Christmas morning and what mom learned

I was sewing felt food right up until about 10:30pm on Christmas Eve, so Santa visited shortly thereafter. We (I) decided that Santa was going to have a minimal appearance at our house. He'll leave 1 present per child, a family game, a family DVD, possibly another family present and stockings.And our stockings were going to be mostly "semi-healthy" things we don't normally have with a little bit of candy. We had freeze dried fruit, fruit leathers, Welch's fruit snacks, Quaker granola bars, peanuts, whoppers and some wrapped chocolate candies. I'm glad I had other stuff besides straight up candy. I feel like our household is already on sugar overload.

This is them first seeing Christmas morning. It's not super exciting, and it's a little long. I don't think we have one video of Walter during present opening from this first moment on without some sort of food in his hand.

Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.



Dean didn't really seem to "get" the whole Santa thing until about two weeks before Christmas when kids were talking about what they wanted at preschool.  Once he figured out that he could ask Santa for anything he could possibly want, his list went from a green toy garbage truck to: a garbage truck, a fishing pole, a really big motorcycle (and after I told him he couldn't drive a real motorcycle, he changed it to "a really big toy motorcycle"), a drill like dad's, guns, and anything that caught his fancy while we were at the store.

Since we bought the nice play set this summer and we're changing out basically all of the flooring in our house right now, we were pretty minimal in our Christmas. On the Sunday before Christmas I pulled out all our gifts thinking I was done, only to realize that Walter only had 3 gifts, one we got for free that was going to be his Santa gift, a set of books from a yard sale, and a book from his grandparents. Dean's looked sparse, but a little better. So I set out to find Walter a few more presents.

On Christmas morning Dean didn't want to come out of his room because he was still a little scared he was going to scare Santa away and he'd take the presents.  Once he came out he seemed happy enough with the presents. He got the dump truck from Santa.  Walter got a rocking horse from Santa. There was a Curious George DVD, a mini basketball (for both boys), a game of memory, and stockings.  So far things were going well, though he wasn't crazy excited yet.  Matt pointed out the eaten cookies and milk and carrots. He was curious why Santa left a half eaten cook and was also a little annoyed because we gave Santa the last of our ginger cookies so there weren't any left for him.

He was happy to unwrap presents, though he seemed a little annoyed at  opening clothes. Like, "Seriously? Next present please."  He enjoyed  opening his presents and helping Walt open his. The down hill part of  Christmas came when Walt opened up one of the  last minute presents  from mom and dad, the guitar. When I bought the guitar, I knew that  Dean would want it, but I knew Walt would like it and he had fewer  presents. I should have gotten two. They both had fun playing with it and Dean was pretty decent about waiting till Walter was "done" playing with it before he rushed in to play.  Walt's not too, too possessive about his things yet. At one point Dean tried trading a shirt he got for the guitar. By the time the felt  food were opened, Dean was too distracted by the guitar, though Walt  gave it a token glance.  Dean basically  only played with the guitar all  day, totally rocking out rock star  style. Wait, I take that back. He  did have some rousing games of Hi-ho  Cherry-o and zingo with Matt also.  When I asked Dean if he liked his presents, he said, "no."  When we  asked what his favorite present was he said, "not any any toy."  Then he  asked if Santa was coming back and if we could ask him for a guitar  that looks like the Robot Parade guitar (like Walt's) and a big motorcycle (he got a small toy motorcycle in his stocking). By the end of the day he was claiming the guitar as his own.

  This is the video where Dean tries to trade one of his shirts for the guitar. =)

Trading the shirt for the guitar from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

So, what I learned: open "less exciting" presents at the first and give at least one "exciting" present to each child. Dean technically had more gifts, but it didn't seem like it since his were things like puzzles and books and shirts. He didn't have anything big or exciting or flashy. Even the garbage truck we got him was pretty little compared to the 3 presents Walt got. I had actually gotten him a toy drill, but it was the last one at the store and when I got home, Matt realized the trigger was broken, so that didn't make it to Christmas. The one gun he got was from the dollar store, so it didn't have any cool sounds or effects or anything, and I have to help him use it since it's so hard to pull the dart shooting mechanism back.  Ah well. At least he's little enough he probably won't be scarred by the memory, and he has seemed to have fun playing with his toys and books since then. (As a side note, we found out yesterday that Dean has strep throat, so I think that may have affected his excitement and general mood since I'm pretty sure it started bothering him the Wed. before Christmas. He kept saying his tummy hurt, so I thought it was candy, but he told me that every day for a week before I figured I ought to check it out.)

