He is a genius and we need his mind!

We're going to go ahead and post about December here. I realize I am very behind but, unlike some complainy pants readers, I don't rely on my husband to blog for me. Plus, I've been sick and unmotivated to do anything but watch What Not To Wear as often as possible. Needless to say I'm feeling a little better now.

We made sure to get our Charlie Brown Christmas tree decorated mere days after December started. I still use dollar store decorations and didn't even have a star this year but Adri reminded me that there was a star on her glow stick wand that would be just right. You can't really tell in this picture but it was just right and Christmas was not ruined for lack of a tree topper.

Jason's work had a movie night in lieu of a Christmas party and we were excited to go see Harry Potter with free candy and drinks, plus our babysitter didn't ask to be paid either. Sweet.

Adrienne has spent quite a few days home sick this school year. Although sometimes I say she's sick and really we go with her cousins to a museum or something. She is still doing well in school and during parent teacher conference we learned that she is the same person at school as she is at home: she is helpful, dependable, friends with everyone and can understand new concepts and help others understand them, too. Despite the odd grading system in kindergarten we were pleased to hear how great she is. She also had her first piano recital. I'm not really sure why I didn't take any videos or pictures but, alas, I didn't. Rest assured that she played 'We Three Kings' flawlessly and wasn't even afraid to get up in front of the crowd. We're all very proud of her progress.

Piano recital: Madison, Alli, Megan, Ashton and Adrienne

While Juliet didn't do much but hang out with Luke and myself this month she sure did show up in a lot of the pictures I took. She is getting better at reading and even writes a little and she loves to wear mittens at all times. The primary children all sang at an old folks home for Christmas and Juliet got to dress up as Mary for a couple of the songs. During one song she announced loudly that baby Jesus was falling out of his blankets but other than that her performance was spot on. She has been a good helper and very patient with me as I have been very tired in the afternoons. One particular afternoon I was conscious enough to make cupcakes. I told Juliet of my plans and then asked her to go into the pantry and fetch some items she thought we would be able to use to make our cupcakes. Below are her tasteful choices: spaghetti, maple syrup and cream of chicken soup. (P.S. if you've ever seen Chopped before I totally think they should put Juliet in charge of filling their baskets for one episode. Best show ever.)

Juliet as Mary

Practicing handwriting in mittens, much akin to practicing annunciation with marbles in your mouth.

Luke is still a good boy, although not as patient with me when I get tired. He will crawl or roll on top of me as I try to snooze on my bed. It's not like I haven't turned on his favorite show or anything. He is currently in love with the PBS program Super Why! He seems to have learned a lot of letters and can practically sing the alphabet song himself. His vocabulary is steadily increasing and he can now say and identify the color 'lellow', he can say book, choo choo, bish (fish), up, papillon(butterfly), puppy, kitty, hello, buh bye, baby, all of our family names and is fluent in all animal sounds. Phew! The only thing he's still no good at is leaving Mom and Dad. We left him in nursery for one Sunday, he did fine, but he never forgave us. I'm not sure when it will be safe to send him in again. Apparently I didn't manage to take any pictures of him this month. Here's a video. (please note: Luke is not a genius baby, he has just seen this show a lot)

I celebrated my 31st birthday this month although I didn't do much actual celebrating. I got some lovely gifts and in the evening I went with Jason and the girls to see Tangled. We quite enjoyed it and, because it was my birthday, whenever one of the girls needed a potty break Jason had to take them. It was bliss. The girls were uncertain of how they felt about the movie. Some parts were a little too scary, one scene prompting Juliet to call out, "Okay, I don't want to watch this movie any more!" but overall I think they enjoyed going to a show with Mom and Dad.

Christmas day was lazy at our house but the kids had lots of fun opening presents that morning. This was the first Christmas I had stayed up assembling anything. Unfortunately the gift I worked so hard on was for Luke and he was mostly just confused about what was going on. I guess that just gives us something to work on for next year.

Below is the first glimpse of Christmas morning. The next one is hilarious because it shows that no kid is that interested in the present itself, they just want more stuff (don't worry Mom, she really does love that Barbie).

And here are some quotes:

Jason: Who do you love best? Funshine (her care bear) or me?

Juliet: Funshine . . . both! Funshine and Daddy.

Juliet: Mom, I uv you.

Annie: Ah, I uv you, too. I don't even know what that means.

Juliet: It means you run around the playground and then you run around the street.

Juliet: How do you spell F? With an F?

Adrienne: I want to be a bus driver AND the mailman - then you get to do all the mail too and that's just fun.

Juliet: I want to be a chicken.

Adri: Why?

Juliet: No, not a chicken, a kitty.

Adri: Why?

Juliet: Because they're cute.

Adri: You're already cute.

Juliet: I want to be a kitty AND a chicken.

Adri: Why a chicken?

Juliet: Because chickens are good.

Annie: I can't borrow your shoes.

Juliet: Because they're too small!

Annie: If Cat lived here I could borrow her shoes.

Juliet: Kitties don't wear shoes!

Juliet: Mom could fight a shark.

Adri: No, she's sick. Daddy could though.

Adri: (attempting to name Santa's reindeer) Connor, Blitzit, Smelly . . .

(Previous Quote: Zoolander, Winner: Jamie and JD)