Christmas Gift Ideas for Big Families

A woman in a large family group that I follow asked for advice and support about announcing her seventh pregnancy. She said her mother complained about all their kids and how expensive buying gifts for all of them was becoming. Her mother didn't want her having any more children. She actually said gift-giving expense was one reason why.

People with large families have made a lifestyle choice. We have accepted loud cramped homes, hand-me-down clothes (with MASSIVE clothes storage organization by age group), shared bedrooms, and shared toys. We have shrinking kitchen tables, lines at our bathroom doors, and lots, and lots of laundry. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm pretty sure the majority of super-sized families don't expect extravagant, if any, gifts for their children.

When a family grows so large that gifts start to get uncomfortable for the gift-giver I feel very simply people need to either stop gifting or they need to get creative. Both of those are acceptable solutions to the gift giving dilemma. Gift giving should be meaningful and fun. It should be out of true desire to do something for somebody. It shouldn't be forced and it shouldn't be required. I decided to share some ideas on creative gift giving for big groups. This could be for any size family but I had large sized groups especially in mind. Younger kids can be hard to include in some of the outings. For babies or young children a small toy or other younger themed outing may be more appropriate.

Time to get Creative!

Family Dining
Large families tend to eat out less due to cost. Eating out is special! Taking a family out to eat is a fun idea and let's everyone spend some fun time together. Alternately, gift certificates can be given.

Pizza (or Chinese take out) and a Movie at Home
Dinner and some popcorn make such fun movie night evenings!

Movie Theater Outing or Gift Certificates
It's expensive to go to the movies, but some theaters have early morning weekend movies at even deeper discounts than the matinees. Pair this morning outing with a box of donuts and some milk for lots more fun! There are also cheap movie houses that play last months titles for just a few bucks. If you are lucky enough to have an old theater in your area they may be playing old fashioned Christmas movies like It's a Wonderful Life. I saw even local big name theaters had a special showing of Home Alone this month.


Plays and other Shows 
Tickets to a play or other show is a very fun and memorable idea. Most areas offer low cost options to do this. Community plays are often lower in cost than bigger traveling shows. High school or college plays can be a great resource too. Taking advantage of matinee performances can be a big money saver. Around the holidays there is usually something for everyone if you just check your cities events. If needed, different aged kids could attend different shows. Magic shows, children's musicians, and other local talent could also be explored!

A Christmas Pageant
Know of an old fashioned Christmas Pageant being held? Or, what about a living nativity event with real animals? These yearly events are often held at churches and are usually free for the community. Take the special people in your life to an event like this and then top off the evening with a ice cream or some other special thing. I know one church that serves hamburgers, hot dogs, and hot cocoa for free at their living nativity!  

Advent Calendar Tradition
Every year my cousin Michelle mails our kids advent calendars. Over the years we have had five, six, seven... and now this year makes nine calendars mailed to us -one for every child (and now an adult child, too). This is a very fun family tradition and one that is very thoughtful. We open them all together at 6:30 pm each night. It's a huge, loved, sweet tradition and gift. Look at their faces! They will never forget this at Christmas time!

December 1, 2016

Rec Center Passes or Membership
Swimming passes for indoor winter-time sessions, or a family pool pass to use in the coming summer months are great gifts! My Grandma Smith sent the kids some Christmas money a few years ago and we all spent some of it to buy a six month family membership to the YMCA.

Children's Museum or other Family Membership
Memberships are often a great value for large families. It's often cheaper for us to just get a membership than to pay admission for 8-11 people. Our children's museum (where there is something for all ages) would cost over $100 for us to get in one time, or we can get a yearly membership for as low as $80 and use it all year long.

Skating, Ice Skating, laser tag, indoor rock climbing, indoor trampoline park... or any other other indoor place
These types of places are all great outings for a group. For the most they part can cover a wide age range. All of these places usually have gift certificates. Mini-golf and paint ball are largely outdoor activities, but they still make good gifts and can be used when the weather warms up! 

Games
We love family game gifts and have gotten many over the years! Most big families can be covered age-wise with just two various aged board games.

Family Hobby Ideas or Seasonal Ideas
A family that camps might enjoy some new gear or supplies like tents, lanterns, sleeping bags, and so on. A family that fishes might enjoy some new fishing supplies. Think of how the family enjoys their free time and consider gifts that may be useful and enjoyed by them together. Wintertime ideas might include sleds or other snow play items. A hammock , all ages tree swing, or moveable outdoor fire pit are fun ideas. We have this platform swing, it's amazing and holds 250 lbs!

Art Supplies
A great group gift than can reach all ages. Ideas: crayons, markers, gel pens, paper, tracing paper, googly eyes, yarn, small canvas, paint, paint brushes, scissors, pencils, erasers, a pencil sharpener (we go through electric ones like crazy!!), pens, rulers, stencils, and drawing books. (Draw-Write-Now are such cute, fun, and educational books.)

Blankets
I've had a few family members gift us blankets over the years. Some have been bought and some handmade. I have kept nearly every blanket ever given to us dating back YEARS ago. In fact, I got a unicorn blanket from one of my mom's sisters when I was eight years old and I still have it. Blankets are very personal, cozy, thoughtful gifts. My step-mom Kathie made us all Christmas gift blankets a few years ago (and hats and scarves another year!) and we all still use every single one. In fact, Everett's covered up with one such blanket right now. Over a decade ago Kathie gifted the kids fleece blankets and most of them are still around here. Blankets do not have to be specially made or expensive either. Walmart sells soft fleece blankets for $5.00 or less every year around Christmas time! This year they had huge ones too (adult size) for only $7 and they seemed really nice! Blankets are great gifts. (My mom made two baby blankets for Madeline, my friend Beth made a beautiful blanket for Everett when he was a baby. My cousin Michelle made us a tie blanket for Penelope, and my friend Karen made a tiny newborn blanket for Everett when I was pregnant with him. I have them all!)

Pajamas for everyone
PJ's, like blankets, are good gifts.

A Box of Fun and Umbrellas Make a great Gift
My sister, Christy, sent the kids a bunch of games to share along with sunglasses and umbrellas for the whole family! Umbrellas for everyone?! What a FUN gift!

December 2015

Throw a Gingerbread (Graham Cracker) House Decorating Party or a Hot Cocoa Bar party
This is a fun way to spend time with loved ones, and a fairly cheap activity! Could turn into a fun tradition, too. 

