Blog Anniversary (8 YEARS!) and Christmas Day 2014

My first blog post was January 7, 2007.  I have written one thousand two hundred and fifteen posts (1215!) for Three Peanuts.  You have left almost 34,000 comments over the years and I cherish each one of them. And there have been almost 4 million visits to 3 Peanuts (more if you read on a reader or feed).

I have shared so much of our lives with you.  When I started this blog my goal was only to document Dave and Will's trip to China to bring our daughter home.  I never imagined that I would still be journaling on line all these years later.  But I am so glad that I have.  First and foremost, this blog has served as our family photo album and scrapbook.  I always say that some day when I am gone, my children will be able to come here and see how fiercely I loved them.

But this blog has brought us so many more blessings.  I have made incredible friends through blogging…some that I have met and become real life friends with and some that I have never met but I cherish just the same.  Kate's adoption has inspired other families to adopt.  I never had any idea God would use us that way.  Harry's prayer table brought a family back to God and church.  Again, we never had any notion that things like that would happen.  So, thank you. Thank you for saying hello when we see you out and about.  Thank you for reading and for praying for our family over the years.  It means a lot to me.  If you feel comfortable, I would love for you to say hello in the comments today.  I love to know who is reading over the years. Tell me how/when you found 3 peanuts.

Now onto Christmas Day.  Thankfully, Kate and Harry woke up at a reasonable hour.

Harry and Will asked for some clothes and a few things. Kate asked Santa for a balance beam. That was what she really wanted.
 

The kids coming down the stairs…

I think Will is still asleep here;)

And here is when she saw the beam….

Running to look for the beam:)





This was the first gift Harry saw.  It was a total surprise for him and he loved it.  I took his shirt from the Junior Olympics (which is too small to wear now) and put it in a t-shirt frame. I love this idea to frame a kid's first t-ball jersey or favorite t-shirt.  Harry LOVED it.  You can get it here.


Harry also got a new fishing rod and reel…



Dave did too…



Will, Harry and Dave are kind of obsessed with fishing these days.




Will really wanted this patagonia fleece.  And everyone else in the world must have wanted it too because it was SOLD OUT everywhere locally and online.  Finally, I found it at the last minute at Zappos and it was here in time.  I love Zappos.  I think Will has worn it almost everyday since Christmas so I'd say it was a winner.



Will gave Kate a skien of beautiful yarn and a box of graham crackers.  She had asked for both and was so happy.  Kate learned to knit on the 23rd of December and was in heaven with this yarn!!



Kate gave Dave a winter hat and Will gave him this Southern Marsh baseball cap.
 I think he is all set for hats.

And Miss Katie Ru asked just days before Christmas for a hot pink "Columbus" fleece.  It is Columbia but she calls it her Columbus;) And she wears it constantly.  We like cozy fleece here.

Harry and Kate are so cute together.  I love how they love one another.  Kate bought Harry some stinky fish stuff.  She knows what he loves.

I bought this sign below for Kate's room. I thought she'd love it.  She was not a fan.  It is too bright so we returned it:)

Scout always gets a new toy or treat in her stocking too…

 

See that beautiful hand made portrait/ornament with my monogram hanging on the tree?
 Kate made one for each of us.  That one is me.  I love it.

 There is a funny story about this Santa toy. I bought it at Marshalls months before CHristmas with a few other things.  It was in a bag in my closet with the other things…HIDDEN.  One day I came home and Scout had it out and was playing with it.  She had gone upstairs (which she is not supposed to do), found this toy amongst several other gifts in a bag and brought it down stairs to play with. I have no idea how she know to go looking in my secret hiding place for her Christmas present but she is one smart dog! I had to hide it up high until Christmas.

We had a nice brunch as a family and then Dave and I got busy cooking Christmas dinner.  This year we served beef tenderloin, ham, sweet potato casserole, roasted asparagus with shaved parmesan, mixed greens with pomegranate seeds and goat cheese, my homemade world famous macaroni and cheese, Aunt Waukita's zucchini casserole (yum!), biscuits, pies and a yule log.  I also made gluten free mint brownies (interest recipe…lots of work not very yummy).

 We had a great time telling the jokes from our crackers.

I did not make the yule log this year but it was delicious.

After dinner we played a game we like called the family game. We had never played it with Dave's brother and the nieces and nephews before but it was a lot of fun!

We had to get Scout in the photo too;)

Here are two more videos I want for my own memories …

This one is the letter our elf, Happy left…

And the letter Santa left on Kate's beam…



That is it for Christmas. It was a good one.
 I have a couple of posts planned for favorite things and books and such.  Be back soon.

