Cookie Swap, Family Secret Santa, and Other Holiday Fun

Juliet would prefer to be called Emily Rainbow Scott from now on. But she still likes the names Juliet and Colleen and will answer to them if need be. She also always says "I sink" when she means "I think" and I never correct her because I love it. There's a lot of talk of "Her is a nice friend." And "Her is going to come over to my house later" and then the rest of us say her instead of she much to the bemusement of Eleanor who can't believe I use improper grammar in order to copy my adorable 4 year old.

Her was invited to our neighbor Stella's birthday party at Rainbow Play Systems and hung out with the other neighbor Cleo there. So many fun girls to play with!

Rainbow Play Systems is so much fun!

Patrick getting a small amount of down time with his best bud. In addition to club and rec basketball teams, he also does piano lessons, did some special art classes after school this month, and had a role in the church musical that had practices twice per week. I love that he enjoys everything but we're working on scaling back activities, a boy needs some free time.

Bradley has been doing really well on his basketball team although yet again, it has weekly practices that run from 8:10-9:30PM which is pretty rough when a boy needs his sleep. But I really like his level of activities as a general rule - he has a couple after school clubs (chess and anime/games) and a weekly youth group at the church. A fair amount of fun stuff but still time to hang out.

We hosted our annual holiday cookie swap! It was a blast!

We had people vote on their favorite cookies and awarded the spatulas of glory to the winners. I really like having a prize of some sort that is fun but also doesn't make the people who didn't win feel bad about things.

Susan Krenn got first prize this year.

Jodee Cloud got second.

And Megan Manderfeld got third. 

We did realize that there may have been an issue with early voting because people were coming and going and if you showed up earlier your cookies had a lot of opportunities to get votes, but hey, one should be rewarded for coming to a party in good time!

It was fun getting to host in the new house. And I learned from my mistakes the previous year and didn't try to use candy canes for crafts, instead I put out a bunch of popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners and tape and the kids had a jolly good time with those.

Our annual picture of Juliet, Julie, and Julia!

Juliet accompanied me to Eleanor's hair cut the next day and was dazzled by the best Christmas tree she had ever seen in her life. So pink!

And on Monday I asked her to go find a game or two she wanted to play with me. She found a couple! I'm actually quite impressed by the stack she made, nothing fell over!

We started wrapping some presents and Juliet grabbed Eleanor at one point and told her she was "looking into her SOUL!!!" and Eleanor was definitely a mix of impressed and terrified. Don't anyone mess with Juliet.

This was one of the presents we wrapped. A Christmas mystery!! What could it be? 

Juliet had a rather similar present. This is one of those rare instances where the kids may have had more fun with a present when it was still wrapped.

We do get some nice sunsets at the new house. The view was even better upstairs and Patrick gave me many ardent smooches on the cheek in honor of the beauty of the sunset.

Bradley had his first band concert. It went really well!

It was a combined concert between a few of the middle schools so Bradley's friend Xavier was there too.

The whole crew!

Then we went to Patrick's 3rd grade music show at school. So many concerts in December. 

Patrick had a special role as a "snirt" for the performance, which means snow plus dirt. He was super cool and had a nice rap solo and everything. 

Hanging out with my cool dude

Everyone wanted to be cool by Patrick. He got the glasses and necklace at a high school homecoming parade and borrowed my camo Athleta hat. So cool.

His friend Mabel was also a snirt.

Grandpa came to the performance too!

Meg has a favorite spot in the sunshine and one day Sookie took it and Meg had no idea what to do. She wandered all over and kept looking at the spot. Finally she just crammed in next to Sookie. Oh the struggle.

It's so nice for Bradley to have Callie - a true snuggle buddy.

Lucky Callie. She gets so much love.

Less love from the cats though, despite her many efforts.

Layla is actually kind of a jerk about it sometimes. Just run away if you don't want Callie to pay attention to you! No need to chase her down. Meany.

Nathan's company party was a blast this year. It was at the KC Convention Center so it was a bit of an ordeal to get there but once we were in we had such a good time.

