The holiday spirit

To get the kids into the holiday spirit, I decided to let them decorate some little trees with ornaments that were only theirs. I took ornaments that they have been given (baby's first christmas, etc.), some old fun ones of mine and I let them pick out a pack of mini-ornaments from Hobby Lobby. They each have their own plastic storage container with their names on it for their ornaments. I have a set of three lit trees (which Brian calls the "trifecta"), and I let them pick a tree and put their own ornaments on. As I suspected, all the ornaments were at the bottom on one side, but that was OK. It was their creation. They had a great time. And they were very proud. They still love looking at them and usually the first thing in the morning, someone will ask me to plug them in.

We've been doing quite a lot of other things to get into the Christmas spirit. We went to the mall on Friday with Aunt Lisa, Carter, Grandma and Curt and watched while Carter saw Santa. It wasn't busy and there was no one else around, so the kids talked to him for a while, but no one sat on his lap. Sunday, Santa visited Firethorn, and Pam and Mike took them up to see him in the afternoon. He gave them each a present (chosen by grandma and mommy) and then we ate dinner there. Grace was brave enough to sit on Mrs. Claus' lap. We are seeting Santa a 3rd time at the multiples club Christmas party this weekend. There will be professional pictures from that visit, so I will post them as soon as I have them.

Since there is Christmas music everywhere these days, we have been listening to it a lot. Xander has started picking up bits and pieces of Christmas songs like "Frosty the snowman" and "Jingle Bells". Brian was trying to get him to say the word "village" correctly (down to the village with a broomstick.....) but wasn't having any luck. It was kind of funny. Xander kept saying "bill-wij".

We had a fun playdate with Hannah and Haylea from the multiples club on Monday. I know I've talked about the indoor playground before (the place where my kids will only play with those stupid Cozy Coupes). Well anyway, to play on the big climbing structure in the middle, you have to be 3 years old. Hannah and Haylea turned 3 in October, and when Emalea asked if we wanted to go play there, I decided I would fudge a bit. I told the people there that the triplets just turned 3 which was not entirely true. They don't 3 for a month. Anyhow, it wasn't busy and I knew they'd have fun playing in there with the twins. Plus, I'd seen other kids that weren't yet 3 playing in it and I knew they physically could do it. And, I was right. They had a ball! There are ball pits, slides, tunnels, climbers, trampolines and all sorts of other fun things. They had a great time climbing around, jumping and sliding. They still played with those coupes, but only about half the time, instead of the whole time. An improvement, I think. Next time we go there, I'll get some pictures of them climbing around. It will probably be after the first of the year, though. They close for 3 weeks for repairs and cleaning over the holidays. So, that's about all for now. Our week days are pretty normal, but we have some busy weekends coming up. Lots of Christmas parties, and family gatherings. I'll post pictures as I have them. Stay warm!