Paint Your Own Pottery
At many paint your own pottery places you get free studio time if your group is a party of 10 or more people. You just buy your pottery pieces and the studio time/glaze is free. We did this one year with the kids. We brought food trays and drinks and had a ball in the private party room! Most pottery pieces start around $5.00 and go up from there. We actually used Christmas gift money from family to help fund our pottery party! I blogged about it over here.

Light Display Outing.
Almost every area has a drive through light display within driving distance. We have one that has great Groupon deals every year too. We take our whole family loaded in the passenger van and not only do we get admission to drive through, but we get a 8x10 printed picture taken with Santa too. All for under $20.00. (Price is normally just over $40.00, which isn't that bad either for a huge group outing.) Something similar would make a great festive gift!

Gourmet Apples or Toffee (or other gift basket of goodies, Sherries Berries, fruit arrangement, Etc.)
Ricky's parents have sent us many lovely baskets, popcorn, and fruit over the years and it is always the best time! It's such a great big family gift idea! We huddle around the kitchen savoring and enjoying, talking and having a ball together! Last year they sent us this Toffee. They are not kidding when they say it's the best toffee on the planet. You have NO IDEA. We had the most fun devouring it! It's made by a small family-run business. Another best ever: Aunt Sharon sent us Mrs. Prindable's Apples  HOW can these apples be that delicious? They are so fantastic. These are all such fun group gifts to get! Not to mention perfect for people who really don't need more "stuff."

Build A Bear
Build A Bear is such a fun family gift idea. If necessary, this could also work for the young kids while the older ones do a different outing. Ricky's parents did this for the kids one year and it was SO much fun!

Magazines
Magazines are great gift. Ricky's Grandma, Meme Goode, gifted us with Country Magazine for years and we adored it. It was full of beautiful pictures and stories from long ago. We loved it.  Grandma Smith has gifted our kids with years of Ranger Rick Magazines and we still have most of them. They now get National Geographic for kids from her. It's really a neat magazine that spans many ages! Here's a picture of Layla reading it to the kids at bedtime one night.

New Moon, American Girl, and anything from the Cricket Publishing Company are great magazines to check out as well. Cricket has magazines for all ages and are ad free. I can't even begin to tell you how great their publications are!

Something to remember: Gifts Often Keep on Giving in Large Families
When gift giving to a large family most of the time one gift lasts for many, many years, because it can be enjoyed by so many other children later. Nobody knew that when Ricky's sister gifted this adorable coat from Baby Gap to Layla that we'd be putting it on Madeline 11 years later! Now that's a lasting gift!

Remember it's not the gift, it's the love behind the gift!!! Gifts come in all shapes, sizes, and can just be in the form of time spent together! 

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Magic and Memories of 2015

My Grandma Smith had some elves when I was a kid. I loved them. She also had the best old fashioned decorations and putz houses. For years I kept telling myself I would buy some vintage putz houses (also called glitter houses) and some elves. I love old fashioned decorations. I also miss these 'plastic-popcorn' ones from childhood too.

Grandma Smith gave us our Elf on the Shelf with the accompanying book nine years ago and we have loved him dearly ever since. The kids named him Smith-wick. 

The elf thing is super special in our house. The kids tell Smith-wick what they want for Christmas. Lately Everett threatens to touch him just to try and get a reaction out of us. The touching the elf thing is FOR REAL SERIOUS in our house. Which is why I found this so funny:

You don't touch the elf. We are aghast if we see a picture online where someone is touching their elf, or if the elf is someplace where he would have to be touched. So for example, if the elf was on the sewing machine and you needed to use the sewing machine. Or in the blender. Or on the toothbrushes. If he hung out on any of those places we would NOT TOUCH HIM no matter what.

This year I decided to finally buy a vintage elf. The prices on ebay were excellent. I ended up with a winning bid on two elves. One elf I have tucked away for a rainy day. He's cute and nice and worn around the edges just a little bit. I have not named him yet. The other elf rides a white magical reindeer. I felt this was the most perfect thing ever to add to our fun! The deer and elf were in a vintage package and in mint condition. They needed to be introduced properly, so I patiently waited for the perfect time.

December 14th Morton the elf rode in on his reindeer, Fancy Lady. They are perfect and they brought a note and a treat.

The note reads:

Howdy Family,

I am a friend of Smith-wick. My name is Morton. My sidekick and pet here is Fancy Lady. Fancy flies like the wind. She is a nice girl. You can make paper carrots for her and at night Christmas Magic turns them real. She eats them before flying me back to the North Pole. I was hoping I could visit for a while. If you like me visiting just make Fancy a carrot every night and I will come back. We bring holiday cheer, good wishes, and good luck. You can pet Fancy, but please don't pick us up.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It scares the livin' elf daylights out of us. We brought you a treat from the North Pole...enjoy some Elf Cocoa!

Later in the day: Morton with Fancy Lady and all the darling handmade paper carrots scattered at their feet.

Morton was a lovely and fun addition to our home. It's fun to see the kids respect Morton and Fancy Lady's boundaries of being petted but not picked up. Even Everett has joined in and follows the rules. Bea is just two and already knows the game. Every morning they delight in the fun.

An old post from 2011 about our elf and Christmas tradition here 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More Thoughts and Traditions of the Holiday Season

Big Family Outings
No surprise here, but some outings can be too expensive for big families. We have found several holiday traditions in our area that are affordable or free: Pay by the car holiday light displays, ice skating Groupons for half off ice skating, and library holiday crafts. We also have several chances to sit on Santa's lap for free at the feed store and library. (Bring your own camera.) In the city there are free horse carriage rides on certain days but we have never done them. Some churches also host living nativities with live animals, hot cocoa and plenty of community fun. There's lots to do!

Books

We utilize the local library to check out Christmas story books and winter story books. Almost every year I also read aloud our well loved and worn copy if The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, just like my mom read to me. We also read The Polar Express, just like my mom read to me. Those books were my childhood favorites!

Penelope (9) and Sebastian (7) listened to me read The Best Chrstmas Pageant Ever for the first time this year. They enjoyed it a lot. There are seven chapters in the book and we read a chapter a night. When it was time to read the last chapter Penelope said she would rather wait because she didn't want the book to be over. It was adorable and we've all been there. It's hard when a good book ends. Such a sign she is growing up, savoring moments in time like that. On Christmas Eve I remembered that there was a made for TV movie of it. I looked on YouTube and found it! So fun! Penelope and Sebastian really enjoyed watching the book come alive. In many ways it's just not Christmas Until Gladys Herdmen yells, "Hey! Unto you a child is born!" I'm so glad I'll be reading it yearly to young children for many, many years to come. I hide that I tear up at the end. I'm just so happy I get to pass reading this great story on to my kids.

