Our christmas

Santa has always been very flexible with our family. He has never required that we be at home on Christmas Eve for his annual delivery.  We simply notify him ahead of time about the date of "our" family Christmas and he comes the evening before. I think that he must get this request a lot with parents who have to work on Christmas (as Sandi has had to on alternating years) and he does what he can to help out. We've always thought he might even prefer to lighten his load on the evening of the 24th and that we might actually be doing him a favor.

The girls were very thoughtful with their letters this year.


Dear Santa: I want for Christmas a pink and purple crystal please. Love, Maya xoxo

  

Dear Santa, Can you please get me for Christmas new slippers for McKenna, a doll scooter and McKenna's school outfit.  Love, Ella  P.S. It does not mater if you get me the "hole" set for McKenna.  (She was missing one of the two slippers).  I hope I am good. Thank you.

Christmas morning had our girls excited to get downstairs with our granddaughters.  Yes, that is what Ella calls their American Girls: our granddaughters.   We had also had bunch of snow overnight and we actually woke to a white Christmas!

A doll scooter for Ella:

And Santa saw fit to bring Maya a mode of doll transportation even though she didn't ask for it.  Because after all she didn't know she was getting the doll and Santa likes to keep things even.

Maya was screaming happy that Ella got some slippers.

 

And Ella was truly shocked by the beauty of one of Maya's crystals.

It was a stunner.

This year was full of great expressions!

 

Tia always comes by on our Christmas morning and this was no exception.  (Santa brought the girls candy rings.)




princess castle from Aunt Suz and Uncle Buck



marbles and a bag to keep them in for Maya (so hopefully she won't lose her marbles)

The girls each gave each other gifts this year and there was a lot of hugging going on as a result.

 

Sandi made doll beds for each of the girls (my contribution was the decorating) to hang on the sides of their beds.  Yes, these were worked on until late into the night on our Christmas Eve because this is the only way we know to do things.  They were, and still are, a big hit.  Now our granddaughters have a place to sleep at night.

 

Christmas "dinner" consists of lots of fun food to pick on as well as Ella's favorite "Christmas cheese" which I buy at the wine store at a whopping $12.00 a pound.  This child loves her extra sharp Cheddar.

Probably one of the most fun gifts we got for our family was a set of speed stacking cups, complete with a mat, timer and carry case.  This sport is new this year to Ella's school P.E. program and it's tons of fun.  Check it out online! The competitive stackers are super fast!

Naturally, Sandi will put us all to shame.

 

Our Christmas this year was full of fun and joy and appreciation and a fair amount of whining from Maya.  Ella showed a great deal of maturity by expressing lots of gratitude and pausing to consider each gift and Maya flip-flopped between hilarious and handful.  We played a lot, watched a Christmas movie, and romped in the snow on this very special day.  We ended it making homemade pretzels (while doing a lot of limit setting and time outs for Maya) and trying hard not to be too sad that it wouldn't happen for another whole year.  It is hard to shut the door on this magical day knowing that the next time it comes, the girls will be a year older and not at all the same as they were (for good and for bad) in this moment in time. 

 

Here's to hoping the letters to Santa are being scribbled out on our kitchen table again next year. 

 

Beals Christmas

Beals Christmas is a multi-day affair complete with multiple family gatherings, lots of delicious food, endless hands of Rook (and other competing board games), tons of laughing and a true celebration of Christmas. 

On Christmas eve the kids got to open the four bean bags their grandparents gave them.  Then they snuggled down for a movie and a snack to rest up for the big day.



But rested kids don't tend to store their energy so instead they began to rehearse for their Christmas recital.  Then they had Sandi take their picture and make it into a poster advertising the "Fab 4."  But then Brevan ran a temperature and had to lay down so the Fab 4 actually stopped touring before they started.  There were many disappointed fans.



But by bedtime, everyone gathered for the annual reading of "The Night Before Christmas."

On Christmas morning we found Jingles (who we'd brought from home to continue his spying) in Tia's bronzed baby shoe wearing Grampy's glasses.  All the better to spy kids with.

 

On Christmas we open "Santa" gifts (it's more a taste since the real Santa gifts come to our house) in the morning and don't usually hit those under the tree until we've had showers, made food and played some games.  It is a tradition we have carried into our family Christmas (the non-rushing, taking it slow present opening) and I am so grateful for it.

 

This way there is lots of time for UNO Attack!

 

It also leaves time to make bread.  In the past few years I have taught Sandi's cousin, Robbi Lee, how to braid the bread and she is a pro at it now.  One of my favorite traditions is that Rob has always come up to spend Christmas (her family celebrates the night before) and this year she came with her adorable boyfriend.  She and Ella braided the bread together.  Be still my momma heart.

There's lots of snuggling at Christmas.

Patti and Dwight, parents-in-love extraordinaire

 

Kristi and Mike




Trish and Brock



Robbi Lee and Chris

You really never know where you will find Maya.  She might be sleeving herself and her cousing Makenna in tatoos,

 

or walking on her hands with her appendages in other people's sneakers.

 

Me working in plain view on Sandi's Christmas scarf. 

If Christmas this year had one theme beyond light and joy it would be American Girl. Ella's entire horizon has been filled with American Girl and every spare second she has is spent pouring over the catalog. Maya has caught the fever as well after watching her big sister breathe life into a molded plastic doll with buck teeth.

But there are still some surprises to find within an American Girl box.

We gave this gift to Sandi's grandmother:

When the real American Girl boxes started being unwrapped, though, the facial expressions said it all.

Apparently just that morning, Maya had said, "I wish I had MY OWN American Girl doll."  Well, guess what?

Her grandparents saw to it that Maya had a curly haired blonde one just like her. When she opened it and realized what it was she dropped the box and ran at me, diving her head into her lap, she was so overcome with joy and excitement.  And, yes, this doll needs a good detangler just like Maya.


Maya and Kaylee (she named her) and some weird allergic reaction under Maya's eye.

Our niece Makenna exclaimed when she opened each gift:  "It's just what I always wanted!" whether it was a pair of socks or a giant pony.

As part of the convalescence theme, Ella got the wheelchair she's been pining for.

 

Oh help us.

The Beals Christmas is magical in so many ways.  But in no way more than the people pictured here.

"Thank you" doesn't even begin to cover it.