Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for Christmas
Christmas II
Our Christmas celebration continued today with my family’s party. Everyone came to Bloomington, which was great for us. We simply had to get up, play with new toys, and wait for all of our family to get here! Loved that. Again, I’m going to let my pictures tell the story.
Ben made cards for each person at the party. They were actually very sweet…he wrote all of the names himself by sounding them out, so Ryan’s said “Rin” (rrrr+i+nnnn) and Grandma’s said “grnmu” (Grr+nn+muh). Each one had a Christmas picture on it, too. They were awesome and everyone made an appropriate fuss over them.
Then we took some family pictures. I think ours turned out pretty well, actually. I love how Emma is holding Ben’s arm.
It was finally time for presents! Our two little elves passed everything out for us.
We always take turns opening in my family, so it took some time to get everything open, but it was worth it. The Swartzies brought down their gifts to each other, too, which was fun to watch.
We look like we’re surrounded by gifts, but a lot of them were things that we opened yesterday. The really nice thing about opening one at a time is that the kids have a chance to play with each gift a little bit before they’re distracted by another one.
Grandma & Grandpa got Emma this Fur Real puppy who walks, barks, whines, and pants. I guess they know that it’s as close to real as she’ll get for awhile.
These swords were a big hit. Everyone kept telling the kids not to hit each other with them. Yeah, right.
Somehow I didn’t get any pictures of dinner or of the many games that were played that day. Guess I was too busy having fun! It was a wonderful day with my family, and I’m so glad that we could host. We even got to have some peanut butter pie in celebration of Rod’s birthday, which was also today. Even though he never wants to make much of his birthday we like to acknowledge it so it’s not just ignored. I’m sure that anyone who has a birthday near Christmas has dealt with that their entire life.
The only remotely bad part of the day…Grandma & Grandpa are spending the night here and leaving for Florida in the morning. It’s inevitable each year, but never fun to say good-bye to them. I think we’re all going to say our good-byes tonight so we don’t have to be sad all day tomorrow. Emma especially has a difficult time seeing them go. But, I guess that just means we need to start the countdown to Spring Break!
Christmas I
Christmas Day was full of fun, family, and food. And let’s not forget the presents!! I think the pictures tell the story of our day very well.
The kids slept in a little bit. At least my alarm clock started with a 7 instead of a 6…I’ll take it! I of course made them stop on the stairs for a “Christmas morning” picture. They were so patient with me.
This was the booty waiting for us when we got downstairs. Thankfully Santa was good to us again.
The kids tore into their gifts, and just like their personalities, their approach was completely different. Ben started with the small things in his stocking while Emma tore into her big packages.
They were so excited by all their new things that they asked me to take their picture together. How’s that for a role reversal?
After we got cleaned up we went to Uncle Steve & Aunt Mary’s. Dave and I opened our gifts early because Scott & Margie, who had our names, had to leave early. Dave decided that his new clamps worked pretty well. I asked if he could figure out a way to clamp her mouth shut when we need it!!
After everyone arrived we passed out all of the presents. As always, the kids had way more than they needed!
It’s always interesting there, because everyone just dives in and you never really know what anyone gets. It’s kind of like controlled chaos, but somehow it all works.
After a great turkey dinner at Steve & Mary’s, we packed up all of our new things and came home. Emma was thrilled that we had time to try out her new Easy Bake Oven that Santa brought. We decided to make cupcakes for the next day’s Christmas party. She loved every minute of it, and did really well pretty much on her own.
It was a great day. I think the best part is that we have another day of celebrating tomorrow with my family. You can’t beat two full Christmases in a row!
A Christmas Eve movie
We still had a lot to do today to get ready for tomorrow and Monday’s Christmas parties, but we wanted to make sure that we had some family time, too. Dave took the kids shopping in the morning, which gave me some great time to focus and finish up the chores. We had told the kids that if they were good we could go to see “Chipwrecked” the latest in the Alvin and the Chipmunks series. They were both motivated big time because they’ve looked forward to its release for months. Dave said that a couple of times while they were shopping Ben reminded Emma, “Make sure you’re good so we can go see Chipwrecked!!”
