My Advice

Hey, If I were you I would scroll down all the way to the picture of the tree and read it's attached message and then work your way up till the top again. That way you can read about our Christmas day step by step. Of course, if you are like me you are very independent minded and now that I made that suggestion you will be just too darn stubborn to do it that way!!! But that is okay, I understand, still if you are a chronological order person today's writings will be hard for you to bear unless you start at the bottom and work to the top. Or if you are like me who reads magazines from back to front, that won't matter, but if it does, well you know I have already said it twice.... but who can resist saying it once more.... start reading from the tree picture and its attached message today and work your way up, you won't regret it, I promise!!!! Oh and to do so you have to click on Older Posts first (found at the very bottom right hand corner) cause I wrote a lot today, so it took up more than one page!!! Enjoy!!!

Christmas Dinner with "Christmas Crackers" of Course"

(and yes that is laundry in the background, if you read further you will discover I had a few hours to kill before the kiddos got up on the big day, so I did a bit of laundry, but it got so busy after the kids got up, that it did not get away, not surprising in this house I know)
Jack and his Stuffing
(if only I had a picture of the look on his face when the whole bottle of poultry seasoning ended up dumping out at once, oh well it was still good!!!)
The Big Meal
Now normally here at Huzinga Zoo, we have our big dinner the day before Christmas before Jack goes to work at 3pm. But we wanted to fit in a bit of painting at the Reno house, so we decided we would move the big meal to the big day. The other children were fine with it but Aiden told me over and over on the day before Christmas, "when are we having our big meal mom" and "why again are we having it tomorrow", needless to say I think for Aiden's sake we consider switching it back to the day before again.
For us the big meal is Ham, green bean casserole, and stuffing. We keep it simple cause truly it is just Jack and I who eat it. The kids will all eat Ham, but they all hate stuffing and they all hate green bean casserole, so it is usually a five minute dinner with the kids and then us two sit quietly enjoying our meal, while the kids go off to fill themselves up on the candy Santa brought them!!!! I figure for one day, what can it hurt them, and heck that's more Christmas fixings for Jack and I.

The search for the Famous Christmas Pickle!!!

Who knew that this would be such a hit. But, every year when we get out the Christmas boxes, at least one of the children will scream, Mom (or mama if its Courtney, cause she calls me Mama) "don't forget the Christmas pickle" so out it comes and it gets placed in its box, by the Christmas tree where it remains till I hide it amongst the branches of the tree for it to be found right after the stockings and Santa gifts are done. This year the gift was books on CD to listen to in the car during long drives. The children and I love listening to stories as we drive. This year Thomas tried his best to hide his tears over Beth's death in "Little Women" while Aiden's eyes grew huge over the events in the "Lemony Snicket" series. Right now we are enjoying the "Secret Garden".

Stocking Time

If you read below, you will see that my children all awoke at different times on Christmas morning, but yet all of them hours after their mama. I treasure it though even though I do think it is kind of weird they wake after me, but because I wake up earlier I get the joy of watching the excitement of each child as they walk down the stairs and see the presents awaiting them. I see their hands shaking with anticipation as they rip open their first gift in their stocking (I am one of those moms who would wraps every little thing for the big day). I love seeing their eyes light up as they see that item they have been waiting for.

Oh and if you are looking at the pictures of the stockings and wondering what is on the toe of each sock, that would be a name label. You see this mama had great intentions of getting some fabric paint and writing each child's name on the new socks that I bought on clearance last year, but it never happened (I forgot about it, till Christmas Eve, too late to fix matters then). So out of desperation I got Courtney to put each child's name on a label and press it on the sock for me!!! Hey it worked!!!

What do you do waiting for the Kiddo's to wake up!!!

I am sure I am not the only mom who wakes up on Christmas morning, waiting for the Kids to get up. I know in most households it is the other way around but here at Huizinga Zoo, I am up first. This time I tossed a turned till 3:50 am, and then gave up. I got up, looked up the christmas story in the bible and read it, prayed, showered, made myself breakfast. Then still no one was up, so I went on line, looked up a recipes for cinnimon buns at my favorite site www.allrecipes.com (go to it you will not regret it) I got out the ingredients, cooked the buns, washed up the dishes, and waited, oh and did I mention this whole time I was also doing several loads of laundry) . Finally at 6:30 Thomas awoke, and he and I waited yet another hour till Courtney and Aiden decided to wake up, by then Jack was already also showered and dressed.

So I am asking other mother's out there!!! Are my kids abnormal or what?? At their age I remember hardly sleeping a wink!!! And still now in My 30's I still don't!!!

Got to feed the Reindeer Too!!!

The first year we moved to Marion, I attended a MOPS group that gave out bags of Reindeer food to the kids just before Christmas, and so that Christmas Eve a new tradition was added to our family, we now leave oats out for the reindeer. Courtney will never let us forget, and she looks every year to see if the reindeer took them away, one year they must have been stuffed by the time they got to our house cause they were still scattered on our front steps, but in other years, not a oat was left to be found!!!

Perperations for the big day

Christmas Eve night is a big one at our house. First we attend a candlelight service at our church then we come home and the kids get out milk and cookies for santa. They then get out three bowls and fill them with a mix of oatmeal and magic sprinkles, to leave out side on the steps and sidewalk for Santa's riendeer. The three of them then fly up to bed so mom can get out all the gifts from their hiding places and place them under the tree, so the kids can be amazed by the sight of it all in the morning. Usually mom spends the night wrapping for hours, but this time Dad helped her after their big shopping day together in Fort Wayne a month earlier. We figured our crew is getting a bit to big to leave unwrapped gifts around even if they are hidden.

Merry Christmas!!!

It is hard to believe that Christmas is now more than a week behind us. I must say we had a great family day. Here is a peek at what our Christmas tree looked like the night before the big day. If you are wondering what is in the ice-cream buckets its primer and white trim paint, I forgot about taking them out before I snapped the picture. Really I think it speaks well of what 2008 will be remembered by our family of five, it was a year of never ending renovations that are still carrying on into 2009. Jack sometimes paints small pieces of trim for our reno home at our current home after he gets off his hospital shift at night, and that is the corner he leaves the paint in, and so that is where it got left, even during the big day!!!