Christmas 2012

Christmas this year has been a little unique.  We started our Christmas parties this week on Sunday, the 23rd, out at my Grandpa Maughan's house.  Not everyone was at Grandpa's house.  Heck, we haven't all been together in five years (Grandpa's big 80th birthday party)!  It would be really neat to be all together.  My mom said my aunt figured there are 22 grandkids, 37 great grandkids and 3 more great grandkids on the way.  That's not even counting my dad, his five brothers and their spouses either.  Yep, we number many in that clan!  We didn't stay too long because we also had to head to the Snyder's house.  Usually it's my grandparents, my family, my Aunt Colette's family, my Aunt Nikki's family & my Uncle Stan's family.  In short, it's a large gathering (not as large as the Maughan's, but still a good size get together).  This year though we were short people!  It felt like we were short half our clan but we were only short Stan's family.  It was fun, it just didn't feel quite the same.  I'm thinking we should have a New Year's Eve Reeder party so that we can all get together for real!  The reason Stan's family missed is that they had the flu bug at their house.  We've been dealing with the flu bug too.  It came back and hit Caleb again about the Friday or Saturday before Christmas.  It's been really weird how it's effected the boys.  It will hit them really hard for several hours, they nap for a few hours and then they're good to go for another several hours before it hits them again. This nasty little bug hit Travis Christmas morning and Brookelyn the day after Christmas.  I'm crossing my fingers it stays the heck away from me!

At the Reeder party - kids were waiting for their presents.  

On Christmas Eve we had a get together at my mom's house.  We always do dinner and open gifts over there on Christmas Eve.  There's never a shortage of good treats to eat or presents to open.  This year my mom was a maniac and sewed most of the gifts she gave the kids.  I didn't get pictures of everything she sewed for my kids, but I'm thinking that I'll have to do that now....seriously, she's out of control!

Brookelyn was fun to watch.  She REALLY got into opening the presents.  She'd open one present and get excited about it and then set it down and go for another one.  It was fun to watch her get so excited.

My mom always wraps all the presents she has for the kids individually.  Then, she puts all the presents for each kid into one large box and wraps the large box.  The first year she did this the kids thought they were only getting one present each.  They went nuts when they opened the big box and saw a bunch more wrapped presents inside!

This was Brookelyn's favorite gift this year.  I wanted to get her a shopping cart, but all the carts I found had mostly cardboard food in them.  I knew they'd get destroyed really quick so I didn't buy any of the ones I found.  My mom found this one.  There is quite a bit of cardboard food but there's a good amount of the little plastic food too.  She loves this thing.  Every time I turn around she's dumped all the food on the floor and is pushing the cart across the floor as fast as she can.  She keeps trying to climb in it and sit too!  Cracks me up.  I'm just waiting for her to go out sideways and land on her head!

Sam got a skein of cute blue fuzzy yarn to go with her knitting loom thing.  There are several different looms and you can make hats, scarves, etc.  There are even directions for making a cute raffia flower. We bought some raffia the other day so we could try that one out.  She's excited to learn how to do this.  I have a feeling once she learns she's going to be a knitting maniac.

Christmas morning was lots of fun.  The kids each have a pile of gifts with their stocking next to it.  Brookelyn was funny because once we got her opening presents she'd try and go to a different pile to open a present each time!  The kids were really good about steering her back to her specific pile!

Caleb got this sucker in his stocking.  There's a real scorpion in the sucker.  He asked me what it was and when I told him he said, "That's A-sgusting!"  Now he claims "It's not a-sgusting mom.  It's cool!"  I will not be encouraging him toe at this.  Not even a little.  In fact, I'm going to have to watch to be sure his dad and brother don't encourage him to eat it!

Caleb gave Brooke her very first Barbie for Christmas this year.

Nash is now a more official LEGO maniac.  He wore this shirt today and kept trying to pull his legs inside his shirt and walk!  Goof ball.

Caleb's favorite gift this year - a spiderman fishing pole.  He saw a pole like this at Ridley's about six months ago and now every single time we go to the store (doesn't matter what store) he asks if we will buy him his spiderman fishing pole.  He is so, so excited to try this out.  Too bad his dad hates the idea of ice fishing - guess he has to wait until it's warm out to try out his pole!