Cookies
Nearly every year we make rosette cookies.

photo borrowed from link above

They are Scandinavian cookies made with a fancy looking hot cookie iron.  They are crisp, light and dusted with powder sugar. The sugar falls all over you like snow as you bite into them. They are so much fun and still seem so magical to me. They are very similar to funnel cakes, but seriously taste so much better. My mom and grandma taught me how to make them when I was little. We haven't had the time to make them this year yet but I have high hopes that we will soon. I rendered some pork lard right smack in the middle of busy Christmas week in hopes that we can find time to make them during Ricky's holiday break from work. (Maybe for New Year's Eve!) Nothing fries up crisp and beautiful as with real lard. I can't wait to try rosettes fried in real lard! Interested in lard? Read this: 10 Reasons to Bring Lard Back

We make graham cracker candy houses every year. This year we had a homeschool group decorating party at a friends house. It was a lot of fun and easy for me since I just had to bring some candy to share. I appreciated the ease of it this year!

Decorations

I have a Santa collection I started nine years ago. It began around the time my Aunt Sharon bought me some Santa ornaments that were pirate themed. I cannot believe it has been nine years! My how my collection has grown! As it grows I have noticed that I get more excited every year to get my Santa collection out. It is such a neat collection to have because it is only out for a month and then it is carefully stored away until the next year. I noticed that it never needs dusting as it doesn't sit around long enough. It's also not out long enough for me to lose interest or ignore it, and it only takes up space for a little while. It is the perfect collection for me. (Putz houses collection here I come someday!)

This year Aunt Sharon sent me a new and unique item for my collection: a nesting doll Santa. It is so pretty and hand painted. Ricky bought me a talking nutcracker Santa. Also Ricky got me a Feliz Navidad Santa!

I love my new 'Feliz Navidad' Santa! He holds a reindeer pinata! Love him! He is so well made and pretty.

I played with the talking nutcracker Santa for hours, it's ridiculous how much I like love it.

                                                                   He says:

"There's lots of work to do before Christmas gets here, so let's get cracking!"

"All this cracking is making me nuts!"

"You open presents, I open nuts! We make a great team!"

"He's going to find out whose nutty or nice!"

"Santa put me on the Nutty list"

Winter Solstice
We always watch  Little Bear Winter Solstice and Little Bear Gingerbread Cookies . We make bird feeders and hang treats for the snow angels. We bake cookies, especially we bake our well loved gingerbread cookies! We actually bake those off and on year round. I have been using the same recipe for 17 years and the kids just love them. Depending on what we have going on we do other crafts and games to fill the day too.

Hollowed out oranges hung with wire, filled with peanut butter, flax, and cereal inside

 Gingerbread Cookies Recipe (no refined sugar!)

Cream together: 1 egg, 1 cup molasses, 1 cup maple syrup, 1 cup butter (I use melted)
(Tip: Lightly rub olive oil all over the inside of your measuring cup before you pour in the sticky syrups. They will slide right out.)

Mix dry ingredients separately: 5 cups flour, 1.5 teaspoons baking soda, cinnamon to taste (around 1-2 T is good, I just give the kids the shaker), ginger to taste or 2-3 T
Optional: We also add some fresh grated ginger too. At least 1-2 T in addition to the powdered ginger. It's so good! (Tip: keep some frozen ginger root in the freezer and grate it as needed! It lasts near forever.)

Mix dry into wet until well combined, add a little extra flour if needed (it is usually needed). Chill dough for a little bit. On floured surface take hunks and pat or roll out flat. Use cookie cutters to make cookies. The thinner the more crisp, the thicker the more fluffy/cake like.

Bake on 350 until they are desired crispness or until golden brown.

Stockings

Ricky and I stayed up until 2am making creative additions for the stockings we started two years ago. The stockings have something made by us out of craft felt to represent each child. We work hard on these and we have a lot of fun. We try to add a handmade felt picture of something meaningful or memorable about each child. Sage got a lock because he likes to figure out/pick locks. Penelope got a prairie girl because she loves Little House books and dressing up in her prairie clothes. Layla loves gymnastics and practices nearly all day long, so clearly a gymnast was in order for her. Ethan likes to draw and make comic books so he got a "POW!" Charlotte is a professional cake decorator and therefore got a cake. Madeline got a "M" for her first year. Beatrice got a bee hive to go with her bee from a previous year, but she also loves swings so I made a swing hanging from a tree. Sebastian loves nice sharpened pencils for drawing. He draws most of the time so he got a pencil. Last but not least, Everett got a Pea shooter and cone-head zombie from his favorite computer game Plants VS Zombies. Ricky and I did a cute job on them I think!

 

The kids had their gift exchange with each other on Christmas Eve morning. I love how they really think of each other and take time thinking of what to get! Everett was all smiles especially. Nice to see him be so into giving.

Christmas Eve

Many years ago the kids wanted to shop for each other but of course taking them to get each other gifts would be insanely expensive. After a couple of years of them asking we realized that telling them they didn't need to get each other anything was only dismissing their desire to give to the people they love the most. Of course they didn't need to give presents.They want to, and they do it with such joy! Christmas is about giving.

We started taking them to the dollar store a few years back to pick each others presents out. It has been a great and well anticipated addition to our holiday traditions. They now start asking when we will go shopping when November hits. The dollar store doesn't sound all that exciting but there is a lot to choose from. The dollar store has to sometimes make you super creative, especially if you are buying for older siblings. Sebastian (7) couldn't find a pocket knife for his brother Sage (16), so he used his creative brain and got him paperclips instead. Why paperclips? Because Sage likes to try and pick locks. What a smart thinking kid! Sage really appreciated the thoughtfulness and how cute that was. Penelope (9) got Charlotte a calendar. Charlotte was thrilled to get one, she hadn't gotten one for 2015 yet. Beatrice (2) got Sage (16) some silly string. It was a random gift she just picked up and told me it was for Sage. She didn't even know what it was. Sage later took her outside and sprayed it with her. They had a load of fun. It was so cute.

Christmas Eve 8 weeks old

Ricky was home Christmas Eve and we had a lovely day of family and fun, so much so that I didn't get much else done (or presents wrapped) all day. Aunt Christy (my sister) sent us a big package of goodies. I never thought about it before, but a package of fun items to play with on Christmas Eve is such a good idea! We also especially loved our sunglasses and umbrellas Aunt Christy sent.

