(I totally stole the picture above from cousin Au*gust's blog) Auntie Mea*gan made the boys beautiful kid-sized aprons. They do a lot of cooking with us, and they're always wanting to wear mine. Here they're unpacking some train table additions.
I was glad that they were so grateful for their wonderful gifts, because they’re capable of being brutally honest by now. The other day, N said, “Oh! We read this book at MOPS!” I said, “You did?”, and he answered, “I didn’t like it then either.” Well….
It was so nice to do everything in one place and not have too much running around. There were four kids under age three, and everyone stayed happy. The meal was amazing. I made three dishes and everyone else brought something, and there were so many delicious dishes on the table that not everyone even got to try them all. Before dinner, we put together some bags of groceries for the food shelf and J said a prayer for all the folks who don’t have enough when we have so much abundance. The boys sat pretty long and happily to eat, though on opposite ends of a table that was as full of people as it could possible be. After dinner, the boys got quite a pile of gifts, and all the gifts were thoughtful and useful. Floor puzzles are very popular right now and they now have 4, and they received some nice train set additions and books. J had to go and play piano at church for the candlelight service at 7:30, and I went home to put a couple of very content, very exhausted boys to bed.
On the way into the house, the three of us stopped and stood in the front yard to look at the just-past-full moon, which had a beautiful ring around it. It was completely silent except for our breathing, there were Christmas lights on all up and down the block, smoke coming out of the chimneys, everything covered with thick, white snow. After I got their pajamas on, we read three nativity story books before bed, and from what he was saying, I think that O seemed to really kind of get it for the first time – at least that Jesus was the Son of God and that he grew up and did amazing things. He said, “That Baby Jesus is gonna get bigger and growed-up and he’s gonna walk on the water and he’s gonna give everybody bread and fishes!”
The next morning, we had a nice breakfast together, and opened a few gifts. J and I didn’t get them much, and besides a few books, the biggest hit was a pair of $3 mini Magna Doodles for in the car. J and I both took boys shopping for each other the week before so that the boys wouldn’t think Christmas was only about getting stuff, and that worked surprisingly well. After breakfast, we played with some of their new toys. They love all their new puzzles, and J and the boys have been putting them together every single day.
Then we took a walk in the neighborhood.
A snow angel:
The boys have been playing "David and Goliath" lately. N pretends to throw a rock at O, and O falls over backward, kind of like the Sunday School version of "Ring Around the Rosy".
Here they are acting out a scene from one of their very favorite books, "A Day On the Farm". O is the pig, and N is scratching his back with a stick. O got tired of this game pretty quickly.
These are real Minnesota boys: they don't seem to mind the cold a bit as long as they're well bundled. That evening, our good friend D came by and we lit the fire and had a nice dinner of leftovers together.
Here they are in their new Christmas pajamas.
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