Getting in the Christmas spirit

This December was the first in our marriage where we stayed put and did not visit family.  We had plans of seeing some of the closer relatives, but with sickness and work schedules, that wasn't able to happen.  Knowing that we would be "alone" for the Christmas season, I tried to plan ahead and make sure we had many fun things to do to help make the season merry and bright.

We gave our wall hanging some functionality and turned it into an advent calendar, with a little pocket for each day.  I wrote a Christmas related activity on a paper in each pocket and each morning the boys took turns pulling out that day's activity and seeing what was on the agenda for that day.  Some of the activities included: watch a Christmas movie, make treats and bring to neighbors, make a Christmas crafts, drink hot cocoa and sing Christmas songs, do 5 nice things for someone else, etc.  The boys loved it, even though every morning started with a mini fight because each was positive the other had pulled out the paper yesterday and today it was their turn.  Then I would remind them that Grant had the odd days and Tate had the even days.  After another 30 seconds of fighting, they would agree with whose turn it was and read the paper.  Next year Luke will be in the mix so that will be even more fun!

 Thanks to Steph and Gregg's gift (from the Wood family gift rotation), we caught up to the rest of the world and had an "Elf on the Shelf" this December.  After a few days of deliberation, we named our elf Hermey, after the blonde elf on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer who wants to be a dentist (a very wise career choice in Ryan's estimation).  His nickname, given by Luke, is Dee because each day when the boys discovered where Hermey was hiding, they would point him out to Luke who would smile excitedly, point his chubby little finger at the elf and exclaim "Dee!!".  A few of the best places  we found Hermey/Dee are as follows: riding the ugly yellow donkey we won from the Wood family white elephant gift exchange, standing sentinel in the kitchen while holding the boys' toy cutlass, planking on the ceiling fan in our bedroom, peeking out of the boy's box of costumes in their closet, and chilling in Grant's candy bag from Halloween (yes he still has some Halloween candy) with only the tip of his hat visible poking out of the bag.

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The boys assisted in the Christmas decorating and trimmed the tree.  We considered updating our $10, five and a half-foot tree that we have used the past 8 years, but decided next year would be the year to do that.  I knew our decision was a good one after I  had picked the tree up and repositioned it for the second time due to Luke's love of tackling it to the floor.  After the third time I stopped rearranging the ornaments and garland and let it embrace it's increasingly disheveled Charlie Brown look.  We all loved our tree this year but Luke loved it best of all.

 Much to Ryan's dismay, there was not much time for long winter naps.  Although sometimes these things are unavoidable, especially when you're sitting down in a comfy chair preparing your church lesson.

It wouldn't be Christmas in a Nickerson/Wood household without an abundance of goodies being made and consumed. I'm actually not sure what Luke was eating in this picture, but it looks like cake fragments and his smile is so cute it had to be included.

The boys helped decorate this cake for us to eat on Christmas Eve and it was delicious!

I decided to make a more permanent addition to our decorations this year and made Christmas stockings.  This was quite a decision for me to make considering that I never actually finished the only two sewing projects I had attempted in the previous 7 years of owning a sewing machine.  I found a great tutorial online and went to work.  After one night of battling the urge to throw my sewing machine into the street and light it on fire, I finally figured out how to get it working and finished the project relatively quickly.  This project has kindled a small desire in my heart for more crafting, but only time will tell if Ryan's greatest fear will be realized and I start acquiring boxes full of fabric that I simultaneously never use and refuse to get rid of.

Doesn't Tate come home from preschool with the cutest things?  He made a "ginger bread" nativity scene, complete with marshmallow sheep and gumdrop baby Jesus.  I made him wait to eat this until Ryan could come home and see it, at which point Ryan praised Tate's work and then claimed the Milky Way donkey as his own.  And, yes, that is Luke's hand probing for anything he can grab and pull down into his lair under the table.

 One of our advent activities was to make "gingerbread" houses for FHE.  After all these candy house building activities, I'm beginning to realize that the main excitement for the kids comes from the possibility of eating unlimited amounts of candy, and not in the building and decorating of the houses.  Next year I think I might just lay out graham crackers, frosting and candy and tell everyone to eat until they are full and then call it a night.

 They do make for good photo ops though!

