Last Days of School

The girls had a busy last two days of school before winter break. On Wednesday, Fiona's class had their music performance where they did The Nutcracker - complete with music, dancing, and words. Quinn asked if she could come again. I told her to work it out with her teacher. When Mike and I got there, he asked if we should save Q a seat. I told him it would be foolish if we didn't. To the surprise of no one, a short blonde head appeared exactly on time to be her sister's biggest fan.

Fiona has been very nervous for her performance because she had a speaking part. A rather large one, in fact. She's been practicing at home and we've been working on enunciating and speaking slowly. She didn't always like my coaching - but she clearly paid attention to it. She nailed her part and looked so confident. With full acknowledgement of our bias, we think she was one of the best speakers. She spoke clearly and loudly and was easy to understand.

The program was very cute and her class did a great job. It's really been fun seeing her embrace classical music as it's put in a context that she can get excited about. Her enthusiasm has been contagious for her siblings and "Classical Christmas" was a highly requested Pandora station this season.

Thursday was the last day of school for the year and Quinn could hardly wait ... it was gingerbread house day in First Grade. Each student was responsible for bringing something to contribute for decorating options. We were assigned gumdrops. She also brought a box of small candy canes because we had leftovers and her teacher said it would help. What made me giggle the most was how she carefully planned her strategy for over a week. She asked each of her friends what they were bringing and then determined what she would use and how many she would need. Q loves it when a good plan comes together!

She insisted I photograph the finished house the very.second we walked in the door from school - so I'm assuming that it lived up to expectations. Between fun final days and a long break, they are not going to be thrilled about getting back in the swing of things next week.

Christmas Magic

We are in the sweetest spot of Christmas magic this year. Our stair-step approach to three children is really paying off as 8, 6, and 4 is simply golden. Tonight, they made our favorite rolo pretzel cookies with very little assistance from me (I did the oven part). Their gingerbread house skills are top notch. They are all equally competent in finding our elf - and his hiding places can be a bit more challenging. And they can even play Christmas songs whenever they want thanks to D's solid Google skills.

We are also expanding our holiday movie repertoire. Mike thought they might be ready for Home Alone, but after we explained the premise to Bugs, she claims they are not (I had also voted no). We did watch Elf and have big plans to watch The Santa Clause too. While not yet appropriate in full, we've shown them a few clips from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Mike cannot wait until he can show them the whole thing. [Don't worry - he and I watched it after the troops went to bed. We've also decided Die Hard may be a few years out. But it will happen!]

It's so fun to hear them discuss their favorite traditions and which things they don't want to miss. I sometimes feel guilty that they don't wake up at their own house on Christmas morning. They know that if they really wanted to stay home, we would. However, so many of the favorite traditions happen up north. In fact, Quinn told me today that her favorite part of the holidays is being with her cousins. And cooking with Grandma. Also high on the combined favorites list: Winter Wonderland, decorating cookies at Grandma's, moonlight walk in the woods, and visiting Santa.

Speaking of Santa, I'm fearful that we are in our final year of three believers. Bugs is asking a lot of really insightful questions about this whole Santa thing. I'm doing my best to answer her very honestly while not ruining it for her siblings - who are almost always there when she asks. She wants to believe, but is trying to fit the pieces of this puzzle together. While I know that Christmas will continue to be great as they get older, I'm consciously enjoying the magic this year ... just in case.

I also may always insist on matching pajamas. I'm going to ride that train as long as they will humor me - or I can guilt them into it!

Surviving the Weekend

As we neared last weekend, I felt an overwhelming sense of foreboding. I couldn't quite figure out why I was so stressed out and tried to chalk it up to some things going on at work and general holiday stuff. By the end of the weekend, I remembered. This is the weekend that knocks us off our feet - every single year. We've had pneumonia, triple ear infections, various colds, a broken washing machine, and [shudder] the lice. No wonder I seem to have a bit of post-traumatic stress going into this stretch.

If you got our annual Christmas letter, you may have read a note about an alleged not broken foot. Mike is currently at urgent care getting x-rays because two weeks later, the "not broken" foot is still extremely painful. He also went down with a stomach bug over the weekend. So I'd say the streak continues. [Update: not broken. deep bone bruise]

What I find most remarkable every year is that even as the weekend tries to take us down with it, we get through and still often manage some holiday fun. This year was no exception. We watched Elf for the first time as a family, and it was so fun to see the kids experience it. Fiona belly-laughed through the whole thing! That kid loves slapstick comedy!! They have been discussing their favorite parts for the last couple days and Quinn even pulled out a "Son of a Nutcracker" today at pick up.

