Christmas 2010 and classic kid stories

We had a great Christmas with all the usual memorable parties, nativities, visits from Santa, yummy food and family fun. I wanted to post some of the funny things my kids have said during the course of all this holiday merriment.

Finn- Finn has had several opportunites to share his newly acquired tuba talent this season. The latest was on Christmas Eve with Eric's family. We were having a little cousins talent show as part of our Christmas Eve program. Finn was practicing his tuba downstairs in front of a a few of his girl cousins. These cousins are about Annie's age. When Finn finished his song, they started clapping real slow and saying, "Good job." in a sarcastic tone. Finn turned to them and said, "I've been playing for a month, so shut it!"

Annie- Even with all the good cheerful that abounds during this time of year, I still find the occassional occassion that requires the use of a four-letter word on my part. I am trying to curb this habit, really I am, but Annie took it upon herself this week to create a "Swear Jar" for anyone who swears. If you swear you have to put a dollar in the jar. I asked her where the money went and she said all proceeds go to a charity. I asked her which charity and she said, "The charity of helping me get some jamberry nails." Jamberry nails are about $15 so I figure with all the kids being home next week, she will have reached her goal before she goes back to school!

Katie- As we have been driving back and forth to activities our girls, much to Finn's dismay, have loved singing along with all the fun Christmas songs on the radio. One night they strayed from the tradition Christmas carols and started singing another family favorite..."When Suzie was a Baby, a baby, a baby..." If you haven't heard this song before it a song that builds on itself as "Suzie" grows up. For example the first verse is- "When Suzie was a baby, a baby, a baby she went like this... waah, waah." Then the next verse is "When Suzie was a toddler, a toddler, a toddler she went like this... waah, waah. gimme a sucker." In each verse she gets a little older and another phrase is added to the end. Having a Suzie in our house, you can see why this is a family favorite. The kids like to substitute different family member's names in it and then make up verses that fit that person's personality. Katie decided to make a verse for Eric and I. My verse went like this-"When mommy was a mommy, a mommy, a mommy she went like this...(Katie scream-singing in a shrill, loud voice) Why do I have to clean up this mess all by myself!" Then she made a verse up for Eric that went like this-"When daddy was a daddy, a daddy, a daddy he went like this... (Katie speaking in a tired, slow voice) I don't care, whatever, go ahead." I wish I could say she was exagerrating for dramatic effect, but I can't. Her impersonations were spot-on.

Suzie- Suzie has a blanket she adores, especially the smell. For some reason she has a thing with smells. I could tell a myriad of stories about her obsession with smells, but I won't. I'll stick to the one at hand. Her grandpa likes to tease her by trying to get the blanket away from her or take it and say it is his. This gets Suzie all sorts of riled up. He does it to her almost everytime he sees her. Christmas Eve was no different. Except this time she stopped him in his tracks when she said to him, "For crying out loud Grandpa, quit teasing me!"

And with that, I'll leave you with "For crying out loud, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas."

Now tell me again, Why do I do this to myself?!?

Since it was unseasonably warm on Monday night I thought we would go down to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights for FHE. We haven't gone down there to see the lights in a few years, so I thought it would be something everyone would enjoy. Boy, was I wrong.

Conversations had before we went:

Mom: Come on, everyone get your coats. We are going to see the lights on Temple Square for Family Home Evening.

Finn: What? Why are we going all the way down there just to see lights? They're just lights.

Katie:A square? How can we walk around in a square?

Mom: Just get your coats.

Conversations had while looking for a parking space:

Finn (while looking out the window at the the Church Office Building Plaza lights): Is that all? Is that all we came all the way down here for?

Dad: Yep, so soak it all in.

Mom: Holding her tongue and rolling her eyes.

Conversations we had while actually looking at the lights:

Finn: It's just a bunch of lights. What's the big deal?

Katie: This is lame.

Suzie: I WANT TO RIDE THE ESCALATOR! (Suzie had to go to the bathroom as soon as we got there and we made the mistake of going to the North Visitor Center, where they have an escalator, to take her to the bathroom. We told her we would go back at the end to ride the escalator, thinking she would be so mesmerized by the lights that she wouldn't even remember the escalator. But we were dead wrong. She cried the whole time about riding the escalator.)

Finn: I've been here like 3 times.

Mom: Trying to make it a meaningful experience by talking about what we were seeing- the temple, the nativities, the statues, etc. But finding no one is really listening and they are all moving onto the next thing to see without registering a thing she is saying.

Conversations we had in the car on the way home after being there for about 45 minutes:

Annie: We weren't there for very long.

Dad: We were there long enough.

Katie: We didn't even get to see any Jesus sets. ("Jesus sets" was how Katie referred to the nativities.)

Dad: Well if you had been paying attention you would have noticed that we passed by like 6 "Jesus sets."

Mom: Well. thank you for all making your mother happy by coming to see the lights on Temple Square so we can make a memory.

Annie: I loved it!

Katie: I had fun. (I'm not sure what she thought was lame earlier, but she seems to have forgotten it.)

Suzie: I rided the escalator!

So I guess maybe that is why I make myself vulnerable to "unsolicited" comments about what I plan so our family can create tradition and meaning. The "I loved it" and "I had fun" make it all worth it!

Can't you just see the "unsolicited comments" just oozing out of eric and Finn's faces!?! And notice Suzie is turned around, looking longingly back at the escalators I'm sure!

Decorating-Check

I feel like I have spent the majority of this past week decorating for Christmas. I don't remember it being as long and drawn out as it has been this year. But I think I have finally got it all up. One of the things that makes the process so long is that I first have to clean my house because I am not about to set baby Jesus up among dust bunnies. Also my kids really like being part of the process- the putting decorations up process, not the cleaning the dust bunnies process.

I have found there are some things you do in parenthood that sound and seem a lot more quaint and charming before you actually do them with your kids. One of these things is baking with your 6 & 3 year olds. Another one is decorating with your 6&3 year olds. They go through the boxes all willy-nilly pulling out decorations and scattering them everywhere except where you actually want them to put the decoration. And because I have a 9 & 11 year old, I know this. So in the past I have learned to do the majority of the decorating while they are at school and save a few things for them to put up in their rooms and I do let them decorate the tree . But for some reason, that didn't work out this year. So I spent a lot of my time trying to keep Suzie out of the Christmas boxes or redoing her decorating choices. So this may have added to the lengthy decorating process.

But all this decorating reminded me of about 7 years ago when Finn was about 4 or 5 and we were putting up decorations. We had this little Christmas wreath that had a train that would travel around the wreath in a circle and make noises. He LOVED it and wanted to put it on his bedroom door. He asked if he could put it on his door but I told him I would figure it out later. Later in the day I walked by his room and saw the wreath hanging by a screw on his door. Eric hadn't been home between the time Finn asked me and the time I saw it hanging there. So Finn must have taken matters into his own hands and gotten a screw and hammer out of the toolbox and jimmy-rigged the wreath on the door. I was impressed by the resourcefulness of this little 5 year old. But I was also a bit ticked by the hole he put in the door. I told him I was glad he figured out how to solve his problem but that he had put a hole in the door! He didn't seem to get the permanence of the hole or the fact that I might be upset by the damage done to the door by driving a screw into it. He seemed to think he was doing himself and me a favor by thinking ahead because when I said, "Finn, you put a hole in the door!" he responded, "Yea, now I won't have to do it again next year."

Well, if that isn't a logical little man-in-training, I don't know what is!