Pre-Christmas, my thoughts on a variety of irrelevant topics

Leading up to Christmas, we had the kids first strings concert at school. Both Jack and Anna have been playing violin. It is their first semester and they have yet to use the bow. They plucked out "Up on the Housetop" and another song. And, it was surprisingly good! They are going to learn how to use the bow starting in January, so we shall see how that goes. Neither one has ever practiced. Anna told Thomas and me she wanted to switch to the cello and we told her we were going to have to see some serious commitment first. No way are we buying another instrument to gather dust, except for those 2 30-minute classes a week. Speaking of music, I am still teaching myself piano. It is slow-going. I can play super basic songs with lots of practice, but I really enjoy it and try and find time to play every day. I am also trying to show the kids that practice makes a difference and it is okay to find joy in things we aren't necessarily good at. I was really hoping one of them would show an interest and want to learn, but there are no serious takers and I don't want it to be something I have to force them into (although, I am sure they would thank me one day if I did).

Luke also had a performance at school. I got there super early to get a good seat. I was the first one there and had my pick of seats. Of course, I sat in the front row. Actually, it was the fourth row, with the first 3 being reserved for the kids at the preschool. Imagine my annoyance when they decided to open up the row right in front of us at the start of the performance? I made a snide comment and was somewhat clear in my frustration, which I later felt bad about. I think it was reasonable to be annoyed, but I also wish I could just let things just roll off my back a bit more. Back to the performance, it was cute. Luke sang and participated. And, I know I am biased, but he was the best singer amongst the two year-olds. He was the only one I could actually hear (maybe because I know his voice?). They also did a sign language song and Luke actually knew the sign language, I was impressed. He is a smart cookie.

Luke is the cutey sticking his tongue out. No idea why.

Speaking of smart cookies, both Jack and Anna were tested for gifted and talented. Apparently, they do a prescreen and then those kids get additional testing. While I am proud that they made it to the second round, I find the whole thing a little pretentious. First of all, why do they have to call it gifted and talented? What does that say to the other kids? For me, of our three older kids, I hope either 1 makes it, none make it, or all make it. I find it all irrelevant, they are smart enough to do whatever they want, the key to success will be the effort they are willing to put forth.

Back to Christmas, as previously mentioned--we love Christmas in this house! We are not the kind who succumb to strange theories about limiting gifts or holding back. Of course, we try to be reasonable. We don't want our kids to be spoiled or greedy. And, so far they are not. They all had very reasonable and very short wish lists. In fact, Kara only asked for a Shopkins toy, Anna wanted a desk and chair and Jack requested the game Risk. So, I feel as though our kids are rooted in reality. We spend the whole year saying no to their toy requests and it is fun to be extravagant once a year. Thomas and I enjoy the shopping and build-up to Christmas. We like putting a few gifts under the tree and letting the kids wrap and shop with us. They are surprisingly good at keeping surprises. As far as I know, no secrets were revealed. We have the kids draw names and this year, they earned the money that was spent on them with our behavior chart.

Luke wrapping the gift he picked out for Thomas (an over the door basketball hoop)

If I haven't mentioned it, we have a clip chart in our house. It is similar to the concept that many teachers here use. The kids start on green and then clip up or down based on behavior. They earn extra electronics time daily based on their clip up (in 5 minute increments) and they lose time if they clip down. There is also a monetary value that accumulated throughout the year of .25 cents for each clip up, they don't lose money for moving down. They clip up for being nice or helpful and clip down for fighting and speaking rudely. Most days, they are on green or higher. By Christmas, they had between $37-$42 and they had a great time shopping for each other. They all chose thoughtful gifts that they wrapped themselves (with a tiny bit of assistance, mainly cutting paper to size) and put under the tree. We have been using the clip chart for over a year now and it may be losing its effectiveness, but it has served us well.

In other Christmas news, we decorated gingerbread house cakes with our neighbors. It was sooooo much better than trying to make houses.

I didn't think to take pictures of them decorating, but one of the kids asked for a picture before they ate it :)

Thomas and I also attended the Darrow's annual Christmas party. It is one of our favorite events of the season and we always looks forward to it. We played minute to win it games. Despite our valiant efforts, our team did not win. We also played a version of the newlywed game, Thomas and I also did not win this. I could not accurately answer complicated questions like, "what is your husband's favorite ice cream flavor" and "what type of cake did you have at your wedding." The couple who won was actually the couple who had been married the shortest amount of time. Despite these devastating losses, we had a great time. Alecia served Thomas' favorite cookie, a snowball, and he found the one with a hidden chocolate chip, which won us a candle. Thomas has won that particularly prize several times, he just loves those cookies, so the odds are in our favor. We got fun gifts at the white elephant gift exchange and had a great night.

Thomas playing minute to win it.