Christmas Day the Anderson Way

How to have an Anderson Christmas:
Start with a WaY-To-GeNeRoUs Santa:
(It's not my fault, I inherited an overactive gifting gene from my mom and grandma!) Add a super cute, but overstimulated 18month old in new Christmas PJ's: Add a funny little blond that tears into her presents (and everyone elses,) and shouts out excited phrases at random intervals:

And last but not least, devour a famous Kimball style home-made Egg McMuffin.

EnJoY!

Christmas Eve the Cummings Way

Every Christmas Eve, we have a party with the entire Cummings side of the family. It goes something like this:
First, we eat tons of delicious food. (Usually sandwiches and lots of side dishes.)
Second, we have a (fairly irreverent) version of the Nativity story. This part of the night is so nostalgic to me, because now my kids are dressing up in the costumes that I used to wear when I was part of the play!
Next, we have a talent show, it usually borders on hilarious, rather than serious.
Then, ALL the kids tear into their presents from a way to generous Grandma Joye!
This year she made them all hats and scarfs! Here is a picture with most of the kids and grandma:

Christmas Eve has always been as fun for me as Christmas, since I was tiny, thanks to these family traditions.

Early Merry Christmas to Me!

My little bitty camera died around Halloween and I was so sad! But my super sweet Santa gave me my Christmas gift early (a nice Digital SLR camera) so that I wouldn't miss any more holiday moments. This collage is the product of me playing with my camera at my sisters studio with my kids, my super cute nieces, and nephew. The photographer (me!) needs A LOT more practice, but these cute kids sure were fun to take pictures of!

The Cutest Little Helper

I was doing laundry the other day and Rowen ended up climbing into the dryer while it was empty. He thought it was so fun, like his own little fort, so he kept on climbing in and out until I had to actually put clothes in. When I closed the door and wouldn't let him in any more, he cried and cried!

My Little Dancer

Makaylee started dance this year, and it has been fun, but I am really loving it now that she has had her Christmas dance recitals. It was so much fun to get her all glammed up and watch her shake it on the stage. It is so adorable to see little kids dance, they are so uncoordinated, and so hilarious! She really did an awesome job and we are so proud of her!

Preschool Christmas Program

Makaylee's preschool put on a little Christmas performance. They had made these little reindeer hats for them, and painted their noses red! They looked so stinking cute! Makaylee likes to dance. . . but put this girl on a stage and let her sing, and you see where her true talent is! She had ALL the words memorized, and she BELTED the songs out! It was almost like she was singing a solo the whole time, because you couldn't really hear any one else!

'Tis The Season

Here are some cute but random Christmasy pictures

Rowen looking out the window, watching Makaylee and Terrill shovel the driveway

The adorable gingerbread house Makaylee made at preschool

A psychedelic Christmas tree we saw at the Festival of trees

Makaylee's best impersonation of Santa!

Rowen's GI Scope

Just a Rowen update. . . Rowen had an upper GI endoscopy at Primary children's last week. It was no fun! I had to starve him until 2:30 in the afternoon! (But, since he doesn't really like eating, he didn't even fuss about it!) They let me be in the room when they put him to sleep, and it was really hard to walk away from his little sleeping sweetness. I think it may have been more traumatic for me because he at least got to sleep through most of it! But, it only lasted about 20 minutes, everything went well, and every thing looked good! He just has some acid reflux, and it is pretty mild. So-- no allergies, no ulcers, no Chron's disease, nothing really serious! (It WAS a relief, but we still find ourselves in a frustrating spot, having to force feed the kid 5 times a day! ) His GI Dr. has now prescribed Zinc for him to take. Zinc supposedly can stimulate your appetite, and make you hungry. . . Who knew?

Mmm. . . Chicken!

When Makaylee was 2 and learned the animal names, I would occasionally hold my breath for a moment when I served "Chicken" or "Turkey" for dinner. She is such an animal lover, so I was dreading the day that she would put two and two together. After 2 years without any drama on the subject, I guess I grew too relaxed because last night she surprised me with this question:

"Mom, do you think this chicken is SAD that we're eating it?"

