2014 :: week 52

December 21

Sunday evening my parents invited several families over to their house for a Christmas sing-a-long. People requested Christmas songs and there was almost always someone in the group who could accompany on the piano. There were lots of desserts to munch on and visiting going on too. Before the crowds came I did my best to get a smile of out of Tyler. He's a bit of a momma's boy right now, but as long as she was close by he was willing to share a grin with me.

December 22

Will has taken to tying knots again. He tied a series of knots in his room that have made access to his drawers a bit difficult. He's quite proud of them and was annoyed when I took one down so I could put away his clean clothes.

December 23

For Christmas Eve Eve we spent the afternoon at Crown Center and Union Station with the Staritas, Wilsons and Jill.

December 24

Since we had a large cast available we decided to put on a full ensamble production of the Christmas story Christmas Eve evening. Tony did double duty as both the donkey that carried Mary to Bethlehem and a wise man. It was so fun having the entire Crane family in town and to celebrate Christmas together.

December 25

The kids woke up before we did on Christmas morning. Will dressed himself (he could only get shorts out of his drawers due to the aforementioned knots!) and Lauren was upset we made her stop and pose for a picture. These kids made Christmas morning magical, even if they don't cooperate with my goal to have a cute Christmas-morning-stair-shot. Five and three are pretty magical ages. I don't have many more years before Will realizes that it's more than a coincidence that Santa shops at Target too and buys things we saw on sale together.

December 26

We spent this Boxing Day literally boxing up Christmas. We left the next morning for a week in Boston and didn't want to come home to a dried out Christmas tree. I was sad to put things away so early, but when we walked into our house after being gone a week I was very glad we'd made the effort. We spent the morning cleaning while the kids played with their new toys, and the afternoon at my parents house playing games and eating leftovers. My dad always makes a ham for Christmas, so we've been eating leftover ham and Swiss cheese sandwiches on rolls December 26th for as long as I can remember.

December 27

We flew to Boston! And Lauren was in heaven when we got there because she loves babies and there were 3 eight month olds and one 15 month old (who is more of a toddler, but because she was a baby last time we saw her Lauren treated her like a baby too). Even though it looks like she is trying to choke Camille in this picture, she was actually very tenderly touching her and telling her she was "so cute."