Christmas 2007

Here are some photos from Christmas morning. Along with some smaller things, the children got two big items each: a white wooden table and pair of chairs and a big kitchen with accessories for Anna; and the previously mentioned tool workshelf and a Big Wheel for Alexander.

Besides the obvious, there is a photo of Anna talking on the phone to her Mimi and Paw Paw and Alexander playing with an "electric razor" bath toy. I got him one as a stocking stuffer after recently catching him in our bathroom shaving his face with Mikel's real electric razor. It was turned on and everything.

This Christmas was a lot more fun than last year, as the children sort of got what was going on. There was a lot of anticipation, and when they sat on Santa's lap they calmly told him they had been a good girl and a good boy. Alexander asked only for a tool bench. Anna asked for a Barbie and table, and coffee and cups and oranges and "a lot of presents." When we got to church for our Christmas Eve service, she told everyone who made eye contact with her that we'd made cookies for Santa.

Christmas Eve 2007

Though very nice at the end, our Christmas Eve was more stressful than I wanted. I'd dreamed of having everything done in advance so that I could enjoy a peaceful day with the children before our Christmas Eve church service.

Instead, I spent most of the morning doing research on a quality toy tool workbench to replace the flimsy Home Depot one we'd originally purchased right after Thanksgiving. Lesson for next year: Put together toys well in advance of Christmas Eve so that in case you're not pleased with the quality you can return it with plenty of time to spare. Most of the presents we'd gotten well in advance. We just hadn't bothered to put the big toys together, or wrap anything for that matter.

Since the tool workbench is the only thing Alexander had asked Santa for, I felt a little desperate to find one for him. My research took up most of the morning, and the children made it very stressful because they argued a lot and just generally got into a lot of trouble. Maybe I had a shorter tolerance for it all since I was a bit stressed anyway. I finally found a Little Tikes workbench that had good reviews and was still in stock at one of our local stores.

I also had to bathe the children in time for us to meet Mikel at noon. He and Alexander had a hair-cutting appointment downtown, and then he took them out to eat. I dropped off both children with him and went back to the stores to fight the crowds.

By the time I picked the children back up from his office, we had just enough time to drive back home and bake cookies for Santa before heading back out again. We had to be at our church by 4:30 p.m. in order to find a seat for the 5 p.m. Christmas Eve service, which featured a mass choir and full orchestra. It was a beautiful service, and the children behaved pretty nicely.

After church we had a simple dinner at home and let the children open one present each — a pair of Christmas pajamas. They put them on and Mikel read The Night Before Christmas, and then we sang Silent Night before putting the children to bed.

Then Mikel and I were up late finishing up the building of bigger presents and arranging them in front of the tree. The new toy tool workshop was a lot sturdier and worth the extra money. It is so true that you get what you pay for. We also ordered Anna a big play kitchen from the Little Tikes Web site. That had been sitting in our garage for a while before we put it together two nights before Christmas. Everything turned out great on the kitchen, except for the fact that it took a good three hours or so to put together. Mikel even had to break out his power drill to drill through some of the heavy plastic in order to get the screws in properly. Boy, the way they make toys these days.....

Here are a few pre Christmas photos, including the putting together of the first flimsy tool bench, the reading of The Night Before Christmas, the taking of Santa's milk and plate of cookies to the table, and the opening of the Christmas PJs.

By the way, didn't the hairstylist do a good job on Alexander's hair? Mikel had cut it himself the past two times and didn't do as well as he did that first time over the summer. He was in desperate need of a new cut.

Decorating Nature

Here are a few photos of the children outside with Mikel last weekend as he finished up our outdoor Christmas lights. He decorated two trees in our front yard and strung white lights along our front porch railings. He later commented how it was difficult to get the job done with two children and a dog to keep track of. Welcome to my world! But he did an impressive job. And I'm not complaining about mine, either.

Mom Christmas Party

Somehow the Christmas season got away from me and I haven't been on top of much of anything. I'm still in the process of getting out Christmas cards, and few gifts have been wrapped.

Last week we attended a little Christmas party held at the home of one of our mom friends. Here are a couple of photos.

