Christmas Eve

we began a new Christmas Eve tradition at our house this year. the kids asked if they could each open a gift on Christmas Eve. As this was a tradition in my family (starting when we were a little older...it was usually a new outfit to wear on Christmas Eve) I thought it was a good idea. They had been reading the tags on the presents under the tree trying to guess what was in each one. They all decided to open a gift from each other.

ella was thrilled with her high school musical gabriella and troy singing barbies from andrew...

andrew got right to work on his pokemon guess who game from ella...

christopher immediately stuck his nose into his new book from andrew

(diary of a whimpy kid #1)...

and john-john loved his new set of trucks ("chucks")....

they were so happy with their gifts and it gave them something special to do on Christmas Eve afternoon as chris and i were getting the house and brunch ready for the mid-morning crowd at our house on

christmas day.

then we were off to mass and dinner at grandma and grandpa's house....

might i add....this picture was actually taken after mass (we came back home to light our luminaries and grab the things we were taking to grandmas) so christopher had already changed into his comfy and warm clothes, he had been dressed up for mass along with the rest of us!

there's nothing better than

making homemade Christmas cards with your awesomely artistic uncle.
especially when you're a 5 year old girl who spends most of her time at her craft table making darling pictures, books, games...all sorts of sweet things she comes up with.

Last weekend the 3 older kids spent the night at grandma & grandpa's house. when chris went to pick them up ella and uncle greg were making christmas cards together. he would draw the picture and she would color it in.
so cute and so fun for ella to have such a sweet uncle to sit down and spend time with her in this way. memories in the making, just makes you smile.

4th grade family turkey project

about a month ago christopher came home with an assignment that involved the whole family. he had a file folder with a big turkey drawn in black marker.

as a family we were to decorate the turkey with whatever we wanted. we decided to use all different colored beans (chris' idea) and do a big 'ssj' (my idea) in the middle. so, we all sat at the table and glued up this turkey with all these wonderful beans. we had most of them but chris did run up to sprouts for the orange and yellow ones we used for the feathers.

it took awhile but we all enjoyed decorating the turkey. when we were done the kids went out to play and i started gluing the black beans around it - i'm a sucker for details (sometimes!) - and christopher ran back inside for a drink of water and offered to help me with it. he got the quick lecture of the importance of details and always doing your best work. he agreed and patiently helped me glue the black beans all around the turkey, and what a difference they made.

we had a very nice thanksgiving. the highlight was both the boys playing in the annual pitch card game tournament (and ella holding chris' hand of cards for him - every game he played - she had to be a part of it too!). a late night but they had so much fun...we were in our pjs the next day until @ 2pm playing more pitch and building bunk bed forts - you gotta love lazy days!