Of course they were angels, so we got to go. Seeing a movie on Christmas Eve is certainly not a traditional activity, but we had no family obligations, so for us it was the perfect thing. The movie, however, was not. Everything started fine…it was silly and fun and the kids were totally into it. Then of course it had to become an action-adventure movie where the Chipmunks and Chipettes were in danger of death because of a volcano that was going to erupt on the island the were stranded on. It was a little too much for both kids. At one point Ben had a horrified look on his face and frantically said, “I have to go to the bathroom!” Dave obliged, even though we both knew that he was just scared. Meanwhile, Emma was basically whimpering and saying, “I don’t like this…” It would have been comical if they weren’t completely panicking.
Thankfully everything worked out ok and everyone escaped the island. Shew. I guess overall the kids liked it, but there was definitely a time during the climax that they truly wanted to leave. Not really the fun family event we thought it would be, but hopefully no one was scarred. At least it was a nice time together.
Break?
Even though school’s been out for two days, I hardly feel like I’m on a break. The last two days have been full of last-minute shopping, grocery shopping, wrapping presents, cleaning house and making food for the next four days. Although I love doing most of this last-minute stuff, I feel a bit overwhelmed this year. I usually start making treats and cookies earlier in December, but this year it just didn’t get done. Now I have just two more days to knock out this big-time list before the big guy comes on the 24th. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…
A whole bunch of Henriksons
My mom’s maiden name is Henrikson. She and her two sisters lost their mother when they were still very young, and I think they because even closer because of that. All three lived in Leland, my hometown, and growing up we were all very close. There were nine of us grandkids, and we were really raised like siblings. We all spent a ton of time together, and almost every Sunday night was spent having pizza and popcorn at one of the sister’s houses. Each year we had a Henrikson Christmas party, and each year they were super big fun. We had a name draw, and it didn’t matter how old you were…you were included in the draw. Sometimes my grandpa would give gag gifts, too. One year he wrapped up pictures of himself for everyone in different sized boxes. Each time someone opened, he would just cackle with laughter. Another year he saved prizes from cereal and wrapped them up for us. Again, he just laughed and laughed about his antics. Whenever we were all together, there was always a lot of laughter.
Nowadays it’s much more difficult for all of us to get together. Some of the family lives in Florida, some in Georgia, and even though a lot of us still live in Illinois we all lead busy lives and find it very tough to coordinate a get-together. Somehow, though, we found a night when everyone Illinoian could come. I was even planning a trip up to Mom and Dad’s this weekend, so I didn’t have to make a special trip up just for the evening.
It wasn’t a traditional Christmas party; we didn’t exchange any gifts or anything like that. But we did catch up with each other and kept some of our old traditions. We made homemade ice cream, which was always a big event in our family. We also pulled out the old slides from the 70s and 80s. Man, I don’t even have any words to describe some of those. Here’s a couple of examples:
Some stylin’ thirty-somethings in the 70s. Yeah, two of them are my parents. Any guesses which ones?
This must have been my cousin Debbi’s birthday, as she’s the one opening a gift. I do love my hair…no question where Emma gets it, eh?
It was a fantastic night, and it was of course full of laughter. I feel fortunate to be part of the Henrikson family, and I’m grateful for the time we have together. Hopefully we’ll get to do it again soon.
Ben’s Christmas Program, aka “the Speaking Part”
A few weeks ago Ben came home from school all excited because he had a “speaking part” in the holiday program. It was a simple little line…”Feathery flakes of snow fall down, until they cover all the town.” He knew it in no time, and would confidently say it for us whenever we asked. But I was concerned about him saying it well during the concert. He sometimes gets so nervous about unknown things that he’s paralyzed with fear. As the concert day got closer, though, he talked more and more about it and about his speaking part. It was obvious they were practicing more, and Ben just seemed to get more and more excited.
Well, it finally got here…tonight was the program. I have to say that Northpoint does it well. It was a Kindergarten and First Grade program, but they had two in one night, so there were only two Kindergarten classes and two First Grade classes involved in each program. The songs were cute, and the kids performed so well. There were not kids screwing around at all, and I swear every single mouth was moving at the right time singing their hearts out. I was loving it, but was still nervous as Ben’s debut got closer. When it was time for his song, he literally stepped up to the microphone and said his line nice and slow and clear. I was thrilled. I know it wasn’t much, but to me it symbolized so much about Ben’s growth this year. At this time last year there would be no way he could do that in front of a crowded gym full of people. No way. But tonight he did it, and he did it with ease. He was proud of himself, but I was prouder of him than I can describe.
