As before, we got our kids advent calendars starting on December 1st. In Trader Joes, they sold out of their calendars the week they got them in! So instead we found some affordable ones in Cost Plus World Market. That was important since now we had four kids to buy calendars for!
Xiao Yu catches on real quick especially when it comes to food!
In addition, the girls also got a Playmobil advent calendar, which was a princess/fairy/unicorn set. They loved it. And Gabriel also spent plenty of time playing with it too.
In Karina's preschool, she also made up a sticker advent calendar, and she covered up the numbers leading up to Christmas with a sticker every day.
We got a wreath for the front of our house. The big question is always whether to hang the red bow at the bottom, or the top of the wreath. For this year, it was the top. And Karina also added her own touch...a little plastic heart.
We also decorated the requisite gingerbread house. It was the pre-built set from Costco which came with plenty of candy decorations.
The kids enjoyed decorating and didn't use or need almost any help or guidance from Mommy and Daddy.
Here is the finished product!
And we are getting ever closer to Christmas!
Gabey had his own advent calendar that he made in preschool as well. This is a Santa and he put green stickers on each day, because green is one of his favorite colors. (His other favorite color is orange, although recently he announced that black and brown were also his favorite colors too.)
We had several days that were very cold at night. We have a water table that is always outside and gets filled with rain. The girls went out to discover that the water had frozen into ice that was about 1/2 an inch thick!
They had fun smashing it onto the ground and stomping on the bits.
As we got closer to Christmas, it was time to buy presents. It is sometimes hard to think of a present to get Mommy, but when Costco started selling fleecy, super soft blankets, we knew that it was the perfect present for Mommy who always felt a little chilly in the house.
Karina was a good helper wrapping the present.
Gabey joined in to help.
The kids in preschool also had their end-of-the-year performances. Gabriel's class made head bands decorated with ornaments. But as you might recall, Gabey does not like wearing things on his head. And he also does not like going in front of class for performances.
So when his class marched in, his little lower lip was already quivering!
He sort of made it on the "stage" but then quickly crumpled and ran sobbing to Mommy's lap. Maybe next year!
We do have a wreath that he made in pre-school, with a cute little pursed lip smile that he has and which is very similar to a smile that Karina makes too.
After the performance was over that day, here is a picture in front of the school sign, with Gabey back to his usual self.
Also what has become an annual tradition is going to a harp concert in downtown Portland at night. It is put on by a family where the patriarch is a master harpist and harp maker. The matriarch plays the hammer dulcimer. All their children play multiple instruments and have married people who either sing and/or play instruments and/or dance extremely well. The show is very nice to watch and this is the third year that Elvin and Eliana have attended. Karina joined as well this year.
Here we are waiting for the show to start. We arrived early in order to go to the potty, as the entire auditorium has only two small bathrooms and there is always a line!
Here is the entire extended family. They are all very talented musicians.
Being our sleepy head, Karina was not able to stay awake until the end at 9:45pm. She zonked out!
On a different night, we piled all the kids into the car so that we could drive around and look at some houses decorated by lights.
Just within a few minutes drive from our house, we saw some amazing decorations.
Every square inch of this house was covered with lights. And their next door neighbor had a funny sign up...
The sign on the neighbor's house said "Ditto" and pointed to the other house!
Another thing that we do every year is to go to the Festival of Lights in the Grotto, which is a heavily wooded Catholic retreat site in the middle of Portland. Every year, they set up tons of lights and have concerts in their fancy mini-cathedral.
In the cathedral, we got seats in the 2nd story balcony. Various choirs came and went, singing Christmas-related songs.
There were lots and lots of lights set up.
We eventually made our way to the area that had puppet shows. We were a bit early so killed time by taking silly photos...
Here is Gabey crinkling his nose.
Here he is being silly.
Just like last year, the kids enjoyed the puppet show more than the parents.
The petting zoo area is also a hit with the kids. Xiao Yu is totally fearless.
How many animals can he touch? As many as possible!
After washing our hands from the petting zoo, we headed out and the way out always has an interesting display of lights.
After 5 minutes of coaxing and herding, we got a picture with all the kids. As you can see, Gabey is actually wearing a jacket! This is a new development--that he is willing to wear a jacket.
We paused on our way out to watch a person play the hammer dulcimer, which he plays by hitting two thin "drumsticks" onto the strings that are stretched across the board.
And we also got the kids to take a picture in front of the lighted Christmas tree.
On the night before Christmas Eve, our church had a service which we attended.
The kids were invited to go up to take part in a re-enactment of the Christmas story. Only Eliana went up and the rest of the kids wanted to stay with us.
And then Christmas Eve had finally arrived! The kids came downstairs to find the tree full of presents! This year, we had decided that we did not enjoy staying up past midnight wrapping presents. So we make it a point to be diligent about spreading this work out over several nights so that by Christmas Eve, the work was all done!
Of course, the kids admired the presents, touched them, and shook them to see if they could divine what contents they held.
