The Empty Jar

You see that empty canning jar? Yes, the picture is awful but it's not the point. That jar. My favorite Christmas gift this year.

Why? It was simple and a reminder. A reminder I needed.

You see the paper taped to the jar? That paper has a note from one of the children. The note says:

To Mom and Dad: A jar of nothing for the people who have it all.

Ok, it is quite possible the child behind this gift was just looking for something simple, easy, and free. But I see something else.

I see a reminder that even with all of the chaos, the medical bills, the car repairs, the kids who are behind in school, the laundry that won't stop, the appliances that keep breaking, the darn freeloading chickens who won't lay eggs right now. In the midst of all of that chaos, when I've been oh so sick for weeks, going on months. When the baby isn't quite gaining enough weight to keep everyone happy, when we are still struggling to find a parish where the entire family feels at home and we are struggling with our faith. In the midst of all of that. We do have it all. And that is just what I needed to hear.

Random Christmas Decorations

We keep decorations fairly low key around here. Even more so the past few years because I just don't have it in me to do much else. But here's what we have hanging around the house this year.

 This is probably the best Christmas gift we received the first year we were married. A nativity scene made by my Grandmother. For the past few years I couldn't find a place to set it up but a few of the kids got it down this year and found a safe place to set it up away from prying hands.  I used to always have a child friendly set out each year as well but parts have gone missing to those and this is one set I just don't want to get broken.

 The kids decided the stockings needed to be hung up this year. Admittedly, I am not happy about this one because she who is responsible for filling the stockings was planning on not filling them this year because, well, there are budgetary issues and I'm tired of the junk that usually fills them and then gets tossed a few days later. Seriously, why do we do that? Buy cheap stuff only to have it end up in the garbage a few days later? Sigh. But the kids wanted them up so they are up.  Maybe they won't eat all the fruit today and I can stash an orange in them or something.

Our friendly kitchen snowman. A new addition this year but something I saw on-line and decided it was just too cute and easy not to attempt.

This is an awesome Christmas poster I ordered from Illuminated Ink. I seriously love that store. The kids are enjoying coloring this door sized poster in a bit at a time.  The first day it went up, there was a small cry fest as someone else colored Mary in before Ellie got a chance to and she was a wee bit miffed.

 The lights on our pre-lit tree died while in storage so while digging for new ones to put on the tree, they found some actual working outdoor lights and hung them up outside.

Right now the kids are downstairs making a few ornaments for when we decorate the tree tonight.

 Ok, just some of the kids. Today we are having an all day movie fest so some kids are vegging in front of the tv. And, yes, I am totally ok with that.

 These ornaments came from two no glue needed kits I found at Target a few days ago. Already on clearance and perfect for keeping the younger ones busy.

 These five were in a Christmas play at church. Ok, the guy running it desperately asked me to let the kids participate. I said we just couldn't afford the tickets when you did the math (yes, they charged for it as a breakfast fund raiser type thing, don't ask). So he said I'll give you a really great family deal because we really needs kids to participate, and, well, you have a lot of kids. They made up  half the cast. Seriously.

 Ellie made it through rehearsals and then decided she'd had enough and just was not up to playing the sheep part during the play even if she did get to do it with Robert.

 And, of course, St. Nicholas came to visit. I have so many kids that their shoes don't all fit in one picture. And, yes, the kids dug out shoes for Seamus for some reason. Just please ignore the mess by the pellet stove because, well, I was not in the mood to clean it all out before taking the pictures.

Here's hoping your Advent has been a fruitful one.

Christmas Eve Pictures

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  I don't think we have a single picture from Christmas Day but we did take some on Christmas Eve.  Can't say we did anything fancy this year. Most of the cookies and such are still waiting to be made.  Very few cards went out. Even fewer were received.  Dinner was finger foods and fending for yourself.  The kids enjoyed the yearly tradition of little boxes of sugar filled artificially colored hard to call it food cereal that they get every year for Christmas. The can of spray cheese made it's yearly appearance and much rejoicing was heard from the children. Several kids got new sleds. One got new cross country skis. All in all, I'd say we had a good time.  Hoping the same could be said for your homes.