Walter loved everything. He loved eating a pink snowball out of his stocking first thing in the morning. He loved all of his presents. He loved all of Dean's presents. He really loved the toothbrush in the stocking. They have been playing with the little second hand Doug and Melissa stove top and felt food after the initial excitement of the popper and guitar wore off.

I got Matt a new really nice mouse pad, a pull up bar, and a cd. He got me a pedicure certificate to a nice salon/spa downtown and a fuel belt for running.

As for our Christmas breakfast, I made bacon and biscuits, which Dean loved and Walt didn't touch since he was too busy eating half his stocking. I actually had a bowl of large shredded wheat biscuits which was the traditional Christmas breakfast at my house growing up.  For our "big" Christmas dinner we had ham, party potatoes, Martinelli's, and green beans.

Christmas Eve

This was our first Christmas in our own home with only our family. Up until this year we've alternated going to my or Matt's parents' houses. It has been fun, but with 2 kids and long distances to travel, it just wasn't practical this year. That meant we had to come up with our own family traditions. Do we have our big meal on Christmas Eve (like my fam) or Christmas day (like Matt's)? Do we open a present on Christmas Eve? How does Santa work (unwrapped and out like mine? or wrapped like Matt's)? There were more questions we had to ask, but you get the point I'm sure.


We made pizza on Christmas Eve, had a Nativity "pageant" with "costumes" (the boys and I made crowns for the wisemen and I pulled a bathrobe, a sheep puppet, and a hooded towel), and we let the boys open their new pj's. Opening the pj's was very anti-climactic for Dean, poor guy, much like the rest of his Christmas. He was like...what's this? And can you really call it a present?

I don't think we'll keep the pizza as a tradition, though it was fun. I think I'd prefer having some Israeli/Mediterranean food. I love symbolic food. I just need to plan better.

Matt put some righteous fear into Dean when he told him that Santa would get scared and leave with all the Christmas presents if Dean came out when he was leaving presents. Our house is so small it would be practially impossible to have him come out and not see all of Christmas. He usually goes to the bathroom once in the middle of the night. He walks through the living room to our room to have me help, so we put up a gate outside his door and I slept in the computer room so I could help without him seeing Christmas prematurely.  Not necessary since he didn't even want to come out in the morning because he was afraid Santa would take back the presents!

Making the crowns. Note to self: never use puffy paint with an 18 mo. old again! So stressful.

Thought it was hilarious to pull his crown down for pics.

Dean wanted to be Mary.

Mary, Joseph and an unhappy baby Jesus.

A shepherd

Hooray! Let's go see the baby! (love this pic!)

Dean wanted a turn at being baby Jesus, and Walt was happy to let him have it!

Me as the manger?

Here come the Kings...

Giving baby Jesus gold

Three Kings

Love this smile.

Hmmm...what is it? No really, what is is?

The best pic we could get of the new pj's

The beginning of the sugar rush: Graham Cracker houses

Growing up we always made our houses the Monday before Christmas. We'd have a huge load of candy, and we usually watch The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It was one of my favorite Christmas traditions, though I do remember agonizing over the fact that my houses were never "original" since I wasn't a creative decorator.

The Sunday before Christmas we made our candy houses. The boys were only interested in eating the candy. It took a lot of coaxing to get Dean to decorate, but he caught on after awhile. Walter ended up with 3 pieces of black licorice candy on his house since he pulled off and ate anything Matt put on! He is a sugar fiend. It worries me a little...I don't give the boys much sugar usually, but if feels like we've been gorging this week with all the goodies and Christmas candy, and I can tell the difference! The boys have been worse behaved (Walter threw his biggest fit EVER the day after candy houses when I wouldn't let him eat candy for breakfast. Seriously was a screaming fit that lasted almost an hour and a half and nearly resulted in throwing up a number of times.), have slept worse, and Dean has told me nearly every day since I started letting them have candy that his tummy hurts. I will be so happy when I can cut the sugar intake back again without feeling like a crazy-health-freak-grinch.

