The December Surprise Box

How do you keep your toddler and first grader from becoming curious about those wrapped presents under the tree?
(Curious enough to unwrap them?)

Here's what I do.

What is it?
It's a December Surprise Box.
Made by Ephram and Charlie.

And it might not be the most pretty thing ever,
But they love it.

They picked out every piece of paper, every sticker and decided where to put it all.
Charlie wrote the words,
(But asked me for help and traced my letters.)
Ephram placed all of the stickers.
I was super shocked about his perfection in lining things up.

And because they built it,
It worked.

And it might also have something to do with the constant stream of surprises they found in it all month.

I had a lot of fun putting things in there.
And sometimes other people left things too.

Not a single present was unwrapped before it was time.
Success!

Letters to Santa 2012

When it came time to write our letters to Santa, Ephram told me that he wanted to ask for a musical instrument and 30 cars.

He can't speak very well, so this is how he told me.

"Ma!  Ma!  Mama!"

"Milk?"

"No, ma! ma!" (Runs to the piano and plays a little tune.)

"Ma!  Ma!"  (Runs upstairs and grabs Charlie's drum and starts banging on it.)

"You want music?"

(Looks exasperated)  "No!  Ma!  Ma!"

"An instrument?  Like Quincy's instruments?"  (Reference to Little Einsteins.)

"Ya, ya Mama!"  (Nods head up and down, smiles satisfactorily and gives me a hug.)

"Is there anything else you want to ask Santa for?"

"Ca, mama.  Ca.  Vroo, Vroo.  Ca."  (Makes driving motions with his hands and zooms around the kitchen.)

"Cars?"

"Ya, mama, ca."  (Smiles and holds up 10 fingers.)

"A lot of cars?  Like 10 cars?"

"Bi mama.  Bi ca."  (Gives silly look and holds up 10 fingers, closes them, 10 more, closes them, 10 more.)

"30 cars?"

"Ya!  Ca!"

So we got on the computer and found two pictures for him to color.

He chose them himself, ran and grabbed them from the printer, and carefully colored them.

Then I wrote his letter after getting the content approved by him.

Some stickers and stamps, and it was ready to go.

(But he was too shy to have his picture taken with it, so I snuck one.)

While this was going on, Charlie was writing his letter.

I asked him what he was going to ask Santa for and he said.

"Mom, I don't need your help.  I'm ready to be seven."

My response, "Alright Charlie.  Just remember to be nice and not demanding."

He finished his letter before Ephram was done coloring.

I was really impressed.

And his picture was cute too.

(Although I am not sure how cowboys are related to his letter.  But he is in first grade.)

 When they were ready, we addressed them to Santa and placed them in envelopes.

As is customary in our family, we placed them under our doormat so that the elves could come and get them.

And the next morning, they were gone!

Christmas Branches

This year we managed to get our Christmas tree up and decorated over Thanksgiving weekend.
The boys were so excited to help, and were able to help more than ever before.
Surprisingly, I did not move one ornament once the tree was all put together.
(But I did give the boys several suggestions as they decked it out.)

As usual, we added an ornament for each of the kids this year.

Ephram did not pick any of the ornaments I thought he would.
He did pick out this model airplane.
He was so excited about it, when we took it out of the box he flew it all over the house.
It landed right up near the top of the tree, (with his dad's help.)

Charlie's choice was obvious.
A Lego Star Wars Storm Trooper, of course.
(He loves Legos, loves Star Wars, and is obsessed with the Dark Side currently.)

For our family ornament we chose a mystery one this year.

We all like it.

Which is good, since you can't return a mystery ornament.

We also added another Disney ornament to mark our family vacation for this year.
(I neglected to take a picture of it!)

And here is Macie's 1st Christmas ornament.

Ephram had a very fun time putting the candy canes on the tree. 

He also spent most of December moving them around for us.

By the end of the month we had more than 10 candy canes on one branch.

And I wouldn't change it for anything.

I'm going to cherish the memory of the year that Ephram took charge of our candy canes.

I tried to take a picture of the boys in front of the tree when we were done.
Ephram wasn't interested, so Charlie caught him for me.
He was only in the frame for two seconds, so this is the best I did.

But Charlie stayed a bit longer.

I tried again the next day, when Macie was awake.  And again, Ephram evaded the camera.
But these two were real cute.

And then a bit of sibling jealousy came into play and I was lucky to catch this.
My baby girl has no idea how lucky she is to have two brothers that love her so much.
I hope these three remain close as I force them to sit through pictures in years to come.
If nothing else they can bond in their amusement, or lack thereof, of a mother who takes too many pictures.

I love Christmas time.  And the Christmas tree starts it off for me.

Christmas Card Pictures 2012

This year I took the kids to a studio to have pictures taken for Christmas cards.
I have never done this before, but when I pictured trying to control my 3 with the stress of Thanksgiving, Christmas and two birthdays upon us, I decided to give myself a break.
I ended up taking a few on my own too.
(The photographer kept waiting for all three kids to smile.  If you wait for all three of my kids to smile, you don't get very many pictures.)

I selected a few to use on our actual Christmas cards, but I did like more than I could choose.
So, where better to put them all then on our family blog?

Turkey Time

During the Halloween season, Ephram spotted some Thanksgiving crafts on a trip to Michaels with me.  He was so excited about them, so I bought them for him and Charlie to make.

The first was a little turkey.  It turned out to be a ton of work and the adhesive was not very good, so that we ended up holding the turkey together with tape.  Didn't matter to Ephram, he was in heaven making that turkey.  (Charlie got frustrated with it because the pieces wouldn't stay stuck and didn't finish his.)

 The second craft was a turkey necklace.  Both of the boys had a great time putting their necklace together.  Ephram even made his own pattern and was able to string all of the beads, except the turkey, by himself.

Yes, that's a shiner on Charlie.  He took the perfect spill and hit a doorknob protector in the perfect spot to get a huge angry black eye the day before we took our Christmas pictures.  Of course.

Charlie made a ton of things at school too.  His thankful tree that he brought home said that he was thankful for TV, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and the Xbox Kinect.  Ah, the honesty of a six year old.  My favorite thing that he brought home was this hat.  I thought it was hilarious.

The boys had fun getting ready for turkey day this year!