Christmas preparations

Before we knew it...it was December already.  And December 1 was a day Gabe has been waiting for for a long time...because that was the day the kids got their advent calendars.

Gabe was the first kid to wake up, and examines the loot laying on the table...

In addition to an Advent calendar that gives you a daily chocolate, each kid also got another Advent calendar.  The boys got a Lego Advent calendar and each day, you get a little toy to put together.

Karina's 2nd Advent calendar is a Playmobil one.  And Eliana got an Advent calendar that everyday gives you a new charm you can add to a charm bracelet and charm necklace.  We actually got the charm and Playmobil Advent calendars for both girls to share, but Eliana likes jewelry more and Karina likes toys more and so they decided to each have one.

Last weekend was the only weekend before Christmas we were free, so despite the rain and soggy weather, we headed out to the tree farm to get our tree.  Despite appearances, the kids really are excited about it!

As you can see, the pickings were a little slim this year.  Xiao Yu doesn't seem to mind though!

The struggle is that the kids want to pick the tree.  And they all have different ideas about which tree they want.  And they don't really care about whether the tree is symmetrical, shaped well, or any such nonsense like that...  You can see Gabe gesticulating that he wants a YUUUUUGE tree.

Knowing that whatever tree is selected is a compromise between everyone's opinions, Eliana decided that she wanted her own tree.  At which point all the other kids said they wanted their own tree too.  That idea, needless to say, didn't go anywhere.

Finally, three out of the four settled on a certain tree.

After much huffing and puffing, Elvin finally fells the tree.

Elvin's jeans were soaked from having to kneel in the mud to cut it down.  It also turns out that for some reason, while at the station where they shake and then bale the tree, there was a mix-up and someone else walked away with our tree.  And so we brought home the next one that they baled and it was one that we didn't select.  It turned out to be the perfect size (we were afraid that the one the kids chose was too tall) and very nicely shaped!  We feel sorry for whoever took home our tree thinking it was theirs.  (Also, we have not told the kids about this turn of events and the only way they will find out is by reading this blog!  Hopefully that doesn't happen until after Christmas!)

And then came time to decorate the tree.  First went on the lights.

Then the tinsel.  Karina wrapped herself in tinsel.

And then it was Eliana's turn.  The pink and orange things in her hair are curlers.  She has them on because her hair needs to be curled for the musical theater show that she is in.

Once the lights were on, then it was time for the ornaments.  Each kid has their own shoebox full of "their" ornaments that they've been accumulating since they were babies.  When one of the boys complained that they didn't have as many as the girls, Karina, our matter-of-fact person in our family, answered back: "Well you haven't been alive as long as us."

Here is Xiao Yu re-acquainting himself with his ornaments.

Eliana dangled her ornaments on her fingers.

And now it's finally looking like a real Christmas tree!

And the final touch--the star on top.  The kids fight over this privilege every year.  

And also the Christmas village got set up on top of the piano.

And the stockings were hung.  Santa, we're ready for you to pay our house a visit!

Eliana on stage...

If you remember, last year Eliana participated in a musical with the local youth theater group.  This year, she wanted to do that again.  She tried out a couple of months ago and got a part in the musical called Elf, Jr., which is based on the movie, Elf, starring Will Ferrell.

So she went to rehearsals regularly to learn her parts--she was an elf in Santa's workshop in the North Pole.  And also she was a "New Yorker"--the movie takes place in New York and she is a person in the general crowd in New York.

Being an elf required that Eliana's hair be curly, for some reason.  And since she has really thick and straight hair, we had to buy these plastic curlers which go on wet hair and need to stay on till dry.  This meant that she sometimes went to bed with them on, which meant that she often had a hard time getting a good night's sleep.

Here she is with the curlers...you can see that she looks a little tired!

And when they came off, Eliana had curls!

Karina, of course, was watching the whole time and decided the SHE wanted curly hair too.  So on went the curlers...

And she got curls too!

A couple of weeks ago, the dress rehearsals started in earnest.  All the kids had to put on their costumes and so here is Eliana in her elf costume, which she really likes.  The people on the costume committee are all volunteers and very talented!

And then came the big night!  Elvin went on opening night and had a great time.

He was sitting in the fourth row and got to see everything up close.

Emily and the kids went the following week.  Here is Eliana on stage again, in her New Yorker garb.

And lots of friends from church also went to see the show.  

Eliana did a great job on stage and had a great time with the show!

Lost tooth!

For the past few weeks, Karina has had two teeth that are increasingly getting more wiggly.

And then just the other day, it came out at school!

So at night, she did NOT tuck the tooth under her bed.  She was paranoid about losing it (Daddy once flushed one of her teeth down the toilet--long story.)  So she made Elvin write a note to the tooth fairy  (which in our house is a tooth tiger fairy--another long story.)  The dictated note said: I don't want to lose my tooth so it's not under my pillow, but please leave the money anyways.

Pretty audacious but it worked!

The tooth tiger did come by, and dropped off a one dollar bill along with a note.

So here she is with a little gap now!