Matt built the boys' houses and I built mine. Dean wanted a garage and a tall house. I had to redo mine a couple times. I am not one for details! I let the boys eat their houses the day after and I kept mine up until Christmas even though Walter begged to eat the "how" every day in between! I let them rip it apart on Christmas.

The squeal of delight

Once I ran out and got the proper batteries for this ball popper, their excitement was hard to contain! My absolute favorite part of the video is the first few seconds, so if you only want to watch a smidgen, that would be it! Walt's reaction to it is just priceless.


Walt's ball popper from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

Our un-mailed Christmas Letter

Well, the stomach flu hit us hard a couple of weeks ago, so any chance for me getting out a Christmas letter or card or picture in a timely manner went down the toilet with a whole lot of throw up. So, on Christmas Eve's Eve (and now Christmas day) I am here writing a virtual Christmas letter to those who might have missed receiving a card from us.

Walter - 17 mo.

This year has been incredibly eventful for Walter! He learned how to crawl, walk, run, talk, and play on his own.  He is a talker, a babbler, a communicator, and knows what he wants! If he finds something he likes, he'll point at it, nod his head, and say yes or no if I guess correctly or incorrectly.  He'll babble about it and say its name as best as he can. He LOVES balloons (bloon, bloon, bloon!!!), balls, the park, candy, our neighbor's blow up Santa, taking our Christmas tree apart, stickers, and snowmen (he calls them moman) right now.  He has a pretty impressive vocabulary, though most words are only comprehensible to the woman who spends 12 waking hours listening to him babble (yes, that's me!).  He does have 10 or more words that I think anyone would be able to recognize. His most used words right now include: balloon, dada, mama, night night, dark, hello, ball, toolbox, all gone, soft, banana (he's even used it in a simple sentence when he said, "nanna all gone"!), oatmeal, book, shoe, sock, park, thank you, Santa, snowman etc.  He's a very good eater most of the time, and often tries to eat the remainder of Dean's food after meals.  He's quite good at entertaining himself with toys, boxes, or anything he can find in the cupboards. He loves snuggling and rubbing soft things on his face as well as coming up behind us and patting us on the back. He also loves his feet and back rubbed (definitely gets that from my side!). He loves me to sing (hallelujah! It has been hard having Dean hate having me sing to him!) to him and his current favorite song is "Wheels on the bus" with the wheels verse and the "shhhh" verse. He's funny, easy to please, and just seems to really enjoy life.

Dean - 3 years
Dean is an incredibly smart and verbal child! He can express himself and his feelings really well and says some of the funniest things! He love, love, loves the playing games on the computer (he's played pretty much everything on PBS, starfall, the Friend online, and we've gone through all the levels of World of Goo and are half way through the second time), Curious George, Clifford, Veggie Tales, Wii sports and Rockband. His favorite song is probably Robot Parade by They Might be Giants. In September he started going to a mom-run co-op preschool. He loves it and caught on very quickly that we were going through the alphabet in alphabetical order.  He is already sounding out words he sees in print, can count up to 30, and loves books. 

He is very particular about food. Nothing can touch, he needs different forks for "messy foods" and his other foods, and he doesn't like butter because it makes his food dirty. If he can eat it raw, he prefers it over cooked.

Though he started potty training at 18 mo. of his own choosing, once we got to underwear he basically refused to go on with the process and basically stopped trying at all. He had no problem going on the potty, but he really hated having occasional accidents in underwear and having to stop what he was doing to run to the bathroom, so we still have 2 kids in diapers. Matt recently asked why he didn't want to wear underwear or pull ups and he said, "cuz they're disgusting!"

Celia - 29

At the beginning of the year I bought a good double jogger and began jogging 4-6 miles most weekday mornings with my new friend Kirstin (who also was sporting a double stroller when we started).  I was supposed to start teaching piano again in January only to find that I had no students able to return. I took a semester off after having Walt with 12 people on my list to start in January, so it was a bit of a shock for me! The economy, kids moving, and a new teacher who went to their students' homes did me in. It was nice, though, to not have to worry about keeping 2 babies entertained while trying to teach.  Harder on our budget though.
 