It was a party for the entire company so it could have been difficult to find friends but we found a good crew.

Cuddling and watching sports. I'm so glad Nathan got a child or two who will watch football with him. 

We went to see the Monahan boys in the school play. Newsies! It was so impressive and so much fun!

Henry had a starring role and Patrick loved the play so much that he put the newspaper he got from the production up on his wall.

Then our kids had a church play. Juliet had insisted she didn't want to sing with the preschoolers but changed her mind at the last minute.

Eleanor had the biggest role as Gabriel.

And Patrick was a narrator and had a solo.

They did great!

Juliet was a squirmy mess after she sat back down with us in the audience and Grandpa got to have the honor of basically wrestling with a four year old as she tried to do gymnastics moves off his lap. Lucky Grandpa!

I wish Callie got enough loves ...

The kids were on a big kick of playing Among Us around the house and if it looks like the lower part of the wreath is looking at you, it's because it is. There were eyeballs taped all over the house as "security cameras."

Bradley and Juliet have been going on some nice walks with me!

Callie did not enjoy her time riding in the wagon.

Nathan got into a fender bender and his Ford Explorer was totaled. It looked a lot worse than it was, the other car barely got damaged. But it added another thing to deal with in quite the busy month!

Nathan had a company dinner at 801 Chophouse. I had a nice time sitting next to Kelly!

And Nathan and I were cute.

More Callie loves. She really likes it when Sookie comes downstairs to hang out in the sunshine.

Sookie tolerated her ear being lovingly licked by Callie, we were very impressed.

Juliet has been loving playing Praisy 8's with Patrick. It's Crazy 8's but Bible themed. Here is a winner/loser picture of them after a game.

Nathan played a Minecraft board game with Bradley and Eleanor. It's cooperative!

Meanwhile, Patrick was playing Mario Kart and when Juliet wanted to join him he happily set things up so she could play too. He's such a sweetheart.

I found a new trail at the Wilderness Science Center and I've been having a great time taking Callie over there. I walked a long ways with her one day when I realized there wasn't anyone else on the trail and I could probably have her go off her leash for the walk. She loved it! She stayed pretty close to me but she could stop and smell interesting smells when she wanted to and then run to catch up.

Eleanor had a strings concert. She did so well on her viola!

After the concert!

I didn't get to go to the performance the next day at the elementary school but my folks made it!

Nathan managed to tweak his calf muscle while coaching one of Bradley's basketball practices and it got pretty gnarly before it got better. Poor man. All better now!

Juliet was gifted an adorable fancy jacket and hat from a friend and never wore it to church but happily wore it around the house and to gymnastics one day.

She enjoys her Friday play times with my folks. Lots of games with my mom!

And building with magformers.

And then shows and lunch on the couch with Grandpa while my mom and I go out for lunch together. Not too shabby!

We had a mysterious run with Bradley where he would come home from school and wrap himself up in a sherpa blanket and try to go to sleep. He was also pretty crabby and just acting off. Turns out we had moved the charging of his laptop down to his bedroom while we had all the Christmas decorations out and it was too exciting for a boy and he was staying up very late playing games on his laptop. Poor kid, I would have done the same thing. We moved the tempting laptop out of his room and he started getting better sleep and things are back to normal. Much to Callie's chagrin, she loved the bonus cuddle time with Bradley.

We went to the Luminary Walk at the Arboretum and got to see Santa!

Juliet was so so excited!

All the kids had fun seeing Santa.

Although one of them might have enjoyed himself a little too much. Oh Patrick.

My parents went with us! It was a nice evening, although Patrick had played a couple basketball games prior to this and acted like his legs were going to fall off for the entire walk.

I dressed the kids for the arctic because I thought it was going to be very very cold but then it wasn't all that bad and Juliet ditched her coat.

Family photo!

I had willing children take photos by trees of their favorite color. So pink!

Purple for Eleanor

And orange for Bradley! Patrick didn't care about trees at this point, he needed a team to carry him on a litter.

The kids did all enjoy the fairy gardens at the end though.

It was a lot of fun but it was also a lot of work and Juliet fell asleep on the ten minute drive home.

