10 Things I learned over Christmas Vacation

This has been a great Christmas for our family. We have been able to truly enjoy each other and our family. The kids had their last day of school on Dec 21, but Christmas had begun the Wednesday before when Grandma and Grandpa Adams came to help with installing some new lights and fans. School begins on Monday, January 7, and although I will be shoving them out the door at 7:45am, I must admit that the break wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. I did, however learn some things over this Christmas break that I would like to share with all of you. A quick note before I share: Some of the pictures I got from my dad-thanks Dad!-- and as you will note I am missing a few too, so if you have a picture to share with me please send it along and I will put it in its proper place in the list. Also, all ten items may not be posted tonight. Keep checking and I will have them all up soon. The best ones are at the end :-)

I hope that you all had a very Merry CHRISTmas and a fun New Year. Hopefully we will see you all in 2008!!

10 Things I Learned Over Christmas Vacation

1. HAVING A TWO YEAR OLD IS A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP

* Sarah learned a new word "naked" and liked to use it. After stripping one day she sang, "I naked! Yeah!Yeah! Shake your booty! I naked!!

* "1,2,3, you're done!" She commanded as I drank from our communal large coke from McDonald's.

* I told Daniel to go play with Sarah in the Blue room. To which she replied from the Blue Room, "I not Sarah, I Honey!!" Later I called her Honey and she said, "I not Honey, I son!"

* There was no nursery on Christmas Eve so I tried church, alone, with all 5 kids. What was I thinking!! Sarah lasted all of 10 minutes, church lasted nearly 90!!!

2. COLD WEATHER DOESN'T PHASE KIDS

I never would have made it outside as long as they did!!

3. DANIEL THINKS HE IS SEVEN

On several occasions these past two weeks, the twins have received gifts that Daniel didn't. He was quite upset each time. He doesn't quite understand that he is only 4 and some toys aren't appropriate for him. An example, the twins got hand held video games but Daniel didn't, the twins got Spiderman web shooters and Daniel didn't. Daniel got some pretty cool stuff, but not in the eyes of a four year old who thinks he is seven and just like his brothers. Being four, however, he quickly got over his disappointment and learned to enjoy and appreciate the gifts he did receive. We did however get him a hand held game with some of his Christmas money. Those dimples win every time!!!

4. SEVEN IS TOO YOUNG TO DO LAUNDRY ALONE

Thinking to teach the boys a new skill I had them help with the laundry. They usually help by putting the wet clothes that I hand them from the washer into the drier. Well, they wanted to get the clothes out of the washer themselves. After getting a stool so they could reach into the machine I came to check on them. I asked if they wanted some help and Jacob replied from inside the washer, "Nope, I got it!"

5. GRANDPARENTS AREN'T THE ONLY ONES SPOILING MY KIDS ANYMORE

Their aunts and uncles are doing a great job too!! With the addition of the Wii gaming system to our house shopping was easy, it was deciding which game that was hard.

6. THE WALLS OF OLD FARM HOUSES DON'T HAVE STUDS

or at least we couldn't find any. There is about a half foot of plaster on each wall. The reason we know this is because over break we tried to install a wall mount for a TV in the kids playroom. The idea was to have a TV in there so that they could watch their stuff but it would be up high enough that I could control what and when they watched. We just had trouble finding a stud to anchor it too. They must have put two dozen holes in the wall looking for one. They never did find one. The mount is in the kennel on the floor and the new TV is where our old one used to be. The kids do have a TV in playroom, at least until tomorrow anyway. We put the old one on an unused TV stand so they could at least watch all the new videos they got for Christmas. Now we just have to figure out how to mount one of them on the wall with no studs!!

7. SOME VOWS WILL END UP BROKEN

Not the "till death do us part" kind, but the "MY children will NEVER sit in front of the TV playing video games for hours and hours!" kind. Let's just say that on more than one occasion they have indeed sat in front of the TV playing video games for hours. Hey, they go back to school on Monday and the rule is no TV or Wii until Friday after dinner. So I had to let them get it out of their system now.

8. CHARADES IS FUNNIER THE OLDER YOU GET

Just picture Jacob pretending to be a cow. No one can guess what he is so he starts to MILK himself. They all got it then!!!

9. FAMILY IS IMPORTANT

We really enjoyed spending time with all of our families this year. We started on the 19th with Grandma and Grandpa Adams. Then we had the Wyckhuys' here on the 22nd and 23rd. On the 29th we traveled to Lansing for Christmas at the Taylor's then Scott and Nora came to our house for the weekend. It was relaxing, fun, funny, and an all around good time, as you might have guessed from number 9!!! Thank you to all who came to visit and those who were with us in our hearts. Thank you for all the gifts and greetings. We wish you all the same. We love and miss you all!!!!!

10. READING LUKE 2 IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN READING "TWAS THE NIGHT..."