Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year!)  We had a busy month of December that was filled with fun activities for the kids…

On December 1st, they came downstairs to find advent calendars out, one for each of them.  They got cardboard ones with little windows for each day and behind the windows is a little chocolate.

We also have a wooden Christmas tree calendar where you hang a tiny ornament each day of the month.

The weekend after Thanksgiving Elvin went out with the girls to buy a Christmas tree.   We walked around the lot and the girls had no shortage of opinion as to which tree should be chosen.  Eliana was mostly concerned that the tree needed to have a pointy top to hold the tree topper.

 Here they are watching our tree's stump get trimmed by the chain saw.

When we got home, Karina "helped" to get the tree off of the van.  Notice the snow on the ground--this was after we had the cold spell with an inch of snow that stuck around for days.

And here is our tree all set up and ready to be decorated.  We waited for a day to decorate it to let Gabriel get used to the tree and to let the novelty wear off.  One unrealized fear we had was that he would attack and try to climb the tree (like he does everything else in the house) and topple it onto himself.  We were hoping to desensitize him.

That night after Gabey went to bed, the girls took an early bath and then got to stay up late to help decorate the tree.  The colored lights mesmerized them for a while.

 They made quick work of the lights and garland.

Then they helped to hang up the ornaments.  The fragile ones when up high where Gabey can't reach them.

And as the grand finale, Eliana got to put the star on top of the tree.  This is a very special thing to them.  Karina got to do this last year and Eliana made sure we didn't forget that this year, it was HER TURN.

 As a consolation prize, Karina got to hang up a giant plastic snowflake that I have no idea where we got.

 But the girls think it's pretty cool.

We also got the other decorations out, like the glockenspiel.  You might remember that last year, our little engineer Karina was fascinated with this and twirled the little people to make the blades spin.  Well, this year was no different...

And they helped to set up the little nativity scenes that Emily has collected over time…this one is one that we got in Brazil when we visited before Eliana was born.

So how did the tree fair with Gabriel around?  Not too badly.  Yes, he pulled on the lights and the garland.  Yes, he had fun pulling off all ornaments within reach and throwing them on the floor.  But at least the did not pull the tree onto himself so we were happy about that.

Of course, with all the kids fiddling around the tree, it ended up dropping a lot of needles on the ground.  So Elvin had to vacuum every so often and Karina would pitch in.  Here, she is wearing her ear protectors that she wears when there is loud noise that she doesn't like.  

And it took a while, but we were able to get some good pictures of the kids in front of the tree…

Emily came up with the idea of using our piano bench for the kids to sit on.  Gabriel, at least, would tend to wiggle less when we put him on the bench.

It was much harder to get pictures of two or more kids, where they were all looking generally in the direction of the camera and looking decent...

One hundred takes later, we got this one!

We had Eliana make Christmas cards for some of her teachers.  Here is one she is making for her piano teacher.

Lots of supplies to make just a few cards!

The week before Christmas, we visited the Grotto, which is a forested area inside of Portland that is sort of a Catholic retreat site.  Monks and nuns still live there and every year, they decorate it with lights...

It was pretty cold so we bundled up.  But unlike last year when it was pouring rain, at least the weather was dry.

There was a big nativity scene that the kids enjoyed looking at.  Gabriel thought all the animals were horses, but although he was doing the sign for "horse" he would say "baaah baaah."  He has his animals a little mixed up right now.

We went inside the mini-cathedral to hear a choir from a Polish church sing.

Gabriel was only semi-impressed with this.

They also had a petting zoo which was probably the girls' favorite part.

And here is one last picture before heading home.  The girls refused to smile for the camera.

As Christmas approached, the presents started accumulating under the tree.  Those two ginormous boxes were a doll bed and a doll crib that we got for Eliana and Karina.  Every morning after waking up, Karina would ask "Is it Jistmas today?"  She unfortunately doesn't yet get the concept of days and time...

On Christmas Eve, we were planning on heading to church for the Christmas Eve service.  But before doing that, we let each of the kids one up one present.

We got a present out for Gabriel to open but it was hard to convince him to tear the paper.  This was because all week long, he would take a present and start to tear the paper, and Emily would immediately rush over to say "no no no".  He took this to heart and in his head, thought that you shouldn't be tearing wrapping paper off of these boxes...

