Dec 18 - 23 (Yikes)

Okay - we're falling apart a little bit here at the end. Mostly me with keeping up on posting our activities.

Sat Dec 18: We read a Christmas book together as a family. This time it was Curious George's Christmas.

Dec 19:We were just really busy working on Simon's bunk beds this day but, hey, we were all down in the garage working together so that was our family activity for the day.

Dec 20: We watched A Year Without a Santa Claus in the evening.

Dec 21:We went to Zoo Lights with Grandpa Wise-- hot cocoa, popcorn, saw some monkeys, fish, giant anaconda. It was a really great time. Wish I had remembered to bring the camera but oh well.

Dec 22: We all worked on a Christmas present for Grandpa Wise. When I was a little girl he always had me make pomander balls for my grandparents so we are working on making one for him. Every one of us worked for a while (and its still not quite done!)

Dec 23: Had cookies and hot cocoa with the Schaefers. Simon kicked the baby, intentionally. It was horrible. HORRIBLE. He was mad because his turn for holding the baby was over and so he kicked at her. It was more of a shove with his feet but it was still horrible. He has some real jealousy issues because he thinks that Lily got her baby sister for Christmas and he wants a baby sister for Christmas. I have tried to tell him that the baby isn't Lily's Christmas present but I don't think he believes me. On the upside, Ike had excellent behavior all day today. Considering how much trouble he has been giving us at school this year I am going to focus on being happy about that and not thinking about how my youngest son enjoys kicking babies.

December 15-17

On December 15, we .. huh.. I have no idea.

On December 16, we opened an early Christmas gift from Duane's sister and her family. It was the game Busytown and since playing a game as a family was one of the things on our list we figured that was a good choice. The kids loved the game. We played it twice through and I played it again twice this morning with Simon while Ike was at school.

Tonight (December 17) we donated gifts to Oregon foster kids. I really tried to get gifts that were for older kids because I figured even fewer people would remember them. Ike was really enthusiastic about the whole experience and thinking about nice things that teenagers would like and he picked out a dart board. (Safety darts.)

Simon was pretty much not there at all. I think 3 1/2 is a little young to be able to think about other people's situations. He is still working on remembering that it hurts other people when he hits them. However, he did pick out a really cute Cars paint set and even though I was planning to aim older we went with it, since he at least was participating.

We also got a Harley Davidson 1500 piece puzzle and a chess & checkers set. Its harder than I thought to pick out stuff for older kids because a lot of the things aimed at teenagers requires other equipment -- video games, music, etc. Nothing would be more depressing than getting a dvd and not having a dvd player to watch it on.

What the heck did we do on Wednesday. I really have no recollection ... oh wait. We built Christmas scenes out of Legos. Well, I built a nice sleigh complete with Santa and a reindeer. Simon played with the sleigh, and Duane and Ike build spaceship "death wagons." Oh well, family time is family time.

Dec 13 & 14

Weekdays are always a little harder to squeeze in our family Christmas activity. However, yesterday we decorated the tree. It was horrible at first. Simon was just being a giant pill. He was whining and grabbing and doing all sorts of naughty things. We actually had to take a break to regroup because both Duane and I were just fed up and not enjoying ourselves.

We did come back and have a good time decorating the tree. I guess that is just part of family activities. I always think about how fun it will be and it really irks me when the kids have bad behavior on something I am doing that I feel is a treat for them. I try to remember that the activity doesn't have to go the way I planned it to go for it to still be fun.

Today we addressed and stuffed the envelopes for our Christmas cards. They are awesome again this year -- no thanks to me at all. That is all Duane. The boys are featured in disguise on the front cover. Ike's kindergarten teacher didn't even realize it was them on the cover!

And now I am OFFICIALLY caught up on documenting our Advent activities AND I don't have to go to work tomorrow so WOOHOOO!

December 12 Tree & Train

Most of this post is going to be dedicated to our official annual tradition of getting a Christmas Tree with the Schaefers. We started this tradition in 2007 the year after we moved out to Oregon and they year that Simon was born. The first 2 years of our tree-getting the Schaefers forgot to bring cash to get the tree. It was especially hilarious the second year because Elizabeth told me had pointedly got out cash just for the trip and then she totally forgot it. (They have brought cash both the last 2 year.)