The beautiful assortment of playful toys to share kept us busy for hours. We love group gifts and this had an assortment of awesome fun! We did some spin art, snap circuits, made crazy straws and more!

The kids went to bed pretty easily knowing the fastest way to get to Christmas morning is to just go to bed! So they had their last advent Chocolate, brushed teeth, and said goodbye to Fancy Lady, Morton, and Smith-wick until next year, then they went to bed.

We were sad that elf season is now over. I asked Ricky why I feel like I'll miss the elves so much. The pressure is now off and I can stop waking up at 1am and thinking 'oh no I forgot, I have to move the elf!' (Three times I forgot and Layla (11) moved them for me!) He said it is because our kids love it so much. It's true. Which reminds me, things have been insane lately (mostly with Everett) and I don't know how we do it or sometimes how we'll keep doing it. I asked Ricky when life will quit being so crazy and he said, "Someday. But then we'll just miss this." I'm glad he knows that. 

So, on Christmas Eve everyone went to bed easily except five year old Everett and baby Madeline. Everett wanted to wait up for Santa. He was the most adamant kid we've ever had about it. Finally at 11pm he fell asleep. Very unlike him! While he is a busy, wild, hyper nut most of the day, he at least is usually a good sleeper. Madeline, who is in the middle of a 8 week growth spurt (which means extra nursing, extra awake time, and extra fussy at times) was up and down a lot but checked out around 11pm too. Thank goodness! We didn't get done with everything until 2:30am. Every year I am adamant about not having to wrap a million presents on Christmas Eve, but every year we have to anyway. I would love to have it done early one of these years!

Speaking of Madeline:

Baby's first Christmas 6 weeks old

She is so precious and she is such a perfect addition to our home. I know, I know, I say that every time! But only because it is true every time! We love them so much. Thankfully I am getting enough sleep. She has been easy to care for and is so laid back. She is smiling and recognizing her family a little bit more each day. Everything is fine and some what the same except I have a baby in my hands and I have to juggle making meals around her sleeping schedule. We thought Bea was easy, but this peach is really easy. So far. They all get hard at some point!

Christmas Day 
Christmas morning Charlotte (19) kept most of the little kids quiet while we dozed off a little more. She is the best! Most of the kids stayed upstairs with Charlotte, peering down in excitement. If that's not one of the most exciting times of childhood I don't know what is. I was the oldest of five siblings. The waiting on the stairs together is firmly planted in my head as one of the childhood bests. Around 6:45am Everett woke up and there was no stopping him. We had a fun morning of presents and then a lazy, play-filled day. I needed a nap with the baby after presents and skipped breakfast. I was later awoken by my husband with breakfast in bed. He made me a delicious breakfast casserole. (He brought me breakfast in bed three days in a row actually! He is the best ever! One day he made me Eggs Benedict! I must have been really good this year!)

I got five new vintage style dresses, new shoes, some snow gloves, and the cute Santa figures already mentioned above. I got Ricky some new beer brewing supplies, snow gloves, and a vintage dictionary that is SO cool. (He likes reading dictionaries.) He loved it a lot!

Huge 1940's vintage dictionary filled with tons of cool stuff!

We got the teen boys (16) lovely Carhartt coats and some other goodies.

Charlotte (19) got a cell phone and some other goodies. (We use basic cell phones without a lot of frills. But it's still nice and it is her first phone!) Santa brought the family a keyboard and Layla has already learned how to play "America The Beautiful" on it! The kids have all really, really enjoyed it already! We also got a new castle for the kids. We have a huge assortment of Schleich and Papo castle toys, knights, mutant animals, mythical beasts, and fairies. We have been adding on to our collection for at least nine years. Our wooden castle finally broke a couple of years ago and the little boys have been asking for a new one. We bought them a Schleich castle this time and it is even better than the pictures show! We are very happy with it and so are they. Schleich doesn't make junk, and their toys are a softer plastic. The teens said they wish their castle growing up was as cool as this one. Sorry teens! :)

Beatrice got a new soft dolly we named Mary and it so so cute to hear her say, "Where's my Mary?" and "Oh there is my Mary." She even will say "Hi my Mary." I just love that she calls her 'my Mary.' She also got a new baby doll stroller. She loves them and played with her other one so much last year that it wore out.

Penelope got some magnets she enjoys building with, a prairie doll outfit for her doll (it is SO cute!), a new bonnet, some Lego friends and some other goodies. Layla got gymnastics stuff galore...

cute shirts, a hair band, some gymnastic rings to hang off our playground, support gloves and a hand grip to strengthen her hands and wrists. She is entirely self taught in gymnastics and completely obsessed with it. It is not unusual for her to spend two hours watching instructional videos online and four hours a day practicing. She's passionate and it is amazing to watch. She has taught herself and trained herself to do: the splits, back flips. handsprings, back walkovers, some scorpion thing, and many other things with gymnastic sounding words thrown around in them that I can't remember. She uses hand weights daily. This kid is athletic! We are very impressed! She will be starting much anticipated classes at a gymnastics place in the next several weeks. (We wanted to wait until spring but we may get her in before then.) Sebastian's favorite thing he got is a magic set he loves and has been watching a DVD to learn the tricks. He is really taking to it! It's great to see him learn something new, follow the script they teach to be entertaining, and use multitasking to perform tricks! Really cool! This is very good for him. Everett got a some Legos, a fishing game, a magic hat to perform with his brother if he wants to, and some other goodies. He got a white knight and says it is his favorite toy. Everett also got a whole bag of Plants VS Zombies toys and Charlotte colored him a game board for him.

Weird thoughts in the middle of the night
There are really cute ideas online for making a crafty  edible Nativity.  I was thinking we should do something like that with the kids, but we were all done shopping and staying home through Christmas. No more store trips! Half asleep I was brainstorming in the middle of the night thinking and wondering what we could make one out of...and so the half-awake dream began. I have plenty of potatoes I thought to myself. We could use potatoes. Three wise men lined up as potatoes, a Joseph and Mary Potato... and a very small baby Jesus potato. In my sleep I thought this was the best idea. Then I wondered how we would get the potatoes to stand up right. I dozed off and came up with a piece of cardboard with nails or screws poked up through it. We could stick the potatoes down on them. I woke up the next morning laughing at myself. How do I come up with such things? The kids thought it was funny and weird when I told them. We didn't have time to make our potato nativity this year. But there's always next year...

Since every idea has already been done by somebody my curious mind looked online. And sure enough... well, see for yourself.

Merry Christmas!