We had Gabriel open up a present that we thought all the kids would enjoy, which was a set of magnetic rods and balls that you can use to build towers or bridges.  Gabriel takes one ball (about the size of a golf ball), sticks it to a rod about the length of a pencil, and pretends it's a microphone and says "goggle goggle goggle".

The girls got Minnie Mouse dolls from their cousins Abby and Millie who had recently visited Disney World.

In the evening, we went to church where they saw their little friends.  We had the kids take a picture in front of the tree even thought we knew there was no chance that all the kids would look at the camera all at once.

And they went to bed that night…  Eliana was beside herself with anticipation and didn't fall asleep until past ten, which is about an hour later than her usual bedtime.

The next morning, Eliana and Gabriel woke up at their normal time but couldn't open their stockings until their sleepyhead sister woke up too.  Gabriel found the candy canes, though and started gnawing on them through the plastic wrapping.

Emily did have a new toy train out to keep them entertained while they waited for Karina to come down.

Can you see how Eliana was dying with anticipation?

FInally Karina woke up.  She would have probably laid in bed for another half an hour (she tends to do that) but we got her out.  Grandma and Grandpa had also arrived to watch the kids open presents.

Once things got rolling, Karina got into it.  In their stockings, the girls got flashlights, toy airplanes made out of balsa wood that you build, a book, a new toothbrush, band-aids, and other treasures.

After stockings were done, we ate a yummy breakfast of bacon and cinnamon rolls--Eliana has declared that this is our Christmas breakfast tradition.  Another tradition that Eliana said we should continue is to read the Christmas story after breakfast and before opening presents, so that we would remember what Christmas is all about...

And then the fun began…

Probably Gabriel's favorite toy was a box full of cooking utensils that Emily bought at Target, Walmart, and Bed Bath & Beyond.  He loved it!

And here's a video showing him trying out his new spatulas…sort of like a pro tennis player trying out a new set of tennis rackets...

Eliana got something she'd be asking for for months…an American Girl doll named Josefina.  Eliana has been listening to books on tape about Josefina since this summer.

Here is Eliana barely able to contain herself.

Here is the doll, along with the bed.  Emily sewed the blanket for the doll and Emily's friend from church made the pillow and mattress.

Here is the crib that Karina got for her Bitty Baby doll (which she already owns) along with some new outfits for the baby doll.

And Karina also got her very own nightgown.  Eliana has quite a few nightgowns, which Karina really likes and will sometimes wear.  This new nightgown, however, are just the right size for Karina unlike the much too long ones of Eliana's.

The girls also got slippers to keep their feet warm.  We decided not to get a pair of these for Gabriel.

Elvin got a canvas bag that he will use to take his lunches to work.  It was decorated by the kids.

Gabriel also got a set of nuts and bolts that you screw on and off.  What did he do with them?  Pour them into his frying pans and started stir frying them, of course!

And here is the living room after the present opening event...

After lunch and naps, we headed over to Emily's parent's house for Christmas dinner.  Emily's older sister had come down from Seattle with her family, so our kids had cousins to play with.  As you can see, both girls had to sit next to Lena at dinner.

And, here is Gabriel, eating his usual fare of fruit, fruit and bread.

He is really into frozen blueberries at the moment….

Emily's Dad's birthday is on Christmas Day, so after dinner, we got to the really good part, according to our kids:  birthday cake!  Here is Eliana digging in...

The next day, we went bowling with the cousins who were in town.  There is a bowling alley right by our house, and they have lanes with bumpers, and also a special metal ramp you can roll your bowling ball down, if you can't throw it very hard.  This means the bowling is more about the aim of the "adult" setting up the frame, than any skill of the child's.  So, cousin Anders (who is 13) got to help out a lot, and had fun lining up the ramp for the girls.

Our best shot of the 4 cousins…Gabriel was EXHAUSTED at this point, and not sitting for a picture.

A day or two later, it was time of the tree to come down, and to put away all the Christmas decorations.  Eliana was a bit traumatized by this, and cried about how much she would miss the tree.

Elvin suggested we cut off a branch, and choose a few of her ornaments, and we'll keep that for awhile, to ease the pain.

This "tree" is still on our piano, but other than that, we have just about wrapped up the Christmas season.  We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!