Christmas Fun and Family Secret Santa

It was a merry Christmas season in the Scott house! Lots of chaos means lots of joy, right?

Juliet loves "Yoya" so much and so we all love Yoda. We didn't really get to watch many Christmas movies this year because we were so busy watching The Mandalorian. We finished on Christmas Eve! It was great fun although Juliet really likes talking about "Yoya" and "bad guys" (Yoda is stolen or threatened about every other episode) and now when I try to get her out of the bath when she's having a great time with Eleanor she'll point at me and yell "bad guy!" and say "hide!" while shrieking and hiding behind Eleanor. Eleanor LOVES this although I'm having to put my foot down about her getting to call me a bad guy as well ...

I don't want to share exactly how much I've given up as a parent but we were playing outside the other day while it was in the mid-forties and the neighbor kids joined us and literally everyone there, parent and child alike, was appalled that Eleanor chose to wear a summer dress with no coat. She insisted a coat wasn't necessary and at this point I only care about the kids eating food and going to bed so she can wear whatever she wants outside. 

Patrick has one of two photo faces now: crazy chaos face and blue steel cool guy face. The latter is new and quite impressive in its own right.

The boys got to help my dad hang up fancy Christmas balls on the tree outside their house. One boy was very careful and tied good knots and was a big help. The other boy broke an ornament within 3 minutes of arriving to help by tossing it in the sky and seeing how high it could go and made Grandpa fear for his life on the ladder a couple times (you do this by standing on an upper rung and leaning back as hard as you can against the person who's standing right behind you to help hang the ornaments). Patrick was then sent inside to eat fudge and cookies and Bradley finished hanging the ornaments. Patrick then cried that he didn't get to hang up as many ornaments as Bradley. Being Patrick's mother is very rewarding but it is not for the faint of heart. 

We went to the Linn Valley tree lighting ceremony, which was adorable and also an opportunity for Patrick to make more photo faces. 

They had loads of treats for the kids, which was a very popular feature of the evening. It was our first tree lighting ever, it was very cute and a lot of fun! It was a pretty warm night for late November, we lucked out. 

Cute couple picture! There was no main tree that was lit at the event, it was actually kind of funny because we wandered around the area in almost pitch blackness until they lit up all the decorations at once and that was the official "tree lighting." 

In this photo Bradley is my only behaving child and he's getting smacked in the face by Juliet. That is the face Patrick chose to make and Eleanor decided she wanted to chew on her tootsie roll for the picture and it looks like it's either a cigar or a weird giant booger. It makes for an instant family classic photo.

I like taking one kid on walks with me during Juliet naptime on the weekend. Eleanor joined me for a chilly walk a few weekends back. It's great fun, we chat and they play at the playground for a few minutes and then we walk home. Half the time Eleanor scores an impromptu playdate with a friend out of this because we run into someone we know while we're out. 

Here are some pictures from the tail end of the Uncle Daniel and Aunt Stephanie visit. Bradley love for Uncle Daniel is very true and sweet.

We needed a picture of Uncle Daniel and Aunt Stephanie with little Katie and so I snagged her pacifier and teased her for a smile. It worked!

Juliet missed Katie a lot when she left. She asked about her every time we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a week or so.

However, we had this exchange when we talked about Katie after she left:

Me: Do you miss Katie?

Juliet: Katie!

Me: Do you just want to hug Katie?

Juliet: Hug her!

Me: And share toys with her?

Juliet: Mine!

Look at these readers! Juliet loves books perhaps too much, she likes to flip through them and can get kind of bossy about people near her doing the same. This is fine at home, but she recently did this at church with me and Nathan after we sent the big kids to children's church. She grabbed a Bible for herself and then handed me one as well and started ordering me to "Read! Read!" I couldn't just hold the Bible open, if I didn't flip through pages she started hollering "Read! Read!" to me on repeat. Well, she was pretty cute and funny so Nathan and I started cracking up and couldn't stop laughing ... which wouldn't have been too bad but we were sitting in the front on the far right. The next week we sat towards the back and sent Juliet to the nursery for the first time. We have to get our act together. 