Before the stomach bug took Mike out, we also made it to Winter Wonderland to look at the lights. This is a favorite tradition and it never disappoints. It was a mild night, so was very crowded. Instead of having our hot chocolate and cookies in the busy garage, we sat out by the bonfire and had a lovely time. Dec even saw a couple of his friends from school, which made him super proud.

The kids had the best time building their gingerbread house - and their skills are improving year over year. It's a good looking house ... and has about five pounds of candy on it! I also got all the presents wrapped and my three little elves were actually very helpful and didn't peek. Not even once.

On Sunday, I sang with the holiday choir at church. Our church's congregation is on the older side ... which was never so clear as when I ended up as the third member of the "children's choir" for one of the songs. As the third youngest member of the choir, the two teenagers and I were "the kids." It was fun to sing in a church choir again and a three-week practice schedule was just the right level of commitment. They've already started recruiting me for the Easter service choir.

While the streak continued, moments of fun peppered their way into the weekend. And those are what we will remember ... although I clearly also remembered the stress. But mostly the fun. Mostly.

"Baby" and Baby

It’s been a big few days in our family. On Wednesday, my “baby” turned four and a half. I know, I know … he’s not a baby anymore. And you all can shush. As long as he will wander into my room in the morning with his mimi and ask for snugs, I’m calling him a baby (and probably longer than that if we’re being honest).

Anyway … in addition to the milestone for the “baby,” we have an actual new baby!! Baby Beau joined the cousin gang last night and we are already in love. And in four years, we will have a little boy gang aged 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4 … so if you start praying for us now, that might be enough. Also, maybe hide anything breakable.

Declan is proudly wearing the mantle of Big … unless he thinks being little will help him get his way. He can’t wait to start Kindergarten in the fall and I can’t believe that I will be filling out a stack of Kinder paperwork for a third time! He loves learning and is so social - school will be a feather in his cap!

One of our favorite new developments is Declan’s maturing artwork styles. He’s focusing more on intention, details, coloring in(ish) the lines, and the story behind the picture. His artwork also often reminds me how different he is than the girls were at that artwork stage. In the last couple weeks, he’s brought home a picture of a skeleton that he colored red – to show the blood, a picture of his dad’s head exploding (that they both found hilarious), a picture of a fire causing fireworks to explode too early, and a rainbow roller coaster. I love his imagination and hearing him tell me all about his pictures. As long as my head isn’t exploding in any of them, I’m fully on board.

Dec just finished up his floor hockey activity and is entering ice hockey season. He’s been going to a few optional practices the last few weekends and his skills and confidence are improving. He still gets really nervous about an hour before  and there are usually a few tears. But once he gets out on the ice, he’s happy, social, and smiling. He genuinely seems to enjoy himself and is always beaming and anxious to tell us all about it when he gets home. He can’t wait to get out on the ice with his cousins over Christmas break.

A new development of Big that I did not expect (but is related to the hockey playing above) … he is a STINKY boy. Seriously, when did he get all sweaty and stinky and gross?!?! He thinks it is hilarious. Our days of floating showers for a few extra nights are quickly coming to an end! 

Declan continues to be charming, happy, and funny. He’s constantly singing, often dancing, obsessed with superheroes, cars, and Wild Kratts, and full of energy. He is a good friend and is working on ways that he can help as a member of the family. He happily rolls out the laundry basket for me when it's full and he and Q love to get Yogi's food dished out in the morning. As we round the corner toward five, this awesome dude is ready to take it on.

PS: I'm ready for him to start smiling for pictures like a normal person again. Like any day now.

Big Girl Date at The Nutcracker

While we were at the Holiday Fest last weekend, one of the local dance studios performed a routine in the parade. In addition to the candy, they handed out cards that mentioned their upcoming performance of ... The Nutcracker. Just the thing to help Fiona forgive us for not going up north to see it. After a quick survey of interested parties, it seemed that just Fiona and I wanted to go. Thus, a big girl date was born!

I got us tickets to the Saturday matinee. When she wasn't feeling well Friday night, we were a little worried about making it. But by Saturday morning, she was back to her usual self and ready to go to her first ballet. We got out the hot rollers to curl her hair [while not interested in the ballet, Q was all over hot rolling her hair as well], she dressed up fancy (including tights - she told me she knew why they called them tights!), and I may have put just a smidge of make-up on her. She felt (and looked) so big!

The ballet was in the high school auditorium in a town about 12 miles south, so we listened to Christmas carols on the drive and talked about our favorite ones (we both love O Holy Night). Her class at school is doing a performance of Nutcracker songs next week for their music class program, so she was super pumped to hear familiar songs. I helped her follow the program and she seemed to really enjoy the performance. The costumes were so cute and we both loved the Candy Canes (who danced to the Russian dance song) and the Sugar Plum Fairy. 