It's good she rested up because she had to decorate a lot of cookies the next day!

All the kids got to do it but I think Juliet was the only one who hung in for the entire time.

Bradley had an extra credit assignment for his pre-engineering class where he got to design his own cupcake and if he baked one and brought it in he got the extra credit. He asked me help him do it a few times over the course of December and I finally had a chunk of time to help him on a Sunday night, the day before his last full day of school for the quarter. I had him do the entire thing by himself, I just told him what to do with the mixer and how to turn on the oven and helped him find ingredients. He did so well, I was so happy and impressed with him!

Back out on a walk with Callie. She loves the leash free area of the walk!

Juliet was gifted a sweatshirt for Blue River Elementary from a neighborhood friend and she looks so cool in it!

Her preschool teachers gave the class some little presents for Christmas and Juliet was appropriately thrilled with little trinkets.

Waiting with her to pick up kids from school is a bit much at times. But good news, gymnastics classes are paying off.

Nathan got a new car! It's a Bronco Sport and it's very nice, it's a little smaller than the Explorer which is nice in terms of fitting cars in the garage.

Juliet has so many toys but this is the game she chooses to play when she's left to her own devices. Shove a blanket and some stuffed toys into a container and flip off the couch on repeat. Of course.

Some friends thought it was funny when I made a joke about Patrick getting coal for Christmas after being goofy around Santa. A friend had us stop by to pick up a brand of soap called Lump of Coal.

He was impressed and promises never to be naughty again.

Another walk with the cute boy. We had a really warm December.

The younger three had a great time working on building forts at a place just off the trail a bit up from our house. 

Patrick's fort got pretty involved and he said it had a perfect spot for resting. Some weather has since destroyed much of his fort but I maintain that the building of the fort is the most fun part of having one.

We've been working through the next set of Micro Macro cases, it's Where's Waldo but with crime. 

New library book day. 

I have been doing lots of walks with the kids when the weather has been nice. We drive over to the Wilderness Science Center and do a one mile leash free walk with Callie and then go play on the nearby school playground.

So fun! Fresh air is good for all of us!

We had a little bit of snow again and the kids love playing with her - she is so happy whenever someone makes her a snowball and throws it for her.

Juliet graduated out of another gymnastics class! They say she gets to be in a more advanced class now which is very funny, because I mostly think she just runs around and has fun. Which is a-okay, that's the point of preschool gymnastics.

Meg has been my reading buddy. Who wouldn't want to cuddle up and read with this?

Making gingerbread houses!

Juliet has an amazing evil laugh.

Patrick's hair is officially long enough to braid! I did a pretty legit French braid for him.

Secret buddies was the best thing ever this year. Juliet had Eleanor, Eleanor had Patrick, Patrick had me, I had Nathan, Nathan had Bradley, and Bradley had Juliet. It was really sweet, Bradley and Eleanor teamed up to work on their secret buddy stuff together and they got along so well. Patrick and Juliet worked together a lot too and I got some amazing items thanks to my buddy, including the original board game pictured below. Juliet has gotten really into the secret part of the activity and would walk around and casually ask Eleanor if she had gotten anything from her buddy yet and ask if she had liked what she had gotten so far. It was very cute.

We got McClains for our Christmas breakfast! But we had to pick it up on Christmas Eve so it was also our Christmas Eve breakfast. Not a lot of suffering going on around here over the holidays!

Nathan and I finally got some down time to play some games.

And we had a lovely time at the Christmas Eve service. My folks came too!

So many nice kids at our church!

We continued the tradition of opening one present for each kid on Christmas Eve.

I was particularly proud of what we did this year. Lots of Mario toys!

They're all a little chintzy but they're cute and fun and perfect for play dates.

Callie was so tired but happy to be in on Christmas fun.

The younger three decided to have a sleepover on Christmas Eve up in Patrick's loft. Bradley elected to stay in the basement with sweet Callie, which makes sense. Sad to put her in a crate for Christmas Eve! Please note Sookie getting good Eleanor cuddles in the photo below.

