Christmas

The actual day of Christmas was really laid back too.  :)  I woke up and made breakfast for everyone on just a few hours of sleep.  I was impressed that I was as functional as I was!  My kids slept in late which was awesome because they had gone to bed late... so the Young's opened up their gifts and stockings beforehand which was just fine.  My parents aren't really big into the whole show of it, which I'm glad.  Its just hard to coordinate with all the kids and making sure people aren't getting too annoying because they are so excited for presents!






















We then just played with the presents for awhile and then we finished up the gingerbread houses!  We had glued them together the night before to let them rest but my kids were really excited to decorate! It actually went really well.  I was considered that we were just going to make a big mess and Mom was going to get mad, but everybody was patient and I think they did a great job.  Even Holly's toughest kid sat down and enjoyed.  :)























I laid down for a nap and G kept everything together and going.  Of course.  :)  He is the man.  I feel bad sometimes because I know that no matter who anyone else brings home they are never going to be better or even compare to how awesome he is.  Things continued to go well until Holly came back and picked her kids up and left.  Then, we were there just for a little bit longer to help clean up and then we headed home.  It was a good Christmas and it was really nice to be able to spend it with almost our entire family.  Miss you Jon, Megan and Daniel!

JVG

Christmas Eve

What are the holidays without a little drama with the family right?  Well, this one I kinda started but it had been bugging me for awhile now.  My sister had wanted to get details down for what to do at mom and dad's for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.  It had come out that she wasn't going to be spending Christmas Day at mom and Dads but the way she worded it made it sound like her whole family wasn't going to be there.  Turns out, nope, just she isn't going to be there.  WTF!?  On Christmas Day you're going to leave your kids somewhere while you go to your boyfriend's?  That's messed up. And the fact that the kids could've gone but it was just more convenient for them to not was even more irritating.  I get that she is dating and all that but HELLO!  Your number one priority ARE YOUR KIDS.  NOT TRYING TO FAWN OVER YOUR NEW BOYFRIEND.  I was pissed.  She, again, was taking advantage of mom and Dad and just pretending like she didn't know she was doing it.  So... we had it out a little.  More or less it was me asking hard questions she didn't want to hear and her crying and saying how difficult life has been.  I'm not doubting it at all.  I would never want to be where she is... but the fact remains that she needs to man up, take care of her kids, and when parenting gets tough (because it will when they're teenagers) you can't just bury your head in the sand and pretend it's not happening and that it will go away.  It, in fact, will only get worse.  Then, she was all like, 'I will be there all morning, just gone in the afternoon.'  NOPE.  She woke up, went back to her place to get ready, had breakfast and then left.  She probably saw her kids for 2 hours that day.




















Christmas Eve was actually really low key once we got to Mom and Dad's.  We just did puzzles and hung out.  The cousins were all on devices so they weren't as obnoxious as they could've been.  There were so many treats and goodies it was amazing that I didn't get diabetes that day!  We all pitched in and did sandwich stuff and appetizery things all day so that Mom didn't have to cook.  Then, we sang some carols, played pin the nose on the reindeer and the kiddos went to bed.

The adults stayed up WAAAAAY late and played Tripoly, which is my favorite game ever.  But, we finally called it quits after I realized I had to be up in a few hours.  Overall, I think it was a really nice Christmas Eve and even though I had some tough things to say to Holly I think she took them well.

JVG

Christmas with Oma and Mike

We had Christmas with Oma and Mike the week before actual Christmas.  The beginning of the visit was a bit rough (you know, the whole picking a time and date, us rearranging our schedule to accommodate, then her not showing up and then not telling us when she will actually be there... that type of thing...) but it turned into a good visit.  It's so hard to move past a bad beginning and not let it ruin the rest of the visit, but i think everybody did well and the kiddos loved their presents!

She didn't go overboard with them which was nice, and they got some pretty awesome stuff.  Dude got this remote control dino that you can 'teach' things too, Lucy got an amazing Melissa and Doug doll house and Norah got this fun pop-up house that fits perfectly in her room.  The kiddos had a great time playing with their stuff and getting things set up.  We got them this candy thing that dude picked out from World market and some Nutcracker glasses with beer from around the world.  She collects nutcrackers so I thought that this would fit nicely.  :)

























It was overall a good day and I was thankful that they made it safely and that everyone had a good time.  :)

JVG

Polar Express

The library was doing a movie night and I was really hoping that the kids could go because I thought that it would be a lot of fun but they were HORRIBLE during the day.  I can't even express how frustrated I was with them so I wasn't going to let them go... but G thought that maybe it would be a good idea to let them go and see how it turned out.  Well, they were angels and loved it!  They had never seen the movie before and they had hot chocolate and candy canes at the lib so that was amazing for them.  They got to stay up late and hang out in their PJ's.  I think it kinda helped them get over their funk which I was certainly glad for!




JVG

Lost ring :(

I'm not one to be sentimental about jewelry because I honestly just don't wear that much of it, but I have to say that when I went to put on my ring that Gaetan got me recently and it wasn't where I left it I panicked.  I had remembered taking it off to take a shower the night before and leaving it on the bathroom counter where I always leave it and then in the morning when I went to get ready it wasn't there.  I looked on the floor, in the garbage, down the sink... no where.  I tried to just look around quickly before alerting everybody to my crisis but it didn't work.  We had everybody looking for it in the house pretty much all morning and nothing.  We figured that one of the kids (mainly Norah because we asked the older kids and they said they didn't take it) had stashed it somewhere.  We didn't find it and it was time for the kids to take their downtime and as we were tucking dude into our bed we found it!  Norah must've tossed it in our bed and forgotten about it, but we found it!  We had told the kids earlier also that whoever found it was getting froyo.  haha.  We made good on our word and took the kiddos out after their downtime.  :)





JVG

Wet suits

Ever since Dude has moved up to his ray class (which is a 45 minute swim class) he has been getting cold and getting upset about 30 minutes in.  That boy is so SKINNY!  His instructor suggested that we get him a wet suit because he doesn't have a problem with anything they're doing in class, but being cold was discouraging him to participate.  So, we ordered him an orange one that he calls his Raichu suit (since he is obsessed with Pokemon now).  And he got it and he loves it.  He's been doing great in his class ever since and there aren't any problems.  Of course, once Lucy saw his wet suit she wanted one too... so we got her one as well.  :)  They are just too adorable in their little suits.




JVG

Exploring in the woods

The week after finals Gaetan was gone more than usual.  They had invited another professor back to collaborate with them on their project, which is great because that means things are moving along and getting closer to finishing up... but that also means that I have to hold down the fort!

There was one particular day that I wanted to take the kids out and do something so we tried but after that trip I knew that we were just not meant to be in public that day.  So, instead I decided that we should try and explore the woods that are behind our new place.  The weather was warm enough and they were acting stir crazy so we went.  We probably explored for a good 45 minutes and it is heavily wooded back there.  There is a little foot path that someone has walked but other than that they were just playing around.  Norah kept falling but she didn't seem to mind!







We actually had a lot of fun!  :)  I'm so glad that the kiddos like doing stuff like that and aren't demanding electronics all the time.  Having the woods there is just another reason why we like this place more and more

JVG