The Search for the Christmas Pickle and Other Great Moments

Merry Christmas! 

The first morning of the Christmas season has come and gone (and who knows how many more before I finally finish this post) and the most exciting moment may have been when the kids raced downstairs to find the pickle ornament in the tree.

The night before Paul had teased me that Sadie wouldn't find it. 

"Oh yeah, put it so low that the almost six foot tall girl will never see it!" he'd laughed as I hid it where every kid might have a chance of finding it.

"I can't put it higher than the littlest kids can reach!" I'd said, even though I doubted Tessie would actually be looking.

But when Sadie flew into the room, the first thing that she said was "it can't be above this high, because mom would never put it higher than the littlest kid could reach!" and she was suddenly circling the tree crouched down, on a serious mission to find the pickle ornament before anyone else.

And find it she did. 

Tessie believed that every present was a family gift and enjoyed the day thoroughly.

The only presents that weren't being freely shared with her were the ones that were too tiny for her to play with since she's definitely still at the "everything goes into the mouth" phase at two and a half.

She was, however, especially interested in these tiny toys, and would try to swipe them (there weren't many, only a couple) and then sneak away upstairs into the Orange Play Room to hide. I snapped this picture after catching her absconding with an LOL doll downstairs. Once she realized she was allowed to have her Catboy doll she came out and alternated between jumping on the bed and hiding under the covers for at least an hour, which is her next favorite activity.

It was also definitely a good way for her to take a break from all the noise and chaos of her brothers and sisters.

Her other favorite thing to do was stealing Bopa's chair.

Because it rocks and she realized that it rocks and she thought that that was pretty amazing.

What we didn't know at the time was that we were about six hours away from a stomach bug full out striking Tessie, James, and Maggie. But I am just very, very thankful it held off until after Christmas day.

Well I can't say that we didn't entirely know that we were starting to get sick. It is definitely one of the reasons the kids and I were in pajamas all day. I'd been feeling like I was fighting something off all week and so had Sadie. But we seemed to just manage to fight it off as the little kids completely were overcome by the bug.

Thankfully they seem to be completely recovered now.

The #1 present of the day was definitely the Scruff-a-Luvs. I can't explain the attraction but three out of five kids are obsessed.

I can say that the very best thing for these little fur covered balls of glue is to toss them in the washing machines. The kids tried to wash them by hand and they were a horrible mess and were still covered in glue afterwards. 

After a day of barely being able to keep it to myself how terrible they looked, I put them through the wash with some sheets and they look...somewhat less scruffy and slightly more loveable. At least they're slightly fluffy now.

I think that  one of the most impressive parts of the day was watching Maggie share her presents with Tessie. I knew that Sadie would be fantastic with her tiniest sister, and that her brothers would have varying degrees of success or difficulty if she mistook their presents for her own, but Tessie was mostly interested in what Maggie had. And Maggie let Tessie play with her all day long. 

She even gave Tessie some of her candy. I could hardly believe my eyes. 

The littlest member of the family was definitely spoiled with cuddles and attention and love all day long. 

And I did manage to record much of the excitement of the present opening of Christmas morning.

I think my favorite part was when Sadie and Patrick brought out the presents that they had gotten from the student store. I loved opening mine but my favorite part was seeing what they had given Paul (and each other).



And of course I had to capture the fun when we headed over to Nani and Bopa's.

There is so much room to run there, even when they're inside.

And run they do.


Tessie finally got to see her giant mermaid pillow and her reaction did not disappoint.

She took it out for a spin before she fell asleep on Christmas night. I love watching her with it.

It's so relaxing.



And this was probably the least relaxing day of my month.

Christmas parties at school kind of stress me out. Even when they end up being fun!



That is it for today. Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season!