You Have to Love Four Year Olds

Today we were unwrapping Hershey's Kisses to make peanut butter blossoms. As little four year old Everett helped he soon noticed there was a paper with writing attached to each one. He started asking us what his "fortune" said. It took me a minute to realize that he thinks they are similar to fortune cookies!

Ricky and I are just beaming with grins on our faces now and just laugh at the cuteness. The other kids thought it was so funny and cute too.  So I start the game... I read him some of the "fortunes" he handed me. I tell him different things like:
Your family is special
Siblings are friends
Soon you will bake cookies for holiday fun

Each one I "read" he smiles at and full of pleased excitement yells "yay!" at whatever I say. He is having a total blast.

He hands me yet another paper and this time I say: "Cookies bring sweetness to life"
Everett: Yay!!! WAIT. Wait. So my cookies will come ALIVE?
Ricky: No, cookies will bring SWEETNESS to our life.
Everett: Oh phew, I thought mom said they would come alive.

Then Everett gets in on the fun. He tells us he will read us some fortunes now. 
Everett made up the following great fortunes off the top of his head:
When someone wears a hat they are a dad.
When snowflakes fall Santa will come to your house.
When you wear a firefighter hat then you have to help the firefighter put out the fire. 

We had such a great laugh. He is so cute!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had quite the surprise today when Santa and his mother were across the street visiting loved ones at the cemetery! I went outside with Everett as they were leaving and Everett yelled, "Santa! Merry Christmas Santa!" then Santa came over! Santa got a teddy bear out of his car and gave it to Everett! Everett gave it a big ol' hug and was so, so happy! It was just great. Charlotte is the one who thought to run out with the camera! (Thanks Charlotte!) Everett didn't ask, but Santa told him he didn't have his Santa hat on because it falls off when he is driving. We know it was the real Santa because 1. He obviously loved children 2. He had toys with him 3. He had real beard and number 4 is the weirdest of all... Layla pointed out that the dogs did not bark at him! Our dogs bark like crazy at everyone. Merry Christmas to all! 

Everett clutching the teddy bear

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Everett, like most kids, likes to play with tape. He got a hold of some tape and taped his plate to the table and taped his banana back together. This pleased him so much I had to congratulate him on his ingenuity. I have never had a kid tape a banana back together before. 

Adventures & Fun With Our Baby Bea

Yesterday just as we were next in line for a picture with Santa, Beatrice grabbed her diaper and loudly said, "Uh-Oh!" She gets the most funny expression on her face when she is concerned. Charlotte, Layla, and I were cracking up so hard as we looked around to see if anyone heard. She was able to get in the picture with Santa just fine. Lucky for us and Santa it was not that urgent and we made it for the picture first. Sometimes her uh-oh's are urgent, sometimes false alarms.

Beatrice stared at Santa long and hard before deciding she was then done with him. She just looked at me reaching out and whimpered when she was ready after a minute. Everett's face was priceless. He looked right at Beatrice watching, enjoying her, and smiling at her reaction. I thought it was really cute.

Beatrice has been such a joyous little baby. Time has been spinning out of control as it often does. I thought this month she turned sixteen months old. Ricky told me nope...18 months. My mind was blown.

The way she interacts with our family is amazing. She lights up all of our lives in ways I can barely put into words. When she was about nine months old she started getting up with Layla (10) in the mornings. She would wake up and crawl around our bed jabbering at her tired mom and dad until Layla would hear her and reach her arms out to her. Little Bea would reach out to Layla and off she would go. Layla would change her diaper and play with her. (And we got to sleep a little more!) Soon Bea started letting Penelope get her out of bed too. It didn't take long for Beatrice to expect her sisters to get her every morning. Between 6 and 7am Bea would wake up and shout jabbery words and sounds towards our door waiting for her sisters to hear her and get her up. It was beyond precious. As she started eating more solid foods Layla would pop Bea into her highchair and get her some breakfast and the three of them (or five of them if Everett and Sebastian got up) would eat breakfast all together without any help from us. When her sisters get her out of our bed each morning or after nap time Beatrice sometimes rests her head on their shoulder as she wakes up fully. If she pulls at her diaper and says uh-oh like in the Santa story above the girls rush her off to the bathroom.

Layla and Penelope pay attention to so many little things that her baby sister likes. Like how Beatrice is more likely to go pee on the potty if the bathroom door is closed. Beatrice is more vocal of her bathroom needs than most babies her age because we practice part-time elimination communication (EC) with our babies at most stages. We have had varying degrees of success. One thing has remained consistent, though. Our babies are aware and vocal about their bathroom or diaper needs at very young ages and tend to get out of diapers between 13- 20 months old. I do attribute it to EC.She has been telling us "uh-oh" about her diaper for a while now and the funny-cute factor is still not getting old. Everett was nine months old when he would wake at night wiggling and fussing half asleep. He would not settle down until I took him to the toilet to pee.  Babies are so smart! He was our one child out of diapers the earliest at around 13 months old.

Charlotte taught Layla how to use the potty when Layla was a baby. And now Layla, without any prompting from us, is teaching Beatrice. It's really sweet to see. Layla lines up stuffed animals on little pretend potties on the bathroom floor and Beatrice is so amused. See how adorable:

Beatrice is a feisty independent sweetie.  Her siblings are very close to her and drag her around everywhere with them. They were all playing outside and Beatrice was running along like she was the baby wolf cub after her pack. She held a stick in her fist and was having a ball.

She has felt like one of the little kids for a very long time, but now she is finding her voice and lets her preferences be known. She's getting that spark of independence and willpower. She is starting to pinch at people if they are bothering her, and she yells "HEY!" when someone takes her toy or food away. She also says "Hey!" when she sees something she wants. We might get a drink and she exclaims, "Hey!" to us. It's so funny. She loves a colorful crocheted blanket her Grandma Kathie made for her and she has to sleep and nap with it. When I am ready to nurse her asleep she looks for it and makes cute gasping noises and shakes her head from side to side looking for it and as if to be worried and fretting about finding it. It is her way of saying 'where is it?!' When she sees it she exclaims "dare-uh-is!" which sounds like jumbled baby talk words saying "there-it-is!" She says I love you now and it's so cute, too. It sounds like "agg-yeah-you." She counts with the kids but says two over and over again no matter what number they are on, it's so funny and sweet!

She has picked up on the words "mine" and "stop." Two words that you will hear non stop with a large amount of young kids. She waits at the kitchen table just like the rest of the kids for her food. She sits there so pleased with her place in the world, she almost rocks back and forth, kicking her feet ever so slightly with a pleased grin on her face waiting patiently. We have always sat her up at the table with us ever since she could sit up. She also sits at the table and plays Legos with the kids. After a while we have to rescue Penelope's Lego set-up when Beatrice becomes too destructive but it's adorable while it lasts and teaches her so much. Beatrice dances a lot too. We have dance parties and have great fun.

