Smiling's My Favorite

Today is December 1. Two fun Christmas things happen on December 1: advent calendars and Buddy the Elf. Oh, and Muddy Buddies, but I guess that would make it three things.

I asked the kids the other day what their favorite family Christmas tradition is. Surprisingly, they said it was the advent calendars with the little pieces of chocolate behind each window. Thankfully, I had four advent calendars with the little pieces of chocolate behind each window stashed away upstairs. I wrapped them last night and placed them under the tree.

We've had a little bit of a problem getting the children out of bed every morning. This morning all I had to do was tell them there was a present for each of them under the tree, and they all hopped out of bed. No pleading. No cajoling.

The advent calendars may be the kids' favorite part of the year. My favorite part? Or at least one of my favorite things? Watching Elf with the kids. It doesn't matter that we've watched it every year since it came out. It's still hilarious to us.

Of course the best complement to the movie are Muddy Buddies. A yummy snack! They may not be all that Christmasy, but they're tradition, so they stay on the menu.

The Day After Thanksgiving

One of my favorite days of the year is the day after Thanksgiving. It's the day I get to unbox all of the Christmas memories. The day everyone humors me and lets me blast my Trans Siberian Orchestra and - dare I say it? - my Kenny G holiday tunes. And the day whose end finds our home decked out in all sorts of Christmas regalia. Most importantly, it's the day I get to hang out with my family, fulfilling all kinds of traditional rituals.

First, there are the annual ornament gifts.


I try to select a meaningful ornament for each child that captures some memory from the year. For example, this year Audrey received a replica of one of her favorite books of the year.


Naturally, the decorating comes next. As usual, the Princess is the only one who ever cooperates for any photos.







After decorating is the all-important hot chocolate. It must be thick. It must be chocolaty. And it must have a maximum number of marshmallows topped by gobs of whipped cream.








I was surprised that my favorite part of the Day After Thanksgiving this year was the reading of A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree.


I was worried there would be some eye rolling, some snickering, and some "Are we really going to read this baby book again?" comments. But there weren't. Everyone sat expectantly while I retrieved the book. And they listened with rapt attention.

I hope they never get too old for the reading of A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree.

O Christmas Tree 2010

I loved our Christmas tree in Georgia. Yes, it was fake, but it was 9 feet tall and looked awesome in our 20-foot tall living room. Besides that, it already had lights on it. But we knew it would not fit in the 8-foot tall living room of our rental home, so we let it go for about $2.00 at our garage sale.

I had resigned myself to the 2010 plan to simply decorate with our two Charlie Brown trees. However, as Thanksgiving approached and with it the day after--our traditional day for setting up Christmas...and as I continued to ponder Christmas with those two Charlie Brown trees...well, I just couldn't do it. So we did something we haven't done since before children turned our calm lives upside down: we got a real tree. Now don't go thinking that since we are Northerners now we went trampling through fields of snow to chop our own tree down. Nope, there's a place called Home Depot that already has them chopped and ready to go.

We chose one we thought would fit in here. It fits, though barely, and our little angel topper shall have to take the year off unless she is willing to sit atop our tree headless. I am enjoying the tree with its subtle pine smell and unique branches. As for the Charlie Brown trees, well, one of them did make it into our family room.

As a self-proclaimed control freak--especially at Christmastime--I was more than a little sheepish in telling Mark I needed him to dig one of the Charlie Brown trees out of storage so the children would have their own tree to decorate. It's just that the real tree would not fit all of the ornaments, you see. And by that I mean that it just cannot hold all of the jingle bells and cat ornaments and trains and trucks.



I did handle the whole thing without freaking out, so perhaps my control freak is becoming a bit calmer. At any rate, both trees were decorated, and we carried on with some of our other traditions. There were big cups of hot chocolate topped with way too much whipped cream because there were no little marshmallows.



We then read from Lisa Whelchel's The ADVENTure of Christmas about the origins of the tree as an important part of Christmas. And we read our traditional story A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree. As I have mentioned before, this story about friendship focuses on one Christmas tree who never gets chosen. Because he is older than all of the other trees in this field, he is much, much taller. This fact was not lost on the Princess. After I finished reading the story, I asked, "Is there anything we can learn from this story?"

She immediately piped up: "That people should always get a tree that isn't too tall?"

