Ok, just a few words of explanation here! This was Christmas night at my uncle and aunt's house - Becca spent close to 10 minutes getting that chair set up exactly where she wanted it, and then she just climbed right in, leaned back and watched away. At least until I moved her and took the chair away, anyway...
I have no idea how she could even see anything on that giant screen from up that close!
It's Friday again! My favorite day of the week. Especially a short work week like this one has been. :)
Here's my question for this week's Aloha Friday:
What is your child's (or children's) favorite gift that he/she/they received over the holidays this year?
My kids got way too much this year, as usual. But they each do have a clear favorite or two. Abby loves her kitty that moves and makes real meowing noises. Hannah was thrilled to receive her Barbie as the Island Princess doll that she'd wanted, and she also loves her puppy that grows and knows her (and its) name. Becca has a lot of favorites, but has played the most with her magnetic fridge farm matching toy and her stuffed Backyardigan friends (she already had Uniqua, Pablo and Tyrone but got Tasha and Austin for Christmas), of course. She sleeps with them every night and carries the whole crew out into the living room with her as soon as she gets up in the morning.
Oh yes, and all 3 girls got Webkinz pets from our friends Carlos and Cheryl - Abby and Hannah have been inseparable from their black kitty and pink poodle (one guess which animal goes with which girl, LOL), but Becca so far has been completely unimpressed with her lion. We have yet to do much with the whole online part of it, other than going in and getting it set up for the bigger girls, but it'll be fun to explore and see everything they can do.
Be sure to check out An Island Life for other fun Aloha Friday questions and to play along!
Ok, so it's already the 3rd of January, and I'm just now getting around to posting about how our New Year's Eve went. I can see that 2008 is starting out about just the same as 2007 ended... :)
For the past few years we've gotten together with my friend Kristi, her hubby Steve and their boys and had a small party for the kids. Two years ago this involved a chocolate fountain - fun, but messy and only held the kids' interest for about 10 minutes. Last year's event included noisemakers - for as long as we could stand them. I'm sure Kristi's neighbors were probably wondering who was making all of the racket at 9:00 pm - we moved 'midnight' up a bit so that the kids would still get to bed at a decent hour.
This year, Kristi decided to attend the kids-oriented party at our local children's museum. This is something we've thought about doing before, but the tickets seem to sell out weeks before we're starting to think of New Year's Eve plans. Not so this year - we were prepared! But I thought about it and decided that this might just be too much for my kids this year - especially Becca. On to Plan B for us.
We've been trying to get together with our friends Carlos and Cheryl for months now - but the guys' work schedules make it difficult if not impossible to find a time that works for both families. We also live an hour away from each other, which makes visiting pretty much an all-day affair. Cheryl and I figured that New Year's Eve might work well for a get-together. Unfortunately though, Ron did have to work on New Year's Eve and didn't get home until 4:30pm. An extra hour drive after being in his work truck all day wasn't appealing - nor was the idea of driving home so late at night (he'd promised Abby and Hannah that they could stay up until midnight). So much for Plan B, on to Plan C. (Plan B was carried out the next day - we had a great visit with Carlos and Cheryl on New Year's Day instead)
It was strange to have no set plans on New Year's Eve. We sat around debating what to have for dinner (in our extremely grocery-challenged kitchen), and finally decided to use the gift cards that Ron's parents had given us for Christmas to go out. That plan worked great, except that I forget that the gift cards were in my purse, not the diaper bag (I thought they were in my wallet - they weren't), so we did end up paying for dinner ourselves - but hey, it gives us an excuse to go out another time as well. :) We had a nice, enjoyable dinner, then hit the video rental store on the way home.
We watched two movies - "Meet the Robinsons" and "Ratatouille" (thus the references in the title of this post!). The girls and I had seen Ratatouille the previous weekend, but Abby was begging to watch it again and Ron hadn't seen it yet. I spent the evening taking down our Christmas decorations while trying to stay out of the way of the television so everyone else could see. The girls spent the evening like this:
So did the girls make it until midnight?
Abby did. She stayed awake through both movies (we stopped before Ratatouille ended though since it hadn't quite finished by midnight) and the ball dropping, and then promptly fell asleep in the recliner. Hannah fell asleep on the couch around 11:00 pm. Becca had been put to bed on time, but woke up at 11:30 pm so was half-asleep on my lap at midnight. I put her back in bed soon afterward and she slept for the rest of the night.