She colors, decorates candy houses, and in general does anything else we do.

    

A few weeks ago I taught her how to unlock the bathroom door. We live in an 88 year old house with cool solid wood doors that have crystal or porcelain doorknobs throughout. All the doors have ancient cool locks too, some with skeleton keys. Once locked, our bathroom door cannot be opened from the outside. There is no key, no hole, and no door hinges on the outside. Nothing. You could take the outside crystal doorknob off, but the porcelain one on the inside of the bathroom would remain screwed in. If a baby or toddler were to lock themselves in the bathroom I would be in a panic. We would potentially have to break the door frame away from the bolted door lock or break a window. Either process could hurt her and she would surely be frighted and crying. Bathrooms are horrendous places for babies to be trapped in for so many reasons. As soon as we see a baby fidget with the lock we start worrying and try teaching them how it works. It is a very loose and swift lock with a simple left and right motion. She had been unscrewing lids for quite a while so I knew she could learn this. One day in the bathroom with me she locked it and I told her to unlock it. She looked at me confused and I said the words again. "Unlock." I then showed her how. She looked at me and smiled and locked it again. I said "unlock!" and she unlocked it. I was SO happy. She did it back and forth with me and I told her the words lock and unlock.

On a Saturday morning I was still in bed and I could hear Ricky up with the five youngest kids. I didn't want to pry myself out of bed so I stayed a bit longer drifting in and out of sleep despite the rowdy noises coming from the other room. Suddenly I heard a loud slam and then all was very quiet. Deeper and deeper I drifted off again but suddenly I heard Bea's jabbering voice distinctly muffled behind a door. I jumped out of my bed in an instant. Moms total intuition and my brain put all the sounds together. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom door. Ricky was there and worried, he told me she was locked in alone, I said I could hear it happen. The kids gathered around and I shushed everyone. Ricky started to speak, he seemed like he was going to tell me what he was planning to do, but I interrupted him and told him to shush too. Ricky was somewhat surprised when I rushed to the door crack and said, "Beatrice, unlock! Unlock the door for mommy." In one little click she unlocked it!!!! I was already turning the doorknob to get in, just in case she swiftly locked it up again. Proud mom moment! My little one year old baby girl did it! So proud of her and proud of my forethought too! I scooped her up and celebrated how good she did and hugged her to bits feeling so relieved. I excitedly told Ricky how I had just worked with her mere days earlier trying to teach her the lock.

Right now I'm in the bathroom typing the rest of this on my laptop while Beatrice is in the tub. The  girls just came over to me to ask me something. Before they could speak Bea started patting the water and jabbering to Layla and Penelope to get in with her. I can tell a few stories and examples about how they all interact with each other, but it's hard to capture the real beauty of it. I get to live it everyday though and watch how close these kids all are with each other. The teens included. She smiles, waves, reaches up for them to pick her up. They talk to her and include her in everyday things. I have seen her put her head on each siblings shoulder for comfort or rest. It's very special that she feels so safe and loved by all of us. It's got to be amazing to be our Baby Bea. It's amazing being her mom, and the mom of all her sweet siblings.

Tired baby eyes, Layla just got her up from her nap

Nicknames are so fun! And our Baby Bee has lots of them. Nicknames she has that we use regularly:
Bea, Bee, Bumble Bee, Bumble, Stinky face (It's a cute children's book), Bea-tree, Bebe, Stink Bee, Killer Bee (When she is throwing a fit or is mad at us), Sweet Bee, Honey comb, Honey Bee, Baby Girl.

December 2013~ The good, the bad, the funny

Going on Day 25 with no refrigerator. I feel asleep last night a huge bag of lettuce did not survive  the bitter frozen night. I read online that frozen romaine lettuce can be cooked like spinach. Ugh. I really wanted salad instead. We thaw our carton of orange juice or milk in the sink. The kids think OJ slush is a treat. Frozen eggs look so cool when you crack them open. Only half of the eggs get frozen; I think it has something to do with how much air is inside them.

New refrigerator is getting delivered on Friday! We couldn't fix ours though we tried to ourselves. Nobody makes anything that lasts anymore, it's sad.

Oh! And we still have a difficult, barely working, must drain it 3x manually, washing machine, too. Trying to remedy that problem presently...

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The weather got warm (50's) for a couple of days. We took advantage and raked tons of leaves, winterized the chicken coop (we are doing the deep litter method this year!), got shelters nice and ready for other farm animals, and put up Christmas lights/decorated the house outside. I also cleaned the back porch/ refrigerator. We are using ice chests and the porch in general as the fridge. When it was in the 50's we had to keep things in coolers, now that it's so cold we're lazy and we just throw stuff out the door. I had to bring the beer and lettuce in though. Don't want those in freezing temps.

We took Sebastian (5) to the eye Dr. yesterday. I noticed six months ago his left eye would cross when he was focused on things. Ricky never noticed until I pointed it out a few times. I could totally tell it was a problem and knew we should get him in to see a optometrist. We had a wave of dentist, orthodontist and Dr. appointments the past 4 months. Like seriously A TON of appointments and so it was easy to put this off. I feel really bad now about it though.
Sebastian's Eye Appointment
Sebastian (5) is a very funny, very dry, very particular kid He's sensitive but strong and very proud. He was apprehensive about going, understandably so, but didn't want me explaining what they were going to do. He dragged his feet into the office (literally!) and I expected him to have a meltdown. He didn't though, he sat up and listened, and the exam started off well. Once we got to looking at letters or cards he started being a goofball. Ricky was with me and we could tell when he called a giant letter 'E' the letter 'A' he was faking. The Dr. moved to black and white pictures and showed him a card with an umbrella on it. Sebastian thought about it and said he didn't know what it was. I could tell he was stalling and then he had an idea click into his head. "Rain" he slyly said. The next picture was of a house and he said, very quickly with a big smile, "DOG!"