Juliet colors too. The kids have been good sports about the things she has colored, no major disasters there yet. 

It's a sad thing though, sometimes Juliet goes missing and I can't find her. 

Again, where is Juliet? (Eyes closed counts as invisible).

Sometimes both Juliet and a sibling go missing. Eleanor and Juliet are quite the buddies these days, it's so fun to watch. 

Our neighbor Addison made us some brownies the other day and Juliet and I walked over to her house to show her just how thoroughly Juliet had enjoyed her treat. 

Patrick getting ready to work on his pinewood derby car with Nathan. Such a cool guy!

But then he snuggled in beside me while football was on and it turns out football has the same effect on Patrick as it does on me on a cozy and quiet Sunday afternoon. 

Afterwards he recovered enough to go to the creek and bash ice. We did not think to put him in boots before this, Nathan gets so many points for figuring out how to make these shoes wearable again after all the mud they had caked all over them. 

Seeing Mabel every day at school is not enough, Patrick begged until he scored a playdate with her. She came over and happily pushed Juliet around on the platform swing and then dug in the mud with him, it's no wonder they are best buds. 

Patrick and Mabel complained when I took Juliet away from them because they both enjoyed this so much.

Patrick is so pleased to get love notes from Mabel from school and Nathan got this cute video of him thanking her for the latest one.

I have so many work from home pictures for Nathan that look like this. A baby and a kitty! It's amazing he ever gets anything done!

We wrapped some presents early and a book with a cool button was the favorite to carry around because you could enjoy it even before unwrapping it.

Outdoor picnic with Juliet in December! Fun fact: you have to be very careful while feeding Juliet a meal because if she's chewing on one item and you present her with a new desirable food item she will spit out her half chewed up food in favor of eating the new item. It's rather ridiculous. She's still pretty tiny, she mostly wears 18 month clothes and she'll be 2 years old in a little over a month.

Bradley's turn working on his pinewood derby car with Nathan. This is probably the boys' favorite part about being in cub scouts.

Juliet had opinions about where ornaments should go on Grandma and Grandpa's tree. She needs to stop being so cute, she bosses us around nonstop and we all kind of love it. She even fake cried the other day. We're in trouble. 

In exciting news, Bradley got a mealworm to take home and keep as a pet. He's beyond thrilled and I hope the terrible little bug lives a long life and that I never have to touch it and it never gets free from the elaborate home he made for it. 

Sookie might be our least holy kitty as she has decided the baby Jesus from our cloth nativity set can double as a kitty toy. She carries it around while crying for attention because she wants us to toss it to her so she can play with it ... we don't want to be struck by lightning so we have not obliged this desire.

Linn Valley has a children's Christmas Store which is amazing. We can't believe we get to be involved in this community. We drove down for the special event and the kids got to go downstairs on their own with teenage volunteers and shop at the store of donated items. They each spent about $4 or $5 and came out loaded up with a giant bag of presents. They wrap them for you and everything, it's so impressive. 

Following this, Bradley had an afternoon basketball game and Grandpa Steve jumped at the chance to watch him play when I told him that Bradley was the only player who cuddled during halftime. This kid is so adorable. 

We came back from Linn Valley with cocoa bombs which I bought at the Stilwell Bakery on the ride home. I thought I was getting giant chocolate baked goods at $5 a pop but it turns out I accidentally purchased a trendy hot cocoa drink and I was beyond appalled to have spent $5 on do it yourself hot cocoa for my kids who are completely okay with the cheap stuff. 

They loved it though, so I guess I can't be too much of a curmudgeon about it. 

Demonstrating the cocoa bomb in action.

Third try. I never got the milk hot enough to melt the thing and have it pop open to display the marshmallows within, which is apparently the whole point. 

Juliet didn't get one so she had to make do with the fancy cake pops my mom had made for us. For free! We might just be a bit spoiled with all the fancy baked goods we get from her, that's probably the problem. 

