Christmas 2013

It has been two years since we have had all the kids together on Christmas day, even though our time with some of them didn't start until 2pm and most of us didn't see them until after 6pm due to the long drive to our house, we still crammed in as much Christmas stuff as possible, minus Christmas dinner, that came the next night!

I will be the first one to admit that I was a huge slacker on taking pictures, mainly because we had a really SMALL Christmas this year, but here is the run down on who got what.

Stockings: While mom was in town we came up with a funny stocking idea and actually the kids seemed to enjoy it, so it may have to be a yearly tradition! Each kid, including Heidi, Jarom's girlfriend who has been visiting from Utah, received a pair of fun socks the boys had Marvel comic socks and the girls got fuzzy socks, a coloring book, a few pieces of candy (because we had just made a ton of candy), bubble gum candy cane, and a $15 Barnes and Nobel gift card.

Breanna: New sweatshirt and pajamas, yes she always gets the short end of the stick but the best thing about her she doesn't care. The only thing she really cared about was her dot-to-dot coloring book.

Joey: Received a combined Christmas/ Birthday (yep it stinks for three people in our house having birthdays so close to Christmas and us owing others for birthdays!). He received batting gloves, workout clothes, and a new baseball bat.

Jarom: Soccer gear and workout gear.

MyKayla: Clarinet mouth piece. She actually had a little bit of Christmas money left over and still has birthday money left so she will spend the remainder of her money on new clothes due to better prices after Christmas! Plus it helps having her pick out what she really likes versus me trying to guess, yep the joys of teenage girls!

Jordyn: Also received a combined Christmas/ Birthday gift since she didn't spend the summer with us and the gift she wanted was over our Christmas budget, she chose to use her birthday money towards her gift. I am sure out of all the kids her Christmas was pretty lame because she knew weeks before Christmas exactly what she was getting, a softball bat.

Jayson: And our final kid Christmas/ Birthday gift combo, I do have to point out that we are usually not this lame. He received a robot, Alabama Crimson Tide football jersey, minecraft video game, minecraft t-shirts, and a football shirt.

I also should point out that Heidi gave Eric and I a cute frame for Turkey (it holds an ultrasound picture and a regular picture), she also gave Jarom a few gifts. Jarom gave Heidi a necklace with her birthstone, which I also wish I had taken a picture of us going to buy it, but again slacker mom moment!

After gifts we did a quick dinner of chicken and rice and buttermilk biscuits, followed by the boys playing video games and the girls making sugar cookies! While Eric was picking up Joey, Jordyn, and Jayson, the rest of us made the dough so it could rest in the fridge. Another lame mom moment, I didn't realize until the cookies were done and we were getting everything to decorate that I had no food coloring and was almost completely out of sprinkles, except the flavored ones (peppermint and cinnamon) which no one likes... oh well!

Here are a few pictures of the girls and their mad sugar cookie skills!

Grinch Christmas

With the arrival of Turkey and some unforeseen circumstances our Christmas is going to be pretty small this year. And honestly I haven't been in the Christmas spirit at all! MyKayla has been begging me to at least put up the Christmas tree, but I don't even want to do that. So while my parents were visiting my mom offered to put it up, which I told her no because that still means I need to get all the stuff out and even if I didn't help put the tree up, I'd still have to put it all away when Christmas is over. I had came across a few pictures on Facebook or Pinterest that were Grinch themed and honestly I thought it would be pretty funny to do this theme since our Christmas is going to be pretty small this year.

Of course now I can't find the pictures, but here is the idea...

While doing a bit of Christmas shopping mom and I tried to find a Grinch for outside and for the tree, however we weren't successful. Thankfully the kids had a small Grinch doll and even a small beenie dog that worked out quite nice. Here is our tree

Christmas lists

This year we are trying a new approach to our kids Christmas lists and the kids time frame of getting us their lists is closely approaching. The kids were given the following, and instructed to list only one thing per line.

For Christmas this year…

I want:

I need:

I will wear:

I will read:
For fun, and for memories, I thought I'd share the kids lists this year.