Her answer was as cute as her pictures. As usual she was the only one who wanted much to do with any photos. I forced the children to at least pose for the obligatory picture in front of the tree.

Tradition Revision

I dreaded Thanksgiving a bit this year for two reasons: First, we wouldn't be celebrating with family, and second, since there were no family babysitters to stay all night with the kiddos, I would be missing out on my annual all-night Black Friday date with my husband.

The first problem was remedied because we were able to share a delicious Thanksgiving meal with some longtime friends of ours from Georgia who moved up here last year. It was a wonderful time of catching up and enjoying a relaxing day. And as we were winding down our time together, it dawned on me: a girls' night out would be just as fun as my traditional shopping adventure with my better half.

We made arrangements for later on, and our friends left. I headed to bed shortly after they left and may or may not have gotten about an hour's sleep before I headed out at 1:00am to meet my friend. I met her at Wally World where we knocked a couple of things off of our shopping list. Then we headed to my favorite mall, which is in New York.

Even at 4:00, the mall was quite full, and the line for Target was much too long to tackle at the moment, so we wandered around and visited some other shops were we found a few other treasures.

We had a lot of fun together chatting, looking for deals, and...waiting in lines. Surprisingly, it was already 9:00 by the time we headed back to Connecticut.

So did we start a new tradition? Quite possibly...at least one that will last until the children are old enough to stay at home by themselves.

Day 22

You may or may not have noticed that many of the advent activities I planned for the 24 days of Christmas revolve around food. I think next year I really need to give Lisa Whelchel's book The ADVENTure of Christmas a more serious look so that I can come up with some more original ideas. To be fair, I had a long list of a better variety of ideas, but somehow the 24 days of the 24 days of Christmas has dwindled down to nothing, and I scarcely noticed each day passing.

Today's activity would normally have made for a memorable time of family fun, but I think my mood ruined it. And Audrey is the one who should have been in a foul mood, not me. On the way back from the mall this morning, she suddenly burst into tears saying, "My earring came out! My earring came out!" I don't know how she did it, but she somehow got the seatbelt tangled up in her left one, and it got yanked out. Try as I might when we got home, I just couldn't line the front of the 3-day-old hole with the back. I toyed with the idea of just pushing the earring through and forming a new back entrance, but when you're a grown-up dealing with a princess' tender ear and not a rebellious teenager dealing with your own earlobe, it's a whole new game. So I gave up.

The Princess will now be lopsided for a couple of weeks to let her ear heal a little before we take her back to Claire's to get the earring put back in. And I say "we" because Daddy will be going along. Remember that he is the Great Calmer. Therefore, he is the one who will get her to jump willingly back in the chair, get the earring put back in, and then head to the food court for some ice cream. She's already very excited about the ice cream.

Anyway, all of these events were the prelude to my not being in a very festive mood. And a festive mood is definitely required for cookie baking. Sugar cookies are my favorite tradition I have carried to the next generation. So it really is a shame I couldn't step up the plate, or baking sheet as it were, and make this a fun event. Tomorrow, however, is bound to be much more delightful. Because tomorrow we decorate!

Random Ramblings

Random Ramble #1
We took in the Magical Nights of Lights last night at Lake Lanier. Thankfully we got there right at dusk because the crowds followed us. Apparently the recession hasn't yet hit the hundreds of thousands of cars that snaked down the road leading to the park entrance. This is tradition for us, and usually we get out at Santa's Village to purchase ornaments. We had a sick one, though, so we figured the 30 degree weather couldn't be good for her. We're trying to get her healed before we arrive at the North Pole.


Random Ramble #2
After lunch I began the Afternoon of Katy. I haven't had my nails done in forever, so I decided to try a new salon in our area. Very nice, but strangely, they had a movie channel movie playing for their clients' enjoyment. Did you hear me right? A movie channel. Which means anything goes...like naked people. At least it wasn't a love scene or something, but rather someone posing for an artist. Who happens to paint naked people. A little disconcerting on a huge plasma screen TV on the wall in a room full of strangers. Thankfully the guy doing my nails was paying attention to my nails and not to the movie. Before I decided on the Afternoon of Katy, I had toyed with the idea of making it a Girls' Afternoon so the girls could get little flowers and stuff painted on their nails. Thankfully, since Alex was sick, it was just me. Note to self: find a more family friendly salon. Or maybe suggest the Game Show Network or HGTV next time.

