Happy New Year! We have had so much fun over Christmas and the holidays and can't wait to see what 2013 brings for us this year. Looking back over the past year, it seems to have gone by so fast and yet so much has happened and changed in that year. We struggled through much of the year trying to balance our work schedules and the kids and all the activities they are now involved in, and 2012 flat wore us out. Hard as it may have been, we had so much fun watching the kids grow and learn, and the things that will stick with us are the fun times and the hilarious stories that they fill our lives with.
In an effort to get into the Christmas spirit, we watched several Christmas shows including classics like Charlie Brown, newer shows like Ice Age Christmas, and we sprinkled in some musical specials as well. We chose to watch Michael Buble's Christmas special, and odd as it may seem the entire family laughed the whole way through. Let me explain. We use the term bubali (not sure the spelling) to describe a boys private parts, which is an actual term in Farsi that we learned. The pronunciation of this word is very similar to Buble, so every time somebody said Michael Buble we laughed and laughed and laughed. Not exactly a Norman Rockwell picture, but every family has to create their own memories. The highlight was when Elmo made an appearance on the show and said Mr. Michael Buble over and over and over. The kids laughed so hard, it's a wonder one of them didn't throw up.
This was the first Christmas that all the kids were old enough to truly enjoy the presents. My job this year was take care of Lawson's gifts and that task was gladly accepted. There is nothing more fun than going to the toy store and buying anything you want.....I mean buy toys for your son. It's still up in the air whether Lawson enjoyed opening his gifts more than me. One lesson learned is that those warnings they put on toys that ready "for ages" are based on a scale. It has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with fun factor. The lower the age warning the more boring the toy. The higher the age warning, the more fun. So Lawson at 2 years old did not receive a single toy under 4+.
We had a white Christmas here in the DFW area this year. The kids were so excited to go out and play in the snow until they realized how cold snow really is. They gave up on building their snow man in less than 3 minutes.
It's been mentioned several times in the blog that Lily has a similar sense of humor to mine which can be summed up in the following observation that she made just this morning.
Lily: "Daddy, you know what's funny about buttons?"
Me: "No, what is funny about buttons."
Lily: "If you take away the O and the N, it spells butt."
Lily and some of her friends practice for several weeks to go Caroling this Christmas. They went to the funeral home to bring cheer and joy to the elderly. When asked if they enjoyed their singing, she responded, "yes they did, except for the ones that were sleeping".
Because the kids are still so young they cannot be trusted to stay away from the gifts under the tree, so Kasey and I have to stay up late every Christmas Eve to get all the gifts wrapped and get Christmas morning ready. It's actually become a fun little time for us spend time together even though both of us want nothing more than to just get some sleep. The lack of trust in the kids doesn't make for a very pretty Christmas tree. If they can touch an ornament they will, and they will most likely break it as well. It doesn't matter how many times you tell them not to touch, they will still break it. So our Christmas had 70% of the ornaments at the top of the tree out of their reach and the rest were broken.
Along with the holidays comes colds, ear infections, and stomach bugs. Best guess is that we have washed somebody's sheets the past 12 days in a row due to some sort of nastiness in the middle of the night. In addition we made two ER visits for an ear infection and a fever that spiked to almost 105. Sometimes you just feel like the house will never be clean until that last little rug rat goes off to college.
But the award for best Christmas story in the Strait household goes to Chloe Belle.
Twas the day of Christmas and all through our house
Every Monster was searching for mischief about
Almost asleep on my couch when something I heard
Not sure what it was so to my slumber return
Then up the stairs, Monster Lawson did scurry
With fear in his words as "ooo, ooo, ooo" he did utter
In my daze, I paid no attention at first
Then something hit me saying this doesn't make sense
So I rose from the couch to see what could be
What a sudden surprise hung waiting for me
The dining room light hung from nothing but a wire
Come to find out my Chloe, she is not a good liar
There was a toy on the table that made for good fun
But not as much as if from a chandelier she hung
As best we can figure, she grabbed on for a ride
It pulled from the ceiling and she is lucky to have a backside
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love
Jeff, Kasey, Lily, Abby, Chloe, and Spidey Lawson
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