ho-ho-how late is too late to blog about Christmas?

Well, friends.  It is January 17.  It has been a hot minute since I last blogged, and Christmas seems like a very, very distant memory.  Isn't it crazy how quickly we mentally move on?  Like as soon as the new year hits, all of history is erased and we've all just been born or something.  

I was glad to close the Christmas chapter this year, as it felt a little harder to juggle it all than in years past.  In actuality, it was a really, really wonderful Christmas, probably one of the best I can remember.  (Multiples of us literally cried tears of joy Christmas morning.  It was that good.) It was just hard-won, that's all.

But!  I don't want to completely move on before documenting it, so even though I'm literally almost a month late, here we go!  In this post, we'll just cover Christmas, and then the next post, in which I'll move on from there, will hopefully not be another month in the making.

In the week leading up to Christmas, I had a couple of last-minute sewing projects to tackle.  First, I wanted to make the babies some Christmas jammies.  Last year, I bought all the kids some really nice jammies from Lands End that were just absolutely perfect, and as I try to buy pajamas a bit oversized to start, they all miraculously still fit all the kids this year!  (Rocco's were a little bit highwater, but that's actually a welcome sign that he's getting taller - he's remained kind of dormant for a while.)  So all I needed was to get a couple of pairs for the babies, but when I went to order them, they'd been discontinued.  So I found a bathrobe in the same pattern on clearance and decided to make my own.

At first, I thought I'd make little sleep sacks for them, but as that involved sewing in zippers and I am, at best, a wonkadonk seamstress, that sounded a bit outside of my ability.  But I found a very simple, free sewing pattern online for baby pants, and I'm so glad that's the direction I went because A) they turned out absolutely adorable, and B) they were absolutely infuriating to make, so I'm glad they weren't more complicated.  (Have I ever shared with you that I do not remember a single sewing project I've undertaken that didn't leave me muttering expletives under my breath?  Sewing and swearing are just a couple letters different for a reason.)

I also made it a goal to sew the babies' stockings.  All of our stockings are handmade, and I think I had planned to sew a baby stocking last year when I was pregnant, but this was the first time we didn't know the gender in advance so I decided to put it off until this year.  Which is probably a good thing, since I ended up with TWO babies and would have still needed to pull out the sewing machine this year anyway.  

Unfortunately, the stocking project didn't end up getting entirely finished.  First of all, we no longer have a nearby craft store, so my fabric choices were limited to what I already had on hand.  Digging scrap fabric out and making decisions took way longer than it should have.  Also, I'd lost the handmade pattern I'd used for all the previous stockings, so I had to troubleshoot a new one.  Lastly, the sewing machine was beginning to get the better of me and I was thisclose to burning the house down.  So I got Knox's done late Christmas Eve night, and used an extra one that I'd made when Juni was a baby for Eulalie.  There's always next year to finish a simple project that is now only three years in the making, right?

Anyway.  Luckily, I didn't only spend Christmas Eve sewing and cussing.  We also did some other fun stuff.

Christmas Eve breakfast is always one of the best meals of the year.

In the evening, we had a cheeseboard, then opened and donned Christmas jammies (yes, I wrapped them even though everyone knew they were just last years' repeats) and watched the Nativity Story, as we do every year.  Then the kids all had a slumber party in the boys' bedroom, as they do every year.  This was Oey's first year joining in, and she had a blast.  They all actually slept pretty well, except when Atticus woke up barfing at 3:00 a.m., and then Juni started yelling at 4:00 a.m. because she lost her first tooth.  Luckily, everyone went back to sleep easily and even slept late Christmas morning! Poor Atticus felt pretty miserable all through the day though.

When everyone got up the next morning, the first order of the day was opening stockings and seeing the babies in all their Christmas-jammied glory.  (Almost without fail, babies and toddlers pee or poop on their jammies overnight on Christmas.  It's a fixed law of the universe.  So I learned long ago to not dress them in the cute stuff until the morning-of.)

My other set of twins.

Then we took a break to eat breakfast and build up our strength for the day ahead.

After breakfast, the kids opened their gifts from us.  We do it a little differently each year, but this year they all got only one gift under the tree, but I tried really hard to pick something they would each really, really love.  This is where the photos get so good!