The Polar Express Party
Our friends the Inces have the best ideas for parties. You may remember me writing about their drive-in movie party last year. Every kid made his or her own “car” out of a box and they all watched Toy Story 3. It was big fun. This fall, their family went to ride on the Polar Express over Thanksgiving weekend, and that spawned another brilliant idea in Addie’s head. This time we could have a Polar Express party, and the kids could come in their jammies and watch that movie! It was brilliant timing, because the Bears were playing tonight, too, so the grownups had their own entertainment. Well, the way that game turned out I’m not sure we could call it entertainment, but it was good in theory. We ordered pizza and the kids ran around
The kids, however, had a blast. Addie borrowed a projector and showed the movie on their wall. Everyone brought sleds or saucers to sit in while they were watching, and most of the kids brought blankets and/or pillows to snuggle up with, too.
The lights were out for the movie so the kids could get the full movie theater experience. During the scene when the kids on the train were served hot chocolate, we served hot chocolate to our kids. Addie had thought of everything.
It was such an awesome evening…until it was time to go home. As always, we waited just about 10 minutes too long to leave. Emma was tired beyond belief and she absolutely melted down. You see, Ali just got a new kitten (named Pepper) and Emma just wanted to see her once more before we left. Pepper had been man-handled enough for the night, so we told her no. That was it, she was gone. She cried the entire way home, sobbing that she “just missed Peppa so much” and that she “just wished Daddy wasn’t awuhgic!” (Dave’s allergic to cats so there’s no chance we’ll ever have one). Thankfully they were already in their jammies, so as soon as we got home we did our best to calm her down and just threw her into bed.
It was a really fun party, and a great night with our friends. Hopefully soon nights like this won’t always end the same way…with complete meltdowns.
Gingerbread house time
One tradition the kids have had for the last few years is making gingerbread houses with Grandma Kerber. She and them both love it, and I don’t have to do it, which is great for all of us. After the first year she realized that buying pre-constructed houses was the best idea, and now that we’ve done it this way, it’s been a much better experience. Dave took the kids out to the farm as soon as he got off work tonight so they’d have plenty of time to decorate their houses. Grandma was all ready so they got started right away.
As always, the kids had a blast and the houses turned out great. Dave said that this year was the best ever, as the kids are a little more independent and made things even easier for the grown-ups involved. There was a lot of licking of the fingers and sampling of candy, but the houses did get completed.
It was a really great night for the kids, and I suspect it was for Grandma, too. The end results, as always, are beautiful and will make a great adition to our table.
Ben’s basketball debut
This morning Ben had his first ever basketball game. He’s been having practices on Monday and Wednesday nights for about 4 weeks now, and as a culmination of the class the Mon/Wed class plays the Tuesday/Thursday class in actual games. I really didn’t know what to expect, but it was pretty fun for the kids. Ben’s team was the Wolverines and we played the Hawkeyes (in case you’re not making the connection, they’re all named after Big Ten teams). It was classic kid basketball, where each team member wears a different color wristband. The opposing team wears the same wristbands so each kid knows who to guard. Just as I expected, there was a lot of bunching around the ball, but overall they did really well. Ben’s specialty was defense, for sure. He was on his guy like glue. He never got a basket, but he did have a couple of shots and a lot of great passes. Most importantly, he had a great time.
Although I felt badly that Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Nanny and Brett drove all the way down here for such a short event, but it was fun to have them there for Ben. He was thrilled.
A super busy week
It’s Friday night and I’m pooped. We’ve had so much going on this week that it simply flew by. Some of it was professional; I had a curriculum chair meeting on Monday and class on Tuesday. Some of it was for the kids; Ben had basketball on Monday and Wednesday and Emma had choir on Wednesday. Some of it was social; I had a girls night out on Thursday. If you add that all up it equals some committment every night and some nights two commitments. Ugh.
We were supposed to get together with our friends the Mathiases tonight, but half of their family is sick, so that got canceled. I have to admit that although I’m bummed we’re not going to see them, I’m relieved to have a nice relaxing evening with the entire family home.
Tomorrow the craziness continues as Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Nancy and Brett are coming down to watch Ben’s basketball game. After that the ladies are going shopping, which is good, since I haven’t even started mine yet. I do love this time of year, but sometimes it can just get too busy!
