December quicktakes

St. Nicholas Day came so fast, I nearly missed it.  But the girls didn't.  They had their letters to St. Nick out and ready to be picked up.  They put their shoes out.  They also got together and donated candy from their Halloween bags and put it in a bag to leave for St. Nick.  

And last but not least, they built Santa a "circle of love" out of their Christmas books.  They had read in their Advent book about how circles are a sign of God's love, because it's never-ending.  It was really sweet.  

On the Eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we headed to Mass.  Our first attempt was thwarted by an accident that had occurred, so we were stuck in traffic and missed the Mass we were aiming for.  So once we were able to get off the freeway again, we turned around and headed in the opposite direction to another church that had a later Vigil Mass.  And on the way out of Mass, it was snowing.  Our first snow of December and it was lovely.  

The following evening on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the girls sang in a concert at our parish.  They had learned several Marian hymns and the adult choir sang a number of Marian songs and hymns as well.  It was really lovely.  

The last concert was a disaster because of the time for the two littlest ones, so Chris opted to stay home with them and get them to sleep.  I was able to enjoy the concert without having to leave and stand in the back the entire time which was really nice.  I tried a few videos so Chris could see the girls in concert later, but my seat ended up being the worst as far as being able to actually see either Kayla or Elise singing.  oops.  

Much of December was spent washing sheets (and everything else around the house) and lysol-ing everything too.  Kolbe came down with a stomach bug just after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and he had a rough time of it.  I'll spare you the details, but let's just say he and I got no sleep and there was a lot of laundry to be done, constantly.  

 

In between illness, Kayla had a little mini recital at her dance studio which was really cute.  

These two loved getting their pictures taken with the older dancers in their Nutcracker costumes.  

 Sugar Plum fairy

Kayla created the "snowman" below out of random household items.  It was originally a Ranger Rick Jr. magazine idea, but she enjoyed it so much that the thing stayed up all Advent long next to the Nativity set.  

We watched Christmas classics together. 

The stomach bug passed with only a few people getting mild versions of what Kolbe had.  But poor Kolbe continued to feel sick off and on for nearly the whole month.  I'm wondering if his next molars are coming in earlier than most (all our other kids got all their teeth early too).  We also think he may have developed a temporary lactose intolerance when he caught the virus earlier in the month, which meant that he was having issues every time we gave him a bottle (which was frequent since he loves bottles when he isn't feeling well).  Long story short, Kolbe had a rough December, and so did his mama taking care of the poor sick boy.  

And on that note, send us some prayers if you can because the almost-a-month-of-sickness has left Kolbe with some pretty poor sleeping habits and we are still not sleeping as well as we should.  We are all doing fine, but I feel quite drained almost 100% of the time.  And we missed every family party/event we had hoped to attend in Advent and I missed my mom's group Advent retreat, so that was a bummer.  Eventually I'll type up a post with some reflections about Advent and my plans versus God's plans...

For now, we are just trying to get a little sleep when we can.  

Visit to Santa in Disney California Adventure

Why, yes, I am just sort of dumping a handful (really an armload) of late Christmas posts on you just before the Christmas season officially ends.  What can I say?  It was a busy Advent/Christmas season and with The Nutcracker, the holidays, some travel, and just trying to spend time enjoying the season, I didn't keep up with blogging so well in December.  

                       

As part of Kayla's homeschooling this year, we did a little unit studying how other countries around the world celebrate Christmas.  We hope to tackle 4-5 each year and learn a lot over the course of the coming years.  This year, one of the countries we studied was Mexico, which was perfect because Disneyland has a street show during Christmastime that performs and shows some of the cultural dancing, costumes, etc. and we were able to sneak over for a morning to check it out.  

Technically the show covers South American countries too, but we focused on Mexico.  The girls loved watching the dancing and seeing all the colorful costumes the men and women wore.  

 

I got many a stare taking the girls to Disneyland (or on this particular day, California Adventure) by myself, but the most difficult part is getting the stroller in and out of the shuttle bus.  Once we get off the bus, two of the girls hop in the double umbrella stroller, Sophie is safe in the carrier with me, and Kayla knows all the rules of staying close to the stroller and keeping her eye on mom.  

All that aside, I still don't often take the girls by myself because there is a lot less we can do with so many little kids and only one adult.  We can't ride as many of the rides, but we can watch shows and we can visit Santa!  Which is what we were there to do, because this trip actually took place the week before Christmas just before The Nutcracker shows started and just before our passes were blocked out for a couple weeks for Christmas/New Years.  

We stood in line for all of about 5 minutes, and then it was our turn to see the jolly man in red.

This year the girls were all kinds of fun.  Though we didn't have anyone outright screaming or crying, we did have two fake smilers, one who was totally confused and/or disinterested, and one who was extremely shy and would not speak to, look at, or acknowledge Santa in any way. 

 

After our pictures with Santa and a fun chat with the very friendly little helper elf, we went outside to regroup and see if we could do anything else before heading home for naps.  The girls sat next to the huge Christmas tree where I was able to get some smiles from everyone except Ava, who was very interested in her candy cane and really, really wanted to eat it already.  

We thought it would be fun to see the preview for The Good Dinosaur, so we headed to the theater in Bug's Land, which was actually playing their usual show, "It's Tough to be a Bug" which scares the heck out of Elise.  I didn't realize that until we were already inside.  

She survived. I spent most of the show trying to make everything that was at all scary seem like it was really, really funny instead.  She wasn't convinced, but didn't scream or cry, so I'll take it as a win. 

 


                            

And then on our way out we were able to catch the Christmas Bell Ringers caroling near the front of the park.  We've only ever caught a song or two in passing, but we were able to park the stroller and enjoy the whole show.  The girls got to sing and dance and they were quite intrigued by the costumes and bells.  It was a lot of fun.  Disney does such a fantastic job of bringing the joy of Christmas to life in so many ways at the park.