Happy New Year's Eve!

Going out on New Year's isn't really realistic for us at this point. We would have to find a babysitter, pay her, pay the inflated holiday prices to go out, and then figure out safe transportation home when we don't live near any place that has New Year's festivities. So we stayed home. This year I did activities in the form of "New Year's Crackers". They had times to be opened on them. I made them from a kit and they went really well except I taped the poppers and they didn't always stick to the cracker. Next time I would glue them with super glue. All the kids loved the pop and it was fun.

We started out getting glow sticks. Joshua got a glowing sword that he really liked and the girls got necklaces and everyone got bracelets.

Then we moved on to dinner. As we normally do, we had appetizers and fondue for dinner and the kids got sparkling cider all night.

Then we decorated our "New Year's Tree". In preparation for this, Jason had taken the Christmas ornaments off already and I made photo ornaments of many of the things that happened this year. We then hung them on the tree. The kids don't necessarily enjoy reminiscing as much as I do, but I like this activity a lot and I think we'll do it again in the future. I made about 100 ornaments so it did take awhile to find the photos, order them, and then cut them, but I found it worth it.

Next we played a game. We have a few the kids like at this point, but we went with the cube game. The kids throw the cube (taking turns) and then we read a card of the corresponding color and they do whatever it says. They think the cards are fun. They say things like "clap 10 times" or "make a sad face" or "quack like a duck", so things they are excited to do. After the game, we ate dessert and watched The Jungle Book. Disney is kind of hit or miss because some of their movies are really pretty scary, especially the older ones. Like I can't imagine showing my kids Snow White and they made me turn off Peter Pan within ten minutes because the dad is so mean and then Captain Hook almost immediately shoots (!!) a guy. But The Jungle Book went well and has catchy music. It isn't my favorite Disney movie by a long shot, but it was enjoyable.

After the movie, it was time to celebrate the new year. We had a mini dance party, which Clara especially loved, but they all loved the music Jason had bought one year and the mini disco ball.

After the dancing, it was time to count down and say "Happy New Year!". The kids had a fun night and stayed up a little bit late. We put them to bed and then stayed up to ring in the new year.

NOTE: We will soon be posting our Top 10 posts of the year as well as the Awards and Stats post.  Following that, we'll post the invite to next year's blog.  Stay tuned to this blog for now!

A Very Nicholl Christmas

Today we celebrated Christmas with the Nicholl clan at Mom and Ron's house.  As has been the case the past two years, Nick Schale, a former colleague of Ron, came over to take our family pictures.  He did a great job, and was especially great with the kids, and we got a lot of great pictures.

I snapped a few pictures of my own, including cute little Benjamin and an excited Joshua exploring his new book.

We had a great home-cooked meal, and thanks to Mom and Ron's house size and layout, we were able to have everyone eat in one of two large groups.

We later did gifts, and Mom received a violin from Grandpa and Grandma.  She used to play when she was little, but even though she hasn't picked up a violin since then, she immediately nailed some scales as if she still regularly played.  I was quite impressed.  Later, Grandpa received some food items that were branded with a certain sponge who shares his first name.  Grandpa is not counted among the sponge's many fans, and thus he was not thrilled to receive the items.  The perpetrator of this scheme was not definitively determined, but Grandpa had his suspicions, as this scenario has played out without fail for many years now.  Grandma, on the other hand, seemed quite pleased by the whole scenario.

Later in the afternoon and at night some of us played games, including a game called Say Anything that was a nice twist on Apples to Apples, and another new game called Wits & Wagers, which I loved, as it involved knowledge, estimation, and betting.

It was another great Christmas, and it was great to have everyone together (Elle was there for the pictures but had to leave after that) for the celebration.

David and Elle's Wedding

With Joanna's wedding last year, only one of the Nicholl/Leach siblings remained unmarried.  But tonight the final piece was put in place, as David and Elle got married in a beautiful ceremony.  The theme was Boho-Chic / Colorado Christmas Lodge.  Clara already had a perfect outfit, and we were able to put together outfits for Joshua and Hannah that were on-theme.  Meghan also did a nice job of coming up with an outfit for herself.  I, on the other hand, didn't perform as well.  Although my outfit was actually fairly boho-chic, it was too casual for the occasion, so I ended up modifying it on the fly to make it a little less boho-chic but also a little less informal.

The kids enjoyed the dance floor as a place to run around between events.  Here Benjamin watches in the background and considers joining in on the action.

The event was held at the Buffalo Lodge out in Missouri, and it was the perfect setting for the wedding, as it fit the theme perfectly.  We are so excited to have Elle as part of our family and for David to have found the woman of his dreams.

