Treehouse News - Christmas Memories

What a great Christmas season this was for us. I collected a few quotes, photos and memories from this season that I wanted to share.

The Advent activities were all so much fun. It was so precious to see the kids get just as excited over buying food for the food bank as they were over having sleepovers in each others' rooms.

This is how they were sleeping on sleep-over night

One morning the scroll read, "Ice Cream for Dinner Tonight!" This meant that we were going to a restaurant and they could just have ice cream if they wanted. Afterward, I heard Little Man having a conversation with himself in his room:

Little Man: Guess what? I'm having ice cream for dinner!
Reply (to himself): What???
Little Man: Yep, a calendar of mine said so.
Reply: (Little Man)?
Little Man: Yes?
Reply: Don't you have ice cream for dessert?

I didn't catch his answer, but it included an emphatic confirmation of the plan.

We ALL got in our PJ's for the Christmas Light Drive!

"They gave him SAP???" - This comment came from Little Man upon learning that Myrrh was the sap from a tree.  Did you know that?  I know I didn't!  =0)

If you are my friend on Facebook, you may have seen the video of the kids singing their carols. What you may have missed are some of the lyrics. Little Man sang "Angels We Have Heard on High" and here are some of the creative lyrics:

"Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing bore the things.
And the mountains in reply echoing their joyous springs.
Glow we are in excelsis deo."


He also likes to sing, "Re-keep, Re-keep the sounding joy!"

One of the days of Advent, we were making cookies for friends. However, Little Man kept sneezing all over the dough as we decorated. We decided we were going to have to think of something else to give our friends.  Princess said, "Playing together is a good present...you can't wrap that, though!"

Decorating the tainted cookies.  ;0)

I thought our Advent Calendar ended up very unique...with flying donkeys, Mary praying to a Palm tree, camels sitting on people's heads, and Baby Jesus floating in the middle.  Here is the final scene:

Advent Calendar Scene

We traveled to see Ryan's family, and there were a few memories I recorded from Christmas there, too.

Pookie was so excited while opening her presents that it was a joy for everyone to listen to her. I can't copy the inflection, but here is what she said while opening her first present - it was a bath time art set:

"I got sumpin! I got sumpin! I got yellow! Green! Orange! Blue! Pink! I love yellow."  (She gave herself a hug on that last statement.  So cute!)

Her next present, she said, "I got sumpin! I got a box! I got flowers!" She hadn't even found the present, yet. She was just so excited about the box it came in. =0)

Little Man just kept saying, "That's AMAZING!" with every present he really liked. Princess was not very vocal, but did exclaim, "That's just what I wanted!" when she opened her Twister Hopscotch game.

Little Man was so sweet Christmas evening. The kids were done with presents, but Great Grampy, Great Grammie and Nanny (their Great Aunt) came and the kids got to open the cards from them. Ryan read Little Man's card to him from Nanny, which had a comment that she hoped he was a good boy and that Santa didn't forget him. Before running back downstairs to play with his toys, he went over to Nanny and said, "He didn't forget me."  It was the perfect example of just how much he cares about people.

Princess with Nanny

At Christmas dinner, the kids asked me if they could sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.  It was so cute that they thought of that themselves.  Great Grampy was sitting next to me and asked, "Whose birthday is it?"  When I told him, he just smiled a little.  This may be a tradition the kids start all on their own.

Teaching Gr. Grampy about Superheros!

Reading a book to Gr. Grammie

A few days after Christmas, it was finally white with snow and we went on a sleigh ride.  The kids had a great time.  Then, we came home for some crazy carpet fun!

Crazy carpets in the driveway!

When we returned home, we had present opening time with my family. I missed most of what was said there, I am sure. Someone told me that Pookie said, upon opening her Kimochi cloud, "I found you!"

Kimochi

The other notable quote I caught was actually from their cousin. He saw Pookie take a chocolate out of the bowl, and wanted it. She wouldn't give it to him, but turned around and got one for him and gave it to him. He said to Princess and Little Man, "Look what your baby gave me." I don't think he knows her name. =0)

If you remember things the kids said or did, I would love to hear about them. Please post a comment below, or maybe on Facebook.  If any of you want to guess why this guy is so grumpy, you can post a comment for that, to.  Hehehe!

Grumpy Sheep