In preparation for the guests that were coming the next day, the kids started making Christmas cookies. Xiao Yu caught on fast and helped to roll the sugar cookies into the bowl of sugar.
Mommy did the trickier task of rolling out the spice cookies to cut out with cookie cutters.
But the kids were very helpful in picking out shapes and cutting them out.
In the evening, Eliana insisted on leaving out a glass of milk and a plate of cookies for Santa. Even though we have not emphasized the "Santa story" at our house, she has absorbed it enough from her teachers and classmates to the point where she is not sure whether Santa visits our house or not. Or she just wants to believe it really badly.
Here you go, Santa. (Or Mommy if she gets hungry later on that night.)
Later that night, Mommy and Daddy (or was it Santa?) filled the stockings. They always get one new book to read. Since they are not allowed to open up the presents in their stockings until they get permission, the book is meant to keep them occupied until then.
Finally! It was Christmas morning! The kids came down to find their stockings.
Here is Xiao Yu's first stocking! He's not too sure what is it, but has a feeling that it's something good!
Xiao Yu got chocolate letters in his stocking. It's a Dutch tradition to do this that we have incorporated into our family. (Emily lived with a Dutch family for a year while living in China.)
Eliana is excited because she got a can of root beer. Soda is definitely a special treat in this household that the kids love.
Gabriel dumped out his stocking...
And found a can of olives inside. Yay!
And a box of band-aids with Paw Patrol! This is a cartoon show that he likes to watch.
Eliana laid out her entire collection of loot from her stocking. Lots of stuff already!
In the kids' stockings was one of those light sticks that glow for hours and hours. Gabriel's was green, of course.
Xiao Yu's was yellow, because his cup is yellow, and his towel, so that is "his" color, in the color coding we do with the kids. He therefore thinks everything that is yellow belongs to him.
The kids had fun waving them around in the bathroom (which is the only room in the house with no windows.)
Also in the stockings were new ornaments. They are custom made and you can specify the name, of course, and also the hair color and skin tone. This is useful for our family since we're all different colors!
Here is the obligatory picture in front of the Christmas tree. We took about 50 pictures and this turned out to be the best one!
Now it was time to open presents!
Karina got a new taggie blankie! She had another one that she slept with every night. But we somehow lost it while we were in China! So we got her a new one.
Gabe got a toy set that has a helicopter, a jeep that shoots darts, and a dinosaur that roars. He plays with it a lot.
Karina got a dress and another identical dress, but doll-sized for her American Girl doll.
Eliana got a leopard print coat, which is what she wanted.
And Xiao Yu got a toy drill set that actually turns.
He got right to work!
Grandma got a present too!
And a calendar with pictures from the whole family.
Xiao Yu made himself right at home with one of his new trucks.
The kids have been addicted to the Octonauts TV show, which they watch online. Gabe was ecstatic when he saw he got one of the submarines.
And Eliana got new clothes for her Josefina doll, which she immediately started playing with.
Mommy got a new warm, fuzzy blanket...
But being a mom means that sometimes your children "borrow" your things when they need it.
Christmas Day also happens to be Grandpa's birthday, so the kids helped to decorate the cake.
Any sprinkles that spilled onto the counter was fair game for scavengers to pickup.
Here is the dessert spread...
And everyone started arriving for the evening feast of sweets...
And it's time to sing not only to Grandpa, but also to cousins Abby and Millie, whose birthdays are also at Christmas.
After singing, we dug in.
Some of us wore nicer clothes than others. (And some of us wore pajamas.)
And later on that night, the girls changed into their matching outfits. All in all, it was a very fun-filled Christmas day.
The next day, the cousins stopped by before their drive back up to Seattle. They brought their doggie, Asia, over who is a very nice and small dog. The kids love her.
Gabey saw the guitar stand that cousin Lena brought, so he decided to join in.
And Xiao Yu especially loved playing with Anders, who is very patient with him.
Several days later, Elvin's family came up from California to celebrate the holidays.
So the kids got to open a second round of presents, which they were completely ok with.
So Gabey got a Duplo vehicles set, to go along with the Duplo blocks we already have.
He also got another Octonaut submarine.
Karina got a building set with wooden blocks, a hammer, nails, and glue.
She started building stuff right away!
And made a train!
She also got a new Lego Friends set. Do you see a theme?
And Eliana got presents as well, plus red envelopes from Nai Nai.
Despite not being in the target demographic, we thought Xiao Yu would like a Hello Kitty yellow school bus. Both boys play a ton with Karina's Hello Kitty helicopter set and thought this would complement that well. It turned out that we were right.
And so after all the presents were open, the kids hung out and played with their new toys.
Xiao Yu enjoyed the extra attention from Yeh Yeh and Nai Nai.
And the girls did a special performance.
Here goes nothing!
Xiao Yu got decked out especially for this!
And here's a twirl from Karina. This is one of her special moves.
And all good things must come to an end. Eventually, Yeh Yeh and Nai Nai had to return to California.
We had a good Christmas and hope that you did too!
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