Oey got a Bitty Baby

Juni got a ballet dress and ballet shoes.  She started crying and yelled, "I've been waiting for this present my whole life!"

She was crying so hard.  It was surprising how emotional she was!  So of course I cried too.

Callista got a tea set that was mine when I was younger.

She also cried!  We were all just a bunch of bawl babies.

Ope, Oey needed to take a second to nurse her new baby.

Atticus got a gun cleaning kit

The younger boys got vintage G. I. Joes and a bunch of their gear and clothing and guns and accessories inside of some ammo cans.

Penelope got Todd some Cuban cigars, and Atticus and I bought him a cigar case.

Lolo and Penelope each got some small furniture...

...to go in their "new" dollhouse.  My great-grandpa built this for me when I was thirteen and I thought it was time to pass it down!  (Please ignore my cluttery food room - the dollhouse was too big to put under the tree so we had to hide it in here.)

More crying.  It was quite the emotional day!

After that, they played with their new things for a while until we ate lunch.  I made my grandma's potato soup recipe, which was perfect.

After lunch, the babies were up from nap so they got to open all their presents.

The big boys were generous with their new things and Knox found himself wielding some kind of miniature artillery.

Then after the babies went back down, we all headed downstairs and the kids all opened their gifts from each other.  This is quite the ordeal as it involves over a hundred presents!

Avatar, from Atticus

World War Z, from Penelope

Airsoft guns, from Atticus

Cowgirl boots, again from Atticus  

(This was the first year Atticus had money from working a "big boy" job, and he really enjoyed buying gifts with his newly increased weath!)

After that, everyone played together and relaxed, and Todd smoked one of his new Cubans, until our fancy dinner of ham and cheesy potatoes and asparagus.  (We didn't take photos because ham under overhead lighting after dark is just horrible.)

And that was our Christmas.  Truly a gift in itself.  I have had such a fun time going back through these photos just to post the blog... and I take back what I said.  I'm not glad Christmas is over.  TAKE ME BAAAAACK TO CHRISSSTMASSSS.

what's up weekly. (So Much News!)

Oh my goodness, you guys.  SO MUCH has happened in the last two weeks since I last popped in.  First, St. Nicholas came on December 6 and filled our wooden shoes.  ("Klompen," for those of us who try to be more Dutch than we really are.  I'm so lucky to be Dutch by association.)

St. Nick left chocolate coins, chocolate windmills, candy waffles, coffee candy, and Dutch cookies for us, so naturally we had to eat some of it with breakfast.  

Then, I made my monthly grocery run.  And then, since Todd took the day off work, we got to decorate the Christmas tree together.

Then after tree decorating, the big kids kept the Christmas festivities going by doing a bunch of their biology dissection assignments with Todd.  Merry Christmas, ya filthy (formaldehyded) animals.

Okay, that was all just St. Nicholas Day, and we still have 13 more days to cover, so I'll pick up the pace.  Luckily, most days weren't quite so eventful.

Santa's cutest helper.

That's 25 pounds of baby in what Atticus calls my "baby tactical rig."  I've been carrying the babies in the Ergos when they get fussy.  It's so fun to cuddle them, but it does get painful quickly.

They seem to enjoy it though!

Ophelia turned three on Sunday!

This girl, I tell you.  She is so funny.  She loves chewing on frozen teething toys.  She often carries around two babies and rocks and pretends to nurse them.  (I realized the other day that she's never seen me mother just one baby at a time!  To her, mothering involves two babies.)  She loves wearing princess dress up and black rain boots.  She holds her own with the bigger sisters.  She poops like four times a day and is very independent about using the potty at this point.  She is full of compliments - last night she told me she loves my "booiful happy face."  She's a total card and loves making the big kids laugh.  She loves telling people that she's "Hoey."  She is pretty easy during school time, either playing independently or sitting on my lap and listening to the older kids' read alouds.  (Or fighting with Juni.) She loves the babies.  She is snuggly and fiesty and a complete gift.

On her birthday, we had our big church Christmas celebration.  First was our regular Sunday worship service, during which Penelope accompanied one of the hymns on the piano for the first time!  She did an amazing job!  After the service was our big Christmas feast, and then a merrymaking time in the afternoon where folks got to share music or jokes or other performances.  Penelope played Hark, The Herald Angels Sing from the hymnal, and Callista played Joy to the World.  It was so fun to see them sharing their talents!

