though.
Grandpa Larry and Grandma Alla's gifts were popular again. Xander has carried his noise-making, stomping Triceratops around the house almost continuously. He's gotten three or four pairs of pants dirty in the space of two days, so it's a good thing grandmas and aunts gave him new pants. (One way he figured out to get dirty was shoveling dirt on top of the dog's head--she didn't mind at all.) Bailey had a very girly Christmas with a Tinkerbell doll, Barbie, life-size doll, and many Tinkerbell/ fairy/ magical/ princess dress-up clothes. Xander got a sword, helmet, shield, and handmade cape from Aunt Leslie (and Uncle Jeremy) and he didn't take off the helmet for about a day and a half. Today he took his chance to get into the girly stuff, too. Bailey is so into Tinkerbell, she's got to be onto something, right? So he wore a fairy tutu for a while. Then he changed into a tiara and said he was Princess Xander. He's also very interested in Bailey's little Tinkerbell doll, but I have a feeling if he had all this stuff at home he wouldn't be so interested.
Xander and Bailey really got into the Santa stuff. They inspected the half-eaten cookies and the empty milk glass and thank you note from Santa, and the ashy boot marks Santa made on the butcher paper in front of the fireplace. Bailey was a little disappointed she didn't get to give Santa hugs and kisses. Xander had mentioned he would give Santa a really great gift for Christmas, but I think he forgot all about it.
Nick and Foster love each other. They look into each other's faces and laugh and try to grab the other one's eyeballs (okay, that's just Nick) and act like the world is a very charming place.
We adults talked about Christmas traditions. We've already made a few among our two growing families but we also talked about things we don't do that either we've done in the past or might like to do in the future. Leslie suggested we make a list of all the traditions we'd like to do and we can pick and choose each year, trying different ones for variety or choosing according to the things appropriate for the kids' ages. I'll work on my part of that sometime soon. I'd like to do the Santa Lucia celebration again one day. Not to mention the card-opening ceremony on Christmas Eve with champagne and Christmas cookies. And then there's the tea ring... I actually did that one last year.
Nick is sleeping. So are all the other kids, and Bonnie and Koa, but Nick's the only one that's big news. I'd better get some rest while I can.
I'll sign off with a conversation between the older kids. You know, they must secretly get a kick out of this, or they would stop.
Xander: Merry Christmas!
Bailey: Happy Christmas!
Xander: No! I said Merry Christmas!
Bailey: Happy Christmas to all!
Xander: No!! I said Merry Christmas!
Bailey: Merry Christmas!
Xander: That's right.
Bailey: Happy Christmas!
Xander: No!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment