X-nay on the onkey-may

I forgot to mention some of the other cool stuff the kids got from their Ohio family the other day... they got My Little Pony stuff, new PJ's, real kid-sized spoons and forks, cool socks, a great 2 seater wagon, a Christmas CD, some $ for savings, a real china teaset... the list goes on and on. However, one of the most interesting toys came from Aunt Sarah... an animatronic baby chimp that responds to touch and he laughs, "talks" to you, giggles, squeals, and shakes when he gets all excited. Sadie thought this was pretty cool at first. She played with him for a few days, and then the other night after she went to bed, she got up, came across the house in the dark, came into my room, and said, "Mommy. Will you please take that monkey out of my room?" Hehehe... Now the monkey has to live in the toy closet at night - he can only come out during the day. And here I thought monkeys were nocturnal....

Ding-A-Ling

We opened our "family presents" at home on Friday morning. Jesse, who knows how to pull strings, talked to Santa and convinced him to come early so we wouldn't have to bring a huge haul of stuff back with us from NC. So, last night, Sadie put out cookies, milk, and some water for Rudolph. Rudolph has been a BIG hit this year, with both Sadie and Josie. They must've watched that old classic one (my favorite one, too, with Hermie the elf) 25 times over the past month. Anyway, we did that, then read "The Night Before Christmas" and then the real Christmas Story. I tried to explain how Jesus being born coincides with the whole Santa thing, but let me tell you, I couldn't do a very good job of it. But we prayed to God and thanked him for His gift of Jesus, and also for toys and for Santa. Then Sadie asked me if she could pray whenever she wanted to, and I said, "Of course you can! God likes it when we pray to Him. It makes Him happy." She said, "Can I even tell Him about when I fell off the sidewalk and got a boo boo on my knee, and I had to get a bandaid?" I said, "Yep." So she proceeded to tell God this sad story, and when she finished, she said, "Well, I told Him, but He isn't there. Oh, but He is there!" This was a little strange, coming from a 2 1/2 year old. She showed a little doubt, then totally turned around and figured it out for herself. I think, anyway. Maybe I'm giving her too much credit, but the faith of little kids is amazing to me. You tell them, and they'll believe. It's scary, but humbling at the same time. When it comes to God and Jesus, that faith is certainly something to aspire to.

When we finished, she tried to go to sleep. Josie had no trouble, and she passed out and started snoring before all of this even happened. :) She had way too much fun the night before with Lydia and Darryl. So, Sadie TRIED. She really did, but she was so excited she kept squirming around, popping back up and saying, "Did you hear that? I think I hear Santa! Is that him? I heard Jingle Bells! I hear Rudolph! Do you hear him?" It was so funny... She must've stayed up half the night because this morning it was all we could do to get her out of bed to actually go check and see if Santa DID come.

Presents that were a hit:
Sadie: A Doctor Kit! She immediately went to work on Snoopy, and gave Jesse a blood pressure reading. Then I got a shot. She also got a baby doll, some sewing cards, and a My Little Pony umbrella, along with lots of other things that I can't think of at the moment.
Josie: Her daddy gave her a huge, cuddly, supersoft teddy bear that she LOVES. She also got new fuzzy slippers, a funny hat that just has "Josiebean" written all over it, a cool shapesorter thing, and again, lots of things that I can't remember and I'm too lazy to go into the living room and look at them.
Jesse: His big present was a pair of tickets to a Monster Truck Show... I finally surprised him! He had no idea, and I think I actually did well this year!
Me: A big gift card to a wonderful, fabulous, marvelous, stupendous spa, along with a menu of services that I can choose from. Aromatherapy facial and massage, here I come!!!!

We're leaving tonight for NC, so I won't be posting for at least a week. We'll be having fun in the sun! Seriously. It's supposed to be like 70 degrees down there. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Clippety Clop

Today, we broke out the Eazy-Bake oven that Sadie got from her Aunt Cindy for Christmas. (We opened presents here early since we're going home on Friday... yay!) We wanted to wait until Cindy could come over and help, but Sadie just couldn't restrain herself. Grammie ended up helping her bake a little cake and some cookies. Sadie was so excited to be able to do it "all by myself!" Unfortunately, she got her hand stuck IN the oven and Grammie had to turn and twist and yank it out. Ouch! Josie, on the other hand, helped with some sprinkles and proceeded to smear chocolate frosting all over her head. She also had a hey day riding her new little rocking horse from Grandma and Grandpa... it whinnies and sings, "I'm a little pony, clippety-clop, clippety-clop," which is a very annoying song, but somehow I cannot stop singing it.

What? That's MADNESS, I tell you!

Tonight, Josie helpfully rubbed baby oil all over my face and into my hair... and laughed. She's becoming more and more "helpful" as the days go by. It's so cute to watch her try to help, and to see her try to outdo her big sister.

Then, I sang "Away in a Manger" to Sadie as her lullaby. Well, I should say that I TRIED to sing it. I kept getting rudely interrupted after the first line. Our bedtime ritual went something like this:
Mommy: "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus... "
Sadie: "WHAT?! NO CRIB FOR HIS BED??!! God needs to GO to the STORE and get Baby JESUS a BED! He will BE COLD!! Maybe He should come and sleep in MY bed."