Spontaneity

 It had been forever since we had seen our friends, the Hansons. They got their kids back and our hoping to move to adoption now and it has taken awhile for them to re-adjust to being a household of 10. Plus then we went out of town for Thanksgiving and have been busy with Christmas preparations. However, since our date night was cancelled, we now had this morning free so I decided we should have brunch together. I am the least spontaneous person ever. I plan everything. So I am kind of proud of hosting a last-minute (ish. I had 24 hours notice. But I usually try to have at least 24 days) brunch for 15 people and still making it to church. I didn't even go to the grocery store until after church. That's how spontaneous I am. I did mess up the waffles, unfortunately, but we had enough food that it wasn't a big deal and it went really well, though of course it's a far cry from when we used to all just talk because all our kids were asleep. Those days may be gone.

After naps and dinner, our advent activity for tonight was to decorate a gingerbread house.

This year I bought a house that was pre-assembled, making this a fun and quick activity.

After we were done decorating, we, and especially the kids, enjoyed the fruits of our labor. We had a busy, but fun day.

That's a Wrap

Today our Advent project was to decorate gift wrap. Jason did this with the kids and they really enjoyed painting Christmas lights on the packages (though they would have also enjoyed painting a lot more than lights. Clara's finger is in the air because it's the only way to enforce impulse control). After the presents were done, we also let them finger paint on paper so they could go to town and not be constrained by our rules.

We had originally scheduled our monthly date night tonight. That unfortunately had to be cancelled because Peg wasn't feeling well and she needs to be fully recovered by next weekend when we have our Christmas gathering so she really needed to rest. However, we can't really reschedule date night because this month is so full with the holidays and we were really looking forward to having a dinner where we got to talk in complete sentences. So we decided to have Halie come so we could go to dinner. We went to the Plaza, which is super lovely this time of year. It wasn't as good as a normal date night because we don't get to sleep in tomorrow, but it was still really nice and I'm glad we did it.

Trimming the Gateless Tree

Today we decorated the tree.  The kids are old enough this year to kinda sorta help.  We gave them non-critical non-breakable ornaments and tried to explain how the ornament hooks worked.  Joshua got it.  Clara didn't quite get it.  And Hannah didn't care to do it.  We did it after lunch today, so it was naptime for Clara and Hannah pretty quickly, and Meghan and I did the vast majority of the ornaments with Joshua doing a token amount, most of which we had to adjust later.  But it was nice to start to get him involved in the process.  Up until today, he had been calling ornaments "jingle bells" due to some confusion at some point, but I think he has it straight now.

A great development this year is we are not putting the baby gate around the tree for the first time in several years.  We have made the rules very clear to them that they are never to touch any ornaments.  Just to be safe, though, we have our more cherished ones out of their reach.  But the tree looks MUCH better without that ugly gate around it, so I'm glad we're finally at that point.

Cold, Pretty Lights

There aren't too many holiday events that you can take small children to that are also enjoyable for adults, but the Holiday Luminary Walk at the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens is one of them.  It was really pretty.  You walk along the paths, which are illuminated by thousands of candles.  They also have other things lit up along the way, as well as various musicians and some hot drinks and snacks.  It was really cold tonight, so we didn't stop much along the way, but the guided path is nice and long, so it still takes about an hour to walk through.  You can't see much in the way of the actual plants, but it's still really nice to walk along and see all the lights.

Watching the Polar Express

We've started our Advent activities. Last night we read Polar Express and tonight we watched the movie. I don't know why I look so unthrilled in this photo. Though I prefer the book to the movie as the I think the movie loses a bit of charm, I think both are cute and we all enjoyed watching it tonight. Joshua and Clara both watched most of it without getting up, so that was a first.

Detoxing

When we travel, we try not to eat too badly. And, though there are times McDonald's is pretty much the only option, we generally maintain a balance over the course of a trip. I really like eating out when the food is good. However, after over a week away, I am definitely ready to eat at home. The thing that really just makes me feel terrible after that long is the sodium. There is so much more sodium in processed and restaurant food than what you make at home. I read an interview with the editor of Cook's Illustrated today that is an interesting read just generally, but in it he says that 95% of your sodium intake occurs outside your house. I don't know if that is true, but I wouldn't be surprised and there is definitely a huge difference in what we eat here versus not. So I am so glad to be back in my kitchen and eating healthier and fresher. Maybe the kids agree. Even chicken-nugget-loving Hannah ate all her salmon tonight and that is quite unlike her.

Finally Back in Kansas

We got a decent rest last night, which we needed, and today we began the last leg of our trip.  We stayed at a Staybridge Suites in a 2-room suite, and it also included breakfast.  I took the kids down so we get could get some food before we left, and then Meghan stayed with the kids while I packed the car.

We drove all day, and it was evening by the time we got home.  The kids slept for the last part of it but woke up as we got close to home, and by the time we pulled into the driveway they were rested and excited to be home.

When we got in the house, Meghan was completely spent and crashed on the couch.  The kids, on the other hand, were wired after having been in the car all day with no chance to burn any energy.  While I unloaded the car they ran around like crazy people and played with all their toys they haven't seen in awhile.  You can see Clara so excited here she's actually in mid-air as she is jumping while pushing her shopping cart.  It's been a really long trip, but it was definitely worth it, as we really enjoyed having Thanksgiving with Meghan's family, and we got to see so many amazing things along the way there and back.