Random Ramble #3
My in-laws are here to spend the night and tomorrow with us. Today is really our Christmas Eve because tomorrow we are celebrating Christmas. My 80-year-old father-in-law just had a cup of coffee and noted that it was such a good cup of coffee, he felt like getting up and dancing. You don't usually get such a good cup of coffee at our house...neither of us drinks coffee; I don't even know how to work the coffee pot. This coffee was left behind when my brother-in-law was over the other night. I guess that kind of makes every event at our house a BYOC event.

Random Ramble #4
I waited in anticipation for my father-in-law to entertain us with dance, but my husband decided instead to introduce him to the Wii. He actually played a few minutes of Wii tennis the other day, but that was before we had hooked up the Wii Fit. I never thought I would find an electronic device as rude as my husband's GPS, but Rude GPS Woman: meet the Wii. When I play Wii Tennis, I always lose. When you lose, your Mii hangs its head and a gleeful YOU LOSE!! flashes in huge letters above the Mii's head.

That's not the worst part, though. Meet Wii Fit. When you first set your Mii up with Wii Fit, you take a little fitness test. My husband's Mii was quite entertaining to the kids. After the test, the Wii Fit plumped up his Mii character and declared him the Wii Fit age of 55! He has a good sense of humor, though. Much better than mine...about weight anyway. Thankfully, it didn't plump up my Mii, although it did put me at age 36. It said my Wii Fit age is +1. It had me enter my birth date. If the thing is soooo smart, it ought to know that I will be 36 in 2 months!!

The Wii Fit also has balancing and Yoga exercises. Just as I begin one of the stances and am about to relax, up flashes a balance circle on the screen. You are supposed to balance so that the dot in the circle stays IN the circle. Ideally, it should stay in the center of the circle. Inevitably, as I am standing there, my "Trainer" will say, "You're a little shaky!" Well, Wii Fit Trainer, you're a little....

At least it didn't give me the balance comment my husband and father-in-law got. By the way, my father-in-law's Wii age is 75! After they took a balance test, it said, "Balance is not your forte. Do you stumble a lot when you walk?" Surely someone out there will sue Nintendo for this rudeness?

Random Ramble #5
Due to illnesses, a last minute planned trip to the North Pole, and a general non-Christmas-y spirit this year, I had to cheat on Tradition. I never got to making cookies for decorating. So I purchased the Gingerbread People Kit. And the kids decorated them today. Anti-climactic. I'll do better next year, Tradition, I promise.

Random Ramble #6

We're taking my in-laws to a Japanese Steakhouse tonight, the kind with the hibachi where they cook in front of you. My in-laws love it, and my kids love it. Least most of them do. My now 9-year-old daughter is still afraid of the part where they set the grill ablaze. When she sees our personal cook make the preparations for the fire, she politely excuses herself to the bathroom.

Random Ramble #7

My little engineer continues to play non-stop with his Lego truck. He declared today that he found a mistake that Lego made. He's right...one of the little men has his arms on backwards. Who else would notice something like that?

On another note, I was finally made aware today of the incredible depth of Michael's Lego Project when he showed me the 4 instruction books he followed to assemble his truck. Each book is approximately 50 pages long!

Random Ramble #8

In the words of one funny little Princess: Merry Tristmas to all and....dood night!

Christmas Habits, er, Traditions

This has been a blah day, and with blah days comes little to write about. So I thought I would allow myself to be tagged by Kris at Camped Out on Mt. Never-Rest, whose blog title completely captures how I feel right now. You can also find the Meme at Christmas Creations.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I hate wrapping gifts. My mom wraps gorgeous gifts; I did not inherit the talent from her. So, I usually take the lazy--though much more expensive--route: I use gift bags. For the kids, however, I always wrap...just because I know how much a kid loves to tear into that paper. We also sometimes do a scavenger hunt for a large gift--they love that! Though I may be a kid at heart, I prefer receiving my gifts in a gift bag because the re-gifting of the gift bag costs a lot less the next year.

2. Real tree or artificial?
It is a wonderful family tradition to go out on the day after Thanksgiving, out to a field of Christmas trees, each one a beautiful candidate to star in the home for the season. After the tree is carefully and unanimously chosen by all of the children, the tree is cut down and brought home for a lovely evening of decorating. As each ornament is tenderly hung in just the right spot, one per branch and all equally dispersed, the children chat in hushed tones, listening to and laughing with each other. Occasionally, a family member breaks out into a Christmas carol. Once the tree is beautifully dressed, the family sits around the fireplace sharing memories from the year gone by.