Ron saw a sum total of probably not more than 15 minutes of Ratatouille - he snored (loudly!) through most of it. He was awake at midnight and then was in bed and back asleep by 12:30am.
Me? I was up until 2:00 am, finishing up the Christmas decoration removal, and then doing a little blog reading and posting. But I got to sleep in the next morning, so it was all good. :)
I think next year we'll try the party at the children's museum - Kristi said that it was probably the most fun that her kids had all year. And by next year, Becca will be almost three, so she'll be better able to handle it, especially since they also do 'midnight' at 9:00pm (which is how Kristi and I got the idea).
I mean, we 'only' have 362 days to get our plans in order, right? :)
Tomorrow is the second road trip of this holiday vacation of mine. The first was on Christmas Day when we drove to Detroit and back in the space of about 10 hours. Tomorrow, after taking Abby and Hannah to the dentist, we will be heading down to my friend Mary's house for the weekend. No plans - just a lot of visiting and letting the kids all run around and play. And with Mary due in just a few weeks with her 3rd child, lots of baby talk as well. :)
I don't know if I'll have a chance to post at all while I'm gone and I know I won't be able to read many blogs (now that I finally got my reader caught up from over Christmas - sigh), but I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll be checking back in before the New Year, I promise!
I thought I'd leave you with a few random photos (of course!) and a video of Becca with her two new Backyardigan stuffed friends (Austin and Tasha) that she opened up on Christmas Eve, to go along with the 3 that she'd already stolen acquired from Hannah previously. Just ignore the quick view of Abby's legs - she was wrestling with Uncle Donnie at the time. :)
Yes, I know that Becca is missing a sock and her pants - what can I say, Daddy had just changed her diaper... :)
The only presents that were underneath our tree before Christmas morning were the three that the girls were allowed to open on Christmas Eve. I put them there that morning and all 3 girls drove me nuts about it all day. Abby even made a sign warning nobody to mess with them:
On the way to Detroit... Abby wasn't sleeping though, just playing with her Leapster.
Becca apparently decided that the tray tables at my uncle's house were a great jungle gym for her Backyardigan friends...
Here's Becca and Hannah pretending to be asleep - the fluffy purple dress in the middle belongs to my cousin Gwen's daughter Jasmine. Jasmine is almost a year younger than Hannah - the two of them ran around together like two peas in a pod the whole evening.
The doggie is my uncle and aunt's - his name is Otis.
This pretty much sums up Abby's evening - she spent every possible moment attached to the Leapster that my mom gave her for Christmas.
The 'kids' table at Christmas dinner. I tried putting Becca on my lap originally, but that didn't work out too well, so she sat with the 'big' girls.
It's been a long week! That's the only problem with taking vacation at holiday time - it goes by so fast... This year has been a very good one holiday-wise for us and I hope it has been for you as well. I thought I'd share a few highlights (and photos) and since it's Thursday, I decided to do it in list format.
So here are 13 highlights of our Christmas!
There have to be more presents around here someplace, right? Maybe you didn't look hard enough behind the tree...
Links to other Thursday Thirteeners:
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Thank you to Write From Karen for the header graphic this week!
I don't know if I'll have time to post tomorrow, so I just wanted to stop in while the girls are playing napping and having quiet time to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I can't wait to catch up on blog reading later this week and see how everyone's holidays went and share our stories and photos as well. Wishing you all a joyous holiday and fun times with your families and friends.
And thank you to Nap Warden for the wonderful graphics!
Just a few random photos of some of the girls' previous Christmases... Enjoy! :)
Abby with all of her gifts - looking a bit overwhelmed on her first Christmas morning: 
By the next year, she had a pretty good idea of what it was all about: 
Although I think Hannah was a bit unnerved by it all that year. Well, she was only 26 days old...
Hmm, now there's only a few shopping days left, who do I have left to buy for again... 
Hannah was still a bit unsure of the whole 'Christmas' idea the next year: 
Although, the presents pretty much won her over! 
And she was definitely into it by the next year: 
2005 was the year of Abby's eyes being closed in every picture I took of her on Christmas morning. 
And I'm not kidding: 
She did have them open long enough to unwrap a few gifts, however. 
Last year they really got into the candy canes: 
And Becca enjoyed her first Christmas as well. 
No screaming for this little one! :)
Check out more Throwback Thursday over at Pinks and Blues Girls!
