The End Has Come

Christmas break, time with cousins, and the year itself has come crashing to the end.  We finished up our week with a few more fun family outings and as a little lagniappe, Scott's parents came back to visit us for a couple of days and brought Hannah and Jonah with them as well.

To back up, though, Ethan, Grace, and Sophie were swapped back home on Wednesday when Scott met up with Kristin, his mom, and the kids at our half-way meet up spot that afternoon.  Moods were running a little high that evening {TOTAL understatement alert}, as the (sleep-deprived) older ones had to adjust to being back home in our boring house with no cousins to hang out with and mean parents keeping them from doing what they really wanted.  It was a lot of fun.  The NEXT day, however, with everyone a little better rested and in fresher moods, we managed to have a nice, decompressing sort of day and finished the evening off with some Five Guys, bowling, and Barnes & Noble.  Everyone had fun with that.  Well, most everyone.  Isaac was still a mess and I was the lucky one on baby duty while everyone bowled, but with everyone happy and not fighting for once, I was okay with making that sacrifice.  ;)

Friday brought Grandma and Grandpa with Hannah and Jonah, and on Saturday, we all met up with Kristin and Blake (plus Sam and his girlfriend) to bowl some more and hang for a bit before they all had to head back home that evening.  {Which was New Year's Eve.}

I was a little worried that there would be some more unraveling once we were home -- you know, to our boring house with no cousins and mean parents -- but I think the excitement of the holiday was enough to keep everyone even-keeled and non-tropical-storm-y.  Movies were watched {we all LOVED "The Christmas Project" on Netflix}, a puzzle was worked on, and our annual "Year in Review" sheets were filled out.  An added bonus was the fun of reading through the last couple of year's worth of reviews that we found in the computer room while getting ready for our activity.  The kids always crack me up with their takes on the year, and it was even funnier to see their commentary and responses to their OWN reviews from years past.

To end this post and the year 2016, I leave you with What a Year it's Been...

 Name: Isaac

Age: 1

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Food: GoGoSqueeze yogurt

Favorite Activity: Climbing chairs and stools

Favorite Book:  Fa La La

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2016 --

Greatest lesson learned: If a door is open, run through it as fast as you can

Hardest thing of the year: Not climbing and falling off of things

Favorite memory: Getting out of car seat at end of road trip!

What I loved most about 2016: Learning how to walk so I could get where I want when I want

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2017 --

Want to learn: Talk in complete words and sentences

Want to get better at: Sleeping at night consistently (mom and dad might be projecting)

Biggest Goal: Climb on the countertop and not fall

 Name: Alex

Age: 5

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Food: Lucky Charms

Favorite Activity: Playing Mario Kart

Favorite Book:  Mr. Men books

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2016 --

Greatest lesson learned: Mario Kart

Hardest thing of the year: 1000 piece puzzle

Favorite memory: Christmas

What I loved most about 2016: Playing Pictureka

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2017 --

Want to learn: How to do 1000 piece puzzle

Want to get better at: Reading Mr. Men books

Biggest Goal: Learn how to swim

 Name: Jane

Age: 7

Favorite Color: Teal

Favorite Food: Mac and cheese

Favorite Activity: Crafts

Favorite Book:  Roald Dahl books!

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2016 --

Greatest lesson learned: Don't shove your baby brother over!

Hardest thing of the year: Staying in my bed when it was Christmas Eve night!

Favorite memory: Grace reading this!

What I loved most about 2016: Christmas

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2017 --

Want to learn: How to ride a bike

Want to get better at: Riding a bike

Biggest Goal: To read 52 books!

 Name: Sophie

Age: 9 1/2

Favorite Color: Purple

Favorite Food: Spaghetti!

Favorite Activity: Reading/Singing

Favorite Book:  Fish in a Tree/Wonder

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2016 --

Greatest lesson learned: Dream BIG!

Hardest thing of the year: Longitude and Lattitude (?)

