Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

I'm a bit behind in pictures, so I'll catch you up from the start of our Christmas season.

These first pictures are from our first snowfall in early December. Mighty Mouse loved it. Loved it! Unfortunately, the blue Thomas the Train snowboots I'd planned on him having this season wouldn't even go ON his feet, but his sister's old pink camo ones worked just fine. The girls pointed out that they were probably fine because they are "camo". Um, well.  Thank you Walmart-free-shipping, we had a new pair in a few days that are navy blue with orange. Phew. Of course, now the snow is so deep he can't walk in it. Go figure!

The girls thought I was pretty creative telling them that freshly-fallen snow is "God's cotton candy". I was being serious; there are few tastes I love more, and I think Sunny is with me on that one, for sure.

Mighty Mouse got his first haircut in November. Isn't he just a little doll? A boy doll, of course.

I'm so glad I got these pictures of him looking straight at the camera when I did. Now that he's realized the photo shows up in the screen, he won't hardly let me take his picture because he wants to immediately see the pictures on the back.

I made the tie with a pattern I bought on Etsy sometime last winter. It's not important how long it took me to get around to it, right? I did it!

This is what his Daddy thinks of ties and what his Daddy hopes HE thinks of ties, too.

Wait, what's this? This little boy loves his tie and wants it back on!!!

Note: I did put it under the sweater when we went to church; I didn't leave it hanging over the sweater design....I don't have a lot of fashion sense, but I have two daughters who do!

Mighty was searching for a 4X4 for Daddy. He didn't have any luck, but he'll happily keep trying.

Visiting Santa; this year Grammy and Grandpa Bob got to go along. We had a great quiet time there - no lines, lots of time to visit with Santa. Really, who brings their kids to Santa's Village when it's -7 degrees. Well, I mean other than me.

All three decorating their cookies with Mrs. Claus. She looked crabby in the picture, so I cropped her out. I run a harsh photo lab, I guess. Sorry, Mrs. Claus, my husband works Christmas, too, but we still have to smile, right?!

Mighty is snuggling his very chilly father under that blanket.

 Proof that he has blue eyes for now, just in case they change like Sunny's did!

 He comes across as so intense!

 I'm thinking he was hoping this would substitute for a handlebar mustache?

 When do we EVER have too much light in our house?!! Only when I don't need it and forget to change my camera settings to adjust. Oh well. Hopefully you can enjoy the little dude in his "fetching attire".

 Just one more thing!!!!

 The girls have belts on their dresses to match Mighty's tie.

Here we go with Christmas picture attempts. Look at this rodeo! Imagine what next year could look like.....

 I think this one is the winner.

 Miss Mouse feels a constant need to strike a dance pose, even when her pearls are being threatened.

 They're doing dance poses; it sort of looks like Miss Mouse wants to say "talk to the hand", but she's both too young to even have heard that expression and too sweet to use it if she had!

 He is a moving target!!!

 Proof that he does slow down. I often find this scene.

 Sweet Mighty Mouse tolerated (I thought) our mixing up two batches of cookies earlier this week. I gave him this mixing bowl and let him take a turn dumping ingredients in, just like his sisters (except that I held onto the ingredient cup at all times; he actually only "dumped" his empty bowl into my bigger mixing bowl). Well, on Saturday we had one more batch to mix up, so Mike was going to play with Mighty while the girls and I mixed up the cookies (I use my hand mixer, so it's not an option to do while he is napping!). Well, the minute Mighty saw my bowl come out, he disappeared head first into the cupboard and emerged with his own bowl which he then carried over to his booster seat, beginning to point and say "ih, ih, ih, ih" (in, in, in). Much to my amazement, I apparently have a 15-month old "baker man" (girls' word for Mighty)! There was no way we were leaving him out of the baking party!

Our snowman army. We plan to take over the world. Or maybe just our neighborhood.  I found this idea (so did my aunt - great minds think alike? or ambitious minds? something like that....) on facebook and pinterest. In the creating of this army I have decided those pinterest women are liars. Liars, I tell you! "Easy project"; "no time at all"; "quick and easy project" - lies, lies, LIES!!!!

Okay, maybe it was just that those women were not totally stressing about a little bit of stickiness left by the baby food label on the back of the jar. After about 15, I stopped scrubbing them with canola oil and left the sticky on. The process had been: rinse jar, soak jar, remove as much label as possible, wash jar in dishwasher, wash jar in vinegar to make sure no remaining baby food flavor lingered, scrub jar with canola oil to remove all possible label stickiness, wash jar in dishwasher again to remove canola oil remnants....Yeah, I'm thinking the initial pinterest people didn't do all that. I gave up on it, too, and I think the last five turned out just as well, if a little stickier, as the first 15. They were a lot more fun to make, too!

At one point, after painting the caps black and cutting out circles for the brims from construction paper, Miss Mouse commented how fun this project was and how she would love to do it with her children someday. And my heart melted, and it didn't matter how much time I'd spent scrubbing with oil; it was all completely and totally worth it.

Also worth it has been delivering these sweet little treats. I think the most fun one was surprising an older gentleman across the street with a snowman (they have hot chocolate mix, which we also made with a recipe from my aunt) and some other treats we made. He wasn't home when we dropped them off, but he called later and asked if we had seen Santa because he must have dropped off some delicious treats. This particular man lost his wife a year ago this week, so to do something that brightened his day/week was, again, worth all the scrubbing in the world.

 The girls spent a good chunk of afternoon making rubber band bracelets. I spent a good chunk of the evening picking up rubber bands. I haven't yet found a container for her to store them in.  We had an issue with Sunny when she made a mistake on her bracelet that turned out to not be correctable. She was so upset to have to start over that she threw rubber bands (I think - I didn't actually SEE this and am just relying on the fact that I had an upset four-year-old and rubber bands all over the floor) all over the floor. She earned herself a picking up time and a lecture. A long lecture. Probably too long of a lecture. It was an unfortunate way to end a valiant effort, and I was sad about it most of the rest of the day. Tonight, though, as she and I were talking about how she could handle a situation differently when she makes a mistake, she told me, "well, I just wouldn't do it right away". "Do what?" I asked. "Well, I would try again, but not right at the same time. I'd wait a day."  Big sigh of relief, mixed with regret (and verbal repentance) for how upset I'd gotten earlier in the day. I'm so proud of how insightful this sweet little girl is becoming. She's not exactly like her older sister, who is so determined that she'll sit at the table and make the bracelet if she has to try 34 times, but she knows what works for her. And that's what's important.

Our family picture taken tonight at church. Just to clarify, Miss Mouse is standing on the same step that Mike is. I am standing on the step below them. Not great planning, but I'm thrilled that everyone looks mostly happy!

 The most popular Christmas gift so far. It's a dragon tail that you wear around your waist with an elastic band. Miss Mouse and I bought it for Sunny and Mighty last weekend at a local craft vendor shop.

 A common scene today. A dragon tail racing around a corner. There is no way I could love this more!!!!

She is, of course, a friendly dragon who flies around and gives people rides. She can't wait until I let her jump on our mini-trampoline with the tail on. Oh, and the tail and the Christmas tree? They don't mix well, but it was pretty funny (considering nothing actually got broken).

Merry Christmas!!