Eleanor gets to help my Mom bake cookies upon occasion and apparently told my dad "People like snow ball cookies because they are covered with powdered sugar. If they were covered with brown sugar they would be dirt balls." Now my parents keep asking Eleanor if she wants to come over and make some dirt balls and they all find this terribly hilarious. 

Oh Patrick. He does the blue steel model look or whatever this is for photos. It's the joyfully naughty look and it's so Patrick. 

Meanwhile, board games in front of the fireplace! Bradley is having a gametastic winter. 

I came to Juliet doing this after nap one day. None of our other kids ever escaped from the crib, they just screamed and cried when it was time to go into it and that's when we switched them to a big kid bed. She might be our first escape artist. 

Nathan rarely rough houses with Juliet but he's started to take little Juliet breaks when he's working from home and she loves Daddy roughhouse time so much. 

We also take tickle breaks. Juliet is a fan.

Our church managed to have a Christmas program despite COVID and all three of our kids had parts! Bradley was one of three kids with a speaking role and did some pre-recorded parts for the day of the program. Eleanor and Patrick got to read Bible verses and because I told the youth pastor that Eleanor was a fantastic reader he gave her the most difficult verses to read - and she was amazing! So expressive, she loved it and I loved it and I signed her up for a drama class that starts in January. And Patrick was so cute, he can't read but he repeated the verses back to me after I read them and he did a great job too. 

Afterwards we went to the park. Because all the best time is outside! 

Juliet has learned to climb up slides. Delightful. 

But like our other children, she does not limit herself and climbs everything in sight when we're at the park. We are both proud and a little nervous. It doesn't matter that we've done this three times before, I'm usually standing right behind the child at this phase while they swat at me and say things like "Myself! No help!"

I have been loving my Museum of Prairiefire membership lately and use it as a good neutral place to meet up with friends from MOPS. Last week Juliet had quite the exciting playdate with a feisty little boy named Cyrus who had an amazing time rampaging around the museum and honestly was more of a handful than Patrick was at that age. His poor mother. She keeps on hanging out with people with quiet little girls. Cyrus is a sweetie, we foresee more playdates in our future!

Then Juliet and I had a lovely park afternoon together. It was in the 60's, it's times like these that I love the Midwest!

We brought her phone along and she pretend called cousin Katie a bunch. 

We kept up our Christmas tradition of Secret Santa. It was so fun but we realized this year that we can't do it until school is out for winter break, because it's stressful instead of fun to make sure you make something for your buddy when you lose so much of the day to school. I got amazing clues like this from my buddy, and was relieved to discover that the arrows were a reference to the rooms in which there was candy hidden for me. I had many helpers so it was no trouble at all to find the candy. We would allow the kids to hide enough candy that everyone could have one piece at the end because it just seemed like an easier way to do things until the kids get a little older. 

This year Bradley had Eleanor and Eleanor had Bradley, Patrick had me and I had Patrick, and Nathan had Juliet and Juliet had Nathan. This meant I ended up basically getting to be the secret buddy for both Patrick and Nathan. I helped Juliet out one day by making this beautiful anagram for Nathan, I was quite proud of it and I think he was deeply moved by its beauty. 

This is our other new Christmas tradition. Cat Santa! Or Santa Claws! Take your pic. 

Eleanor loved this perhaps more than seeing a real Santa. 

We also had a reindeer and a Christmas tree. The reindeer antlers wouldn't stay on so we decided it looked like more of a Mrs. Claus (Claws!) outfit. 

The kitties had ... feelings about this whole endeavor. But what does it say that they're kind of used to things like this? At least they weren't being shaved. The flea ordeal was a different level of torture for all involved. 

My favorite picture. Juliet demanded that she get to be in on holding a cat.

She then demanded to get to wear the Santa Cat costume. It was pretty darn cute on her!

Watching The Mandalorian together. Eleanor's face is so fantastic here. 

My mom sent over a bunch of cookies one day and Nathan tried to eat one but Juliet kept yelling "mine" and trying to grab the container away from him. We need to stop laughing when she does this ...

