All That I Hoped It Would Be

Posted on December 27, 2012January 11, 2023 by Amy

I have always tried my best to be a thoughtful gift-giver, and now that I have kids, my investment in giving good gifts has increased exponentially. I want them to love the gifts. I want their gifts to encourage lots of creative play. I want their gifts to be sturdy. I want their gifts to not be obnoxious. I have a lot to think about when choosing the gifts for my children for Christmas. Quality, not quantity.

More than the gifts, I really want my kids to get a lot out of the whole experience of Christmas. Putting up the Christmas tree, singing carols, going to see Santa, baking cookies, spending time with family, doing all the traditional things that bring such warm memories to my mind from my own childhood. We’ve had a great time doing these things the past few weeks.

For me Christmas morning is the culmination of all the holiday doings. It’s the time when all the build up about Santa and his magic comes to fruition.

On Christmas morning, I want my kids to be bursting with excitement and all the pure wonder that only children can express.

This year, Christmas morning was all that I hoped it would be.

It was waking up early with this little one and waiting for her sisters to come down while starting breakfast preparations.

It was finally hearing the big girls stirring upstairs and hearing their giddy anticipation as they rushed to see what Santa left for them, watching them search for the one thing they really, really wanted (The Big Snow White!), and then seeing the pure, childish joy when they found it.

It was watching and hearing them play with their Santa gifts while I finished making breakfast. What a joyful sound.

It was finally making creamed eggs (Miss called them “egg nugget” for some reason!) by myself without needing to call my mom for her “recipe.” I’ve never written down the instructions she has given me so many times over the years, though I say to myself that I will every time. I call her twice a year (on Christmas and Easter) to ask how to make creamed eggs and have been doing so since at least 2003. This year, I finally just did it myself. With Charlie Brown Christmas playing in the background, I made my roux, added my milk, salted and peppered, and stirred in my chopped hard-boiled eggs all by myself. I felt like such a big girl. My 3 year old did help, though. She told me I needed more salt.

It was the madness of opening the rest of the presents under the tree after breakfast.

It was loving watching my big girls’ different approaches to this process, with Miss tearing open every present that had her name on it, barely stopping in between to look at what she had just revealed, and Lass stopping to play for a while with each toy as she unwrapped it and leisurely making her way around to open each of her gifts.

It was seeing my older girls, surrounded by all their new toys, choosing to sit and read for a while.

It was taking a little bit of time myself to explore the wonderful new books on cooking my husband gave me – “The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen,” “Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking,” and “Twenty: 20 Techniques, 100 Recipes, A Cook’s Manifesto” all by Michael Ruhlman, all Awe. Some.

It was all of these things and more.

It was joyous. It was magical.

I really think I love Christmas and Santa even more through the eyes of my children than I did when I was little myself.

Christmas is Love

Posted on December 24, 2012December 24, 2012 by Amy

Our elf, Christopher Pop-In-Kins, left our house last night, leaving behind a note and the movie, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” I told the girls they could watch their new movie after baths, just before getting ready for Santa and going to bed.

They were anxiously awaiting baths all day!

To kill some time before naps this afternoon, they helped Daddy make sausage, while rocking out to some Christmas music.

Today we avoided Rudolph, but they love to dance to the Charlie Brown theme song (to my chagrin they like my husband’s favorite Christmas music better than my Johnny Mathis Christmas… for now anyway).

They helped their Dad start to make brats before heading up for naps, all the while asking how much longer until baths and movie.

Finally, after naps, after dinner, after baths, they got to settle in with milk and cookies on fancy plates to watch their new movie.

My favorite part of the day came after the movie. We got treats together for Santa and his reindeer.

The girls dictated a precious “Thank you” note and signed their own names.

The very best time tonight was story time. We snuggled in to read many, many of our Christmas books tonight. Of course we started with “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” but followed that with several more favorites.

I think I was as excited as they were when I put them to bed.

And then of course, there was this:

The bane of all parents of little girls on Christmas Eve – The Dollhouse.

Oh, but what a dollhouse!

It will be the perfect home for the “Big Snow Whites” that my girls have been asking for for over a month now. The ladies are in the stockings just waiting to bring joy to my two eldest girls in the morning. Baby Sis’s stocking holds Prince Charming 🙂

I can’t wait for the morning.

