Catching-Up: Christmas Report

The Man of the House stepped out this evening to play tennis. He's earned it, that guy. He played Mr. Mom through a good part of December while I performed, shopped, practiced, worked, partied, and prepared. I hardly found time to blog, for heaven's sakes!

So here we are now, after the Christmas rush, finally having lots of together-time. Hooray! It feels good to have a mostly-clear calendar this week. We have a few projects and outings planned, but want to soak up the aimless kind of fun, too.

But let me back up. We did enjoy a sweet Christmas. Audrey was old enough to get into the Christmas scene in a big way. She loved singing Jingle Bells and That Reindeer Song over and over and over and over again. Jake got into the spirit of giving early in the month wrapping up interesting things from around the house using computer paper and staples (nothing says 'love' like clothespins for Dad).

On Christmas Eve the kids were making props for their nativity-play costumes. Jake, being a wise-man, made a toy structure to give the Baby Jesus. He said he wished there were a gift he could really give to Jesus, so I found the poem"What Can I Give Him" that ends like this: "What can I give Him? Give Him my heart." It was perfect, so we read it a few times. Then Audrey asked me to write a gift tag to Baby Jesus from her. I thought she was going to put it on a random gift, but instead she took the sticker, asked me where her heart was, and stuck it there on her shirt. I melted.

And that's about as good as it gets.

So on with the pictures...

little gift

decorating cookies for St. Nick

new jammies

Santa's goodies

air-hockey

playing with our homemade snow