MyKayla
I want: Rico Reserve Bb Clarinet mouthpiece XO
I need: jeans
I will wear: long sleeve shirts
I will read: Hourglass series by Myra McEntire

Jarom
I want:
I need: College supplies/ necessities
I will wear: soccer gear, including a light jacket
I will read: Chronicles of Nick series by Sherrilynn Kenyon

Breanna
I want: Chair for bedroom
I need: School uniforms
I will wear: sweatshirts
I will read:

Joey
I want: Nothing
I need: Batting gloves
I will wear: Button down shirts (prefer solid colors)
I will read: Dance with the Dragons by George Martin

Jordyn
I want: iPhone life proof case
I need: Softball bat
I will wear: Sanuk (size 9)
I will read: Divergent series by Veronica Roth

Jayson
I want: Minecraft for the xbox
I need: Pajamas
I will wear: Alabama football jersey
I will read: Magic Treehouse books

How many days till Christmas???

This year I am going to try a new approach to the kids Christmas wish lists. Each year I usually get the "I don't knows" to a long list of "I wants", which usually results in a long list of high priced items. Since we will have two boys going to college in the fall and our little turkey is due in just a few weeks, Eric and I have playing around with the idea of just doing one large family gift, instead of devoting our entire Christmas budget to individual gifts for each kid. The large family gift would be a needed household item. I know for most this doesn't sound like a fun gift, but it would be something our family needs, such as a new dining room table that has seating for all of us (our current table only seats 6, so we get pretty creative on eating together), a new surround sound (our last one died during a move) since we enjoy having family movie nights, or...who knows.

We have also considered, especially since we expecting several visitors to visit us throughout the entire month of December, that we would get each child and our visiting guests, a small gift. This gift would probably be something that could be shared or enjoyed with each member of our family and our guests, such as games (video or board), additional items to possessions we currently have (extra controllers or games for our gaming systems, extra pool sticks or ping pong paddles (for the game tables the kids received 2 years ago from my parents), or maybe an activity outing (movie tickets, bowling, laser tag...you get the idea).

In years past, we have had difficulty getting some of our kids lists, so besides our new approach to the kids list, they will also have a deadline to get these lists back to us. Because of technology, I haven't decided if it would be more beneficial to just text or email the kids a list to complete, or if I should make this a little more personal and get some fun Christmas paper, print out a fun form, mail each kid individually their form and include an envelope for them to mail them back to us. Until I figure that part out, I'd thought I'd at least share with you what we will have each child complete.

For Christmas this year…

I want:

I need:

I will wear:

I will read:

 
Each child will be instructed that they can only have one item listed per line and they must have their list back to us by a specific date (still to be determined). I am hoping that this list will really make the kids think of the item they really want, need, and will read instead of just listing everything they 'see and want', which based on years past, just sit in our house and collect dust.

First day of winter break

Today is the first official full day of winter break for half of the Brady Bunch kids. Eric picked up his kids last night and we did our Christmas shortly after they arrived at 9:30pm. Jarom and MyKayla received some small gifts on Saturday, and Sunday they opened them while we chatted on Skype. They also got a tour of the house and got to see the family gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Lovegren...a basketball hoop and trampoline (spoiled I tell ya!!!).

Sadly Breanna had one more day of school, which meant Jordyn didn't get to sleep in, part of the downfall of sharing rooms in this house!

We knew a storm was due to come in today, however last we had heard we were just supposed to get some slight winds and rain until mid afternoon. BUT this morning while I was waiting for Bre's bus, I heard that Mobile, AL had a tornado this morning AND we would be under a tornado watch for most of today.

Although we have a few errands we needed to run today, we have decided those will have to wait until later....maybe even tomorrow, instead, the kids DANCE!!! To be nice (for now), I will not post any of the video footage that was taken and will refrain from posting tons of pics of them, except maybe one....

Oh and I forgot to mention...one of the Brady Bunch kids has a birthday today!!!! Happy 8th Birthday to Jayson aka 'little man'.