Favorite memory: Cruize West (our road trip)

What I loved most about 2016: Road Trip/school starting/making friends/CHRISTMAS

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2017 --

Want to learn: To write better stories

Want to get better at: Singing

Biggest Goal: Achieving High Honors (All A's)

 Name: Grace

Age: 12

Favorite Color: still...GREEN (take note how I'm using green)

Favorite Food: IDK I'll eat most things

Favorite Activity: Spending time with cousins/friends

Favorite Book:  Hunger Games/Divergent/Percy Jackson/The Maze Runner/The Willoughby's (I have a lot)

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2016 --

Greatest lesson learned: DO NOT make your baby brother cry (it is very sad) *cough**cough* Jane

Hardest thing of the year: Finishing 55 chapter books

Favorite memory: Having some LIT times with cousins/friends

What I loved most about 2016: Our BALLER Road Trip with the FAM!

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2017 --

Want to learn: More ASL (American Sign Language)

Want to get better at: Fake crying

Biggest Goal: To earn enough money to buy an iPHONE 7 (most likely will not happen)

Name: Ethan

Age: 13

Favorite Color: Orange

Favorite Food: Hamburger

Favorite Activity: Making videos/(watching YouTube)

Favorite Book:  The Maze Runner

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2016 --

Greatest lesson learned: Triga-triga-nometry

Hardest thing of the year: 7th Grade Honors ELA (that's for you mom)

Favorite memory: EPIK out west Road Trip

What I loved most about 2016: Having some lit times with cousins/making a ton of music videos

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2017 --

Want to learn: How to make better videos

Want to get better at: Making music videos

Biggest Goal: *Get Wii U / xbox one s  *Get 150 subscribers to YouTube  *Get an iPhone 7  *Graduate junior high with 4.0 GPA

I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In

"...And what was in those ships all three, on Christmas day, on Christmas day!  And what was in those ships all three on Christmas day in the morning!..."

The answer?  WAY too much -- as in, this Christmas could be subtitled: "Hashtag Almost Completely Out of Control."  Something about 6 kids times 3 presents each just seemed to add up to way more than 18 gifts under the tree this year...if that makes sense.  And that's not even counting those stockings that seem to get bigger and bigger each year and require a whole lot of stuffing to stuff them up.  Would I change anything about this Christmas, though?  No -- because there's nothing more fun than knowing that the most PERFECT gifts ever are waiting under the tree.  And that your kids are going to absolutely LOVE them.  {Just call Santa the master gift giver.  ;)  Hahahaha.}

Our day started out...less than ideal.  At least for my sleeping purposes.  Hahaha.  You know that whole " 'twas the night before Christmas" nonsense where nothing was stirring, not even a mouse?  Well that was NOT how our night before Christmas went.  Alex and Jane were so excited that they could hardly sleep.  Starting at 1:30 in the morning, one or both of them was in our room, every hour almost on the hour, waking us up to ask what time it was and could they go downstairs yet.  By the time the baby woke up around 5:30 (and Jane was up, too), I resigned myself to realizing that the morning was going to start a LOT earlier than planned.  Once everyone else was awake by 6, we headed downstairs to get the party started!

I like that Ethan counterbalanced his lack of festive #elfie jammies with a Santa hat. ;)

Once the obligatory picture-on-the-stairs shots were finished, they barreled into the family room and started oohing and aahing and sorting through the presents.  One of our biggest worries was that there would be sadness and hurt feelings over the solitary bike in the bunch.  Both Jane and Sophie really wanted one for Christmas, even though I tried to convince both of them that Christmas/winter is not really the best time of year to get a bike.  I convinced Jane not to waste a Santa present on something she wouldn't really be able to use until Spring, but Sophie wouldn't budge.  I was really concerned that Jane would come down the stairs and think the bike was hers, only to be deflated upon finding out it was for Sophie.  All my fears were for naught, though, as Jane was excited to call out -- as soon as she saw it -- that the bike was for Sophie.

As per usual, the kids had the drill down, and after sorting all the presents, they each patiently posed with their three gifts and waited to open them, one at a time, rotating around from youngest to oldest until everyone was done.  Alex was probably the least patient about waiting to rip into his gifts, but he still did a great job.  Isaac obviously didn't really know what was going on, but he definitely enjoyed the excitement in the air, and was excited to jump in on the action of pulling ribbons and ripping paper.  :)

{I absolutely LOVE wrapping presents.  Just as an FYI.}

Everyone but Alex opened their books first.  This year's offerings included a set of Llama Llama board books for Isaac; a Mr. Men library for Alex; a Little Miss library for Jane; the Land of Stories series for Sophie; Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series for Grace; and a USA Road Trips book for Ethan.  