The Dr. looked at the card and asked him again, Sebastian went back to his previous tactic of saying something related to the picture. After a long deliberation he calls the house a tent. Clever. He had an ornery I don't really want to play this game grin. Little stinker, he is SUCH a character. The Dr. was so cool about it. He went with the names Sebastian chose for the pictures and continued showing him the same pictures in different sizes. Sebastian slipped up only once calling the 'rain' one it's proper name  of umbrella. 
  At first we were seriously nervous because Sebastian can get really upset and moody -even sad and loudly screaming. Make him feel embarrassed or awkward (or accuse him of something) and he often times really feels it deeply and has a very difficult time dealing with those emotions. So we didn't know what to expect when he started playing silly games. We were also starting to get slightly mortified. I also hid behind Beatrice silently laughing so hard at times. I looked at Ricky trying to keep a cool composure and it made me laugh harder! In the end the doc recommended we see a pediatric specialist for glasses, because  his two sides are very different and we will need special advice (and monitoring) about his left eye. I was worried I waited too long to bring him in. This Dr. said we didn't wait too long and this is the age that is important to get him in glasses since he is learning to write and do things close up. He may have needed surgery as a teen in his left eye if this went untreated. He sees very, very little out of his left eye and his left eye crosses when he tries to focus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beatrice six months old:

Beatrice loves:

When Penelope blows up balloons -she laughs her head off!

When Ethan and Sage play peak a boo with her

When Everett and Sebastian play karate -she watches and wiggles and is entertained

When Charlotte walks her around the house when I can't

Things said in December 2013
Penelope age 7: MOM! I'm bored. I think I got the bored flu.
me: It's called winter

Everett age 3: I don't like this (pokes at his peanut butter and jelly)
me: Okay, you don't have to eat it.

Everett: It taste like zombie brains
me: lol ok don't eat it
Everett: I don't like it, it taste like zombie braaaainNNNs. And I don't like eating that.
me: OKAY, lol don't eat it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To close out the day I just got to say this awesome sentence: Don't color on your penis.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I made a salt table with the kids today. It was ruined in 6 minutes flat. I asked Everett WHY, WHY did he pour his apple juice in our salt table. His reply, "Because a fire is in dare." He was also apologizing profusely and he was surprised, of course, that he had ruined the salt table. We'll try it again when I get more salt... He sees fires everywhere and he's obsessed with it! This is what a salt tray is ... http://www.learning4kids.net/2012/06/05/rainbow-salt-tray/

Sebastian age 5 is supposed to write a letter to give to Santa at pre school class. Here is what he told Ricky. haha.

Dear Santa,

I would like a haunted castle with gaurds and a giant goblin with a giant sword in his hand, a green katana would be best. The goblin should be creepy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sebastian: This is my dollar, look see George Washington is on it

Me: Oh cool. You know that's George Washington?

Sebastian: Auh duh, I know George Washington is on the dollar

Me: Do you know who he is?

Sebastian condescending tone: Auh yeeah I know, don't you know I was born in the 90's, so of course I know who he is.

Me: Oh, lol, okay, I guess you do know him then.

Sebastian: Yeah, he is the first president and that was a long time ago, like 90's.

hahahaaha. Love 5 year olds!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Everett-3 years old said he had no eyebrows so Charlotte showed him in a mirror he did. He said in the cutest surprised toddler voice ever, "Oh! There they are! I was lookin' fo' dem'" What is even better is that a couple months ago he told me he didn't have eyebrows! I told him he did but he insisted he didn't and then ran off to play. So all this time he really thought he didn't have any for some reason. So cute and funny! So wonderful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SICK AGAIN: You've got to be kidding me!?

Life was getting back to normal. We got over the flu and in two short weeks we celebrated Sage's 13th birthday, we went ice skating, we saw Santa, I got all the laundry caught up again, I was feeling 100% better, I cleaned and de-cluttered like crazy; I even dusted the ceiling fans. We decorated inside and out and baked tons of cookies, we made Christmas cookie care packages for all service people/ mail carrier who stopped by, we happily made crafts, Smith-wick (our elf) brought great joy and fun. Sugarplums danced in our heads for the better half of December. I spent loads of time doing other things with the kids too, like making Santa faces from paper plates and cotton balls, watching Christmas movies, hanging red and green paper chains all over the house, playing and reading. We made delicious homemade pretzels and everyone settled in and enjoyed the time together (and being well again). On the Winter Solstice we decorated a tree outside with apple rings, birdseed pine cones and circle pretzels as offerings for the "snow angels" just like in Little Bear, and we sang.

Things were indeed TONS better. The kids were weaned of the TV after being sick and overloading on it, the house looked great, we were happily awaiting Christmas Eve. Then I noticed sniffles and sneezes starting up in the kids. I soon woke up with a sore throat, it appeared we were getting a cold. Just a day before Christmas Eve a few younger kids had fevers. I was nervous but super hopeful and sure it would be no big deal... Christmas Eve came and we watched my favorite comedy Christmas movie that we all totally enjoy and laugh wildly at, Jingle All The Way. Christmas morning came early (5:30am) and we had a lot of fun and family time full of joy. Sebastian enjoyed his toys for a few hours and then laid down on the couch with a warm rosy face; the poor little guy burned up from there on and didn't get up the rest of the day except for us to give him drinks. Ricky felt under the weather by 11am and took a nap until 1:30. Aunt Sharon and Grandma visited and overall we had a nice time and pretty Christmas dinner. By the time they left Charlotte was in bed sick and other kids seemed feverish, too.

For the following seven days after Christmas I walked around the house getting lethargic laid up kids orange juice, water, hot tea, cold rags, medicine, tissues and small meals while repeating to myself "I just CAN NOT freaking believe this. THIS IS SO NOT FAIR." Ricky recovered quickly and was able to help me thank goodness ( just as I got sicker). It was/is an upper respiratory virus and some of us now appear to have bronchitis. It's not nearly as bad as the flu but it still took its toll on all of us. With the flu it was just misery, with this "cold" at least Ricky and I got to spend time together snuggling and watch TV (although interrupted often by kids needing us). So now we're back to square one, recovering as I pick up the pieces of a messy house and getting caught up on laundry. I so did not expect this! We've never all been sick with a flu or cold ALL at the exact time and here it happened back to back in the same month and with a vengeance!! I can't fathom it still, even though I lived it! I'm thankful we are up healing up faster this time and even us bronchitis stricken people actually seem to be fairing okay. In hindsight we are awesome and we are troopers and we overcame all of this: but man did it suck. (Still sucks since we really aren't over it yet.) New Years Eve is upon us and no one feels like eating much, nothing sounds good at all and as a result we have no party food or drinks or noise makers. Bah! Humbug! :) In reality though my head is full of snot and I'm coughing like crazy so I don't care. I've been holding Everett all day because he's still not feeling well. I wanted SO bad to be all better this morning that I thought I was... I was so determined. I started trying to do my normal Monday routine: stripping the bed for washing, making the bed, cleaning my room, starting the laundry, making breakfast... I made it as far as taking the pillow cases off our pillows, making hot tea and starting one load of laundry before I was EXHAUSTED and holding a fussy baby on the bed as we both dozed off restlessly.