Please make are to say hello in the comments.

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning the kids did not wake up early. I was up all alone waiting... That should have been my first clue that something was wrong.  My second clue should have been when Kate asked for water.  We can never get that girl to drink.  We push fluids with her like crazy but she rarely asks for a drink.

The tree just before everyone woke up. I wrapped everything in silver and white this year.  

Kate was not really herself. And she had a very funny reaction to the bike Santa brought her.

All Kate asked for was a bike and a play tent.  She talked about the bike for weeks because she rides bikes with her friends in the neighborhood and her two good friends had recently moved up to "big" bikes with gears. She wanted a bike with gears and she wanted it to have black tires (for skidding).  She had a very clear vision for this bike and it was kind of hard to find one like that for her size.  Santa looked very hard. He finally found a pink one (she wanted "sky blue").

I really expected her to be soooooooo excited when she saw the bike.  If you watch the video you'll see that she was kind of underwhelmed.  At first, I was upset because I thought she was acting spoiled.  We try very hard not to spoil our kids.  I know that they are not deprived. I know they are blessed.  But Dave and I are very intentional in what we give and don't give our kids. Harry and Will both have jobs (I need to tell y'all about Harry's soon).  We don't buy them things unless it is their birthday or Christmas.  In fact, Will and Harry barely got any presents as they have other special things they just got or are getting.*see note at bottom.

Untitled from Kim S on Vimeo.

But then I slowly started to understand Kate's reaction.  First, she was sick.  She had 104 temperature which I quickly discovered just after she came downstairs.  Secondly, she was very intimidated by the bike.  It looked scary to her.  She loves it now and rides it everyday but it scared her at first.

What I do like about the video is that before any of them even opened a gift, they thanked us (following Will's lead).  

This year I told the kids they could ask for something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read.  And they were 100% fine with that.  They also got a few extras from relatives and in their stockings.

(Will getting a key fob, Kate loves books, Harry got a Vineyard Vines T-shirt and Dave got some new cutting boards)  I felt really bad about Harry opening that Vineyard Vines box. He asked for 2 or 3 small things for Christmas. One was a Vineyard Vines t-shirt.  I ordered one on sale and got Kate one too.  I accidentally mislabeled them and Harry opened Kate's by mistake. He was a little disappointed when he opened it thinking it was his and was way too small:)  We figured out the mistake and he was fine once he opened his.  That was the first time that either I or Santa mislabeled gifts:)

This book was one of my favorite gifts to give on Christmas morning.  This is Harry's favorite book. It is called Home of the Brave.  I found a first edition hardback and had the teacher who introduced this book to Harry (one of his all time favorite teachers) write in the front of it.  I also added an inscription.  I know Harry will always treasure it.

Harry's other gift was a new lacrosse shaft.  He loves it. He played with it this weekend and scored a few goals.  So, I guess it works;)

Will only asked for one thing and it was a fancy, preppy belt.  Luckily, I found it on sale:)

Oh and Dave surprised Harry with some waders for when they go fishing. I know he loved those.

Excuse Kate rubbing her nose here...

Untitled from Kim S on Vimeo.

Dave also surprised Kate with her own set of golf clubs.  They all go golfing or to the driving range and Kate was using very old hand me down clubs from the boys.  The grips had melted and were a mess.  She was thrilled to have her own clubs.







Here she is winking as she gets a feel for them:)




At Christmas Eve Mass, Monsignor was telling us that he got oranges in his stocking as a kid.  My kids thought that was pretty funny. Fruit? In your stocking? Then I told them that in fact, my grandma (God rest her soul) used to put oranges and whole walnuts and a silver dollar in our stocking growing up too. So as a joke, we put an orange in Will's stocking.

After gifts, we had our traditional big Christmas breakfast that I make but the rest of the day is kind of a blur.  Dave bought me a nice flat screen TV for our room for Christmas (yes, I love a TV in the bedroom..as I watch TV in bed almost every night).  We spent a lot of the day watching movies (we liked Parental Guidance) and being lazy. I didn't take any more photos and I don't think any of us even got out of our pajamas all day.

So, I had set the dining room table and made a special gluten free dessert and Dave made a homemade pie. We cooked a beef tenderloin and a ham and all of the side dishes for Christmas dinner.  We were supposed to have Dave's brother and his whole family over for dinner but we told them about the flu and they opted out. Can't say I blame them.  We still cooked all the food and our nephew came over to pick some food up to bring back to their house for dinner.  We sure did miss them on Christmas day.