My parents came down to join us for all the festivities, and after we all arrived home from church in the late afternoon, we celebrated Oey's birthday together.  She seemed pretty pumped about it.

 

She was so cute opening her presents.  It was obvious she's been to a birthday party or two in her time - she knew exactly what to do.  She cracked me up opening her presents - here she is, opening a ball from Rocco.

Let's zoom in, shall we?  Like I said, pumped.

She demanded a hug from Rocco after she opened the ball.  It was so sweet.

I love this photo - surrounded by her siblings and loving every second of it.  (The little chair she's sitting in was the gift from me and Todd.  I found it for free on Marketplace - isn't it so cute?!)

After Oey's birthday, we jumped feet first into full-fledged Christmas.  Christmas break is in full swing, both trees are decorated, many of our presents are wrapped and under the tree, and the kids' rooms are even strung with lights.  The kids have spent a lot of free time this week prepping their Christmas Eve gifts for one another - they do their own little Kidland gift exchange on Christmas Eve, the rules of which stipulate that all gifts have to be made (or at least free).  They've been busy elves.

Todd took this photo of me eating my breakfast one morning.  It has become a social event this week, since I have been sleeping in and eating after the kids are already up.

The babies turned seven months old!

These babies are such a joy.  Eulalie makes constant noise - spitting, babbling, gurgling, fussing, laughing.  She is also always wiggling.  She loves people, and hates being left to play independently.  (She also hates being tired, which sets in about 35 minutes after she gets up from nap.)  She is usually already awake when I go in to wake them up from nap.  She likes to go to sleep on her belly with her thumb in her mouth, but I often find her in different spots in the crib after she's rolled and wiggled all around.  When I come close to her, she flaps her arms wildly and kicks her legs and squeals.  She is just full of life and energy.  

Knox is calm and quiet and smiley and thoughtful.  He is friendly and more observant than interactive.  He has the biggest smile, and has two tiny teeth, but he has only laughed once!  He is a great sleeper - he loves to stick his finger through a hole in his crocheted blanket and then suck on it, and he falls right to sleep that way.  He is like Todd - he barely moves in his sleep, so he has already left permanent body-sized divots in both ends of his mattress.  He is super interested in food and loves trying little bits of my dinner.  He is my gentle giant.

I love them both so much.

Laliebeans smiling and spitting, Knox rolling to his belly so he can see everything a bit better.  That's them in a nutshell.

We still took an afternoon to move ahead in Farmer Boy, even though we're on break.  I love reading the Little House books in the winter.  (Fun fact: all the kids but Oey are in this photo.  Look at funny Lalie on my lap!)

We're hopefully getting a trundle bed soon so we can tuck Lolo's bed away during the day.

I've been trying each day of break to pick a project to tackle.  Early in the week, I attempted to start sorting the garage, since the weather was beautiful.  But I hit a snare early in the project, as I don't currently have the shelves I need to do the job, and when I went to order them, the gift card I had didn't work, and then I spent the entire afternoon inside trying to troubleshoot ordering the shelves.  When I finally did get back out to the garage, a solicitor pulled up and trapped me in a conversation.  And that's how I still don't have garage shelves but we'll be getting a new roof.  (I KID.  I KID.  Todd, don't have a heart attack, I sent him packing.  Unlike the Kirby salesmen that one time.  I mean, those two times.)

Anyway.  I finally just ordered the shelves without the gift card, and I'm hoping they arrive today so I can put the boys to the task of building them and then maybe doing some of the garage organization for me.  They're boys, so it hasn't taken long for them to go a bit feral without the routine of school.  I'm hoping the fresh air, sunshine, physical labor and full schedule will be a blessing to them.

I've also taken Atticus out for some driving practice, organized the clothing storage bins, and undertaken the position of Kidland Bank Teller.  (Christmas requires extra staffing.)  Today I hope to make a grocery run and get started on sewing the babies' Christmas stockings and Christmas Eve jammies.  I am loving all the time I have to tackle projects over break!  Discretionary time is my favorite kind of time.

So with that, I will sign off so I can go put together my Christmas menu plan and grocery list.  Have a great weekend!