Brookelyn got lots of babies this Christmas.  She loves them.  And, come to find out, she loves pushing them around in a baby stroller too.  I think sister is going to need a new baby stroller for her birthday....

Nash's favorite gift this year -- a new BB gun.  Yes, it scares me.  I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but how he got this gun still surprises me.  I was looking through the Black Friday ads when Travis saw this BB gun on sale for about $20 or $30.  He was dying to get it for Nash and I kept telling him NO!  Nash isn't getting a gun until he's eight!  Then, it hit me.  I told him, "If you brave the gray Thursday/Black Friday hoards with me, you can get him the gun for Christmas."  Anyone that knows Travis knows how much the man hates to shop, hates people, and hates people while shopping.  I didn't figure there was a snowball's chance in hell that he'd agree to this.  Turns out I was WRONG.  Not only did he brave the hoards to get the BB gun, we went to about 3 stores!  Now I know better!

Remember how I said my mom made a ton of the gifts she gave the kids this year?  One of the things she made was matching dresses for my girls and my sister's girls.  My girls wore their dresses on Christmas day.  They look so stinking cute.  Made me think back to when I was growing up and my mom would always make my sister and I Christmas dresses.

On Christmas day we went out to Travis's parents house.  We got out there around 11:30 am and were there until 11:30 pm!  The only reason we were out there so late is because I took my sewing machine and the things I needed so I could put the last of the binding on the last 2 I Spy quilts for my nephews!  I had two of the bindings done on the quilts, but I still had 2 quilts to finish binding.  I wasn't happy with how they looked because I did the binding on my machine rather than by hand.  Oh well, the kids won't care and I got them done!

Caleb opening his gift from his cousin Kash.

Brookelyn trying to make a get away to open someone else's present.  If you look in the background at Travis you can see he's hugging something.  Brookelyn had opened a baby doll from Grandma & Grandpa and was headed to open another present that belonged to someone else.  She was being onery and Travis was trying to get her side tracked by loving on her baby.  She didn't go for it!

Christmas Day naps.  Travis wasn't feeling too great and later in the day the yuckies hit B too.  This was a much needed nap.

Remember the flying suit my mom made Caleb for his birthday?  When Nash started reading Captain Underpants this fall it seemed like whenever she'd come up to our house Caleb would be running around in his underwear and occasionally  his flying suit.  So, my mom started calling him Captain Underpants.  Nash has since decided he wants to be Captain Underpants for Halloween.  I think that will be a bit chilly of a costume.  Anyway, my mom decided it would be fun to make flying suits for Nash and my nephew Jack for Christmas too.  Once she had them almost done she got feeling guilty about not doing one for Caleb too - even though he already had one from his birthday.  So, she threw one together for Caleb too.  This flying suit has a bat on the back and mom made the mask and belt that go with it.  Caleb loves it and has worn it quite a bit already!

Other than having the flu off and one for 2 full weeks now, we've had a great Christmas.  The kids loved their stuff and seeing all their family.  I feel like a total slacker because I didn't make any Christmas treats this year and I ALWAYS make Christmas treats.  I think I might break down and make something this weekend still.  It's killing me!  I also still don't have the fifth I Spy quilt done that I needed for a birthday present on Christmas Eve.  I'm working on it though.  I moved all my sewing stuff down to my office after cleaning out my office today.  I also took one of my 6 ft tables and set it up in the basement and moved some scrapbook stuff out there.  Sam got some scrapbook stuff from my mom for Christmas.  She also got some for her birthday the last two years in a row.  I'm a terrible mom and haven't let her do it despite her repeated begging sessions!  I finally found pictures she could have when I cleaned out my office in Oct.  Now, I can say that I've fixed her a spot to work too!  I think that will be on the agenda for tomorrow!  Guess regular scrapbook sessions with Sam will have to go on the New Year's resolutions!

And on a side note, for anyone who was privy to the toaster joke between Travis and I....I did get a toaster for Christmas.  Everyone but Sam & I have used it.  Travis said it burns stuff.  I told him he just has it turned up too high.  Guess I'll have to use it tomorrow!  However, he did redeem himself because he also got me a Cricket Expressions 2.  When I opened it Travis told me, "Now you can quit sewing and start scrapbooking!"  HA!  If only it were that easy!  Little does he know I have 50 things that I've either started or bought to start that I have to finish first!