I can not wait to be normal again!! I have things to do and kids to enjoy and decorations to put away and a house to clean... we have loads of school we have to catch up on and I have so much hope that this was the last of illness we need to have for a long time! I hope the winter goes by as fast as it came and with lots of: trips to the Magic House, school/art projects, more pretzel making, good conversations, family games, hot cocoa, winter hobbies, a few home projects... and a snowman or two!

Big wonderful, amazing, magical Christmas Surprises!

Las Vegas was an absolutely fantastic time. Everything fell into place; it was an easy peasy, extra fun, trouble free, perfect trip there and back. Seeing my family was amazing. So many people to visit with and enjoy. So many people loving to see the kids and to share Christmas cheer with. Christmas morning couldn't have been better, the kids had so much fun, then the truly unexpected happened.

Rewind back to the day we left for Vegas:

I walked our house sitter Erin through our house as I explained to her the unpleasantness of our really janky toilet situation. The upstairs toilet hadn't worked in a year. We had it fixed once but it soon started having a leaking problem again. We needed to eventually call someone to look at it again but decided it was most likely just the toilet that was leaking. The downstairs toilet over the past year has been working less and less well. Finally it got to the point that we had to pour a half a pitcher of water down it, while simultaneously holding the flusher down in order to get solids to go down. Pee would go down, just maybe not your toilet paper. We lived like this for a long time partly out of not knowing where to begin (we usually try to fix things ourself first) and partly out of the costs involved. We also have a 'well things could be worse' attitude about life - makes things easier that way. We live in a very old house and we are do-it-yourselfers. If it can't be fixed by us then we live with it for usually as long as possible. The toilet thing was really getting crazy though. We needed new toilets.

The dishwasher situation wasn't much better. Our frugal side kept us buying used dish washers on Craigslist. They'd last a couple years but we only had to spend 20-60 bucks on them! This is what big families do. Families of nine don't go out and buy new dishwashers on a whim. ;) This last one we nabbed for 20 bucks was a real pain though. It wasn't cleaning anything. The kids complained. I told them to be happy we even have one. Besides, limping by builds character.

Once our character was built up some and we had limped and limped by a good long while someone put a call into Santa and Santa must have put a call into my parents (because he doesn't make appliances at his workshop).

On Christmas morning 1200 miles away from our home we opened a present that had a toilet seat inside! Attached to it was an invoice for 2 toilets for our house. In another box was dishwasher soap and an invoice for a dishwasher already purchased.

I was so shocked I could have fell over. It was UNBELIEVABLE! We were so excited. (Not kidding THE FIRST thing we did when we arrived at my parents was comment about how we have "working toilets here" and how nice it was to not deal with our freaking toilets at home.)

We were so grateful and felt so blessed and loved to receive such a helpful and amazing gift for our family.

A Toilet Seat!

The last gift we unwrapped was this piece of paper:

My shocked face opening the above paper. See how happy and surprised we are. Awesome.

What went through my head: "Are you kidding me, Ricky doesn't have to install all of this???!!!!"

What went through Ricky's head: "THANK GOD I don't have to install this, all of this would take forever!" (And it would have, we did need a little plumbing work done after all, and without the tools and experience it would have been a headache and we probably would have been with no toilet for more than a day -or 5!! lol.)

At some point I cried happy tears!

Then more of the story and gift started to unfold ...

Before we left for Vegas my parents asked several times who was house sitting for us. I did not ever think anything of it but I never gave them a name I just kept explaining she was a good friend who had three little boys and she's a great person... Finally my dad asked me over the phone, "What's her name?" I never thought it was weird. I thought it was out of character of my dad, but not weird. I told him, "Erin."

I had no clue my parents, being the sneaky sneaks they are, were trying to hunt Erin down. My mom found her through my facebook and asked her if they could talk on the phone... she set the whole entire thing up with Erin. Plumbers were to come the day after Christmas to install everything. So when we got home we would have it all already done. The entire time I was telling Erin about our Janky situation during the house sitting walk through she was smiling on the inside. She said that it was so much fun watching me explain everything and I agree, it was! I love thinking about it.

I realized immediately I now didn't have to mess with setting up appointments, putting the dogs up, wrangling the kids, having the water turned off. My house sitter had it all covered. I felt like a princess. When I talked to her on the phone Christmas day and told her I knew everything it was really fun. She was so happy for us and thought the whole thing was wonderful. It was. Everything was WONDERFUL.

When we got home from our trip we had a stomach bug so the new toilets got use right away! LOL! They flush so fast. It's fantastic. To be so excited about toilets is hilarious! I called a very good friend of ours, a family we enjoy having over, and told them the news right away. They had just been to our house before we left on our trip. We are so happy we can have company over without telling people they'd be better off just not pooping at our house. Hahahaaaaaa.

Because of the excitement I can't remember which surprise came first but the surprises just kept on coming! I believe this is what happened next...

My sister, Heather, the youngest of us five kids gave every household a tall package. Inside was a frame full of old pictures. Everyone loves old pictures! Childhood pictures of myself, my family. It's really special and priceless. She made several for our parents. One of each of their sides of the family, one of just them, and one of them and their 5 kids. The hours she poured into it was unbelievable.

Then everyone, one per household, opened up a tiny gift box. Inside was a flash drive. She explained that she had scanned, over the course of just about a month, 12,000+ old photos from mom and dads photo albums and photo storage. Baby photos of them, of us, family pictures and thousands of old snap shots now all digital and on the drive we each held. It was unbelievable. I knew instantly the amount of work that was. I cried! Her fingers hurt, her eyes were seeing nothing but pictures, she was sleep deprived. I'm a picture person and I spend a lot of time on my pictures. I can not imagine taking on a project like she did. For an entire day I was in shock that I now had all those treasured photographs. I love pictures. Memories are so important to me. It's why I write this blog and it's why I take insane amounts of pictures.

What a blessing my family is, and what a beautiful time we had. Both those gifts are life changing to us. The appliances because they make our life easier and better, the photos because they are treasures that can be passed on for generations to come. I can't wait to put some old photos on our walls!

 Photos of my dad

My Great Grandma

My Grandma reading to her kids

My Aunts!

My Uncle Doyle

5 kids (I'm the oldest)

My sister, Christy, and me

12,000 photos... can you imagine?