When it was over, she did look at me in shock and said, "Mom! There were no words. At all. It was just music and dancing." She seemed a bit surprised when I told her that is what a ballet is! For the record, she told me that her program has music, dancing, and words.

Quinn sneaks in her one-on-one time by always being game to go on errands and Dec manages it by being the youngest ... so it was really special to get some one-on-one time with Fiona doing something that we both really loved. I even earned some Cool Mom points by reminding her that I used to dance ballet - and was once the Sugar Plum Fairy. 

A Play, A Blizzard, and an Elf

And so, last weekend's fun continues. You may remember that we've already gone to a parade, watched fireworks, eaten pancakes, and visited Santa ... which brings us to lunchtime on Saturday. Need a nap? No time for that ... because we had play tickets to see Winnie-the-Pooh at the Old Log Theater in Excelsior.

Since our breakfast had been so late, no one was particularly hungry at our normal lunchtime. Instead, we grabbed snack bags of animal crackers and headed up to the theater. It's one that Mike has been anxious to see, since the same man who built the theater he works at also built Old Log. We got there early (I know ... early. So confusing), so the kids made friends with some of the ushers. It was the children's show, so there were lots of families, booster seats for the chairs (hooray!), and a show that was only an hour long. That's a winning combination in our world.

We got to our seats, and one-by-one the kids decided they needed a booster, so we were eventually settled just before the show started. It was really cute and very musical. Fiona sat enthralled for most of it, Quinn curled up in a ball because she was so tired but happily watched it, and Dec rotated between Mike's lap and standing up. However, he was not standing because he wasn't interested ... quite the contrary. He was so into the show that he simply could not sit down. He was on his tiptoes every time he stood up - just to be closer to the action. At the end of the show, the actors came out to the lobby and signed the kids' playbills. They loved meeting them and did a nice job of waiting their turn to meet each character. 

By this point, "not particularly hungry" had morphed into "very hungry" for all five Vannestes. We decided to stop at the Wendy's that was just down the road for a 3pm lunch. As we walked to our car, a few snowflakes were starting to fall. Ten minutes later, when we got to Wendy's, the snow was coming down quite hard. We decided that everyone was too hungry and stopped anyways. 

We all pounded our food (we may have only left a crumb that was too small for a mouse), sang Christmas songs, and watched the snow coming down. Then we mentally prepared everyone for what was likely to be a loooong slog home. As I was buckling the kids in, the wind blew so hard that it slammed the car door on my legs. That was my clue that it was going to be an interesting ride.

When we got out to the road, we found that it was pretty much glare ice. Mike had decided to not take the freeway home and to take more of the back roads. I was totally on board, except for one very steep, very windy, very narrow hill that was on that route. Turns out, I needn't worry - they had closed that road! So we detoured our detour and made it home safely. It was a slow drive, but also so so pretty. The snow was perfect and all the trees along the route were blanketed, which is our very favorite thing.

As soon as we got home, the kids geared up to see if it was good snowman snow. It was!!! Mike and the kids made a frosty friend for the front yard while I worked on Christmas decorations inside. I even had a carrot leftover from Thanksgiving and found some stale cookies for eyes and buttons (that the woodland creatures seem to have appreciated). 

When they came in, we decorated our tree. It's in the living room this year (it's been in the basement for the last few) and we are all enjoying having it up here. It required a lot of furniture rearranging, but the ability to see it every night - especially when watching Christmas movies - is totally worth it!

It was a good thing we got our house ready on Saturday, because on Sunday morning, the kids discovered that our elf, Tyler, had returned - bringing with him a North Pole breakfast, notes from Santa, and matching Christmas jammies. 

We filled the rest of our day with Sunday school, church choir practice, hockey practice, fort building with the neighbor kids, decorating the basement, and watching part of The Grinch (Jim Carrey version).

When I recapped our weekend on Monday to my friend Kim, she said "I would not survive at your house." It's just my secret way to make a non-runner like Mike a true marathoner. Who needs to run 26.2 miles?!?! Just hang with us for a weekend.

Santa at the Legion

The sign was my favorite

We tossed around the idea of making a quick run up north on Saturday to watch my nephew in The Nutcracker (Fiona and I really wanted to see that). But we ultimately decided that it was too far for too short of a time - especially knowing that Friday would be a late night with the Holiday Fest. Instead, we researched Breakfast with Santa options (the Y wasn't doing it this year) and found one Saturday morning at the American Legion - conveniently located right by our house.

It was delightfully not crowded when we got there. Mike and I got the biggest kick out of the welcome sign (and no, we did not have a beer). Dec wanted to see Santa right away, so we got in line behind one other kid and very quickly got our turn with the big guy. They each sat on his lap and told him what they wanted ... then all piled in for a group picture, which I didn't feel bad about because no one was waiting behind us. They each got a really nice fleece snowman blanket and a bag of goodies from Santa's elf too! The blankets have been a hit.

