The Twelve Days of Christmas According To Timothy

12 Robbers Robbing

11 Diapers Diaping

10 Lords of Leaping

9 Dancers Dancing

8 Macers Milking

7 Swams of Fimming

6 Easily-ing

5 Gold Rings

4 Polly Birds

3 Wrench Hens

2 Turtle Bobs

And a cartridge in a pantry!

Belated holiday pictures

I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures from last month. The good news is that now I not only know how to use the new camera (more or less) but I also know how to rotate pictures from my laptop. We'll all hope this means more consistent blogs.

Right before Christmas, we went downtown with our friends Javier and Sonia and tried out the ice skating rink. We picked a great night. The outside temp was in the low 50s, and we didn't freeze waiting in line for our skates! Here we are with the giant tree.

Chris figured out the timer on the camera! Group shot!

Javi and Chris put on their skates...

While Timothy waits, semi-patiently.

So here's where the score stood: Gabe and I are experienced ice skaters. Chris admits to having skated a few times in childhood, and later recalled that he stopped because he wasn't very good at it. Javier, Sonia and Timothy had never skated before.

Here are the boys, ready for action.

Javier and Sonia, on the ice. They look like pros, don't they?

Timothy wasn't doing so well skating with Chris. It turned out he needed a little direction. Once I told him to move his feet one at a time and not at the same time, he did a very good job skating. It was still exhausting, trying to keep him upright.

Gabe was much easier to skate with. We had an arrangement. If he fell, I was letting go of his hand to avoid going down with him. If I fell, I was going to try to land on him to cushion my fall. Luckily, we didn't have to test this arrangement.

Everyone but Gabe and me gave up before too long. It was pretty crowded and I didn't blame them.

The lights were really pretty.

Downtown lights and Christmas lights!

One last shot of the pretty blue trees

And of course, the giant Nutcracker!

We had a really good time and will probably go again next year, if they set up the rink again. But if we do, I think I'll make Chris bring a few pillows to strap on him for padding!

The spirit of the season?

Yesterday I sat down with the kids to try to get an idea of what their Christmas wishes might be. In their favor, neither of them has really asked for much lately. I appreciate that, but it makes Christmas shopping hard. So Gabe got out a notebook and pencil, and we sat down to write lists.

Gabe's list contained several toys and games. Fine, they were all reasonable. Then he wrote down one that wasn't. "Internet access" Um, no. His uncle, who was on the phone with Chris at the time, quipped, "Why not ask for a car, too?" Don't tempt him, Jon, don't tempt him.

Timothy's list...well, there isn't a whole lot I can do with that. He wants the following items: bug spray so he can kill bugs by himself, air freshener for his room, which he informs me smells "beige", Mozilla Firefox (I'm 100% sure he has NO idea what this is, it just sounded neat), a laptop, a game system, movies on video that we already own on dvd, and a book about Santa Clause feeding some animals. Let's just say he's not going to get much on his list. The good news is that being four, he won't remember what he asked for next week. At least, I sincerely hope he won't!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was very exciting for the boys. Timothy had asked Santa for a real camera and a fishing pole. He got both, although the fishing pole was part of a fishing game. He was thrilled. At some point, I may have to post his view of Christmas. I'll warn you, though, it includes mostly pictures taken up peoples' noses, or rear views of anyone who dared bend over in his vicinity.

Gabe asked Santa for an aquarium and a hammer. We sincerely hope he doesn't plan to use them together.

Gabe got a letter from Santa, which included a gift card to the pet store, so he could fill his aquarium with fish.

Timothy LOVES this game. He's getting pretty good at it, too. His favorite thing is to catch the fish and then brush their teeth for them. I have strange kids.

Catch of the day!

More presents!

Love those happy faces!

After presents, it was time to head to Mama T and Popple's house for...MORE PRESENTS!

Gabe got stilts! This provided entertainment for everyone. Even dad got up on them. Not to worry, there were no holiday visits to the ER. Gabe is a little shocked to find out that I used to be pretty good on stilts when I was a kid. I must be getting old.

Here's Aaron, in the hat that I made for him.

And Patrick and Dre! Dre's trying on the Lace Scarf of Doom that I made for her. OK, Doom may be putting it a little strongly. It came out fine. And hey, I learned lots about lace!

