Christmas 2012

We had Christmas at home this year and loved it.  Jack and Hazel are at a wonderful age.  We were able to soak up the magic of the season looking at lights, decorating sugar cookies and gingerbread houses, talking about Jesus, and wondering about Santa. 

 

Hazel's preschool group learned a few Christmas songs to perform at a nursing home.  They made cards to give out to the cute grandmas and grandpas we went to visit. 

 On Christmas Eve I told the kids Santa had to wait until they were asleep before he could come bring their presents.  Hazel flung herself into bed and proclaimed as her head hit the pillow, "I'm already asleep!"  And, to my amazement, she and Jack really did go right to sleep without a peep. 

The big Christmas Morning Reveal: 

I love the look on Hazel's face!

 

 Hazel got a dollhouse.  A neighbor gave the house to us a couple of years ago and it's been in our garage ever since.  It was unpainted and had marker scribbles all over it.  We spent several nights fixing it up.  Todd painted it and put in real flooring (carpet and linoleum) and I mod podged scrapbook paper on the walls. 

 Jack got a train set.  He has set it up and played with it several times every single day for the past week. 

 I made a play tent for the kids, following this tutorial.  It was harder than it sounded and didn't turn out perfectly, but it works and the kids like it.  I wish we had enough space to have it set up all the time instead of having to store it when they're not using it. 

 We have enjoyed our Tree of All Trees so much.  We are hoping we'll have another Christmas with vaulted ceilings someday so we can repeat this year's magnificence. 

 We took the tree down today.  It was bittersweet.  We knew it had to happen sometime, and better before the baby comes than after, but no one wanted to say goodbye to it.  Our living room feels so empty now.  We got creative with the ornament removal, but had to finish the job with the tree laying on the floor. 

 

Todd's birthday was the day after Christmas.  He got his grandma's raspberry dessert instead of cake. 

 

We went to the Oakland Zoo on New Year's Eve.  It was fun to show the kids real animals we've been learning about through books and videos, like lions and tigers, hyenas, elephants, cockroaches, poisonous frogs, bats, and snakes.  

  

I'll leave you with a little Bonner family treasure.  Hazel saw Jungle Book for the first time a couple of months ago, and has been obsessed since with pretending to be Mowgli.  At least once a day, she starts laughing and throws all her clothes off except her panties.  Jack has also gotten into it the past couple of weeks and now comes up to me lifting his shirt up, asking me to take his clothes off so he can be "naked" or "Mowgli" as well.  Usually, Todd and I are Baghira or Ka, or perhaps Sher Khan.  There have been a couple of times that Todd has joined in with the madness and become a third Mowgli.  I think it's gut-busting hilarious.