Sweet Baby Rainbow: Our Three Christmases

We have three Christmas celebrations every year, and we have a wonderful time. Let me tell you about this year's Christmases!

My Mother and Father in law live 45 minutes away from us. The weekend before, or the weekend after Christmas is when we generally have a celebration with them. This year, we went to their home, do crafts, watch TV, talk, and play with pool table and many pinball machines. During that time, my Mother in law and Sister in law prepared a spread of food for us. We all gathered at the table, and just like every year at their house for Christmas, they have some fun traditions! On everyone's plate rested a party popper and a small gift. The party poppers are really fun. They always have a paper hat, a small trinket, and a paper with a joke on it. Everyone pops their popper, puts on their paper hats, and then opens up their small present. After that, we all eat.

Sugar Bear got manly work gloves which he ADORES and wears all the time.

He also got a whistle in his party popper.

Rainbow Girl got a beautiful Snow Baby winter decoration!

After eating, we all go to the Christmas tree. Every year, My Mother or Father in law ask who would like to be Santa. That person wears a fancy Santa hat and passes out the presents to everyone. It is a special honor to play Santa. Rainbow Girl has had the honor for a few years running. This year, she said that Sugar Bear could be her "helper elf".

Namoo (the name given to my Mother in law by Rainbow Girl) always makes handmade ornaments for the children.

Sugar Bear's Wizard

Rainbow Girl's Trumpet Playing Angel

As most of you know, I received the very generous gift of a KitchenAid Mixer from my inlaws. Of course, the very next day, Christmas Eve, we had to use it!

I found a recipe for sugar cookies and went to town making Christmas cookies with fun mini cookie cutters. The kids loved watching the mixer. They both enjoyed rolling out the dough and making cookies with the cutters.

Slightly off topic safety comment: If your have a young child, I highly recommend purchasing a Learning Tower or similar product. We use to just pull a chair up to the counter for the kid(s) to stand on, but one day, Rainbow Girl moved the wrong way and the sturdy dining chair slipped over, throwing her on the hardwood floor and breaking part of the chair. When I heard the crack of the chair, I was sure she had broken a bone. It was a hard fall. After that, I knew we needed a different solution. I had heard about the Learning Tower, but did not know if we would use it enough. Once Sugar Bear revealed his love of the culinary arts I knew that would be a great addition to our home. Santa brought the Learning Tower last year and I am very glad we have it. Sometimes I feel that it is taking up too much space, but it is used all the time and fits both kids wonderfully. Yes, there is a version that folds for easy storage, but that just does not seem as safe to me.

Ok. Back to the topic of Christmas cookies!

My sweet babies.

Do you think we made enough cookies?

After nap time on Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house. They conveniently live only 10 minutes away. We helped prepare food and all ate together. At this point, there are no presents under the tree, and the stockings are empty.

Sugar Bear very much enjoys helping in the kitchen.

After dinner, the kids, Daddy and I went for a walk around my parent's property, looking to the sky for Santa and his sleigh. There was a lovely red glow, possibly emanating from the city, that really looked like it could be Rudolph leading the way for Santa.

We had walked around the yard for about 10 minutes when my older brother came out of my parent's house and very loudly and excitedly exclaimed "He came! Did you see him! He just left! Santa Came! Look! Do you see him flying away??????" The kids were SO excited and ran into the house. Piles of presents had magically appeared, and the stockings were full!