How does you handle holiday family juggling?

Time in CT usually means time with the cousins (or at least two of them)!

There aren’t any cousins on my side but there are 9 all together on Patrick’s side.  My in laws welcomed 9 grandkids over just 5 years! 

Besides hanging out with cousins, we took advantage of the wide selection of hockey equipment found in New England over B-more, visited Kringle and Yankee Candle factories, and ate lots of food.  Can you say monkey bread?

It should also be noted here that we’re thankful for the wonderful guy who got PJ all geared up for hockey.  He was even able to find a helmet to fit his head…even if we did have to pay twice as much. 

Note to shoulder pad manufacturers:  Please make the head opening a little bigger or provide snap openings or something.

Oh, we also took in a CT Whale game.  It’s the most attuned the kids have every been.  The Whale even won!  See Ty’s victory violin? 

He’s been taking his air violin everywhere these days

This year, the kids had the chance to shop and wrap completely independently of me thanks to this awesome homeschool Christmas bazaar in which we participated.  It was so fun to see what they picked out for everyone. 

To: Ty, From: PJ

To: Mia, From: Ty

To: Dad, From: PJ

To: Pops, From : Mia

To: Nana, From: PJ

Uncle has a special place in the kids hearts since he lived with us for a year.  It’s always great to have him home, especially around the holidays.

Each of the kids received hydration packs from Nana and Pops for our future geocaching adventures.

This year we had a full house for the annual Grinch reading.  It’s always a picture-worthy occasion.

Our resident drama queen has taken to acting it out as Pops reads.

To view in full-screen mode,

1. Start the slide show by clicking on it.
2. Click on the icon on the bottom right with the four arrows.
3. Pause to read at your leisure.
4. Press ESC to return to normal view.

We started the The Elf on the Shelf tradition last year.  For our family, it was more about the hiding and seeking of him than his reporting capabilities.  Perhaps this year he’ll deliver a factoid about that day’s country.  I’ve been remiss about updating Derek’s Calendar but the next 24 days are posted so you can follow our chain.

What are you favorite traditions during this season?

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

“Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming…”

“Then he got an idea! An awful idea!”

“‘These stockings,’ he grinned, ‘are the first things to go!’”

“HE went to the chimney and stuffed the tree up!”

“…HE HIMSELF…! The Grinch carved the roast beast!”

Re-enactment brought to you by Mia and the 25th Annual Grinch Reading.  Reading courtesy of Pops. 

Click to enlarge.

Anyway, you just need a printout of 5 Christmas trees labelled with the numbers 1 to 5 respectively.  If you’re not computer saavy, just hand draw them (trace a cookie cutter if you’re not computer saavy AND you’re artistically challenged).  I labelled mine in numerical order but I’m thinking having it switched up would’ve been even more clever and developmentally challenging.

You need something to decorate your trees.  I used foamy stars which weren’t idea because of the star already atop the trees I used.  Any small, uniformly shaped sticker or even small balls of playdough will do.

Sit with your child and help him decorate each tree with the correct number of “ornaments.”  This activity reinforces number recognition while helping your child to concretely associate numbers with amounts.

1.  Power isn’t always better. (Also could be…make sure you have enough spare batteries for your chain saw).

Ok.  We really only learned that lesson this year.