After Santa, we got pancakes, eggs, and sausage - and let me tell you, these people packed it away. They were hungry (and not used to waiting until 10am for breakfast). Once their bellies were full, we checked out the face painting, manicure station, and craft tables. They each got their fingernails painted and a holiday picture on their cheek. They also made new ornaments for our tree. We were there for just over an hour and never felt crowded or rushed. It was such a fun and relaxing time!

Santa wandered around when he wasn't busy and Dec would always give him a shy little grin. He was impressed - even though he repeatedly told me that he was "just Santa's helper. Not the real Santa."

Our visit was successful, Santa has been checked off the to-do list, and this was just the beginning of the fun we packed into Saturday. Perhaps we were over-compensating for the disappointment of missing the Nutcracker ...

When you are tired and NOT amused by your sister
And a glimpse of the CUTE face painting!

Fireworks on Friday

You know it's a good weekend when you go to bed Thursday night feeling pretty proud that you are totally caught up on the blog ... and by Sunday evening, you are at least three posts behind!

Another weekend observation - it's hard to be named Declan this time of year. Or I suppose it's hard to be nicknamed "Dec" this time of year. But the rest of us reeeeally enjoy singing "deck the halls" with an emphasis on the "deck" to watch his head pop up. Every.dang.time!

We kicked off the holiday season on Friday night by heading to downtown S-town for the 2nd annual Holiday Fest. I had a work meeting all the way across town, so Mike ordered a pizza, I scooped up the kids, and we somehow managed to not only get to the parade route on time. We were early. I just need to document that - because it doesn't happen often. We even remembered bags for the kids to collect their candy. As it was significantly colder than last year, I was glad to not give up my hat again.

We grabbed a spot near the beginning of the route again. It seems less crowded there (and you know how much Vs don't like people). We had several friends downtown - and unfortunately we weren't able to hook up with all of them. However, B&C and their gang made it over to our parade spot and the six kids had so much fun watching together. Several groups seemed to learn from last year and there were significantly fewer candy canes being thrown. My mint-hating Fiona was a fan. My broken-candy-cane-hating Quinn was a fan. My I-just-like-candy Declan was indifferent.

They got so much candy again this year. Combined with the huge bucket of Halloween candy that we still haven't finished, I can't even with all the candy. However, I feel confident that all the Milky Ways are gone ...

We all followed the end of the parade to the center of town and watched as Santa (Renaissance Santa, according to Brad and Mike) counted down to light the tree. We had all the short people problems - so I was holding Bugs up, Mike had Dec, and Quinn had smiled at Uncle Brad and he had her (those two ... peas in a pod!). As soon as the tree lit, the fireworks started!!! Apparently the two things learned from last year were 1) candy canes break and 2) waiting until 8pm to start fireworks is too late. However, NOBODY knew they were going to start.

You couldn't really see the fireworks from where we were standing and it was very suddenly mass chaos as people races to better vantage points. Bugs and I made our way toward the back parking lot. As we were running, I saw Jack and no tall Ps. When I asked him if he knew where his parents were and he said "no," Bugs and I added a member to our group. We snagged a good spot (thanks to a lot of tall people who saw that I had short people and moved us to the front) and we watched quite a delightful show (while I texted B&C to tell them I had Jack!).

Fiona still didn't love the loud sounds that the fireworks made - but she admitted it was better than last year. She also said that having Jack with her helped. The three of us agreed that the sizzling ones were our favorite. Once the finale was over, we worked our way back through the crowd to find our group. Surprisingly, it didn't take us long. But we laughed that we had mostly watched them separately (Brad and Quinn had found Cheryl, Hannah, and Cooper part way through). I love doing life with the Ps - it didn't matter whose kid it is. Ever. [Once Mike convinced Dec that the fireworks weren't going to land on him, D loved them. According to Brad, Quinn loved every single second of it. To the point where a stranger told him that he had to check out Q's awestruck face.]

The kids were cold and the lines for every holiday station were long. So we decided to do hot cocoa at our house instead of downtown. Other than the chaos, we were all big fans of the fireworks happening right away. Hopefully that change sticks. Next year, we'll revise our tree lighting positioning.

The kids had cocoa and marshmallows, warmed up, and started an epic Nerf gun battle downstairs. We played and visited for an hour or so and then called it a night. It seems like last year's December habits may be starting up again ... it's so hard to have early (or on-time) bedtimes when there is holiday fun to be had.

PS: the kids were in bed at 7:30 tonight and did not utter a syllable of complaint about it.