Little Charmer

Alexander has always charmed me. I keep telling him that if I was 40 years younger, I'd be chasing him all over town! He seems to have the same effect on the little ladies, also. At the mall play area last Saturday, a little girl named Alexandra would not leave him alone! Look at all the photos of her hugging him! And she literally was the one following him everywhere, not the other way around. How cute.

Mall Play

Last Saturday we took the kids to the mall for the unveiling of an indoor play area sponsored by the newspaper. After a bit Mikel ran down to a store, leaving me to watch both kids. I gotta tell you it was a little stressful to keep up with two! So many children running around everywhere and ducking into the tent or under the bridge, etc. I was scared one of mine was going to slip out of the entry area and get lost in the mall. Or that someone might bend over the little wall and snatch them. I'm sure it was much busier than usual because it was the grand opening and also because the mall is naturally busier at this time.

The Snow Pants

Some photos just for my Southern family and friends.

Snow Dog

Shreve has a silly snow face. Shreve sniffs a snow-covered Christmas tree that's just his size. Shreve loves the snow!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Hey, I've got a pattern going here with songs as titles for my posts.

Here are some photos taken late last week when we got a fair amount of snow. One day we got almost 3 inches, then over the next two days we got a lot more. I don't know how much we ended up with. The weather's pretty crazy around here. Yesterday, for example, I didn't really need a coat on outside, but I did need to wear my snow boots as we still have plenty of the white stuff on the ground.

In these photos, you can see Anna and Alexander trying snow angels. I tried to show them how to do it while myself standing (no snow pants for me) and holding the camera. Obviously, the concept didn't catch on quite as much for Anna as it did for Alexander. They did get a kick out of knocking snow off the tree's branches.

When there is snow out, the children are required to bring snow pants, boots and gloves and hats to school (at least to Anna's school) or else they can't play outside with the other kids. Today, when Alexander and I went to pick up Anna from school, the kids were all out in the back area playing in the snow (recess time is at the end of the day, so this is where we always pick them up), and I got to see Anna sitting behind a little boy and sledding down a small hill. It was so cute!

How Lovely Art Thou Branches

Throughout the weekend I did most of the decorating with ornaments collected from places we've visited. Most of them could not be replaced. Some of them are very heavy (the Waterford crystal ball we got on our honeymoon in Ireland, the heaviest among them). Our tree branches are not the strongest this year, so I placed most of those ornaments myself closer to the trunk. I couldn't not let the children do anything, though, so this morning they got to place the "filler" red and gold ornaments. They were very serious about it and actually did a great job! I think we only broke four of them, and I expected some breakage, especially since I tried not to hover and just let them go at it. As you can see, they clustered the balls all together! How sweet is that!

O Christmas Tree

Alexander looks around to see if there isn't a better tree while Mikel examines the backside of one I'd initially picked out.


Snow princess. I went to the trouble of packing snow pants, which we ended up not putting on the kids, but I forgot Anna's hat! I sacrificed mine.


Our winter dog. Shreve wears two coats of fur every day, and he was in snow heaven bouncing around the white forest. Here he is taking a break.


Mikel, with Alex and saw in hand, leaves one potential cluster of spruce trees in our quest for the perfect tree. We ended up settling just a bit, though it is a beautiful tree.


Mikel hauls it in. The tree trunk was on the skinny side, so it didn't take long to saw it down. In fact, I pretty much missed the photo. I've got one of him wrestling it down to the ground, but I thought that might be a bit embarrassing to post.


Believe it or not there are no Christmas tree farms out here! I guess with a million or so acres from which to choose in the Black Hills National Forest, why bother competing. So, we got a permit for $10, which allowed us to cut a tree as high as 20 feet, and packed up the family. Our snowy Saturday outing took about four hours, some of which was drive time. A lot of which was finding-the-right-tree time. As you can imagine, tending to two children who aren't the most nimble in the combination of snow, ruts and dead weed, as well as making sure Mr. Shreve didn't get lost in the woods, wasn't the easiest job. So we finally had to settle on a 7- or 8-foot skinnyish but well-rounded spruce. It was a fun and very traditional family outing.