Holiday Highlights

As promised, some holiday photos!  At least I managed to get these posted in January (barely).

 

With both boys in school full time this year we did not spend nearly as much time crafting this holiday season as we did years past.  Maybe that was because mommy was in school too.  No, let's just blame their school schedule.

 

We did manage to make these super simple ornaments one evening before dinner.  Both boys love Perler bead crafts so we have TONS of beads on hand.  I let them choose a holiday cookie cutter and told them to fill the space however they liked.  Nathan wanted precise placement of the eyes and buttons on his gingerbread man and was a tad frustrated when they melted out of place.  Ian, on the other hand, just tossed in a bunch of colors and was done with the project in 30 seconds.  He moved on to making four regular Perler shapes with the various peg boards I mistakenly brought downstairs.

 

Bake the beads and cookie cutters in the oven on 250 (or whatever temperature finally gets all the colors to melt) for about 5-10 minutes.  I know I had to bump up the temp a couple of times, but I didn't pay attention to the final temperature that worked for us.  Once they've cooled just pop them out of the cutters and add a string somewhere.  Easiest craft ever.

 

We have too many ornaments for just one Christmas tree so this year I thought it was a good idea to set up the small tree in the dining room for the boys to decorate.  We gave them all the "toy" ornaments and all of their handmade ornaments plus plastic bulbs.  They thought this was great and we still were not able to display all of their ornaments.  Ian is pointing out below that he added a gold bulb as the star for the top of the tree.

 

 

I am happy to report that I did not burst into tears this Christmas morning.  Success!  Every year the frustration of blurry pictures taken without my camera flash makes me cry.  Not this year.  I had every light I could find in the room (because it was a dreary morning outside) and begged the boys to occasionally pose.  They are old enough that they were happy to oblige.  Pictures still aren't perfect, but they are good enough.

 

Nathan loves Sponge Bob.  Loves.  We tolerate Sponge Bob.  I hate the Wii.  Now Nathan has a Wii Sponge Bob game.  Clearly, he was thrilled.

 

 

Ian reads books faster than we can afford to buy them or find time to check them out from the library.  He was pretty happy to receive the next Magic Tree House book and a bunch of others.

Ian was not as excited to receive pajamas and a matching robe.  I couldn't resist buying each boy a set of these.  The old man robes were just too darn adorable.  They both wear these every weekend now and we often have to yell at Nathan to put on "real" clothes.  Guess receiving clothes for Christmas isn't so weird, huh, Ian?

Nathan in the bag from Amazon.  While he loved, loved, loved the Power Rangers dress up set, he more immediately found use for the bag in which it was wrapped.  Kids are weird.

The moment when opening gifts came to a halt...the receipt of the Pokemon Essential Handbook!  To say Nathan is obsessed with Pokemon is an understatement.  He has never properly played the card game since we don't buy the cards for him yet, however this does not seem to matter.  I am pretty sure he has memorized every single Pokemon character and all of their individual statistics.  Ryan and I keep saying we need to figure out a way to market useful information (biology, chemistry, math, etc.) in a Pokemon way.  When I come up with it we will be rich and I will share.  In the meantime we will continue to beg the boys to not tell us about every single Pokemon character every single time we are in the car, or when I am cooking, or when there is a lull in normal conversation for two seconds.

Sorry for all the words.  I know you all only visit to see pictures of the boys.  :)