I got to go to my first and second Broadway plays this year (Wicked and Phantom) and they were both amazingly fun. I will not wait another 29 years before I do it again!! It was then that I realized that my wardrobe was horrible. I couldn't find one non-kid-stained shirt or pants in my closet! So about mid year I traded piano lessons for fashion consulting and I went on a mini shopping spree to get some cute basics! I haven't taken to make-up much yet, but it has been nice having some cute clothes to wear.  The funny thing is, though, I ramped up my usage of Isagenix since then and am actually a size or two smaller than the clothes I bought! I've always loved their shakes, but I pretty much have a shake or an Isagenix bar every day now.  After doing their full nutritional cleanse right before Thanksgiving, I am currently the same weight I was in 7th grade and I am in a smaller pant size than I've ever worn in my entire life!

In September I headed up and organized a preschool for Dean.  It has been really challenging for me, but it's also good and fun.  The biggest non-teaching project I took on this year was to paint our living room. It took nearly a month of evenings for me to do 3 coats, but the difference is amazing.  Now I need to get on painting my bedroom, the kitchen, and our computer room!! Ack that's a lot of painting!

Matt - 29

Matt's had a very stressful and challenging year at work. He works on the software for the unmanned drone, the Predator.  He has had to travel a lot more this year to do flight testing in CA, and they've really ramped up the pressure on him at work.  At the end of the year he interviewed with another company and was offered a job, and while we both wanted our answer to be a yes, the answer we both got after praying was "not right now."  We've both felt strongly that we need to get our house cleaned up a bit and ready to go on the market sometime next year regardless of the whole job situation, so who knows what next year will bring?  During Matt's Christmas break he will be ripping out our disgusting vinyl and tiling our bathrooms and kitchen.  Hopefully soon after we finish that we'll rip up our horrible living room carpet and put in a wood floor. In his spare time in the evenings he enjoys online gaming with some good friends from high school.

Christmas in September

Well, not really. Just booking flights and committing our time for Christmas today. Though I guess that is our Christmas gift to ourselves since it's more than we would have spent on a family gift. It will almost positively be our last Christmas spent with our parents. After October Dean is an adult according to the airlines, so we bought 3 tickets. We went with Southwest and it saved us over $450 (kept us under $1000)! The tickets were cheaper to begin, plus they don't charge for bags. The other airlines had as many or more stops/plane changes, so it was totally the way to go.

At least we won't have to try and keep Dean satisfied on our laps! I'm hoping by then he'll show some interest in watching tv/dvds and we'll buy a portable dvd player (are we the only people who don't have one of these by now? along with cell phones?) so he'll be occupied. But that is a long shot. And Matt doesn't want to buy a dvd player since he doesn't think it would help at all.

We'll have a nice long stay there. December 17th-January 4th! Hopefully the boys will be able to adjust and do well...

The Best of Christmas 2008 (don't forget to read the end!)

I didn't get Christmas cards sent before we left on our 15 hour drive to AZ. Such is life.

I have been trying for about an hour to get Christmas pictures to post. I have them on my mom's computer, but her software is different than I'm used to and I'm trying to figure out how to access them. So, you may not get pictures till I'm home. Boo hoo.

The best thing about the trip here was that Matt drove all but 1.5 hours. I am not sure why, but I am fairly narcoleptic in a moving car. When I drive, it is a constant battle to keep my eyes open after about an hour. I have to either drink something peppered with a good dose of caffeine, or I have to constantly be chewing something. I don't prefer the prior, so I chose to do the latter. I pretty much ate carrots and sour patch kids the entire time I drove. Boy do I love sour patch kids. Also, Dean cried all but 1/2 hour while I was driving. Overall, he did ok with the very long drive.

We made it here and stayed with my sister Suzie's family the first night. The next day we came on to Snowflake, hitting the only snow and ice we've seen on this trip. There were some pretty rough spots, but Matt is a master driver and we made it safely.

The best lines in our Christmas Nativity play were from my 3 year old nephew. Just as he was supposed to come as a wiseman he turned to his mom who was narrating and said,

"Mom, I changed my mind. I want to be a sea moose."
"A sea moose? Do you mean a moose?"
"No, a sea moose."
"Well, what's a sea moose?"
"Mom. I changed my mind. I just want to be a moose."
"Well, Sky, I don't think there are any mooses in the Christmas story, so you're going to have to be a wise man."

