Birthdays and Christmas

After we had homemade apple pie for Thanksgiving, Alice decided that's what she wanted for her birthday instead of cake. Right after we got back home from church, I whipped up an apple pie. It was easy because all I had to do was make the pie crust. The apple pie filling was waiting in the pantry from when I made it in October. She was very anxious to do her birthday celebration, but we had to eat our dinner first. But we finally did it. We sang once and she was starting to blow out candles when I realized that I forgot to call Nikki because she wanted to sing with us. So, we lit the candles again after calling her up. She was in the middle of a nap so she didn't stay on the phone long. One funny thing is that Alice asked for apple pie and then she didn't even eat any until the next day, and she only ate one slice out of the entire pie. She did, however, eat some vanilla ice cream. Funny girl. 

It's great to be 8!

Charlotte wanted to light the candles.

Her reaction when she got Super Kitties toys from Charlotte. It is a TV show on Disney Plus.

For her big gift, we used her blindfold from her pin the horn game to cover her eyes while the boys brought it in.

I had it covered with black bags out in the truck.

Barbie's dream house! It's as tall as she is, and I had no idea how big it was when I went to pick it up. It was for sale on Facebook marketplace over in Pasco. I also didn't notice until after I got home that it had a big, cracked area on one of the walls. That's my fault for not looking at it closely before buying it, but it would have been nice if they had told me about it as well. It did also come with some accessories. The Barbie car was one of her new birthday gifts, so it has a garage to park in now. She loves her new Barbie house! The girls played with it all evening.

Finally, Curtis gets to open some gifts. He wasn't expecting anything.

A shirt, a sweater, a movie about Abraham Lincoln (found at Goodwill still new in package), Bananagrams, and Costco size bag of pistachios. He kept saying he wanted to get Bananagrams so I decided it was time.

Alice with her card from Gma Vernie and Gpa Tony, along with some money.

The girls showed Sage she could get on the Barbie house and then later she got on by herself. She approves!

Alice said this was the best birthday ever. It's safe to say she's a happy girl! 

This Christmas Eve and Day was pretty relaxed. We didn't have anyone over, and no family came to visit. It was mostly fine, but I did miss how we used to do our thing Christmas morning and then pack up and go to someone's house to eat and play games or watch movies. We tried to do that with our kids, but they are a little less accommodating. We did play a little on Christmas Eve while dinner was cooking. Right after dinner, the kids wanted to open their pajama presents, as is tradition. Curtis and I had started a Christmas puzzle that day and finished it on Christmas day. We ended up watching two movies on Christmas Eve because it was early enough. We watched Home Alone 2. Then we read "The Night Before Christmas" and the girls went downstairs to go to bed and the rest of us watched "White Christmas". After getting our finishing touches ready for Christmas Day, we got to bed around midnight. 

The girls played hangman with Curtis.

We cooked up some sausage rolls and a salad for our dinner.

I sat down and played a little also.

Time to open pajamas.

In pajamas and settled in to watch "Home Alone 2".

After the movie, Garrett said he wanted to be the one to read "The Night Before Christmas" this year, so Curtis let him.

Santa came and it's all ready for Christmas morning!

Stockings were filled. I love that the reflection of the Christmas tree showed up on the TV screen.

That night was a rough night of sleep for me. First, I couldn't get to sleep because Curtis was snoring louder than heck. He can fall asleep so easily. Some nights like this it's frustrating for me because it affects me being able to fall asleep. Then around 3am or so Charlotte comes in and tells me that she and Alice can't sleep. I tell her to go read books in their room. They leave, but then 2 hours later I can hear them playing downstairs and they were loud. I sent a text message to their phone watch to quiet down and thankfully they did. Then around 7:30 Jack comes in to wake us up. Ugh, I was so tired, but I got up and we did our thing.

Milo got his gift first. It was a portable dog water bottle that we can take on walks or hikes. Charlotte picked it out.

Garrett got a matching Boise State license plate cover for the front of his car. He also got a tie, a BSU mug, a book set of myths from different parts of the world, a car window shade, chocolate orange, rubber hand (from Alice), and a car that rolls when you pull it back and release. He was satisfied.

She got a light pink headband in her stocking and some pink heart sunglasses from Gma B. They matched her new pajamas perfectly!

Alice got her trampoline from Santa, three new headbands, stickers, a car (like Garrett's), a Chelsea Barbie doll, pink heart sunglasses, a keychain from Charlotte, a chocolate orange with pop candies in it, and multiple things from Gma B- blue dress, hair clips, coloring pages and crayons, pom poms and pool inflatables.

Charlotte got her gymnastics bar, rubber lifelike reptiles (snake, lizard and dragon head puppet), gloves, a blue car (like Garrett's), chocolate orange with pop candy in it, and multiple things from Gma B- pink heart sunglasses to match Alice's, pool inflatables, coloring supplies, a cat pillowcase, and two bags that could be used for makeup or other things. She also got a Book of Mormon from her Primary teacher that they had used the last year to mark and write things in. They added their testimony on the inside cover.

Jack got a new wallet, a necktie, BSU mug from Gma B, gloves, yellow car (like Garrett's), a rubber sticky hand from Alice, and a Lord of the Rings board game. Unfortunately, he learned this game is an extension and can't play it without the original. We went ahead and ordered the original game for him, but it won't come until after school break. He'll keep the extension as part of his birthday gift.

The boys put Charlotte's gymnastics bar together while Curtis cooked pancakes for breakfast.

He made them Christmas shaped pancakes.

Charlotte loves it. It slides around a bit on the hard floor though, so we need to figure out how to keep it from moving.

Working on the puzzle.

Garrett looking at one of his myth books. This one is Egyptian myths.

The gymnastics bar came with a swing!

Jack gave up his old square pillow so Charlotte could put her new cover on it. The pillow was originally given to Garrett when he was little and had a Buzz Lightyear cover on it. You can't even see the picture anymore because it's been washed so much.

We moved the gym bar and the trampoline to the girls' room. Having it on carpet keeps it from moving around. I also helped them organize their room more and Curtis hung new stuffed animal nets.

Finished our puzzle without any help from the kids. It was meant to be a family activity. Oh well.

Our temple light/music box that Dad and Laverne gave us. At this point I still needed to glue the angel Moroni on, but I did that yesterday, so it's on now.

I love that this gym bar can fold up.

It was a nice Christmas this year, but I do kind of hope to have a little more people around next year or go somewhere.