I had a hard time thinking of anything I wanted for myself this Christmas. Truly, there isn’t much that is material in nature that I want or need.

I have three beautiful, healthy children and a truly wonderful, amazing husband. Tomorrow I hope to see their faces light with joy when they open their gifts.

More than that, I hope all year to give them my love in such a way that they always know it, can see it, can feel it no matter what. To me, Christmas is about love and family. We’ve got that.

In the morning we will open plenty of presents. We will have gift wrap flying everywhere. We will have little girls oohing and aaahing and probably squealing a bit over their gifts. We will have a traditional breakfast and stay in pajamas all morning. We will play and probably watch a Christmas movie or two. We might listen to Rudolph or other Christmas music.

We will have all of these things. But most of all, we will will have lots of love. Everything else is just gravy.

May you have a Christmas filled with love.

Rudolph on Repeat

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Amy

The holiday spirit is in full swing around here. Last night Daddy (aka Santa) helped me wrap the rest of the presents and get them under the tree. The girls inspected them closely this morning and eagerly asked about each one. They are excited about Santa coming tomorrow night.

Today was a day for playing Christmas music and making treats in the kitchen. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was on repeat, at Lass’s request, and we made cookies for Santa.

As Rudolph played in the background (for quite a while Lass was insistent we listen to nothing but that, but after a while I snuck in some Charlie Brown Christmas and we were all able to move on), the girls got warmed up with the rolling pin.

They had fun spreading out the flour and then got down to business.

After a few rounds they really got into trying to pound the dough flat before rolling it.

Santa is going to be very pleased. Especially since Miss says we need to leave chocolate milk for him to have with his cookies.

And speaking of Santa being pleased, he was very happy, as were we all, with the fresh (and huge) ham he cooked for our dinner tonight. He cooked the other ham from our hog at my parent’s house last week and was a bit disappointed by how it turned out. The flavor was wonderful, but the meat was dry.

Today he nailed it.

The house was filled with mouth-watering smells all day and the finished product did not disappoint.

We’ll be eating ham for Christmas dinner, and I have plans to use the bone to make a yummy ham and vegetable soup later in the week. I’m happy that we won’t need to be in the kitchen all day to make dinner on Christmas. I’ll cook some Brussels sprouts with bacon and sauté some fennel bulb and the meal will be complete.

We can spend Christmas day as it should be spent. Snuggling and laughing and playing sister games (though I will spend a little bit of time in the kitchen in the morning, after opening presents, cooking our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of creamed eggs).

We’ll probably play Rudolph a few more times too.

Merry Christmas.

A Holiday Movie Tradition

Posted on December 10, 2012December 11, 2012 by Amy

Have I mentioned how much I love holiday traditions?

Yes. Of course I have. I’m a holiday tradition junkie.

One of my favorites is the tradition my Mom and I have of watching the movie “Heidi” every Christmas. I know it’s not a popular holiday movie, but we’ve been doing it every year since I can remember (you can read about the girls’ first exposure to it last year here).

My Mom and I recite the dialog together. “I think there ought to be a Frau Schultz!” and “My word! A gorilla!” and many, many more lines of this adorable movie.

We laugh heartily at the same scenes, every. time.

This year my girls laughed with us.

For the first time, my girls actually paid attention throughout the movie and seemed to get into it (Lass got distracted for a while in the middle, but was pretty attentive for the first 30-40 minutes and the last 15 or so).

They cracked up at the craziness that resulted when Heidi let the monkey in the house. They were distressed with Grandfather was placed in jail and couldn’t find Heidi. They were on pins and needles about “When will Clara walk?”

I can’t even express how happy I am that I could share this tradition with my girls this year. I watched them watching it almost as much as I watched the movie.

What’s your favorite holiday movie?

Joy

Posted on November 26, 2012November 28, 2012 by Amy

This time of year always makes me so sentimental. It makes me think of family. Holidays past. Traditions.

I think tradition is really the key to my nostalgia at this time of year. There are certain traditions that my family followed every year during the holidays that I remember so well and feel so happy to replicate with my kids.

I have wonderful memories of lots of family time at Thanksgiving.