Yep, not us. We do an artificial tree, and you've already heard about our set-up day.

3. When do you put up the tree?
It has always been our tradition to decorate the house the day after Thanksgiving. However, this year, for a number of reasons, we tackled the job a week early. One reason is that Thanksgiving was late in the month this year. Truth be told, enjoying the tree for that extra week didn't really matter quite so much as the fact that we had 40+ people here for Thanksgiving. We wanted our house to look nice for our guests. And, oh, OK I'll say it: We didn't want to face the Decorating Task during the exhaustion that follows house guests and other company. (NOT that we don't love opening our home to everyone!)

4. When do you take the tree down?
As soon as one of the two of us makes the first move. During the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

5. Do you like eggnog?
As good as something with rum sounds, it's just not the right combination for me.

6. Favorite gift received as a child an adult?
Childcare.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
My parents...both sets. While my children will happily sit down and write a letter to Santa, which lists each and every item he or she could ever desire, I can't get my parents or in-laws to write such a letter. When I ask them what they want, they always say, "Oh, we don't need anything." Well, I didn't ask you what you need.

8. Easiest person to buy for?
The kids on account of the letter to Santa which I proofread before it gets mailed.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
We have three nativity scenes, all from Africa.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Christmas cards? We're supposed to send Christmas cards? We always talk about doing Christmas cards.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I like presents. I can't think of a bad one.

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
We watch Elf every year in this household.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Oh, how I wish I could say I pick up Christmas presents at year-round sales. But I'm a procrastinator. This year was my record: I finished on Black Friday (except for a couple of things I had to get online).

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
I know I've recycled wedding presents. I can't think specifically of a Christmas present I've recycled, though there has certainly been one or five. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a good gift giver.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Anything with sweet in it.

16. Lights on the tree?
Part of the beauty of a fake tree are the white lights that come already attached to the tree.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas makes me laugh.
Christmas Shoes makes me cry. Every time.
Away in a Manger makes me remember the reason for the season.

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home?
I always want to be home for Christmas; I think Home is the best place for children on Christmas Day.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Probably not, but I can sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with all of the extras like "Monopoly," "George Washington," etc.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
We have a lovely angel that sits precariously atop our 9 ft. tree.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
This is a continuing source of contention between my husband and me. He was brought up Christmas Eve. I was brought up Christmas Morning. So...we do them Christmas Morning. Well, sometimes I compromise a little, and the kids open one Christmas Eve.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
The pressure of gift giving: We have to get them a gift because what if they get us a gift?

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
I have a few:

• I have a miniature Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus book; this was a favorite childhood ornament.
• Our first Christmas, I got a moving Winnie-the-Pooh ornament. He's stuck in the hole at Rabbit's house, and everyone is trying to pull him out.
• I have a New York City ornament I picked up when Mark and I were up there in August 2001. It has the Twin Towers on it. Alex dropped it years ago, and the Twin Towers broke off. Luckily, I found them and was able to glue them back on. I think I cried when it broke.

And color - can you believe I do not like traditional Christmas red and Christmas green? I prefer burgundy and a dark, evergreen green.

24. (And I'm adding a #24 and #25 because it didn't make sense to have only 23.) Favorite Christmas stories (besides THE Christmas story)?
The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado makes me cry every time.
A Wish to be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe made Alex cry the first time I read it to her.
The Christmas Humbugs by Colleen Monroe is just plain fun.

25. Favorite Christmas tradition?
Christmas cookies are a favorite tradition for us, and it's a tradition passed down from my mom. I loved those times spent with her decorating cookies...and, of course, eating them afterwards!

If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Darcsea requested photographic proof of my 3 African nativity scenes. I aim to please, so here they are. The first one was a wedding present from one of my mentors from boarding school. The second is from my mother-in-law. Under the glare of the flash, both of these sets could pass for black plastic; however, they are both made of ebony. We received the second set after several years of wedded bliss, and you will notice the extra detail the artisans began to add to their work in later years. My mom gave us the last set which is a hand-painted clay set. Notice the babies on the women's back and the loads on their heads...I believe one lady lost her load, and I haven't glued it back on yet. One also had a sheep on her head which I haven't glued back on yet either--one of the children has balanced it on her head without glue. And, no, that wouldn't be totally unlikely to see someone with a sheep on their head! I've seen small cages with chickens or other critters as well as sewing machines. It really does make the most sense because a) it improves balance and posture and b) your arms are free!