I know, I know, small children shouldn't be allowed to play with plastic bags. He was being closely supervised. The blocks are one of Timothy's favorite gifts. He's been building all kinds of fantastic things with them.

Gabe got some legos. He's been collecting the Indiana Jones set. It didn't take him very long to get the whole thing put together.

Yet again, I somehow managed to avoid the camera. But we ALL had a very nice Christmas, and received great gifts. I got some new knitting books that I've been wanting, and lots of lotion and bath stuff in my favorite scent. I also got pig socks. I'll have to take a picture of them. They make me laugh. Chris got some of the nicest kitchen knives I've ever seen. He's been practically giddy about cooking dinner lately. If you hear manly giggles coming from the kitchen, it's probably just him dicing some potatoes or something!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was quiet and peaceful. The mail came late, so at about sundown, the boys received a mysterious package from Norway! My dear friend, Elin (itisalwaysraining from Ravelry), had sent them a package of treats from Norway and Sweden. There were LOTS of sweets for them to sample. They are still enjoying them! She also sent me some wonderful alpaca yarn, and a sample of her beetroot dyed yarn! It was a great surprise for the boys, and so exciting that it arrived on Christmas Eve!

Both boys really enjoyed the little gummy monkeys. Gabe was really fascinated by the languages on the wrappers of the candy.

"I don't know what this is, but if it's candy, I LIKE IT!"

"Mmmmm! Chocolate!"

Timothy is such a clown! My friend, Nichole, gave him a Santa Clause Mr. Potato Head. Here he is modeling the beard and lips. We weren't sure whether he looked more like Santa...or Hannibal Lector!

We always let the kids open a gift before bed on Christmas Eve. This year, I was suprised by a gift for ME! Chris wrapped it REALLY well, so it took me a long time to open it. It was new pajamas! Thanks, Mom!

One of my Christmas projects was to make all three of my boys pajama pants. OK, Mom helped. If you must know, she helped a lot. So now it makes sense why she got me pajamas, too! She already knew I was going to have the boys open theirs on Christmas Eve. Here's Gabe opening his.

...And Chris, opening his!

And Timothy! (The boys had just gotten out of the shower, thus the wet hair, and in Timothy's case, lack of clothing!)

My men.

Timothy decorated an Advent calendar at school and enjoyed putting a numbered sticker on it every night. Now he can't count to 25!

He also made "reindeer feed" to put on the lawn. It was oats and glitter, mixed together. The oats were for the reindeer to eat, and the glitter was to make a sparkly runway for Santa so he would be sure and stop.

Timothy was pretty excited about sprinkling it all over the front yard.

Not to worry, I know it looks cold, but it was actually a very mild evening.

A little help from Daddy.

I'll refrain from posting the video of Chris locking me out on the porch and making me dance to get back inside.

Drowning in pictures...

I finally dumped the camera card, and was a bit shocked to realize how long it's been since I've added any pictures. More shocking still was how many pictures we've taken since late August. Ah, the digital age. Remember how we used to be careful about how many pictures we took? Worried about wasting film? Those days are gone! I figured I'd better start with recent shots and go back before time gets away from me. So without any further ado...Christmas doings.

Timothy REALLY enjoyed decorating the tree this year. Moses really enjoyed undecorating it. Such is life.

Here it is! Somehow, we missed an entire box of ornaments. By the time I found them, there was no room left on the tree. We have a lot of ornaments.

We were late getting in to see Santa this year, and Timothy talked of little else for at least two weeks. He was so excited to sit on Santa's lap. And yet, you'll notice where he's sitting. Uh huh. Santa in person was a lot scarier than Santa in his imagination, it seems.

We did get around to making some Christmas cookies. Gabe really enjoyed the whole process, and is old enough to be very helpful, and make some fun cookies.

Timothy, on the other hand, had only one point of interest. Eating the cookies was his top priority. He cried when we put the dough in the oven. Said he didn't want his cookies hot!

He decorated exactly one cookie, and as soon as he was done dumping sprinkles, he ate it.

Gabe helped me decorate the rest. He did a great job. I'm still finding sprinkles all over the house.

"SPRINKLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"