This year, for the first time since my kids were born, we got to spend Thanksgiving with extended family. It was great fun.

The girls had lots of fun with their many, many cousins on my husband’s side of the family (there are so many kids my in-laws put carpet in their garage to make a big space for them to run and play inside).

They were playing some sort of football game. You can see how my girls look up to their older cousins.

Lass had no concept of the game being played. She mostly just wandered through the older kids, who were running and jumping and tackling and yelling all around her, singing and hugging this ball. It’s amazing (and a testament to her cousins’ consideration) that she never once got trampled, or even bumped!

This little one enjoyed hanging out with her Daddy and watching her sisters and cousins.

Thanksgiving dinner was eaten around a table set with my husband’s grandmother’s china and linens. The girls sat at the kid’s table, which is such a memory-laden rite of passage for every childhood in itself, and the adults crammed around the grown up table.

There was much laughter her about the fact that we were so squished around this table we could barely maneuver forks to mouths. Heaven forbid anyone needed to use a knife. It was a great meal in great company. Family.

When I see photos like these I can’t help but fast forward thirty or so years and imagine the memories my girls will have of our holidays and traditions. I want them to remember these feelings, whether they remember the specific instances or not.

Comfort.

Coziness.

Closeness.

I want them to remember time with family. That family was always placed at the top of our list of priorities. That they were always, always valued and loved by many.

I want them to have awesome auntie memories like I have.

I am so thankful we got to be with family for one of my favorite holidays this year.

When we got home, we moved right into one of my favorite traditions – decorating the Christmas tree. With Johnny Mathis Christmas music playing in the background of course.

There are few things more evocative of holiday memories and joy for me than decorating the tree. It’s an exercise in holding history and tradition in my hands with each ornament I put on the tree. Almost every ornament has a story. I have ornaments that belonged to my grandmas, that were made by my grandmas and great-grandmas, that were given to me by my Auntie, that were made by my mom and graced the tree in my house when I was a little girl, and so on. Of course I’m now adding the ornaments that belong to my girls. A new tradition in my little family (which I got from my Auntie) is that I give the girls each a special ornament each Christmas, trying to make it representative of something special that they did or experienced in the past year.

The first ornament put on the tree this year by each of my older girls was their “First Christmas” rocking horse. These are engraved with their names and the year.

They then proceeded with the rest of their individual ornaments and then helped me put all the non-breakable ornaments on the lower section of the tree.

The finished product:

For some reason the tree is leaning a bit this year. I don’t even care. I love our tree. It might even be a bit weird how much I love our tree. This thing is a big green, sparkly monument to my life, my family, and my history. It, and the process of creating it with my girls, bring me joy.

When Grandma is a Children’s Librarian

Posted on October 25, 2012October 25, 2012 by Amy

We read a lot at our house. I mean a lot.

I read many books to my girls every day. We talk about what we read. Sometimes we even do little activities related to what we’ve read.

When we come to Grandma’s house, things get taken to a whole new level.

She brings home wonderful new books from the library, where she works as the children’s librarian.

Beautiful books that beg to be read over and over and over. Books that are so well written and illustrated that I actually enjoy reading them over and over and over.

Then Grandma does one better.

She busts out the felt board with all sorts of laminated animals and vegetables and fruits to go with classics like “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?,” “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?,” and of course, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”

I love that she makes many of our old favorites come to life in new ways.

Last night she brought out a bag full of camels with different numbers of silly-looking humps, from five down to zero. She taught the girls a goofy song about “Sally the camel.” It was a little math lesson too, with her number of humps decreasing by one with each round of the song.

Miss got really into it and cracked up laughing every time the song ended with Sally having “no humps” and the revelation that she was a horse. She thought that was pretty clever.

Lass totally didn’t get the words, but she sang at the top of her lungs anyway.

I love this stuff. I laughed hard last night with my girls and my mom.

This week has promoted good bonding for my girls with each other and with Grandma and Grandpa.

We went as a family to story time at my mom’s library yesterday. I asked my husband to come with us, but then felt a little guilty about it.

