I was working on this post during the week, but decided to post the Christmas post before I finished this one, so it’s slightly out of order, but at least it’s all here. This is the third post today, so be sure and go to the previous page to see our early Christmas yesterday./
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/Our Christmas tree went up 2 days before Thanksgiving. Adam was home and willing to pull it out. Who would turn that down? I loooove our Christmas tree. Brinlee is helping daddy put on an ornament./
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/Mommy and Kimball putting ornaments on the tree./
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/Mommy and Brinlee hanging stockings. Since we moved the couch in front of the fireplace to keep the kids out of it, we had to clear everything off the mantle. They like to climb up on the top of the couch and pull things down. So the stockings are hanging on the entertainment center, the final safe frontier…for now. /
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/Mommy and Sawyer hanging ornaments./
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/Liz got to hang ornaments all by her big self./
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/The other night we were having tacos for dinner, and Brinlee looked down at her plate and said, “Baby chicken!” Well, no, that’s not a baby chicken tonight, but sometimes it is. I guess the connection between the cute fuzzy birds and dinner isn’t a problem for them./
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/At church we went to a Breakfast with Santa. Since they were likely to have bread products for breakfast, we went late. I didn’t want to try to keep wheat products away from Kimball or make him feel bad that he couldn’t participate. We got there in time for the story time. All the kids were sitting in a circle listening to “Twas the night before Christmas” and playing that game of passing the present when the storyteller says, “Ho, Ho, Ho.” Our kids weren’t so hip on passing it when they were supposed to, so there were a few objections when we helped them pass it on. At the end of the story one little girl got to open the present and there were lots of little presents inside for everyone. We picked out bubbles, which they love. /
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/That’s when Santa appeared and told a story about his Christmas chest and the different symbols of Christmas. While we waited to approach Santa (because I already knew there would be no sitting on the lap), we blew bubbles for them to play with. We waited until the other kids had had a chance to sit on Santa’s lap. We were holding them, and as we got close, Brinlee started waving her hand in Santa’s face and shouting, “No. No. No. No.” Kimball was slightly hysterical as he screamed, “All done! All done! All done!” Sawyer just wrapped his legs around my thigh and semi-incapacitated me. Caisen grinned and cooed and happily sat on Santa’s lap./
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/Listening to Santa tell a story (sort of)/
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/Waiting to visit Santa (sort of)/
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/Playing with bubbles while we wait. The look on Kimball’s face is pure joy. I love it./
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/Sawyer found the storyteller’s books./
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/Our first time sitting on Santa’s lap this year. We had a death grip on them to keep them from running as far away as possible./
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/”Your beard looks fake.”/
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/”How much will you give me if I rip his beard off?”/
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/After breakfast with Santa we went to an outdoor shopping center to look for something. They had a local high school band playing Christmas music. It was really nice, so we stopped to listen to them. When they finished, Liz and I started clapping and trying to get the kids to clap, which they wouldn’t. When they took too long switching sheet music, Brinlee shouted, “Mo music!” They also had a Santa and reindeer walking around. The kids thought the reindeer was a dog and kept calling it “Nice doggie!”/
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/When Adam calls for me from downstairs, the kids will repeat after him, “Eepo! Eepo!” Now, in the morning or during nap, I hear Sawyer calling for me, “Eepo! Eepo! Liz! Eepo Mommy! Eepo Mommy!” /
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/The kids love toast. Normal buttered bread will no longer satisfy them. It has to be toast. We haven’t even introduced them to the joys of cinnamon toast or honey toast. They must like the crunch./
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/Brinlee has started saying, “OH NO!” for everything. Her shoe comes off, “Oh no!!” Her banana is all gone, “Oh no!”/
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/I sold the choochoo wagon, and I nearly cried when he drove away. With four heavy kids, it has gotten too heavy to pull, and with four cars, it’s difficult to navigate in stores. We haven’t used it very much lately, and we don’t really have anywhere to store it. If we leave it out, the kids pull it and get it stuck and yell when they can’t get it out. It’s been in the garage between our cars, and we’ve been tripping over it. I didn’t think we’d part with it so soon. I wasn’t really ready for that, but it had to happen./
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/The final voyage. :(/
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/Whatcha doin Caisen?/
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/”I found their secret stash!”