Fairy Houses

Ulrike told us to stop by, she had gifts, so we took a little walk.  She and Chris were SO generous, thinking of each of us, including Scooter!  But Charley especially enjoyed her gift - so incredibly thoughtful!!!  She received a book I'd never heard of, called Fairy Houses - how glad I am Ulrike introduced us to this!!!  And along with it, a small jar filled with tiny fairy trinkets, to help us build our own fairy house!  She could hardly wait to get home and read the book, then immediately wanted to head outside and build her very own fairy house!

She really loved this tiny deer, however, and wanted to keep it for herself, rather than give it to the fairies.  ;)

The book, and fairy jar.

Building the house.

Putting a pile of rabbit fur in to make it nice and cozy.

She made a stone walkway so they can find the entrance.

Putting in the pretty shiny things.

Our fairy abode.

We kept some of the items in the jar, so we can periodically add to their house so they have surprises.  :)  So fun!

Christmas Prep

Decorating the tree!

Paula sent C some letter/number cookies.  She had a hard time finding all the letters, so she improvised - I was impressed!

Baking Christmas cookies.

We have to take a picture of EVERY boxelder bug she catches and keeps in her bug box.

Her dino family she built.

An Early Christmas

Sunday Dec. 14 was the last day we all had at home before our travels, so we put in a special request to Santa (via our Elf on the Shelf, Santa Star) to do our gift opening today.  Charley was concerned that we weren't doing it on Baby Jesus's birthday at all, but I assured her we'd have plenty more celebrating to do on his big day.  ;)  Here is what it looked like after Santa came...

And at 6 in the morning!

Charley went straight to her Santa gift - her new bike!

Reed honestly couldn't have cared less about his!

Stockings...

Oodles of glitter glue.  Can never go wrong with art supplies for this girl - she's a creating machine!

What's in there?

Love the baby...

Dada, can I open your stocking?

Their one joint gift - Dada's old circus trailer filled with animals of all shapes and sizes!

Reed needed to take a break and have a snack.

Charley needed to take a break and ride her bike...  okay, a couple of breaks...  okay, honestly, about 12 breaks.  And each year I think as she gets older it will change, but - no.  This kid, honestly, just has SO MUCH STUFF that she is unimpressed by gifts.  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?  We have to seriously prod, and, well, FORCE her to finish opening her presents each year, as she gets BORED partway through and is just done.  Sigh.  How have I allowed this to happen?

Reed says he's had enough of this, and went to play with his wagon.  He actually took a nap break mid-opening and had to come back and finish.  What is with my children?  Don't they know it's CHRISTMAS?!?

Checking out things in her new microscope.

Her MyReader - one of the very few gifts she really likes and has come back to again and again over the last few days.

Rod's annual snake book.

Thanks Nana and Pops.  We have played many rounds of this over the past few days - games I like to play with her!

Charley with her loot.  Look closely...  There are about 25 books.  I think we've finally read about 6 of them.  She honestly tossed them aside and wouldnt' even look at them/the titles until I hounded her to death and got 6 out of her.  Who knows when we'll get to the rest?  The 4 dolls were all mine, and I put them in her doll trunk with the other, oh I don't know, 30 dolls she has, and she hasn't looked at them since she opened them.  The 2 new puzzles haven't been out of their boxes yet.  The new memory game has yet to be played.  She's looked through her microscope a handful of times, and played with the circus animals with Dad one night.  Honestly, the only toys that have received real play are the bike, the "doctor kit" which consists of lots of miscellaneous supplies mom gathered when still employed (she has doctored on the new care bears a couple of times), Toss Across, and the myReader.  Wow, 4 toys.  The rest we could have skipped!

Here she is, doctoring on her owl.

Here's Reed with his goodies.  All recycled toys from Charley's baby days.  So far he's largely unimpressed too.  Give this kid his wagon and his teether (which he's carried everywhere with him for about a week now) and he's happy.

Her new indoor sandbox, which only comes out when bro is napping...

Thanks Dad!

Thanks Mom!

Watching her shows with her new bike.