Musings of ME, the Mom

Monday, December 29, 2008

Birthdays!

(So sorry for the numerous postings in one day, but I finally downloaded the pix from my camera and wanted to get them all posted and recorded...)

Here's Andrew (33) and I (28) on our birthday...
I will say it's one thing to have a birthday the day after Christmas and something else to also share it with your spouse!
We had a good day...I shopped solo (have to hit those post-Christmas sales!), and we also went to the mall with the whole fam later on in the afternoon. From there we dropped the kids off at my Mom's and went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse--so yummy. We had plans to also see a movie, but we weren't really dying to see anything in particular and instead went back to Mom's to include the girls in our birthday celebration by going out for ice cream. The night before Lily had asked what kind of cake we were going to have, but neither of us wanted to have a cake, and I know she was bummed that we weren't having a party. It sucks for the kids too because they only get one birthday to celebrate for both parents, and for most kids...the more parties, the better. Oh well....that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and calls.

Christmas Morning

(I apologize for the smallness of the pictures in advance but wanted to post them as a collage rather than a running stream of individual photos.)
Christmas morning gets more fun as the girls get older. Luckily they are still too young to want to get up in the wee hours of the morning, so we didn't even get things rolling until 8:30 when Andrew got home from working an overtime shift from 4 am to 8 am.
The girls loved everything they received, although Lily had a little beef with Santa. She has been asking for a purple unicorn, and Santa was able to find a My Little Pony unicorn/pony that was white with purple hair and thought that would be sufficient. But as soon as Lily opened it she said, "Hey! This is not a purple unicorn--it's a white unicorn! (as if she'd been cheated somehow) After a little convincing and reassuring that it was still a purple unicorn (it had plenty of purple hair and purple sparkles on it's flank), she got used to the idea that she could live with it. (phew...Santa was worried that he'd already scarred her at 3 years old!)
Zoe just loved everything about everything...the unwrapping, the opening of the packages, the candy (esp. the candy!) and just loved the whole idea of what we were doing.
It's just so fun to experience Christmas from a child's point of view.
We are spoiled and are so grateful for the many gifts we enjoy not only at Christmas time but all year round...first and foremost, the gift of a tiny baby who came to earth to live as a mortal so that he could atone all mankind and lead us back to Him. Merry CHRISTmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent at our house. I had purchased a spiral ham which I cooked for dinner among other things. I invited Mom, Scott, Carter, Torrie and Hannah over to share it with us. We had a nice time visiting, and Mom gave the girls and I a present to open up that night....matching nightgowns/pajamas along with coordinating dolls. The girls were so pleased. I can't imagine the time that went into sewing them all, and I am amazed at my Mom's talent.

Christmas party

Here we are at my Mom's Christmas dinner/party on the 21st. We had yummy cornish game hens, exchanged sibling gifts, played games and got to hold the newest member of the Fedor clan, Finn.

Lily's Preschool Christmas Program

December 18, 2008, Clearfield City Library
This was truly an event that I wish I had on tape; however, after about 8 seconds of recording my camcorder ran out of juice, and all I have are still frames.
This was the typical preschool program you'd see on any Christmas movie but funnier because my daughter was involved. She was classic Lily and pulled an attitude during the first song, Jingle Bells, when the boy next to her picked up her jingle bells instead of his own. She was MAD and made sure the whole audience knew it. She would throw her hands in the air and would slap her knees repeatedly while scowling deeply, daring anyone to contradict her misery.
From that point on it just got more entertaining. Of course she was front and center and took the liberty of standing up whenever she pleased. The little kids around her were singing so well, and there was Lily, determined to NOT sing or participate because darnit! that boy took her jingle bells. The following song she was supposed to wear a large candy candy hooked around her face but she was still too mad and wouldn't do it. Finally, during a nativity song, she consented to wear what I thought was a camel, but instead of singing she proceeded to spit during the entire song. (Later I found out she thought she was a horse, and what do horses do? yeah, spit. *sigh*)
Then, as the well-constructed program came to a close, the singing teacher told the kids they had to sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas really loud or Santa wouldn't come. There was one little boy that I thought was going to pass out because he was singing his lungs out...almost literally. He was bright red in the face, and his mouth was stretched as physically possible for him. Unfortunately I missed much of his antics because I was trying to silently coax Lily to sing as well.
Then the man in the red suit came, and Lily wouldn't have any of that either. As you can see from the picture, I had to almost hold her on Santa's lap for the photo op that I think all parent's make their children do, happy or not. She reluctantly told Santa (but it was directed towards me, holding her on his lap) that she wanted a purple unicorn. That was all the conversation consisted of. Later Lily told me she didn't like Santa. (alrighty then...) Zoe did a little better. She at least sat solo, but once she discovered that he was much more scary in person than from far away, she wanted me. She did however, say thank you amidst her teary cries for the candy cane he gave her. Oh my, kids, kids....what do you do?
A memory for cherishing (and laughing at) for a long time.