Sloan cousin Christmas--2009

Christmas 2009 was a great success. Grannie and Gramps came up early to help prepare and stayed late to help clean, Paige and Steph brought baking and casseroles, music and books to share. The kids tobboganed, hot tubbed, played fiddle, ate way too much chocolate, did crafts and played games. We stayed up too late talking. The men stayed up too late playing Risk. (Nothing says "peace on earth" like a good game featuring world domination.) :D At the end of the Turkey dinner we still had enough leftovers to make up 6 turkey casseroles. ( 2 for each family to take home) Here is our living nativity. (close-up of Mary, Joseph, and the only child willing to play baby Jesus. (Uly))

Jam session with Grannie and Grampsie and Steph.

Early morning snuggle with Grampsie. Gage figured there *must* be room for one more up there.

The Christmas story with Grampsie.

Santa arrived on a skidoo at top speed, interrupting the "Christmas Eve Variety Show", opened boxes of candycanes for the kids with his HUGE pocketknife and then shot off his loud gun a few times before making an exciting exit complete with a skidoo jump off the hill and lots of hooting.

The living nativity. Wesley the "goat" has removed his head part of his costume and is writhing out of the sheperd (Silas') hands. We have 4 wise men (as Gage would only agree to the shiniest of costumes) :) And you can't see how relaxed "Baby Jesus" looks in this one with his hands behind his head... but check out the little angel Mollen in the middle/top. She struck a pose that gave me such a smile.

How we decorate the Christmas tree

For those of you who have ever lived with toddlers 2 and under, you are going to totally understand why my Christmas tree is decorated as it is; decorations on the top, nothing on the bottom. For those of you totally confounded...I'll fill you in. Babies and toddlers love Christmas ornaments. They love to eat them, throw them, step on them, carry them to the far reaches of the universe, flush them down the toilet, slide them into the couch, DVD player, piano, and sometimes their diapers. I am not a fussy decorator. I LOVE beautiful decor... but i am not a big shopper, i hate dusting, and when it all comes down to it, having a display of perfection is not worth the money or agony when a little one decides to *FEEEEEEL* it all over with candy cane fingers or take it apart, or "make crafts" from it. My favourite kind of decorations are home-made ones you can throw out...or eat. Paper snowflakes, bakers dough ornaments, candy canes, and candy necklaces. We did, however start a tradition a few years ago that the kids love. They each buy one new ornament to put on the tree each year. My nature loving child found a ball covered in feathers. My fancy girl bought a pink sparkly sequined ball. My son... he just tries to find a bigger one than the year before. His is obvious in this picture:

How we do the Christmas shopping

My sister did a couple of posts explaining how she does certain activities with her family of 8 and I thought since it's Christmas, I would share how we do Christmas in the present department for the kids. We do get comments about how crazy it must be with 6 kids and buying presents for everyone, but in reality, it has been made fairly simple with a couple of traditions that have grown over the past few years. I hope the traditions will continue to improve and change over the years as the kids get older (maybe hand-made gifts) but at this stage and these ages, this is simple, peaceful and the most fun for everyone involved. Here it is: Curt and I buy one present for each child, and *sometimes* one for each other. When it gets close to Christmas, the kids and I pile into the vehicle and head to the local dollar store. They pair off and buy for each other. One item for each of their siblings from the dollar store. When they have their presents, they either buy it on their own, or if the store is full, they pile it in my cart under my coat so no one can see and I pay for it and they pay me back at home. (Somehow, it is more exciting for them when they can say they chose the present themselves and bought it out of their own money.) When we get home, each one comes to my room and tells me what they bought so i can get it from the bags for them. I give them a roll of paper, scissors and tape and they hide in their room wrapping and labelling all their gifts. the end. :) merry Christmas