Names have been changed to protect the innocent

The kids are playing a new game they got for Christmas, in which you have to roll a single die to determine what your next move is.

Child 1: "What did you roll?"

Child 2: "A nine."

"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas..."

(one of Lauren's stocking stuffers from Noni and Papa, who always sing the song to her)

Naughty or nice?

Uncle Bud celebrating Christmas Eve:

Crowded house

While the kids were over at my parents' house today they were playing in the spare bedroom and turned on the electric blanket on the bed. When my mom noticed this she had a talk with them and told them not to turn it on because no one was in it sleeping and if it was on all day it might burn the house down. She asked them where would they (Noni and Papa) sleep if their house burned down. Here are their answers:

Lauren offered them our futon.

Owen offered the middle of Mama and Daddy's bed - his favorite place to sleep!

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas edition

(Wordless, schmerdless: These are just the picture cards we've received. And in the last two days we've gotten enough more to warrant another ribbon column, but I'm too busy (read: lazy) to get them up.)

Polar Express 2009

Whoa, it seriously seems like JUST yesterday I was posting the pictures from last year and here we are again. We joined a big group of friends yesterday afternoon for our annual ride. We've usually gone earlier in the month, but I think it was more fun this time because of how close we are to Christmas. Afterwards, instead of going out to dinner like we usually do with a bunch of wound up kids, we came back to our house for pizza. And the kids were wild indeed! We then ventured out past bedtime in the drizzly night to see some Christmas lights. All in all, a fabulous family evening!

It's tradition - new jammies! (notice the matching kicks)

Owen's got his ticket to ride

Enjoying cookies and hot chocolate

Santa gave Lauren the first gift of Christmas - a bell from his sleigh!

Adam let Owen snap a few shots using his new toy

Buster. Dirt buster.

I can't decide if my favorite part is where he gets twitter-pated that I'm recording him and he does a little dance or near the end when he's trying to turn it off and it keeps sliding away from him!

"Time for school, go buckle up!"

Martha Jr.

Owen (AKA Mr. Cranky Sick Pants) went to bed early and fell fast asleep. I thought Lauren would enjoy helping me wrap some presents, and boy was I right! She helped me trim old Christmas cards to use as name tags, choose which boxes to use for whom, cut ribbon, and write out everyone's name. She loved helping and when we were done she ran to ask Daddy to take her picture with all of her creative products.

I've been saving Christmas cards for years (it's a sickness, passed down for generations) and wanted to figure out a way to use some of the most beautiful ones. I finally went through them this afternoon and cut the fronts off of the ones I loved. I trimmed them into shapes for name tags. I think this is the most creative (hands on - the blog doesn't count) thing I've done in years - pretty sad!

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