Ho, Ho, Ho

Sorry... I'm not doing very well at keeping up this month! But I'm guessing that no one has much time to read, either, so I don't feel "too awful bad," as we put it at home. Yesterday, we took the kids to see Santa at the mall... Sadie was so excited that she couldn't think of anything that she wanted for Christmas except "a new pair of Jingley Socks because I pulled all the bells off of mine." Then she asked Santa if he would say "Ho, Ho, Ho" (currently Josie's favorite words) and he did... then she and Josie simultaneously cracked up, and Sadie said, "You're silly, Santa Claus!" Then we rode the Christmas Train (by we, meaning ME, Sadie, and Josie). Jesse ran around and around the outside of the train corral snapping pictures. Josie thought this was a hoot, and kept trying to climb out of the caboose. Sadie waved to the crowd and yelled, "Merry Chwistmas, ev-body!" As we were leaving, we stopped by the Salvation Army bell-ringer and he let Sadie ring his jingle bells. She got some donations! It was so cute... I was so proud! My little charity case! hehee just kidding. I'm hoping to instill how important it is to give to those less fortunate than we are. This year, Sadie helped me with the gifts we picked out for these two "angel tree" kids names we got from church. I explained how some kids don't have enough to eat, or don't have Mommies or Daddies to take care of them, or toys to play with. She mulled this over and then decided that we should pray for them. Then we sent a care package to a lady and her little girl in Jamaica, and Sadie drew the little girl a picture and sent her some of her very own pencils "so she can draw pictures, too!"

Sermon on the Run

Tonight, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for supper. Sadie informed her Grandma, "Your house looks festive. I use that word now."

Aunt Lydia gave the kids a bath while I practiced a song to sing at church for Christmas. As I was standing there singing, what to my wondering eyes did appear? A little naked Josie-bean, freshly escaped from the bathtub, with Aunt Lydia in hot pursuit. Josie ran across the room laughing this maniacal little Woody Woodpecker-sounding laugh and proceeded to bang on the piano keys. Needless to say, practice was halted. :)

On the way home, Sadie yanked on Josie's coat sleeve until Josie got ticked off and started to cry. I asked Sadie why she was making her sister cry, and she said, "Because I like to." I said, "But God doesn't like it when we try to make people cry. He likes it when we're nice to people and when we love them." Sadie took this into consideration, and then said, "But WHY? I like to!" I said,

"Well, sometimes we just can't do things that we like doing - simply because it's wrong."

"Sometimes, God doesn't want us to do certain things just because those things can hurt other people."

"Even though we like doing something and it feels right and good to us, it doesn't always mean that it's the best thing for us."

Then, lo and behold, I listened to what I was saying and I realized that I had preached myself a sermon.

Um, Excuse Me

Tonight we went to a Holiday Sing-a-Long with Deanna. Sadie went right up to the front with a bunch of kids and with the singers and danced along to "Rudolph" and "Frosty the Snowman." She's a natural. Josie is too... she escaped me a couple of times and toddled down the aisle toward the front... she looked so cute in her fuzzy reindeer shirt that I wanted to leave her up there, but I was afraid a big kid might step on her and squash her. When we got home, we came inside and Deanna had the diaper bag, which had Josie's pink blanket hanging out of it. Deanna put Josie down in the family room, then walked out of the room into the kitchen to hang up coats, put stuff away, etc. All the while, Josie is standing there, right where Deanna left her, with her pudgy little finger pointing up in the air, saying, "My blankie. Um. My blankie. Um. My blankie!"

Good news: We are all well for the moment!
Bad news: They cut down the weeping willow in the yard next door. Bah!

Christmastime's a comin'

Christmas festivities are in full swing around here... we've got Elvis music playing, lights in the tree outside (just one, though - I have no patience for things that tangle easily!), trees inside (Sadie has her own in her room) and greenery everywhere. The kids are wearing red (and their jingley-socks), and I'm almost completely done with shopping AND wrapping (Yes, I am one of THOSE people!). Last night, we made cookies, and Josie helped. Let's just say that once Josie learned that she could help, Josie did not want to STOP helping. We ended up with flour all over the floor, sprinkles in every nook and cranny, green icing on her nose, and a really good holiday memory. She also proved to me that her little brain is working overtime these days, even if she's still not talking very much. She dumped out the bin filled with gloves, mittens, scarves, etc. and pulled out one little mitten. She then proceeded to take it over to the drawer next to the stove where I keep the oven mitts and potholders; she pulled open the drawer and put the mitten in with the oven mitts! It was so cute, since she obviously thought that the mitten was just a mini oven-mitt!

Sadie wore her reindeer antlers around the house today and we read Christmas stories. She is very impressed that Baby Jesus actually was born in a barn. "With all the animals! Mooing, and quacking, and neighing. It was kinda loud in there." She now can quote, "To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all!" Every Christmas light we see is still, "OH! How Be-yoo-ti-FULL!" Josie likes the lights too, but she seems to be a more reflective sort. She likes to sit and look and take it all in, but Sadie likes to keep a running commentary. :)

Jingle Socks, Jingle Socks

Today, Sadie made a big mess in Josie's room... she dumped a whole basketful of toys out in the floor. I told her she had to pick them up and put them away, so we started singing the "Cleanup Song," which goes a little something like this:
"Clean up, Clean up, everybody clean up!" Well, Sadie, not WANTING to clean up her mess, changed all the words and sang this song to me: "OH, I don't have to clean up, but YOU do!"

The girls have been wearing their "jingle socks" for two days straight... these are little green and red striped elfy-looking socks with little bells sewn on them. They love them because they're fun and noisy - I love them because I can hear the kids coming! Today, on the way to Grandma's house to help decorate her tree, we sang "Jingle Bells." Josie immediately started kicking her feet up in the air and wiggling them in time to the song :) We may have a little virtuoso on our hands!