 We enjoyed going to see Grant perform at his school's "Winter Program" (apparently it's offensive to say the word "Christmas" at Christmas time).  He was so handsome dressed up in his Christmas church outfit my mom sent.  It was fun seeing him on the stage singing along and looking awesome.

 We found the least crowded post office here in Yakima (it's actually inside a grocery store), and sent out our packages early in December.  I think Luke wanted to make a trip to see his grandparents :)  Hopefully we can be with them for Christmas next year!

A Very Wood Family Thanksgiving

This year Ryan's family decided to get together in Gooding, ID, for Thanksgiving and the above photo is most, but not all, of the gaggle of children that resulted.  They had a blast running around together, jumping on the trampoline, and filling their lungs with crisp Southern Idaho air! 

 No Wood Family Thanksgiving would be complete without spending Thanksgiving morning splitting wood so that's exactly what the guys did.  The grownups did most of the work but the boys stopped throwing dirt clods at each other long enough to take a couple of swings.  Here is Ryan giving Grant his first lesson on the finer points of wood splitting. 

 

 Tate wanted to give wood splitting a try as well.  After swinging the maul a few times each, the boys helped gather up the wood and throw it into the back of the pickups.  Then they went back to chasing each other with dirt clods.  Ah, to be a child again!

 Then, of course, they went and dropped off two truck loads of split wood at the home of a single older lady.  When they arrived the lady was floored with gratitude.  She had eaten her breakfast that morning in a 56 degree kitchen without starting a fire because she knew she probably didn't have enough wood to get through the winter.  Needless to say, she was very happy to see us and was near tears with gratitude.  Later Ryan talked to the boys about service.  They understood the significance of what they had done about as well as a 5 and 3 year old are capable of but I hope that experiences like this make them into men who understand that helping those that are weak is part of what makes them strong.

 The kids all spent several hours per day on the trampoline jumping, chasing, and tackling each other.  Luckily, one of Ryan's greatest fears was not realized because no teeth were knocked out in the ensuing melee. (This photo was clearly taken during a lull in the violence.)

 Here's Grant on a tire swing that is hung in a huge willow tree in front of Glade's (Ryan's brother) house. 

 And what Fall get-together would be complete without a leaf pile to jump in?  Ryan's brothers and Tate raked all the leaves into a pile and the kids had a great time jumping in them and being buried. 

 Cousin bonding time on the sled. It was awesome to see what a great time they all had with each other.

 And this is the alarming result when No-Shave November and a sweet case of bed-head collide.  Epic!

It's even better in profile with Ryan jutting his chin out to look like a disgruntled Neanderthal. To the chagrin of some and the delight of others, Ryan shaved his beard off after Thanksgiving. 

Fall Fun

I know, fall is over at this point of the year, but I still have to post some of our fun fall activities.  Tate came home from preschool last month with a cute, leaf-stamped "thank you" card for his daddy and a turkey made from an apple and candy (which I had to talk him out of eating long enough to take a picture of his work).  The "thank you" card read, "Dad, Thank you for letting me play games.  Thanks for letting me play soccer with you!  Thank you for letting me play on the computer.  I like when you and mommy tickle me! (heart) Tate"  

We actually had quite a bit of fall/Thanksgiving decorations made by the kids this year.  Behind Tate's head you can see the bottom of our Thankful Tree we had on our wall throughout the month of November.  Each leaf had something that we were thankful for written on it (Legos, mommy's cooking, the free market economy, etc).  Tate liked to sneak extra leaves on the trunk of the tree when we weren't around to help him get them on the branches.

Grant's kindergarten class went on their first field trip of the year to a pumpkin patch.  Tate and I tagged along and had a fun morning with them.  There were all the fun activities that make a pumpkin patch awesome: hayride, corn maze, hay maze, farm animals, big slide and, of course, they each got to pick out their very own pumpkin.

 

Grant and Tate ran around most of the time with Grant's best bud at school, Jared (they kind of look alike).

 Isn't Buddy (Grant) such a cute boy?

 All of the pumpkins were pretty small, but Tate picked out the biggest of the small pumpkins and carried it all by himself.

Another fall activity enjoyed by all was the continuous consumption of Halloween candy.  Grant agreed with me that the candy "blood" that came with the vampire teeth was gross, but we got a few good pictures out of it anyway.

And, just because it's cute... Lukey man and Ran enjoying dinner.  Please note that Luke's legs are rigid with excitement.  I'm surrounded by such sweet boys!