Our group has increased significantly in population and mass. The first year Simon was a BABY, Ike was a toddler and Lily was there but not visible. (Elizabeth was about 3 months pregnant.)
This year baby Violet made it just in time to be visible in the picture! Enjoy checking out our families' growth.





Okay - now as I look at these pictures, I am forced to ask, "Do I OWN another coat?" I am the only person in the same coat year after year. I do like it that the coat Ike is wearing in the first picture is the same one Simon is wearing in the latest picture.

Since this post is technically about tree & train -- we also rode the Holiday Train out of Oaks Park in Portland with my dad on Sunday Afternoon. We had a really nice visit and the kids had a great time checking out the train and enjoying the surprise visit from Santa Claus. I got a couple pictures but most of them I already posted on facebook.

Saturday December 11 Puzzle & Stocking

Duane had a puzzle made out of last year's Christmas card -- it was such a favorite with the kids. They both have all the words memorized still. Here is a picture of the original card and one of the boys checking out the finished product.




















We broke out the "big" Christmas box in the afternoon and the boys hung up their stockings. I can't believe how grown-up and tall Ike looks in this picture.

Dec 6 - 10

This week was finals week and I got a little behind on both posting and actually doing family activities. We did manage the following:

• Dec 6: we all ate candy canes.
• Dec 7: we drove around and looked at Christmas lights
• Dec 8: we put up our nativity set. (This one deserves a picture. I am going to put some garland, etc. up once we break out the big Christmas box.)
  

Then December 9 hit. Simon's preschool is not open after the students are done with finals week. This is probably fine for them but its not great for me. I had what seemed like a million tests to grade and paperwork to do and a 3 year old helper. There are some things you can get done with a 3 year old and some you can not. Grading falls in to the latter category. So basically as soon as Duane got home from work both days, I went to work to get all the things done I couldn't do during the day and sadly, the family activities fell by the wayside.

HOWEVER, we are doing double duty this weekend to make up for our lapse. We have 4 really great activities already planned. (One we already did.) Stay posted for a weekend update on Sunday night.

December 5

I was planning to have us take a Poinsettia to Great-Grandma today but Duane has caught a bug and I didn't want him to pass it on to her so I took it by myself. We'll have to replace that activity with something else. We did listen to Christmas music. There was even some dancing including twirls and dips.

December 4 -- Baking Christmas Cookies

Just a few photos to show:

The boys were lots of help:

And here are the cookies before they went into the oven. Please notice the no-legged gingerbread man and his "bloody stump" next to him. This is how cookie baking goes when you live with all boys.

Dec 2 & Dec 3

On December 2nd, we read a Christmas book together as a family. No, not an old classic. In fact, we read "Aliens Love Panta Claus". Its actually pretty cute.





On December 3 we drank eggnog. This was definitely not one of my suggestions since I absolutely hate eggnog but I choked it down in the name of family togetherness.

Francis Family Advent Activites

Simon's preschool teacher recommended that all the parents create a calender of 25 family activities. The idea is that these are big or little things the family can do together. In a car ride about a week ago, we came up with our activities. Ike actually really contributed a lot of good ideas. Simon had a couple that we made workable.

The original idea in the class is that you would list one for each day. Well, I know us and I also know that especially while I am finishing up winter term its really hard to predict which days we will have time and energy for a big activity and which days we won't so I made a chart instead. There are 25 activities on the chart and we are going to put a Christmas sticker over each activity as we do it. A few of the activities are scheduled so I noted those with a particular date.

Here's the chart:

Francis Family Advent Planner

(Activities for the whole family to do together.)

Ride the Christmas Train With Grandpa (12/12)	Have a Festivus Party (12/23)	Watch “Elf”	Bake Christmas cookies.	Look at Christmas lights.
Get a Christmas Tree with the Schaefers (12/5)	Mail the Christmas cards.	Do a Christmas puzzle.	Drink eggnog.	Purchase and donate Christmas presents for foster kids.
Donate unused toys to Goodwill.	Listen to Christmas music.	Put up the nativity set.	Put up the stockings.	Go bowling.
Go to Grandma & Grandpa’s Christmas party. (12/24)	Bring a poinsettia to Great-Grandma.	Eat candy canes.	Watch “A Christmas Story.”	Drink hot cocoa.
Build Christmas scenes out of Legos	Read Christmas stories.	Go to Zoo Lights.	Play a game as a family.	Write a Christmas story.

What did we do on Dec 1? Watched Elf -- son of a nutcracker!