Week 51: Before the trip

Here are a few snapshots of life during the week before Christmas:

Cub Scout Christmas party

Tsum Tsum friends from the advent calendar

A drawing by Charlotte

Making chocolate and candy covered pretzels

Charlotte's school party

A day on the road. Our first big minivan trip was very nice.

Lunch stop at McDonald's

Getting to Grandma and Grandpa's house

This is us, 2018.

Here's the family photo:

No, we didn't all smile at the same time. In fact, Zach intentionally closed his eyes for half the photos (he readily admits it) and Gabe takes after Frank with his smirking. Then we have to eliminate the ones where I'm mid-reminder to the rest of them to say whatever smile word we were using. There was head-swapping going on here, for sure. The tripod and remote save us.

I hope to post some Christmas photos soon!

Videos!

Easier to pick out than going through hundreds of photos, I thought I'd post some videos from the last couple of weeks. This is what we did over our winter break!

Weeks 49 & 50: Holiday spirit

These are mostly pictures of the elf. She was a little low-key this year, mainly keeping an eye on the kids from the mantle, the kitchen island, or the living room shelf. The kids helped create this year's Christmas card (drawing and painting). I took the boys to Starbucks on a Saturday morning. We celebrated Frank's birthday with Domino's pizza, a viewing of A Very Monkey Christmas, and twinkies. Zach created a beautiful tree painting in his gifted class. He also made cookies for Santa, who came about a week early because the elf told him we'd be traveling. The boys said they got their stockings at around midnight then went back to sleep. We were able to stay in bed until the late hour of...7 am. Charlotte is excited about her "Baby GaGa" as she is calling her and a high chair that converts into a swing. The boys are immediately put up their dream tents to hang out with phones, their boogie boards, and an iPod for Gabe.

Week 48: Sickness and the elf

Just a few photos from the busy, sick, warmer and sunnier, Christmas-y week we had.

We finished the boys' tie-dyed shirts from Disney. They turned out great!

Happy 10th birthday, Zach!

Charlotte was still sick after a week, but probably just a virus. She enjoyed her huge collection of stickers after getting blood drawn.

Ally, our elf, showed up on December 1st with an advent calendar for the kids.

The next day she was waiting on the star of our otherwise-empty tree. The kids started decorating, but I don't know that we'll bother getting all the ornaments out this year.