Christmas and New Year

Despite the haze of sickness that seems to be coloring my days and weeks, we had pretty good holiday all things considered! 

We watched Christmas movies and did a lot of lounging and tidying up.  The girls did almost all of the decorating, especially of the tree.  I should have taken pictures over the course of the month so you could see the ornament distribution progression.  They all started out on the bottom, then Alex redecorated and everything was nice and evenly spaced.  Then Quinn discovered the ornaments could be removed and slowly all the decorations started moving up as we would take them away and put them up higher.  By Christmas day the bottom half of the tree was completely empty.

 There was the annual gingerbread  house making, which I was not feeling well for and so Tyler build the houses and the kids went at it!  They did them all by themselves and I was very impressed with the outcome, especially Heidi's smiley face house.

Tyler graciously sacrificed his back so I could live my dream of having the girls ice-skate around a giant Christmas tree in downtown.  While he was going around with one child, I took the other 2 to the PPG building to see a room full of gingerbread houses!  Then we would buy a cup of hot coco and giant cookie for the iceskating kid and switch children.  I was informed at the end that it was too hot for hot coco anyway mom.  It was a nice warm 60 degree day and while we were leaving, Heidi spotted santa clause in a jogging suit sitting on a bench.  We stared at him for about 5 minutes before going up and saying hi.  Heidi was on cloud 9.
    Probably the biggest and most memorable thing we did this year was the 12 days of Christmas for 2 of our favorite Pittsburgh families.  They live in the neighborhood so it wasn't a big drive, but by day 12 Tyler and I were DONE!  We would always forget until just before bedtime and then have to drag all the kids in coats out to sneak around in the dark.  You can imagine that while this became a bit of a chore for the adults, it was the HIGHLIGHT of the girls day and 2 weeks later Heidi still finds stuff that she wants to go "knock and run" on peoples doorsteps.  Tyler and I enjoyed the process as well, we aren't total scrooges.
    We went to a Christmas party at the Cochran's home and it was fun to get out and socialize and eat yummy Christmas food.  Quinn took a dark blue marker and drew all over on of the beds.

 Christmas Eve the girls were of course wired and so we sent them to bed with threats NOT to come out of their room until they fell asleep and woke up, and they could only go downstairs after checking with Mom first.  Alex was the first up at about 6 (she usually slept in until 9 during the break) and woke me up and then snuck down.  She came back and said "Mom, Santa came and he brought me just what I wanted!"  then she walked away.  "Where are you going?" I asked, "Back to bed."  That lasted about 15 minutes before all the kids were awake and we headed down.

 Quinn instantly found a candy cane and cared about nothing else.  Alex and Heidi played with their Santa toys for 10 or 15 minutes before we suggested opening the gifts under the tree.  Alex got a mermaid barbie hair salon thing with some fancy barbies dresses and lots of barbie shoes.  Heidi got a couple play mobile kits with horses and fairies and unicorns.  Quinn got some magna block things that everyone has adopted as their own, so much fun.

Quinn was really good at opening gifts, but the second the wrapping paper came off one of her sisters inevitably stole the present to check it out and explain it to her.  It was one of the best Christmases I can remember having.  We got to Skype with family and the girls played all day while Tyler and I relaxed, napped and played with the kids.  I wasn't feeling well at all and spent most of the time in my new recliner!  Tyler made us a yummy turkey dinner and we had carmel rolls for breakfast.  It was our first Christmas all alone, able to to whatever we wanted and start out own traditions and I think it went really well.  
    Tyler and I have what we refer to as the "New Year's Curse"  it's actually a "almost all holiday curse" in which one of us is sick or something terrible happens.  This always happens on  New Year's Eve and Valentines Day, with other minor holiday's being effected as well.  This year we didn't plan anything for the new year.  We had some stuff for chocolate fondue that we ended up not using at Christmas, so at 5pm on New Year's Eve we watched a movie, had chicken noodle soup and then dipped some chocolate fondue.  Everyone was in bed and asleep by 9 and it was the greatest New Year's Eve ever.