The Mahlke Chronicles: Fa La La La La

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Fa La La La La

'Tis the season for.......

Getting sick.
This week that pesky flu bug that's going around visited my house. And then got comfy, settled in and hung around for a while. In fact, it still hasn't packed its bags and left yet. I guess we're hospitable hosts.

School programs.
Spencer sang with his preschool class at this year's Supper with Santa that the local elementary school hosts every year. We ate a yummy school lunch, (reluctantly, tearfully and quickly) visited with Santa, and then huddled in a chaotic gym to watch the three and four year old students sing a handful of songs. Spencer did not want to join his classmates on stage. I had to forcefully coax him up there. Then I battled with myself on whether to rescue him as I watched him wipe tears away with his shirt sleeve. Luckily he braved his fears and somewhat participated in the program.

My handsome fellas in their Christmas outfits.

Not too pleased to be on stage.

But he perked up a bit.

His friend, Briella, really wanted to join them on stage.

Celebrating friendships.
We have a core group of friends that I warmly consider an extension of our family. Every Christmas we come together to eat yummy food, exchange gifts and be thankful for one another. Over the years our families have grown and I love capturing the growth of our group and the individual child with a traditional photograph by the fireplace.

A new member joined the kid table. Welcome, Bryson! We might need a bigger kid table soon.

Some might not share in my love of this particular group shot.

Loved ones.
This weekend we celebrated the holiday with both sets of paternal grandparents. First, Grandpa Dave and Barb came over for dinner, presents and playing. Then, we headed across the river to Grandma Amy and Marmer's for an overnight stay, where we enjoyed some outside fun in the snow, more yummy food, presents and cuddling.

Thanks, Great Grandma Smith!

Family time.
Christmas Eve was all about our family of four. We opened our presents from each other, went to a Candlelight church service, set out cookies for Santa, and made food for the reindeer.

Note the brown paper. We ran out of wrapping paper halfway through the wrapping process. We improvised with paper grocery bags.

Trying on their new slippers.

Taste testing Santa's cookies. Wouldn't want to give him bad ones, after all.

Concocting some food for the reindeer. Some of this, some of that, and then a sprinkle of some "pixie dust" (aka glitter) to help them fly.

Dumping it outside.

Christmas day our pesky, uninvited flu house guest made another appearance, which made it impossible for us to make the trip back to my Grandma Faye's for Christmas. Instead we hunkered down at home and enjoyed our traditional homemade breakfast of egg bake and cinnamon rolls. The boys were excited to find that Santa left a few cookie crumbs and a lot of gifts. Then later in the afternoon we attended a party at Dave's aunts with the big extended family.

Investigating Santa's secret visit.

Large Santa bags filled with gifts.

Stockings.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Homemade gifts.

Sock snowmen.

Dress for Sally.

Grandparents gift.

Spencer's traveling pillowcase all ready to go to Grandma's house.

~~**~~**~~

Also this week, Ashton hit the fourteenth month mark. Here are his latest growth pictures.

And we did a final holiday project: a Christmas tree. We punched holes in the tree, cut tissue paper, glued it to one side of the tree so it'd show through the holes on the other side and act as ornaments, then sprinkled with glitter.