Christmas Continued

Backing up a bit...the weekend before Christmas my family all joined together to celebrate with one another. My brother and sister and their families came down. (My parents and other sister both live nearby.)

We had a nice time together. To understand how much my kids love their cousins, this is what Dash said the other day when I was talking about heaven: "I don't want to go to heaven. I want to go to Grace and Owen's house." Obviously, we've got some work there in imparting wisdom, but it was a sweet thought, nonetheless. Besides our regular food-consuming and gift-exchanging, part of us went to the Jump Zone one night, the guys all went to a man-movie, and the girls stayed home to play Twilight: Scene it?, which Andy surprised us with.

That night I also witnessed that it is possible to fall sound asleep with your eyes open...I watched my mom do it several times in a row. She was snoring (only because she was that tired) with her eyes open. I'm not making fun of her; it was amazing. Poor momma; she had so much to do all week at work and getting ready for company.
10) (If you are just joining in, that's #10 of my 1,000 Gifts list) Every single one of my 18 member family. That's a generality; I'm sure I'll have more specifics at a later time.

Christmas Goals: 1) Make Googie cry... Check!

"We're waiting, Winnie!"

"Keep trying!"

In case you forgot how cute they are...

They're, of course, not any cuter than the 7 other kids...but they get the attention now for being the only babies...and {insert best whiny voice} I WANT A BABY.

And in case you forgot how cute we are:

And, my, haven't we grown?

I'm sort of wishing now that I had that couch. I feel like it would look really cute in a very plain, minimalistic room. (and would look much better without the butter-flavored Crisco in the background; ew)

A few glimpses of Sissy's and Dash's school parties:

Sissy, with her teacher, Ms. Geri (I love the sweet little way she calls her "Teacher."...11) I am so thankful for the people who choose to give my children additional love, beyond the enormous amount they get from us. I am appreciative for every little hug, kind word, bit of instruction, and potty training encouragement. I have gotten to substitute in her school a few times now, and really that should be number twelve...

the gifts she made for Mommy and Daddy

12) I'm grateful for the chance to occasionally hang out at this nice, little school with the very awesome women who work there. It's nice to get OUT and just feel a part of something sometimes. I love peeking in at Sissy while she's singing songs with her class or listening to a Bible story...and she gets so excited when she sees me out at recess. I love it.

opening a gift with her other teacher, Ms. Christina, and one of her friends

Daddy, Sissy, and I got to watch Dash while he and his class met with Santa, then performed songs for all of the guests. He did great! He also made me very cute gifts, but I haven't been able to locate them today...I'll keep looking. I'll feel terrible if I can't find them. Almost as terrible as I felt when I realized I was wrong about the date of Tornado's class party and missed it. That was not a good day for me; I was probably in need of a good cry anyway.

But 13)I've said this before, but it's worth repeating. I also feel very fortunate with Dash's situation at his school. There are so many things I'm thankful for: his sweet, fun teachers and the kids he adores. He has so much fun running around with these boys who are as energetic and ornery (but sweet!) as he is. His teachers are so helpful and accommodating toward our diet, which is nice. And I'm glad to have become acquainted with more families.

It is my heart and hope that the path next year will be for us to home school him again...but I know that right now my son is exuding with such energy, spark, and intelligence - I wouldn't have wanted to extinguish any of that. I feel like it's the perfect school for him this year. He has constant activity and stimulation at his preschool (the few hours a day that he is there), and he's growing so much more respectful of authority and limits, which is an answer to prayer.

UPDATE: I found the gifts - yay!