The Annual Collage Catch-Up

Seems like November and December are never very good blogging months for me! But I do have some good pictures to document our wonderful holidays, and I just can't move on without posting [at least] my favorites. And you know I am a firm believer in the collage. :)

A brief explanatory note:

My entire wonderful family (except for one brother serving an LDS mission in CA) came to Ohio for Thanksgiving - we had 16 people altogether, and turned the living room into a banquet hall. :) Then it was the music room (lots and lots of singing around the piano - it felt SO GOOD to sing with my sisters and mother again, and we even had the boys join in a few times!), and finally it was the Christmas Hall (complete with my little 10 year old artificial tree that I said would just get us through college..... still there....). My brother in law is a chef (a crazy blogging chef I might add), and he wowed us all with his skills -- I was afraid to cook in my kitchen for a week after he left, thinking that I might desecrate it. :) I gained about 5 pounds in 3 days. (OUCH). But it was worth it. It was that good.

Since everyone was here we did Christmas on Saturday morning - it was the crazy marathon holiday weekend, and it was fantastic.

I love love love my family, and having them all here in my home was such a treat. I love the way we all squish together on the couch, the way we talk for hours, the way we sing and sing and sing. I love the way my brother played heroes with my son, my sister colored with my daughter, and my mom and dad moved around from room to room, activity to activity, supporting and loving all of us. We all have faults, but when we're together it's perfect.

The Truth about Santa

Warning -- this post contains spoilers! (Or maybe not!)

I was getting worried about J-boy's understanding of reality. He's told me several times that I am not really in charge -- Santa and Jesus are in charge. And he's pretty preoccupied about Santa and reindeer and chimneys and stockings and presents and presents and presents and presents.

Now I'm not trying to be a scrooge, and you may disagree with me, but I don't think Santa and Jesus should warrant the same amount of faith. Santa's fine and dandy and fun, but Jesus is real. So I talked to Joseph about it, and decided it was time to break the news. Joseph actually told K-lady a few years ago the truth about Santa (she asked, and he was on the spot, and I was rather annoyed with him at the time, but since then I've come to appreciate his candor and honesty). I really want Christmas to be about Christ, not Santa.

So I sat down with J-boy the other morning and told him that Christmas isn't about Santa, it's about Jesus. We get presents because it's Jesus' birthday, and he got presents, too - remember the 3 wise men?? And we can even have a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day. And Santa was actually a sweet old man named St. Nicholas that liked to give presents, and sometimes people remember and celebrate him. But Santa Claus from the North pole is just pretend. We can pretend about Santa, but Jesus is real.

After my big long shpiel, I waited anxiously for J-boy's response - was he going to cry? Was he going to understand?

J-boy scoffed at me (did you know 4 year old's are excellent scoffers?). "No, mom, Santa is real. Santa AND Jesus are real. They are the boss. But we can talk about Jesus if you want to."

I tried. Maybe we'll try again next year. :)

Family Pictures

Meet my darling sister, Heather. She is (among other things) cute and funny and sweet and talented and long suffering in affliction to boot. I asked her to take some family pictures for us (the self-timer thing only works so well with a 16 month old and I'm too cheap and too addicted to photoshop to do it any other way...), so she did - not once, but twice! The first try we had a minor run in with wardrobe that put us behind and we missed the best lighting. So we headed out again a week later (that's what I mean by long-suffering in affliction)! Anyway, I think she got some great shots. Thank you so much, Heather (and Ryan and L!!)

It's not every day you get a good photographer who loves your kids almost as much as you do!

I love her smile. I think that is what 7-years-old should look like.

Outakes -- Don't I look like a caricature?! I didn't know my face could look that way without some seriously silly photo editing.

A bit o' random

Just 'cause I think she's so stinkin' cute (that's J-boy's discarded jacket that she insisted on wearing over top of her own)

J-boy made his own bed! I asked him about the bump towards the bottom of the bed, and he explained that he liked it that way so he could "lay on it like this (lays himself down with the bump supporting under his knees) and sleep like that"

When decorating, it's all about the details. And snacks.

The kids had some time on their hands a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning before church. They decided to try to make some cash. They were yelling and screaming at every car that drove by: "GARAGE SALE!! KID STUFF ONLY!!" They were charging $10 for every item (including the homemade paper-taped-to-a-stick-flags). But they gave Joseph a great deal - they weren't getting a lot of customers, so they clearanced everything at $1 a piece. (I still think he got suckered into that one)

Happy Holidays!

May your nose be merry and bright.

(I think I owe this to Joseph after having his bite at the front of the blog for nearly a month -- more posts coming.)

The Difference Between You and Me

When I play with the camera, I

When Joseph plays with the camera, he performs a

It takes all kinds, right? :)

(I hope he doesn't mind me posting his 5:00 shadow and pearly whites....)

Go Buckeyes!!

Joseph and I went to the SHOE!

We attended our first (and, honestly, probably last) OSU football game in October. It was really fun -- the stadium is GINORMOUS, the fans are infectious and the marching band is AMAZING. And the football team was pretty good, too. :) There were a few LONG passes for touchdowns that were pretty exciting. And we won by a landslide. It was a little on the chilly side, but my smart husband had a blanket handy and enough cash to buy us some hot chocolate.

The kids stayed home with Aunt Heather, though they wanted to come and cheer on the buckeyes! This is Baby A's Halloween costume - she and I had nasty colds so we stayed home from the trunk-or-treat, but I dressed her up to take a picture anyway. Don't mind the spaghetti sauce on her cheeks. Just keepin' it real.