Gingerbread House

The younger kids love making gingerbread houses each year. The tradition started when a friend brought over graham cracker houses to make with our kids a few years ago. Now the kids insist on it every year. But my trick is that I always buy a pre-made kit to keep things simple.

Gabe has been begging to make their house for a week.

The younger kids all worked together on this one and the older kids are now putting the finishing touches on the second one.

Cinnamon Ornaments

We made ornaments with the kidlets today.  Everyone but the older two. For some reason, they decided they just were not interested this year.

It was a simple project and the perfect gift to give to friends (so act surprised if you get one).  Easy enough for the littlest ones to do, you just have to make sure they know not to eat the dough as that much cinnamon would be enough to make you sick. This can also go on the list of frugal family friendly ideas to fit into your holidays this year.

We started with a one to one ratio of applesauce to cinnamon and ended up with closer to a 1:1.5 ratio. Bake in the oven at 300 for about 30 minutes to dry them.  Enjoy.

Advent Candles

If you can think to plan ahead next year, head over to Illuminated Ink and order a Bees Wax Advent Candle Making kit.  The kids love making these each year (ok, probably every other year in recent memory) and I love having a project to signify that Advent has begun. If you do decide to use these candles, just keep in mind they burn for about 4 hrs each (depending on how tightly rolled they are) so you may need to order more than one set if you burn them every night.

The Belated Christmas Pictures

Yes, I just pulled the Christmas pictures off the camera.  Yes, I realize it is February.  Yes, I realize in some parts of the civilized world that will win me some award as a neglectful parent.  Yes, I can live with that.

Proof that the kids decorated the tree. 

The hands down favorite present of the year. No, not the DS. The hat.

The aftermath.

Loading some new songs on itunes for the new Ipod.

Enjoying new Christmas jammies.

 I honestly did not take many pictures this year.  I decided to focus instead on trying to just be with the kids rather than take a bunch of pictures.  And I was in a wee bit of a funk this year for many reasons.  Very few of our normal traditions happened because the boys absolutely insisted they had to serve at Christmas Mass which meant the only available spots left were midnight Mass.  I was not about to take the little ones to Midnight Mass so I took the middle kids to a family Mass at a local parish. I was reminded why Christmas never felt like a religious day to me growing up.  It's awfully hard to get any meaning out of those jam packed crazy insane afternoon family Masses that are so packed with people that you can't see a darn thing, hear a darn thing, and are so far away from the actual Mass that everyone is simply socializing.  It truly did not at all feel like we were at Mass, merely like we were just checking the box in some obligation in an attempt to move onto the fun stuff.  Exactly the way it felt when I was younger.  I understand the concept behind family Masses and I'm thrilled to see so many visitors on holidays in church, God Bless them.  But next year we'll go back to going to Mass on Christmas morning.  Without the rush and the noise. It just did not feel the same this year at all. Yes, someone was missing and doing without all of our normal family traditions this year just made that absence harder to take I think.

The making of the gingerbread Home Depot.

Dr. Jones, I presume.

Christmas 2011

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  The kids around here are very happy. Most of the assorted paper and plastic and assorted twisty things keeping toys tied down have been picked up.  We only made half the cookies we planned on, only read a few of the books, only got through half the Advent calendar, didn't touch the Jesse Tree this year, yelled a bit too much, and yet I think the kids are still happy.  Katie fell in love with The Nativity Story movie this year and although it does not exactly keep to the Catholic version of the story, it was a great story to share.  The younger ones have loved Polar Express (I just don't get that movie) and the new Veggie Tales Little Drummer Boy movie.  Right now the kids and their Dad are all gathered around the tv watching Muppet Treasure Island.  I do believe that is Alan's favorite Muppet movie and his parents were nice enough to buy a DVD version this year to replace our very old and worn out VHS copy.  So now that dinner has been cleaned up and the kids are in pj's, it's time to share pictures.

decorating the tree

I know it looks like Ellie is decorating the tree but she is actually taking things off the tree.

Ellie and her doll

The before shot

Before Mass on Christmas morning.

Our traditional Christmas breakfast. Everyone gets to pick what they like, a rare thing around here.

Katie and her doll.

Liam's new RC truck.

The Nerf gun conference.

Chuggington trains.

His own fire truck.

Abby now has an Ergo carrier just like Mom's.