In the midst of all of this big life stuff, we have done some Christmasy things. Twelve of them to be specific. A little tricky with all of the littles, so certainly simplified, but still festive. Here’s how Christmas has looked in our world in December 2011:
On the 1st Day of Christmas:
We managed to get a Christmas card photo of all of us. Albeit we are mostly naked, but we are all in there. Clothes optional at the Coulter house, but as we have said, diapers are not.
On the 2nd Day of Christmas:
We got a Christmas tree and it stands about 11” tall in our house. It seriously is the smallest tree I have ever seen. It’s the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I think it’s a tree top they just whacked off. For the past nine years we have spent a day and gone out into the woods in the snowy Central Oregon woods, all bundled up and picked the perfect tree. Well not this year. We were driving through downtown Lake Oswego on the way back from Vancouver and all four kids fell asleep in the car, so we pulled into a Christmas tree lot, Jon hopped out while the car was still running and I told him, “get the smallest tree you can find.” About 90 seconds later he emerged with our Peanuts tree. Not one child woke up on our stop. Success. Got it home and didn’t even put it in water, just left it on the wooden stand, again, like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Took me about 2 minutes to put on one strand of 100 lights. Done. It’s up off the floor siting on a chest. Kids can’t touch it. Looks big from the front window. Don’t have to water it and no ornaments to untangle. Hooray.
On the 3rd Day of Christmas:
A visit from Santa—to our HOUSE! A friend Jake Burts put on his very own Santa suit and let kids sit on his lap and make Christmas requests. He looked awesome (see photos), even fooled his own daughter. Sam initially asked for a car seat. Why, I don’t know, but after hearing his friend Hayley request a truck, he insisted on sitting on Santa Jake’s lap again and asking for a toy truck also. Alice was woken up from a nap by our Santa visit and was therefore a little bewildered by it all. Sure beats standing in lines at the mall. So cute to see Sam and Hayley looking out the window as Santa exited and looking up in the sky for his sleigh which Santa ducked into garage to change garb. When Jake reemerged Hayley told him he’d missed Santa. Sad for Jake. I love kids.
We do actually have stockings. Now, I agree, it’s weird that we already have stockings for our family of six. And yes, their names are already on them. How you ask? Because I am crazy. Stockings were one of the big parts of our growing up so I had a very specific idea of what I wanted in stockings. Basically, we had giant stockings growing up and while I am sort of kicking myself that I am going to fill these giant stockings for Christmases to come, I loved our large stockings as a kid. At any rate, I found stockings I loved about three or four years ago. Well, of course we didn’t know how many kids we were going to have. So I bought six. I figured we wouldn’t have MORE than six kids and I didn’t want to buy some and then not be able to find ones that matched later. Yes, crazy. So if you can believe it, I had six. Found someone to put the names on and now they are hung by the chimney with care. Actually, I feel like proportionally our stockings look way too big and there are way too many for the size of our fireplace in this rental. Good thing we are moving into a house with a MASSIVE fireplace. They will look just right next year. And no, Max and Charlie didn’t get the same color. Figured they have to have some things in their world be different.
On the 6th Day of Christmas:
We went to Portland’s Zoo Lights. Umm, amazing. One of the cool parts of living in a city again—we can do fun things like this! You ride a night Christmas train through the Zoo at night, totally lit up. It was pretty magical. Kids loved it. So fun to enjoy life through their little eyes and minds.
On the 7th Day of Christmas:
We went to Alpenrose Dairy, an old dairy a couple of blocks from Jon’s folks house. They do this Storybook Lane where you can walk through basically a barn filled with a snowy village with cute little Christmas houses for pigs and chickens and donkeys, etc. As soon as we entered the barn, Jon said he was instantly four-years-old again, smelled like Christmas. Translation: Like animal dung. As we approached the chicken coop hut, Jon was flooded with a memory of being about Sam’s age and kicking the crap out of a kid in the little storybook house. Ah, memories. What Christmas is all about. And we wonder why Sam is so rough sometimes. It’s apparently “kicks asses” is genetic.
One of my favorite traditions growing up was going to see the Christmas ships at my family’s houseboat in Seattle. Well, there is a Christmas ship parade down the Williamette in Portland. Not quite as cool as what is done on Union Bay in Seattle with a Children’s choir singing Christmas carols from boats as we sit by heaters on our houseboat deck sipping egg nog and Glogg (Swedish spiced wine). But this was still cool! The boats truck along the river and turn around at a park that is about 1/2 mile from our new house. Might have to start a tradition of a Christmas ship party based from our house next year.
On the 9th Day of Christmas:
Festivus. The airing of grievances. Those of you Seinfeld fans are familiar with this holiday. Well, Festivus for us has become our Christmas party/exchange with Jon’s family and my nieces and nephews. I had to email my sister-in-law on the origins of this holiday but festivities include: (1) the scaring of the uncles, (2) the reading of the Chuck Norris facts, (3) the tossing of the cookies, and (4) the feats of strength. To be honest, I think we missed the party where many of these traditions began, and most of these elements are mostly mentioned on 12/23, not practiced (although my niece and nephew did jump out of the bushes as we walked up to their house with all of the presents). In short, it’s a good night with a lot of food, a lot of beer, a lot of cookies, and a lot of kid. A good night had by all.
On the 10th Day of Christmas:
We got turned onto this website that creates video email messages to kids from Santa. Personalized. How cool is that? So Sammy got a special email from Santa and thought it was the most amazing thing ever! I love the internet. (click here to watch)
On the 11th Day of Christmas:
Went to church last night at our new home church. They did and Christmas Eve Eve service. Awesome.
On the 12th Day of Christmas:
And today, Christmas Eve, packing up to head to Sisters with all of my siblings! They are asleep in my basement as we speak. Gotta go kick their butts in gear so we can get over the mountain. This will be the first Christmas my family has been together for Christmas since my dad died five years ago. We are pretty excited. So here we come Mom! Get ready for us!
