Christmas Morning

Santa made it to our house!  On Christmas Eve, we carefully laid out some reindeer food and some snacks for the big guy to enjoy.  The kids were excited at 6:30 am (we had to get up early because of 9 am church) to find their stockings full, and some new presents by the tree.  Haley got a new Psych sweatshirt, Andrew got Madden 12 for Wii, Joey got a green light saber, Grace got a baby and a puppy (stuffed), and Matthew got a new kitchen set.

We each opened one present (I opened the huge box that Ben put my tiny little present in -- a necklace from Montague's), and then we got ready for church.

After church, we came home and had round 2.

Christmas Eve

Our annual Christmas Eve tradition started early this year.  The kids were getting sleepy from their early morning with Daddy, so we got in the car at about 5 pm to go look at Christmas lights.  Our first stop was Christmas Wreath Lane, where Matthew was amazed at all the candy canes (they were his favorite, and he pointed out every single one he saw).

When we decided to go see if we could catch Santa at his usual spot, Haley declared that she had to pee.  Nobody was surprised, because she has the smallest bladder on the planet.  She literally almost peed in a cup on our way home from camping this summer.  It was a major emergency that was complicated by heavy road construction.  Luckily, there were no complications this time, as we were close to the church and, luckily, Dad has a key.

Just down the street from the church is the spot where we catch Santa taking a break from his deliveries every year.  We stop and roll down the window to chat, and he gives the kids (and adults) candy canes.  This year he had some elf helpers along, and he also asked us if we wanted a picture with him.  When Santa asks that, you don't say "no", so we hopped out for a quick photo.

Then we were off to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some snacks, time with the great-grandparents, and opening one Christmas Eve present.  The boys were completely surprised and very excited to get new Kindle Fires and some new Hero Factory guys.  Grace was super happy to get her very own DSI.  Matthew got his favorite character, Mader, as a pillow pet, and a new ABC puzzle.  Haley got a new Ipod touch to replace the one she lost about a year ago.

Grace had fun practicing her shoe tying skills with Grandpa Kirschenmann, Matthew was very happy to have a snack, and we had four generations of girls in the house.  Awesome!

And, of course, we had to stop by our favorite family's house to drop off some presents.  Momma Harris was at her mother's house, but we caught Katie at home and gave her lovies.  That should hold Matt until next Sunday (although I'm preparing for a meltdown at church when it sinks in that he's no longer in nursery).

Annual Christmas Eve Shopping/Breakfast Picture

Here's the annual early morning Christmas Eve picture in the car.  This year, we all thought Matt would be old enough to go.  And he is, except when Ben went in to get him out of bed (keep in mind they go early -- really early -- to breakfast at IHOP and then shopping for my present), Matt started attacking Daddy.  He does NOT like to wake up early.  He must be my child, or something.

Joey's Christmas Program

They called it a "Reader's Theater", but it was just a 1st Grade Christmas Program.

Ben and I went to the kids' school to watch Joey recite his part in the program.  He did a wonderful job, rushing through the words and then rolling his eyes.  Classic Joey.

The Grand Finale:  (can you spot him -- I'll give you a clue: he's the cutest one. Just ask the 1st Grade girls).

Christmas Parties

At our ward Christmas party, we had a great dinner, which Daddy helped serve (complete with Iron Chef apron), and we enjoyed several talents from ward members.  Matt was especially happy when the nursery kids got to go up and sing "Snowman" and "Jingle Bells" for everybody.  He also loved story time.  Grace managed to talk the Sister Missionaries into giving her their Rudolph nose.  She makes a pretty cute Rudolph, I think.

(just as I was finally able to take Ben's picture, he moved to the other side of the table, so this is all I got)

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And then, as soon as Ben got back from Hawaii, we had our annual Kazmierski-Shimamoto Christmas party.  We look forward to this all year!  This is our fifth year of teaching the kids about Christmas traditions in other countries.  This year, Melissa taught about Czechoslovakia, and I taught about Russia.  We had some home-made goodies from those countries, had a sing-along, and then danced the night away to Just Dance (we even did Rasputin, our favorite that just happens to be Russian- so it fit right along with the evening!).

It took a lot of food to feed all 11 children and 3 adults!

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Matthew spied the pop-up tent under the house the other day, and demanded that it be set up.  Then I told him to ask nicely, and we got it put up.  The kids decided to have a picnic, but since December weather doesn't cooperate with picnic plans up here, we decided to do it in the tent downstairs.  Grace worked for a very long time to pack everybody their lunches.

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Ben has vendors bring in presents from time to time.  This year, one of them brought him a "Yard-O-Licorice".  The kids had more fun playing with it than eating it.

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Just one more random picture: here's Joey trying to figure out his camera (it was out of batteries)

My Weird Kids

I love my weird kids.  It's always good to be a little strange.  Not a lot, but a little.

Grace seems to always be in the middle of the action the boys are creating.  Here's the outfit she managed to put together to join in the fun:

And, standing at attention for the camera:

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Matthew had a fit about his dinner the other night, which was a chicken patty sandwich and french fries.  Normally that's something a 3-year-old would like, but his exhaustion took over, and he screamed for a good 20 minutes.  Then he fell asleep in this position:

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Ben has been out of town, and I thought it would be a good idea to take all 5 kids to the Festival of Trees after I taught violin lessons that morning, then served lunch for 2 hours to over a hundred 10-11 year old cub scouts, then had a 2+ hour rehearsal.  Sometimes I just amaze myself with my genius.

Actually, it wouldn't have been all that bad if I would have known there would be hundreds of extra people there watching a dance recital.  I probably would have gone at another time.  But I didn't, so there we were.  But we did have a good time, partly because Matthew started dancing to every song he heard and made us laugh, and partly because we got a giant bag of kettle corn on our way out.