Merry Christmas

This year we redesigned Christmas. And it was so much fun. So much better, so much more practical, and so rewarding.

I have this problem. Christmas can be somewhat overwhelming. It isn't the traditions and activities that we do that overwhelmes me. It is all the gift wrapping. And the buying. And the making sure everything is fair and even. And with six children to wrap my brain around, not to mention staying within a budget, I feel like the spirit of Christmas kind of looses its piazzas. Or its feel. Or its  . . specialness. You get the point.

This year we made a rule for Santa. We please and kindly asked him that he only bring each child one gift from each of the following categories: READ it, WANT it, WEAR it, and NEED it. That meant 4 gifts per child from Santa total. That's it. Easy, simple, but still with much room to be ever so creative. And then Evan and I bought a gift for each child and each of the kids bought for each of their brothers and sisters. And, the older children had to pay for half of their gifts to everyone. That meant they had to spend within their means. And their means were minimal. It was GREAT!  

The kids had so much fun thinking about what they were going to get each other. Then we shopped, created, wrapped, and got so very excited.

Camie ended up getting Molly, an American Girl Doll. She was in heaven. She also got Rick Riordan's Son of Neptune. She got some clothes and a new bicycle helmet. Spencer gave her a horse to go with her doll. Taneal gave her some canvas boards to paint on.

Danielle got the roller blades she wanted along with a new bicycle helmet, some clothes and several pairs of shoes. Danielle tears through shoes like there is no tomorrow. She is rough on those shoes. Taneal got Danielle some body glitter perfume and Camie got her some makeup.

Taneal got a kindle for her "read it" She also got a straightener for her "want it" and some underwear for her "need it". Not really, she didn't get underwear. I just wanted a reaction from her as she read this post.

Spencer got some Star Wars toys. Camie got him a new Wii-mote so he could play his favorite Wii game, Lego Star Wars.

Here is Camie so excited to have Molly.

Nathan here opening the present from Spencer, a stick horse.

This is Nathan's present from TAneal. She sewed the boys super hero capes. She designed their logos and sewed them on. It took a lot of work, but that was the cool part because she really got to get into the spirit of Christmas.

Here is Spencer in his cape.

And here is Nathan. Yes, that is a censured block. He loves to strip down. And this is a mask he got from Santa. I couldn't resist getting a picture of the "real" Nathan. However, I didn't think it appropriate to share it completely with you readers.

I couldn't have been happier with Christmas this year. Love the new way of Santa only bringing the 4 gifts. And I know the kids all ended up getting a lot of gifts because all siblings bought for each others, but it really was so fun to see them come up with gifts that were well thought out. Christmas this year had a whole different feeling. In fact, I forgot to share how we managed it all. First the kids opened their stockings and Santa gifts. Then when all that was done, we took turns handing out our gifts so we could see what everyone got and also see the excitement of each other opening the well thought out gift.

Merry Christmas!

Towels

We go through a lot of towels in this home. If you figure 8 of us bathing daily, that's a whole lot of towels. To reduce the amount of laundry and towels I have to fold, I have tried to get my children to reuse their towels over the course of a week, to hang them to dry so they still smell nice. It is a challenge, one that only taneal has figured out. Day after day I go into Camie and Danielle's room and again, towels are strewn all over, left to sour.

Well, Danielle came to me last night bragging about how she doesn't even use a towel anymore. She said she just doesn't need one because she figured out a better solution. She said that after she is done showering, she does jumping jacks in the shower before she gets out which makes all the water fall off. Pretty genius.

So tonight she showered, came in to give me my goodnight hug, and drenched me with her hair. She obviously had skipped the towel dry method and used her new jumping jacks dry method.

She thinks it works pretty well!

Motivation

Mmmmm.... Breakfast

It's amazing what a little motivation can do to getting a clean house!

Pulling teeth

My kids are such wimps when it comes to pulling teeth. It's like pulling teeth around here to get them to pull their teeth! Danielle has had a super loose tooth for several weeks and refuses to let that thing come out. I am surprised she hasn't eaten it yet because it is so loose.

Tonight Evan managed to convince her to let him tie a string around the tooth. I think she may have to go to bed with that string still there because it is so tight around the trot and just plain stuck. She has been working with the tweezers for 20 minutes trying to untie the knot around the tooth.

Hopefully the tooth fairy can come tonight, but it is unlikely. Probably, she will take a bite of yogurt in the morning and swallow it.

Of course, taneal was the same way. I imagine I probably was too.

Really Cool Idea

I occasionally frequent Pinterest.com and see lots and lots of really cool ideas. Most of which are just that: really cool ideas that if I had maybe an extra few hours each day, I might get around to doing. But even then, I probably wouldn't have time.

But here is one that I did copy. A nail polish holder. You take a spice rack and put nail polish in it. I hunted and hunted all over the place trying to find a spice rack and finally resorted to Amazon. Two days later it was on my door step and a few days after that it was wrapped and under the tree for a Christmas present for Taneal. She LOVED the gift. We hung it in her wall Christmas day and now all her nail polish is organized and in view and out of little hands reach. Win-win all the way. And, it was only $14!

Nursing Mothers

Yes, I am one of them. I was blessed with good producing equipment that functions well. It may not "look" well, but it does its job. I am a nursing mother. I have been able to nurse all my babies till at least a year. That's a lot of months of nursing, at least 72 months of it. And I also know I was blessed because I know way too many mothers that really wanted to nurse, they really just couldn't for one very legitimate reason or another.

Because I have nursed babies for so long, when I ran across this comic, I really laughed. It is so true and also so unfortunate about our society. But it is what it is and this depicts our culture's view on the whole breast feeding thing.

Christmas Morning Breakfast

Saw this very cool idea on Pinterest and decided to impress my very-easy-to-impress children for breakfast Christmas morning. It was a hit.

Spencer Can Read

Spencer read his first book completely by himself tonight. I am a proud mamma. He is 5 and starts kindergarten next year. We have been doing the program Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons. It works. Even on boys. We are on lesson 91 of 100. And tonight he read the whole book Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss all by himself. Way to go spencer!