Nathan and I got some pretty okay cuddles from the other kitties. 

Although this happens every night. Sweet kitties.

Christmas morning! Excited to come downstairs!

Stockings!

Santa said that Nathan could have the coal soap because he would like it. Santa is so wise!

Christmas breakfast with a helpful and hopeful puppy.

Time to open presents!

The kids go to Five Below to buy each other presents every year.

It seems Bradley did a good job for Juliet.

It was such a nice morning.

Although it did seem like a lot of presents. I swear we're going to cut back every year but I get talked into hula hoops and cool posters and books and Legos!

My favorite bit was the letters Nathan had the children write to me. They were just nice little notes saying that they loved and appreciated me, better than any other gift!

Except if that gift was Eggzania. Tough to beat such greatness.

Eleanor got a couple calendars from my Aunt Diana!

Another nice note.

Unwrapping the mystery presents at last!

The girls immediately ran downstairs and tried out Juliet's new video game. 

I'm told it's the greatest video game of all time.

A rare evening peaceful cuddle between the kitty and dog!

My folks came over for Christmas dinner and had the kids put on a little Christmas play!

It was based off the My Weird School Christmas special, and we're all about that series of books so the kids were very excited about this one.

One actor was a bit less committed to her role than the other kids.

Afterwards we had a nice time playing Patrick's new board game he got for Christmas.

And we got in another park outing the next day while the weather was still reasonably nice.

And we finally rented the Green Meadows house! Hurray! I was getting a bit worried after a while but we found very nice renters who are moving in in February. To celebrate Nathan and I went out to Chaz lounge for some good food and jazz music. It's over in the Plaza and it's both easy to get to and starts early enough that we can make it home for normal bedtime, a big plus!

We're finally working on getting the house put together with real decor now that the Christmas gear has been put away. Eleanor was an invaluable help on our shopping trip although we did not get to the cool new chair she wanted.

Bradley stayed at home with Callie and sent me these rather excellent pictures of her.

Art being put on walls!

Nathan took the younger two on a trip to visit his mom in Iowa while I stayed at home with the older two. It's tough to cram all of us into a single hotel room when we visit so we just do that once per year. It's nice to have a less hectic visit every now and then with fewer kids. The older two weren't too upset about staying home once they were bribed with a Panera lunch with me.

Because the other kids were eating well, that's for sure!

So much good time with Grandma Colleen!

Nathan also got to see his good friends Sim and Heather while they were visiting. It was a really nice trip.

Bradley enjoyed keeping me company while Eleanor did her rock climbing class. We got a fancy pizza to split after I finished my run.

Eleanor was particularly impressive this class.

She got to do a climbing limbo activity and tied for making it through the most difficult level.

Crazy impressive. I love her rock climbing rec team.

At the end Bradley got to join in on the class game of dodgeball. He was a little excited.

Trying out some fancy Costco macarons with gelato!

At McLains.

Out for another nice walk. I love walks these days.

Eleanor does too but her poor little legs get tired.

Bradley is very strong.

Nathan and the kids got back and we had a lovely evening together but somehow Nathan woke up very sick the next morning, which was New Years Eve. We don't know what he ate but something didn't agree with him and he was sick in bed most of the day. Fortunately, the kids all had play dates with friends so they had a pretty lovely day even though our party plans for the evening got canceled.

Eleanor and her friend Elise created quite the routine for the grown-ups to watch. It took me and Juliet two hours to pick her up from the friend's house because I went inside for a glass of Prosecco and a chat ... I perhaps got a bit of a play date of the the day as well.

It was incredibly cute. Highly recommend watching this one.

This was our New Years evening show instead. So exciting! A different sort of fireworks!

It's been a good year. Well at least it ended well, we had a pretty rough January and February last year with a lot of illness. But everyone is healthy now (Nathan has fully recovered from New Year's Eve food illness) and kids are doing well in school and with friends. Nathan's job always seems fabulous in December when we have appreciation events and he gets his bonus. And my board game channel remains a fun hobby that pays dividends for the whole family - lots of good quality time. Happy New Year!