I second-guessed my request that he join us right before we left and told him he didn’t really need to come. He was entirely willing to come, but I was still feeling bad and thinking, “Why did I ask him to come? I should be able to take my kids to story time by myself, for pete’s sake” (Mommy guilt is so stupid). He came anyway. And of course I did have reasons for asking him, knowing that the timing of the story time coincided with Lass’s second feeding of the day. It would have been a little tricky to help my older girls with the activities I know my mom packs into her story times (in yesterday’s story time they colored, heard two stories, used finger puppets and needed help to get them on their fingers, did a group numbers puzzle, had a craft project, and ate a snack) while nursing a baby.

And yes, I could have done it by myself.

But it turns out it was really good he was there. He held Sis so I didn’t have to wear her while sitting with the big girls on the floor. And of course in the middle of the second story, just after I had helped Lass get ten little monkey puppets onto her fingers, she announced that she had to go potty.

And Sis needed to eat right after we got back from that bathroom trip. So Daddy and Grandpa helped out with the craft project of the day. I just know that if my husband hadn’t been there, Lass would have waited to announce the need to potty until I was in the middle of feeding Sis, in the middle of the second story, right after getting ten monkey puppets on her squirmy fingers.

It was a little reminder that, even though I can manage to do all sorts of things by myself with my girls, sometimes it’s cool to ask someone to help. Having my hubby there made the morning infinitely easier. Thanks hubby.

This week is coming to a close way too quickly. Tomorrow we will be visiting with my brother and his family, and all too soon we’ll be heading home. I so wish my family lived nearer. My girls are blooming this week. Grandparents rule.

Leaves

Posted on October 21, 2012October 21, 2012 by Amy

At home, we are well past the peak of fall color. Things are starting to look a bit brown. It’s getting cold and I can feel winter coming.

But this week we’re visiting my parents. They live 10 hours south of us, and still have lots of wonderful color and nearly-80-degree weather to enjoy.

It’s warm and beautiful. And we’re taking full advantage.

There’s lots of room to run at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. And I just can’t resist taking pictures of my gorgeous girls in these gorgeous leaves.

Of course, my girls love playing in the leaves. I got them searching for big, different, colorful leaves.

We collected a bunch of leaves and then the girls went to town playing in them.

I was really excited to have the girls do some leaf rubbings after their naps.

I helped each of them do a maple leaf, but they were much more interested in just coloring. I tried to talk to them about the differences in the leaves and the types of trees from which they came. We had collected maple, oak, dogwood, and something else. Hickory, I think. I was really excited to get into the leaves. I thought I was going to have one of those super-fun-and-totally-educational-awesome-mom experiences with them.

They just wanted to color. Oh well.

It was a fun afternoon. And we’re at Grandma and Grandpa’s. My girls are laughing like crazy and getting tons of love from my parents. Can’t beat that.

Weekend Family Fest

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Amy

It was cold and rainy here all weekend. But our house was full of warmth and sunshine.

We took full advantage of being home together for a full weekend. We played, and made music, and colored Halloween cookies.

Yes, that’s a tear on her cheek. She had been very upset about something just before climbing in her seat to color her cookies. Probably that I made her take off her sister’s Snow White dress for the activity…

I had shown her how I bit off my ghost’s arms. She laughed and showed me her ghost, “Mama, I bit off his butt!”

We hunkered down for some much needed home time. Lists and agendas went out the window as we spent time just enjoying each other. It. was. awesome.

We did puzzles and played games and watched football. The girls knew the appropriate teams to cheer for (mostly “GO BLUE!” of course, but a little bit of “Yay Hawkeyes!” in there as well so their Daddy wouldn’t feel bad).

We got out paints and went to town. My girls love to paint. I love seeing how they each have their own way of doing it.

Miss decided that finger painting was in order. When I told her I wasn’t going to get out the finger paints (not my fave activity), she improvised. Tricky girl.

So, they made some great handprint art. It was messy. I don’t love messy, but I went with it. It was fun and I survived and they loved it.

It was a lazy jammy weekend. The only reason any of us got dressed all weekend (other than hubby and me when we went on a date Saturday), was that the girls got paint all over their jammies from the finger painting.

Of course we couldn’t get through this weekend family fest without carving our pumpkins. The older girls each had a pumpkin to draw a face on.

Daddy carved them while the girls looked on excitedly.