Gulp. . . "No Honey. . .It. .Uh. . . doesn't even know that we're eating it. . . "

"Why?" She questioned

"Because. . . he is up in heaven with his family. . . so he is happy!" I stumbled

She quickly replied (with an obstinate voice,) "Why is his FAMILY in heaven? Did we eat them too?"

You Better Not Pout!

So now that Makaylee is old enough to understand, I can totally see why parents have carried on the Santa Claus tradition for so long. This time of year is awesome as a parent! Every time Makaylee starts to pout or cry, I remind her that Santa is making up his naughty and nice lists, and she instantly perks up and behaves well! Today, after I mentioned Santa, her eyebrows crinkled together and looked like she was concentrating really hard. She finally said "How can Santa hear us so well?" And then answered her own question: "Santa can hear us so well because he has really good. . . Ear-sight, Hu!"
He he he, I Just love the way kids brains work!

Babies Don't Keep!

This poem was hanging up in Rowen's GI Dr.s office yesterday. It brought a tear to my eye, because no matter how many hard days we've had with Ro's health, he is seriously the sweetest little baby. And babies grow up way too fast!


Babies Don't Keep

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due.
The shopping is not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there is a hullabaloo.
But I'm playing "Kanga" and this is my "Roo."
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?


The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.
Ruth Hulburt Hamilton, 1958

Twilight Trailer Spoof

Ha ha ha, I thought this was too funny! Can't wait for the real movie though!

I Know Why Mothers Go Grey!

Especially mothers of little boys!

On Halloween we were visiting Terrill's parents. Rowen was holding onto a little table and he suddenly fell straight down and hit his face on the edge HARD! I dove for him, and there was blood everywhere, I couldn't even figure out where the blood was coming from at first. Terry ran in and helped me look in his mouth, and it was a hideous sight. His front tooth, and the smaller one next to it were bent back and almost HORIZONTAL! He couldn't even close his mouth right because his bottom teeth were biting down on the broken top teeth! So, we made an emergency after hours visit to our AWESOME pediatric dentist. Dr. David Johnson. He tried the best he could to move the teeth back into place, but Rowen was screaming bloody murder and I had to leave the room. (I was having flashbacks of the ER from a few weeks ago.) He moved them enough that he was able to close his mouth right, but he told us that the teeth were surely dead and would go dark within a week! How sad to only have 10 teeth, and to have two of them damaged so badly! I just hope he doesn't lose them! Everyone keeps saying "At least they were just his baby teeth!" But when you are only 1 year old, you are supposed to have those baby teeth for at least 6 more years!

Look Who's Finally Walkin'!

Now that he's feeling a little better, Rowen has suddenly gotten determined to start walking! (It's about time! He is 15 1/2 months old!)

Oops I Did It Again!

I've done this once before in my life, and I SWORE I would never do it again! None-the-less, on Monday, someone called and wanted to see our house (our home is halfheartedly on the market.) I had about two hours notice, and two sick kids, so getting it clean and ready to show was almost impossible. People look everywhere, so you can't just stash anything in closets or the basement ect. Well, I did almost get it clean, with 15 minutes to spare, and then I remembered the 4 loads of clean laundry that needed to be put away. (Thanks to Sonya's quick thinking, I shoved that in the car!) Then I ran downstairs to double check everything, and noticed a few dishes in the sink. The dishwasher was full and clean, so I couldn't put the dirty dishes in there. So I quickly grabbed a plastic tray, stacked the dishes on it and shoved it deep into the oven (saying to myself several times "Do not forget to take these out of the oven after they leave!") Well, I did forget - until last night - when I preheated the oven. The oven beeped that it was ready, and I went to put our dinner in, and out came lost of nasty smoke! I looked deep in the oven and found this awful sticky mess! Now, I SWEAR I will never do this again!!!