Christmas Recap

I love Christmas! We spent a lot of time with family before and after Christmas, but decided to do Christmas morning just the four of us in our new house - starting a new tradition. I thought I should come up with a yummy Christmas morning breakfast idea - cinnamon buns from scratch. Sounds good, huh? Our Christmas Eve was comical. After returning from Christmas Eve Mass in Yuba City with my family, we drove home late, woke Finn up to put out the reindeer food that he made in preschool and the cookies for Santa and shuffled the kids off to bed. Nate and I were up until SO late, wrapping presents for our gift exchange the next day with family. I had to make an 11:30pm drive to our local 7-11 (the only place open in the entire world) for milk and eggs, essential cinnamon bun ingredients. We just sort of chuckled as Nate was ...assembling.... and I was kneading dough at midnight. It was just funny...All very worth it of course, as we watched Finn and Selah experience the magic of Christmas the next day....I mean, a few hours later. (Once a crammer, always a crammer I guess.)

Christmas Song Sing-Off 2009!

Well, my training paid off. After 3+ weeks of listening to non-stop Christmas music, one caroling party, one Christmas Eve choir rehearsal and many car rides with a toddler belting out "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", I can finally declare my victory over Nate in the 2009 Christmas Song Sing-Off! Yahooooo!

This has been a tradition for a few years now. One year while we were making the 7 hour drive up North for the holidays we came up with this game. We just take turns singing Christmas songs until someone can't think of one. It's that simple. Last year we came up with 86 songs! Here are our rules and guidelines:

* You HAVE to be able to sing at least 10 words of the song in a row for it to count.

* I swear we used to accept instrumental songs, if you could hum the whole thing, but Nate barred that this year. (bit of a Scroodge if you ask me. There goes Mannheim Steamroller and The Nutcracker.)

* It's more fun when you sing back-up for each other. We always go a little nuts during the Little Drummer Boy and Carol of the Bells.

* It's also more fun when you put your back into it. Don't just sing "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, sing Jessica Simpson's version - all breathy and whiney! Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" is a toughy though. I always look forward to Nate belting out Jackson Five's "I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus."

* Not EVERY song they've been playing on the Christmas music station counts in OUR game. Like....Bette Midler's "From a Distance" or "These Are a Few of My Favorite Things." Those don't count. And I cannot STAND Rod Stewart's version of that song.

*Songs you sang in your 4th grade Christmas program count...if you can remember them. But be strategic about it, save those for later in the game. The real doozy about this game is that Nate now knows songs from MY childhood and now uses them against me. This year HE used "Christmas is a Time to Love" from MY childhood Christmas record. (He plays dirty)

Good luck and have fun! See if you can beat 86! This year we only came up with 75. But we did it during a 2 hour drive to visit friends in Santa Rosa. **Ooh, I just remembered that we missed "Walkin in a Winter Wonderland"! Dang it!

Merry Christmas! Happy Singing!

A Message from SANTA!

Now here's a sign of our time...yesterday Finn got an email from Santa with a video message. Finn's eyes were WIDE the whole time, and he was nodding to Santa when he asked a question. It was awesome. (Thanks for the idea Lindsay!)

Click below to see it....and perhaps you or your kids can get a message too! **Warning, my dad got one today and ended up on Santa's naughty list! Luckily, Santa's message to my dad was one of hope.**

Santa's message to Finn!

A Message from Finn