He ended up riding into town on his camel (grandpa) and at the time of gift giving he said, "NO! That's my gold!"

It was a great play.

One of the other "best" or favorite traditions was my sister Suzie reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." She has told that every year as long as I can remember.

The most useful and fun present Matt received actually came in late October from his parents. He got a gigantic flat screen monitor for his computer. It is now doubling for our "movie theater" since it's bigger than our 20 in. TV. I think it's 26 or 27 inches or something. It is one of those gifts that counts for this Christmas plus our birthdays for next year, but it's worth it!

The most useful present I got was Isagenix shakes from my mom. Matt got me the Anne of Green Gables set, so that will be my fun present since I'll finally get to finish the series!!

My favorite gifts Dean received were awesome classic wooden toys. I love classic wooden toys that help develop motor skills. He especially loved the toy that requires him to hammer balls into holes. He didn't want to open any presents after that. He's obsessed with pounding on things recently, so it was a brilliant gift by Grandma B.

The best present we received, however, was the news that we are having a baby. Yep, that's right folks.

I am pregnant.

About 2 months pregnant actually. I know, I'm not past my first trimester, but I am NOT a good secret keeper and I am amazed I held off this announcement this long. We confirmed that we were pregnant on December 1st. I hadn't paid close attention to my cycle, but I had a good guess as to my ovulation time. I actually accurately guessed my due date from that! I've already had an ultrasound that confirmed my guessed due date.

Remember when I passed out and hurt myself? Well, yes, I was pregnant then, and though they didn't think I passed out because of the pregnancy, they wanted to check and make sure everything was ok. So, I went to the doctor the day after I fell, and at 6 weeks I could hear and see my baby's heart beating. It's just so amazing. The baby was in the right place and was looking just fine, so I was happy about that.

This baby is due August 3rd, but because I'm going to schedule a C-section (I don't want to go through anything like I did with Dean's birth), I'll probably have the baby a week or so early. So, they'll end up about 21 months apart.

I was almost in denial that I could be pregnant because of all our previous fertility issues. It took us 2 years (with the warning from a specialist that it could take us 10 years) to get pregnant with Dean. So 2-3 months was quite surprising! Surprising but welcomed.

I'm still nursing Dean mornings and nights, but I plan on completely weaning when we get home. I've felt quite good but REALLY tired (especially in the mornings) and often dizzy. I go from extremely full to extremely hungry at the drop of a hat. But I haven't been that nauseous, so I am eternally grateful for that.

Christmas Recital a Success!

I was a little worried last week about my Christmas recital. It seemed like no one had practiced enough and Thanksgiving threw things off. But we had it tonight and it turned out great. I didn't require the pieces to be memorized this time (only in the spring), and that helped out a lot. I was pleased with everyone, but like always there were one or two kids who stole the show. Tonight it was a 9 year old student who's only been taking for 1 year. She played Silent Night out of the regular hymn book with the pedal!! And she played it flawlessly. Hers was the hardest song of the night and she's one of my newest students. It's hard to explain to other parents why some children do not progress that quickly. (Especially when the parents think their kids are moving too slowly and that I'm not challenging them enough! I really do try and work with their aptitude. I'm just not sure how to deal with parents who second guess what I'm doing with their kids and are bugged that they're not moving through books faster.)

I ended up playing Good King Wenceslas from Sally deFord's website. I downloaded it and played it last night for the first time! I had it on a Christmas CD from church and liked the arrangement. I was glad I could do it in such a short amount of time. Dean HATES it when I practice the piano, so I wanted something short but impressive sounding. He always wants to play or move the pedals instead of me. Plus it means I'm ignoring him, and he doesn't like that one bit.

It's nice to perform sometimes. That's really what I miss most about my youth. I miss being involved in piano, choirs, and performances. It's sad that I don't have that. I don't even do church choir right now because of the distance from the church and Dean's sleep schedule.

I let the kids pick their songs and this was what we came up with: (I only had to arrange two of the songs, so I was happy about that. Someday I need to figure out how to upload my arrangements so others can use them...)