(I think this is a phone pic)

So, all in all, it was a good Christmas.  It certainly was not our best but I know it could have been worse so I am counting our blessings.

* as you know, Will got a car in November so he really did not get much for Christmas.  And Harry is going to France and Spain in March on a school trip so he did not get much either.  They knew this before Christmas and were fine with it. 

The Christmas "spirit"

Yup it is a long one....

Ok, so you know how I worked really hard to get all the "work" of Christmas done really early (December 1st) so I could spend the month of December liesurely enjoying my little family?  I took Karen's  Christmas Pledge and all!  And I did it.  I had all my gifts bought and almost all of them wrapped.  The house was decorated from tip to toe.  Cards were bought and sitting in my house.

Yeah well...  It did not exactly turn out the way I was envisioning.  I had lost all my addresses due to a computer crash last December so I had to rebuild my list of 210 thousand addresses.  Sorry if you did not get  a card this year. I probably did not get your address on my new list.  I tried. I truly tried. Kate loves helping me do the cards so this has become our tradition....

Love her lil tongue here.  And yes, she wears hats and earmuffs all the time, even inside.
Notice, she is wearing shorts?!

Scout hung out and watched the whole time...

We tried something new this year and went to Zoo Lights at our local zoo.  The night we had our tickets was super cold and rainy so they cancelled and we did have trouble getting in the night we went but once we got in, it was great. Iphone pics...

And my favorite picture of the night....Kate and Harry:)

Then it was Harry's 13th birthday!!!  He did not want a party or anything.  I picked him up early from school the day before his brithday and took him downtown to a coin show he really wanted to go to.  He collects coins and so we gave his some $$ for the show to add to his collection/investment.  I snapped this with my phone..he is all business.  We spent 3-4 hours at the coin show together.  It was nice mother-son time.

His breakfast kolaches on his birthday....

Woohoo...two teenage boys in the house now:)

Then, Will got a BAD case of the flu during his final exams.  He is at school right now on the weekend trying to make up his finals before Christmas. Poor kid! That was awful.  Dave also got sick. And Kate was served raw chicken in a restaurant last night so I am praying she will not get salmonella!!!  Good times.  I am downing the garlic like crazy y'all.

Anyway, in the spirit of relaxing and savoring the Christmas spirit with my kids, we decided to make gingerbread houses. And to add insult to injury, we decided to bake gingerbread people from scratch too.

First, let's talk gingerbread houses.  These things never stay together.  After 16 and a half years, you'd think I would have learned this lesson.  Some people swear by hot gluing and maybe that is the trick but my crazy kids think they are going to eat their creation eventually (even though I forbid it).

It all started out well....

You can see most of Kate's house standing while she is rolling out the fonant...

It went all down hill from there...literally. We could not get the darned roof on.



Kate's house kept collapsing.  It was awful and stressful and she cried and I yelled and she cried some more. There was absolutely nothing fun or relaxing or Christmasy about it.  It stunk.

After Kate finally calmed down.... and it took a while, Harry came to the rescue.
He is an awesome brother y'all.  REALLY awesome!



(one of Harry's best buddies was here to help too)







 He was much more patient and careful than either Kate or I was. He did not yell and he did not cry.  He knew Santa was watching. His house managed to stay together and he let Kate help him decorate it.  It became "their" house. So all was not lost but I think we'll skip the gingerbread houses next  year.  Just sayin.

Next up...we made gingerbread people from scratch.  We bake and cook a lot but I am not sure I have made gingerbread before..maybe once.  I could not eat any cause I am not eating gluten but the kids loved them.



Let me just tell you about Kate in the kitchen.  She rocks!  She mixes and chops and stirs and rolls out the dough.  She is a natural and she enjoys it all.









Will made one in a tuxedo that was great!  I did not get a photo of it though:(

Everyone came to help decorate the lil ginger people...












We have also watched Elf as a family and that was really good and we watched Charlie Brown Christmas too. Today, Kate and I are going to  our annual Teddy Bear tea with some special friends so we are excited.  I have to remind myself that sometimes the holiday activities go well and sometimes they don't but it is all good in the end because it is not about gingerbread houses or zoo lights.  It is about the birth of Christ.

Much more Christmas fun coming your way from our family this week:)

 I have been much more consistent about documenting all of our holiday activities on Instagram.
 Feel free to follow me there. Link on my sidebar.