A 4 A.M. Date

There is nothing more romantic than watching the sun rise with the one you love by your side. Of course we only caught glimpses of the beautiful pinks streaking across the sky as we hurried from store to store. And our date began well before sunrise...with a wake-up call at 3:30 to be exact.

This is tradition for us, but there hasn't ever been a year with such mild standing-in-line weather or a year when the store openings lined up so perfectly for us. We hit Kohl's at 4:00 when they opened their doors. Very crowded, but we were able to snag a few things and take our place in the check-out line before it got too long. After a quick Chick-fil-A breakfast a la drive-thru, we headed out for our 5:00 opening at Toy R Us. But it never happened. We got there and saw the line at the door was at least a mile thick with desperate, crazy mommies and daddies. Though some may argue the fact, we don't consider ourselves that desperate or crazy, so we left.

Since we had an hour to kill, we decided to make an unscheduled stop at Wal-Mart. I had forgotten why I don't do Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving until I was already 10 carts deep in Aisle 42. It was absolute madness; however, I did use my Stuck-in-Aisle-42 time wisely by grabbing a couple of good deals for the kids. By the time we escaped left Wally World, it was time for our 6:00 opening at Target. The line there was at least 1/2 as long as the line we deserted at Toys R Us, but we decided to brave it anyway, and the trip paid off nicely.

After a quick visit to Game Stop, we decided we'd try Toys R Us again. The parking lot was completely filled, with illegally parked cars littering the curb. But why not? We're on a date. We went in, and I quickly found the two items I came for. Then we got to the front to pay. And they sent us to the farthest corner from the register. "The line starts over there." We dared to venture over "there" only to find a line that wove in and out of every aisle, back and forth, to the back and the sides and then finally to the front. I was looking for the "Your Wait Time from this Point Is _____" sign. Space Mountain at Disney World might be worth the wait, but savings of a few bucks was not. We left so we could hang out with a couple thousand people at Best Buy.

Judging by Toys R Us as well as the full mall parking lot, the crowds were incredible out there today. I dare. No, I double dare the media to paint a picture of doom and gloom about Black Friday 2008! And we certainly did our part in helping the economy. The Princess, whose gifts I was forced to leave at Toys R Us because of the wait time, is the only one left on my Christmas List. Which isn't bad. It's a record, actually. OK, so I didn't make my November 12 New Year's Resolution Date, but we did well. And had a great date at the same time. After all, you take time out with your sweetie without the kids when you can get it...even if it is at 4 a.m.

Daddy Candy

Daddy Candy: a piece of candy each child receives for every day Daddy is gone; Daddy Candy helps the children count down the number of days until Daddy gets home; Daddy candy also helps with our 4 times tables (# of children x # of days absent).

We started Daddy Candy a couple of years ago, and over the past week in Daddy's absence, the Princess has finally caught on. At every snacktime now, I am met with an eager, expectant face and a soft, gentle voice that asks, "Daddy Candy?" Although this week it was simply an M&M, the little Sweet Tooth found it well worthwhile. We'll find out tomorrow when Daddy is home if she clearly understands the purpose of the Daddy Candy.

Pumpkins and Waterfalls

Last year, we started a new tradition...well, at least half of a tradition. Knowing our impatience with crowds, I am not sure what possessed us to choose that fall Saturday in 2006 to visit North Georgia's most popular pumpkin patch. But nevertheless, there we were in the parking lot of Bert's Pumpkin Patch along with the rest of the population of North Georgia, North Carolina, and Eastern Tennessee. We really are THAT intolerant of crowds, so we drove on up the road a half mile to turn around and find a pumpkin patch less traveled...and found ourselves at Amicalola Falls, a wonderful state park that features a steep path and steps which lead up to the top of a beautiful waterfall. And so it was in 2006 that we began our Halloween tradition of pumpkins and waterfalls--minus the pumpkins. This year, we decided to carry out the full tradition on a Monday...and with both pumpkins and waterfalls. As traditions go, I think this one's a keeper.