Recital Program:

Drue H.
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

Lora S.
Jingle Bells

Zoe S.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Lia S.
Jingle Bell Rock

Payton B.
Away in a Manger

Lexie C.
I Saw Three Ships

Madison S.
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

Jake H.
Silver Bells

Rachel S.
Carol of the Bells

Mason S.
Up on the Housetop

Cami C.
Silent Night

There was freezing sleet on my windshield when it was all over. Crazy to think it was in the 70's yesterday! Today's high was 30* or something. TOOOO COLD!!!!

Don't eat baby Jesus!

The things you find yourself saying at Christmas time with a 1 year old...

The only nativity I have is a wooden painted set we bought in Guatemala. The characters are all painted in traditional dress. I love it.

I'd had it set up a couple of days before Dean purposefully pulled out one of my piano buckets to use as a stool (the little smarty pants). Later that day I found baby Jesus in the rice cooker. Time to move the nativity set up on top of my piano! If I wasn't worried about him biting all the paint off the set I wouldn't mind him playing with it.

Gifting Regrets

I really love to make my Christmas gifts. It doesn't happen for everyone every year, but if I can think of something I'm in love with (and think the recipient might love too), I'll make it. One problem with this is that I often have gifting regrets after the fact. When you buy a gift and someone doesn't love it, it's not that big of a deal. They can just re-gift it or return it and get what they really want. If you make something they don't like, there's no returning it!

When we got married someone gave us some doilies they had lovingly made. Doilies? I thought. What in the world am I supposed to do with doilies?? You see, I'm about as far from doilies as a person can get. I didn' t know what else to do with them, so I gave them to DI. I feel bad, but I thought it silly to keep them boxed up forever and ever.

A couple years ago I made my sister a Family Home Evening chart. It was a little rough, but I was pretty proud of it. It was before all the vinyl charts were mainstream and easily accessible, so I did the lettering by hand. I felt pretty happy with the end results at the time. Now that I'm more crafty and am better able, I kind of cringe at my rough first attempt. I hope she still likes it...

Past homemade Christmas gifts I've given include: a cookbook compilation that took me months, crocheted scarves, bracelets, Families are Forever boards (I definitely wonder about those...probably in a back closet now. I now realize it doesn't fit everyone's decor.), a blanket I sent to Matt on his mission (he still uses it!), and quilts. I go through crafting phases, so whatever I'm into at the moment is usually what is given.

Despite any regrets I have had, I'm still giving a lot of homemade gifts this year. I can't help but feel like I'm giving a little part of me along with the gift, and I like that thought.

The Countdown Can Commence

The pattern book: 12 days of Christmas: Art to Heart by Nancy Halverson
The dark border fabric: metro green goes blue by Michael Miller
The other fabrics: Sorry, didn't look!

Finally! Last night I finished my countdown to Christmas quilt hangings. It ended up being a much bigger production and money drain than I'd ever have imagined. It was fun, and I'm very glad I did it, but I am ready to move on to a new project!



If I were to sell this set, I'd honestly charge $200+ for it. That would break down to:

• $10 per quilt block (Matt says that wouldn't be enough for all the hours I put in)
• $24 for the stupid metal hanger that I ended up buying (I figured after all the time I put into it, it needed to be properly displayed! I tried to jimmy rig something, but it just didn't do it justice.)
• $20 for the book (it has tons of patterns in it I love, though, so I imagine I'll be using it for more Christmas projects down the road.)
• $30 or more for fabric. It's expensive to get good fabric, but I am beginning to be converted for "heirloom" projects. It's so much better quality and beautiful, vibrant prints I just can't resist any more.

I learned a couple things on this project.

• When leaving a hole to turn it right side out, don't leave it on a corner! Start and end in the middle of a straight edge.
  
• When you're working with 1/4 in. seam (something I never do!) it's nearly impossible to do the hidden stitch for the end closing.
  
• You have to be much more precise in sewing when you're working with a real patchwork pattern!
• Fabric selection can be extremely difficult and timely process.
• A good, large cutting mat is essential. I had a small one, but I wanted one that would measure up to a yard for proper squaring. I ended up getting one at Michael's with a half-off coupon.
• If you're not an expert at blanket stitching by eyeballing, start on a straight line, not a curve. I started on zero and I seriously almost want to take it out and redo it. But I won't. My stitching improved greatly from the first block (zero) to the last block (santa).