Alex's main gift -- this remote control Mario Kart racer was the sleeper hit with ALL of the kids.  Alex was obviously over the moon with it, but everyone wanted to take turns with it, too.

I know he's really excited about this.  We've got some planning to do for next summer's road trip!

That look on her face right there. :)

How cool is this poster print??  It's like a blueprint/mathematical model of the Apple logo.  Which is perfect for my Apple boy, right??  Hahahaha.  I know it's not quite the same as getting him that rose gold iPhone 7 that he REALLY wanted, but I think he was quite tickled by it nonetheless.

Jane's piece de resistance -- a bin filled with all kinds of arts and crafts supplies.  She loved it.

Grace's big gift?  An Instax Mini 8 camera plus accessories!  As a lover of all things miniature or tiny this present was RIGHT up Grace's alley.

Ethan saved his best to open for last -- a drone with HD camera.  It's not quite the DJI Phantom 4 he's been drooling over (hello -- $1200??? not happening), but I think it fit the bill for his needs.  And he was pretty excited, despite his lack of big expression here.  Hahaha.

Once the Santa gifts were opened, it was time to move on to the Secret Santa stocking stuffers.  We picked names way back at the beginning of December, and this could possibly have been the most ridiculous picking yet.  After re-picking twice, there were still tears and madness when kids didn't get who they wanted, or they got a kid they DIDN'T want, or they were just upset that everyone knew who everyone else was getting.  It was quite a headache, and in the end I think I ended up letting Sophie switch with who Isaac picked so that there was still some element of surprise on Christmas morning.  The Secret Santas went as follows:

Grace filled Isaac's stocking...

Sophie shopped for Alex...

Isaac had Jane's name...

Jane had Sophie's...

Ethan picked Grace...

And Alex had Ethan...

The rest of the morning was spent with happy playing and getting along even though half the kids were still under the weather.  Grandma and Grandpa ended up driving over from the cousins' house to surprise the kids for the day, and with them here, we were able to convince Grace she had to go to church because she wasn't sick and if she didn't go, she wouldn't be able to hang out with the cousins this week.  It did the trick.  ;)

While everyone else headed off to church that afternoon, I stayed home with Alex and Isaac who were "sick" and sick respectively, and worked on uploading the 300+ pictures I had taken on the real camera over the course of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Isaac was still running a fever off and on throughout the day and was a fluidy mess, so he required a little extra TLC, but thankfully his brand new trike/stroller was a HUGE hit with him, and circling around the downstairs with him in it was enough to keep him happy and quiet.  Hahaha.

Ethan loves a project -- it was like Christmas morning Take 2 when he got to put together Isaac's new bike.

Happily playing "Pizza Party" -- one of Alex's stocking stuffers.

Sophie spent most of the morning working on her "Smash Book" that she got from Santa.  It's basically a fun and cool scrapbook and she was loving it!

Jane and Scott had fun putting together her marble maze in the shape of a fish.  And then the fun REALLY started when Jane began graphing which colored "feet" collected the most marbles as they raced down the maze.  Hahaha.

Meanwhile, Grace commandeered all the ribbons from the Christmas presents to decorate her fan with in order to provide an extra festive backdrop for the Musical.ly numbers that she and Sophie were working on.

And that was Christmas 2016!  It's always a little anti-climactic once the anticipation of the big day is over, but this year the (older) kids had another fun surprise coming their way, when Grandma and Grandpa took Ethan, Grace, and Sophie back with them to the cousins' house to stay and play for a few days.  Alex and Jane were not super thrilled about being left behind, but as the last couple of days have unfolded, I think they've actually quite liked being the "big kids" at home, with mom and dad's almost undivided attention.  :)  We've certainly had fun as we've played games, done art projects, played more games, and watched movies.  Isaac has the last lingering remnants of sickness still making him a fluidy, fussy mess who hasn't been sleeping great, BUT -- I think he's getting a little better, and will hopefully be back to 100% by New Year's.  A mother can always dream, right?   Hahaha.  Merry Christmas from our crew to yours!!!