Christmas for Naomi

Naomi couldn’t wait to get the tree trimmed on Christmas Eve. 

 

She ended up being Chief Ornament Unwrapper, uncovering new treasures every few seconds (and stressing out Hannah, who felt like the backlog was getting too big). 

She’s holding up one of her baby ornament pictures.  I have a tradition of doing a Christmas photo frame with each of the kids each year.  Although I’m a bit behind…But this ornament is Naomi, eating the limb of a doll at her first Christmas.

Thursday of the week before Christmas, I suddenly realized I hadn’t done anything about clothes for the kids for Christmas.  ACK!  Sim and Tess wore hand-me-downs, Sim from his local cousin, Tess from Hannah.  I also had a different hand-me-down from Hannah from Christmas past, so I offered that to Naomi.  “Oh, no, Mama!  I want to wear something to match Hannah, like usual!”  So here’s my summer dress to Christmas dress hack:  take a dress from 18 months ago, make sure the bodice still fits.  Then add a wide red stripe at the bottom and a bow at the waist.  Voila!  Christmas dresses!  They look a bit nightgown-ish to me, or maybe like Clara’s dress in the Nutcracker, and the girls both loved them.  Thank goodness.  

Naomi’s gifts were a big hit this year.

ROLLERBLADES!  Very exciting.

Naomi wanted to shop with her own money for Christmas gifts for certain people this year.  She and Michael went shopping the week of Thanksgiving.  The balloon animal kit is what she chose for Hannah – and Hannah really liked it.  She got Sim a tape dispenser – another good choice.  It was really cute to see her figure it out, wrap it up, and get really excited about giving it. 

Naomi’s been very into poetry lately, much more so than Hannah ever has.  This poetry book that she got warranted a few quiet moments away from the hubbub to peruse.

She was great fun to watch, too, because she was very enthusiastic about her gifts.

Yellowstone cards and a Yellowstone walking stick for hikes!

Being fairly naturally athletic, Naomi took to her new rollerblades with ease and grace.  She really likes them a lot.  She and Hannah have been logging lots of rollerblading hours in the last 5 days!

Tess and Christmas

This was a fun Christmas for us to watch Tess.  She was very excited about all of it, in her very own Tessy way.

This ornament is always the very favorite of the 3-and-under set.  Tess is no exception.

She was a bit overwhelmed by trimming the tree, and after a couple of forays into hanging things, she settled down and watched, unwrapping things as they came her way.  Next year she’ll be more involved, I’m sure.

She wore the Christmas dress I made for Hannah when she was 2.  She didn’t love it, unfortunately.  She’s into pajamas right now (she calls them demamas).  She loved the one gift to open on Christmas Eve, because it was pajamas.  She brought them to Mass with us – I figured it wasn’t worth arguing with her to leave them at home.  So, during the readings, she put the pajamas on OVER her Christmas dress.  Michael has some pictures, so we’ll have to get those up here sometime soon.

The older kids thought they’d like to watch Tess open stuff, but she was slow and meticulous, and I wouldn’t let them hurry the process, so they quickly got bored and moved on.  She didn’t mind.  She wanted to spend 20-30 minutes playing with each new thing, so not having her siblings pushing her to open more was just fine with her, anyway. 

Robes count as demamas!  WITH a hood!  Score!

Everyone else is pretty much finished unwrapping at this point; Tess is still playing with gift #4.  But, hey, she’s totally happy!

Aunts and uncles combined to get her a set of playsilks.  These were a VERY popular item.  And fun to photograph, as well. 

Lima, of course, was never far from the festivities, and she benefited from the playsilks, too.  For a little while, she actually got to wear something.

 

Here’s Tess, instructing me to take a picture of Lima.

The funniest gift she opened was the art supplies from her siblings.  I didn’t get a picture, unfortunately, but she pulled out a box of markers, and nothing would do but that she get to try EACH of the 8 markers, before pulling out a box of 8 skinny markers and having to repeat the process.  Then came the 12 colored pencils.  It was a lengthy process.  But cute.

  

She definitely had a merry Christmas.  And it was really fun to watch her!

A boy and his Christmas gifts

Sim had a great Christmas.  He enjoyed all the traditions that the older girls remember well now and that he’s just starting to remember.  He vaguely remembered that they got one gift to open on Christmas Eve, but I had to remind him that it’s one that I picked (because we give the kids new pajamas) and not one he picked.  This was a disappointment, and nearly ruined the pajamas for him.  But in the end, he dealt with it just fine and wore the pajamas.  And he got some pretty cool gifts the next day.

The most dramatic one was his new leather sword.  It was the second thing he opened, and he was most excited.

It’s a bit tricky to catch a very excited 5-year-old boy on camera in the first few moments after he gets a new sword.

This is Sim in mid-jump.  He did some jumping up and down when he got the new sword.

Soon after this photo was taken, he heard Grandpa Larry moving around upstairs.  With a cry of, “I’m going to storm Grandpa!!!!!” he disappeared up the stairs.  Just a warning:  if you want to spend Christmas here, be prepared for armed attackers first thing Christmas morning.  Um…Merry Christmas?

He looks totally pained here, in his new robe, but I just caught him during a sneeze.  I thought it was a funny picture, though.

Hannah, working in her closet and during her free time, made a kitchen for Simeon and Naomi (the idea was from the magazine Family Fun), and decided to just leave it in her closet for them to open, since it’s pretty large.  

Sim had fun helping to pick out presents for his sisters.  Tess wasn’t as fun to watch open her gifts, because she would open one, then play with it for a while (sometimes a LONG while), then think about opening another one.  But Hannah and Naomi were gratifyingly quick and appreciative of the things he chose. 

Once the gifts were all opened, Sim disappeared.  I went to find him, and he was in his room, putting together his new Lego set, listening to the Star Wars soundtrack.  Absolute bliss. 

Christmas festivities

Lots of stories to share, but today we’ll just share a bunch of pictures and you can get an idea of how we’re doing.