I forgot to buy one of those little pumpkin carving sets, so he was working hard and having a bit of trouble with my relatively large knives. Then he got smart.

The girls chose to do Mad (Miss’s), Scared (Lass’s), and Sad (Miss’s choice for Sis) faces on their pumpkins. I love how they turned out. It was a fun ending to a wonderful weekend.

How to Have the Best. Party. Ever.

Posted on September 3, 2012September 3, 2012 by Amy

As I mentioned yesterday, I went to an awesome family reunion party with my husband’s family this weekend. I have been to a lot of parties in my life. This one was definitely one of the very best. All of the best parties I have been to, including my wedding reception, have had several things in common (most likely because they are all parties involving my husband’s family and/or the Farm). My in-laws seriously know how to party. So here’s what I’ve learned from them in the past 10 years about throwing a good party.

1. Have it in a barn (Morton building).

Nothing really screams “party hard!” like a big, cleared out building, ripe for dancing and all sorts of other antics.

2. Involve camping of some sort. When people come from far away and are able to stay in close proximity by camping out, the fun is bound to multiply. This was our home away from home for the weekend.

Along these lines, include a campfire. And throw in some swine (or other farm animals) whenever possible. Just because. This was the view from the front door of our RV (one of these guys is going to provide some yummy bacon for our freezer come November):

3. Get a band.

Better yet, be the band.

Yes, this is my awesome husband

And play awesome music, like “Fight for Your Right (To Party)”

PAAAAARTY!

If you have no awesome musical talent available, get a karaoke machine. Seriously.

4. Make it about family and include all generations.

My father-in-law and his brothers routinely get up and sing with the band at these family parties. My 13-year-old nephew played the fiddle during “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and the trumpet during “Sweet Caroline.” My five-year-old nephew played cowbell during another song while his dad played the guitar next to him. It was awesome.

And have a good way to keep on partying once the tiny ones go to bed (notice the monitor clipped to my waist so I could keep an eye on the girls in the RV after they went to bed).

5. Get people moving. Encourage crowd participation.

medium

^This link goes to a video of part of the “Sweet Caroline” performance. You might have to click on it twice. I haven’t quite figured out uploading videos with this new platform yet, I guess.

6. Don’t take yourself too seriously. If your idea of a good party involves breakable dishes and pinkies out, these tips probably aren’t for you. But if you like a sweaty, exhausting, dance-til-you-nearly-pee-your-pants kind of crazy good time, try it.

In all seriousness, I don’t think a party like this can be easily replicated. It’s impossible to truly describe the fun and family togetherness that is The Labor Day Party. It’s a big group of people dancing and singing and hugging and laughing, and all of them are related. The band is made up of my husband, his brother, three cousins, and a family friend. The dance floor is packed with more cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews of all ages. We used to have these parties annually at the Farm every Labor Day weekend. We had a similar party for our wedding reception at the Farm. For the past three years there hasn’t been a party, and I’ve missed it. But I didn’t even realize how much until getting back to it this year. This year the party was hosted by my husband’s amazing cousin and his wife. Different venue, same crazy fun family, same awesome party.

The best thing this year was being able to see Miss enjoy the party (Lass and Sis were in bed before it started). She loved dancing and I think I could have just watched her do it all night. She totally got into the Hokey Pokey. The first time I got up on the stage to sing, she looked up at me with a quizzical and slightly awed expression. Then I pointed to her while I was singing, and the beaming smile that broke across her face was priceless.

What a way to wrap up summer.

Miss starts school tomorrow. When we were talking about what she wanted to wear for her first day she said, “School tights, a skirt, and a topping,” and then she picked out a lovely outfit. Photos of her first day to come.

Party Preview

Posted on September 2, 2012September 2, 2012 by Amy

We partied with my husband’s family this weekend. For many years they had an annual party at the Farm over Labor Day weekend. We haven’t done it for the past three years. This year, the party made a huge comeback at a new venue. It. Was. Awesome. The party was last night and we traveled home today. Naturally, I am very tired tonight and not up to doing a long post about it. But, here are a few sneak photos.

Because of this party, I cannot get the song “My Dingaling” out of my head tonight. More to come tomorrow!