For my mom's birthday we sent a video of the kids singing happy birthday, which was cute although Juliet refused to sing along.

Nathan got her to do it a minute later on her own.

At least she sang for my mom, I tried to get her to sing for my Aunt Diana a week or so later and she was not having it.

The big kids had a pajama day for their last day of school before break and Bradley complained about how giant his new Santa pajama pants were so he combined jammies to make Santa Sonic. And then because he's Bradley, he made a headband mask thing to complete the outfit. 

We only had two full days of break before Christmas and they were very Mandalorian themed, to the kids' delight. 

We had popcorn while we watched the final two episodes on the morning of Christmas Eve and Juliet took it upon herself to shove as much popcorn as possible into Nathan's mouth, an activity which they both enjoyed tremendously. 

And then we were so happy to have my parents join us for the Christmas Eve service at our church. It turned out it was really good they were there because Juliet was a squirrely mess and the big kids all wanted an adult or two to cuddle on. The highlight of the evening definitely was when they announced that it was time to light the candles for Silent Night and while I was wrestling with Juliet, Eleanor took it upon herself to march past me and walk up to the front of the church where she got up on her tippy toes to use the candle in the front to light her own candle. At first I had no idea where she had gone and after I wrestled Juliet back from the upside down position she had decided was the only way worth living, I looked around and ask my dad where Eleanor was. A man I didn't know who was sitting two rows behind us responded, "She's up there." and I turned just in time to see her stretching up to light her candle. Nathan and I both started laughing again (we're hopeless at church it seems) and a very proud Eleanor walked back to us while shielding her candle and promptly lit the boys' candles. I wanted independent children and I guess that's what I got. 

Post service picture. The boys wore nice sweaters, I promise. 

And then we got home and had dinner and let the kids open one present each. Nathan and I picked these out in advance, they were quite the hit!

Juliet got a Yoda stuffed toy and Patrick got a Mandalorian. 

He was way more excited than we anticipated, he loved having something that went along with Juliet's Yoda obsession. 

Adorable kids opening presents. Opening just one present at a time is so relaxing and easy, this was my favorite part of Christmas.

Eleanor got the Unicorn Kitty stuffed toy that she had begged for and I swore we didn't need, but then I caved and I'm so glad I did. She has been carrying it around everywhere and sleeps with it at night. Bradley got a tent for them to play with their stuffed toys in, which he was medium excited about but we made it up to him the next day with board games, a Luigi's mansion video game, and cool Mario Lego toys. 

Christmas morning!

Christmas morning was so sweet. 

And then we had an hour and a half of opening presents and it was chaotic and kids kept jumping on presents in excitement and ripping gift bags open and breaking brand new presents by trying to rip them out of their packaging ... honestly it was 90% Patrick and he just couldn't help himself. It was very sweet but oh my goodness it was a lot and I went and took a nap during Juliet's quiet time because I was wrecked trying to manage Patrick for such a long period of time and not get him in trouble for being excited on Christmas. 

Bakugan. Broken 30 minutes later. Fortunately, Nathan is amazing and he fixed it. 

Everyone in our extended family knew about Juliet's Yoda obsession so she ended up with a spare stuffed toy, which is just fine honestly. One will probably live at the lake this summer. 

Pokemon board game for Bradley. Despite how exhausting Christmas was it was really fun to have the kids so sweet and excited for all these presents. And they did great with the presents they picked out from Linn Valley! I've been wearing around a cute heart necklace Eleanor got for me and it makes her so happy whenever she sees me wearing it. It was so fun to have the kids in on the gift giving and have them able to give presents they were really excited about without having to go broke in the process. 

And Juliet had been waking up a little cold in the night so I added a pillow to her crib and took the comforter from the twin bed in her room and put it in with her as well. She loves it so much and so does Eleanor, who tried her hardest to talk me into a sister sleepover on Christmas night. Not yet - but soon! We have to get Juliet trained up on a regular bed so we can start doing some foster respite care and so Juliet will be ready to go in the kid bunkroom at the lake in a few months!