A friend has this posted on Facebook this morning, and I thought it was neat. How many can you get?

1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief.

2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds.

3. An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere.

4. Embellish the interior passageways.

5. Exalted heavenly beings to whom hearked.

6. Twelve o’clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival.

7. The Christmas preceding all others.

8. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem.

9. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionist.

10. Omnipotent Supreme Being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males.

11. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals.

12. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical, masculine perennial gift-giver.

13. Natal celebration devoid of color.

14. In awe of the nocturnal time span characterized by religiosity.

15. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of Mother Nature’s dormancy.

16. The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of far eastern heads of state.

17. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted metallic resonant cups.

18. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children’s slumber furniture.

19. Proceed forth upon a specific geological alpine formation.

20. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us.

gingerbread

Poor Boy2! He's been feeling a bit out of sorts lately, but this evening he has a fever. Plus he's not been eating all that much. He said his diaper was too tight before it was fastened, then he said his tummy was too tight. Lots of snuggles with Mom and Dad, he was in bed asleep by just after six tonight. Hope the Tylenol works!

The Boy has a Christmas concert coming up on Thursday night. I am so excited! This is the first year in what will likely be a LONG string of years with concerts. He has been "jingle bell"-ing and "gloria"-ing for the last week. The only hitch is that he woke up a bit croaky this morning and this evening. He may not have much of a voice tomorrow, but hopefully honey will help (it's his favorite part of having a sore throat!)

My little Girl has been telling so many stories today! Bubbles and kicking, laughing and burbling. It really is amazing watching babies grow. This is my third baby I've watched as they've slept and grown. It never fails to amaze and wonder. I look at the small nose, chubby cheeks, and tiny fingers and I think, "I made this?" No doubt about it, Hubby and I make adorable babies!

The kitchen has been a very busy place. We did the shortbread and sugar cookies last week, and yesterday we did gingerbread. Hubby has been bugging me about my lazy icing (just making coloured butter icing and spreading it on the cookies). I thought it was pretty good! (When I was growing up we just sprinkled them. No icing) But this time I made the special icing (green, because that's what the Boy wanted) and Hubby picked up some candy. Wow, did the Boy ever have fun! They have to be the most "interesting" looking gingerbread, though. Reeses pieces and gummy bears on gingerbread with green royal icing. Next time, I choose the candy!

Christmas Music

We picked up a new CD the other day when we were at WEM (or the big mall with the pirate ship). It is the one Christmas album that was played and played ad infinitum. My mother played it so much that she literally wore through the cassette and then had to buy it in CD.

Every Christmas when I dig out the music, these songs play in my head and repeat. Every year I say that I should pick up this album, and I never do. So when we were meandering through the mall and I saw it. I didn't think twice, I just picked it up.

You may be guessing what the album is. I'll give you a hint: "Mary's boy child, Jesus Christ, was born on Christmas Day. And man will live forevermore because of Christmas Day!" Did you get it? It's the Boney M Christmas CD. Wow, do the memories ever hit me like a ton of bricks when the songs start playing!

There are a few musical staples in our holiday collection. Roger Whittaker, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, I think we even have Spike Jones singing "Rudolf"! Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, the list goes on. Last night, when the boys were singing and drumming along, I was so happy! Only 18 more sleeps!

Swinging to the Christmas Rock

One thing I absolutely love about being a stay at home parent is that I see and take part more first hand on the development and growth of the kids. I see the words and understanding come. I see the (sometimes illogical) child logic come together.

Today I really needed a nap. The Boy really needed a nap. Everyone needed a nap. Who got a nap? Boy2 and the Girl. I tried to get the Boy to sleep by saying I was going to sleep on his bunk bed. He called my bluff and said he was going to sleep on my bed. I thought, "Okay, it's been a while, but we can all sleep on the big bed."

Boy2 fell asleep really fast (he always does). The Girl ate, talked and laughed a bit, then fell asleep pretty quickly too. I thought, "Well, the Boy has been very tired all morning. This shouldn't take long." Boy, was I wrong!

An hour and a half later, he's still awake, playing with my hair, playing with his toes, his fingers, everything but being still. He knows and I know that if he gets warm and sits still for two minutes, he'll fall asleep. So he doesn't sit still, doesn't close his eyes, and doesn't keep his blanket on. Oh, well.

I do enjoy watching them play, though. We put together the train set this afternoon, they got out the plastic bowls and wooden spoons and were drumming away to "The Christmas Rock" ( a moose on a Santa train singing the song), and then the Boy decided he was going to make chocolate cake and he needed butter and salt. (I managed to talk him into waiting till tomorrow and we'd make one then.)

They do love their sister, though. She's sitting on the floor right now, propped up with pillows and they just aren't leaving them alone. Boy2 is playing the guitar (a wooden spoon) and bouncing up and down. The boy is jumping from the coffee table to the sofa (again). It really doesn't matter how many times you repeat yourself.

But, despite the frustrations I have surrounding nap time, the days are wonderful.

plans

It's been another busy week in the Macintyre home. Tuesday we made shortbread cookies, Wednesday was sugar cookies for preschool and soup for the soup and bun supper at the church before vespers, and yesterday I decided to whip up a batch of buns to go with supper. Busy kitchen and lots of dishes. Then, yesterday I promised the Boy that we'd do waffles for breakfast this morning, so now I have the waffle iron to wash. Tasty, though.

Part of the plan for today is to spend lots of money. We're going to attempt to do most of our Christmas shopping today. We were hoping to get going early, but the malls don't open until ten. The boys are prepped, telling them the plan for the day, so I hope the day will go smoothly. Looking forward to having lunch in the city with a Great Aunt and Uncle.

I can't seem to get the kids to leave the Christmas tree alone. I find four or five ornaments on the same branch, hooks on the floor, ornaments on the floor, the window stickers all over the house! I know it's normal, but every time I come back into the living room, the mess is back!

She got WHAT in her belly button???

Last night we made pizza. A smaller one with just cheese for the boys, and ours had hamburger and onion cooked with Italian seasoning. And, since we had it, we used white old cheddar instead of mozzarella. VERY tasty!

Anyway, while the Boy was munching his supper, he was browsing through a complimentary magazine we got in the mail. One of the ads for diapers had a picture or a water tower wearing a diaper. He glanced a it, turned the page, then giggled, turned the page back, and laughed some more. "Momma, I never seen a water tower wear a diaper!" "No, that's pretty silly, isn't it?" "We need to take off the diaper, then it be NAKED!" Too funny!

Boy2 is turning into quite a character. I can tell when there is way too much TV and not enough sleep or healthy snacks. He doesn't do it to anyone else, but he'll bite the Boy, or at least grab his shirt or pants to bite. Don't know what to do. It doesn't seem to happen when he's well rested, but with the Boy not sleeping much at all during the day, he tends to wake up his younger brother before nap time is done.

The Girl really surprised us the other day. When you have little boys, diaper explosions are fairly common. Since certain parts of their anatomy block things from going up the front, they travel up the back. Oh, the number of outfits ruined! Anyways, with girls, that tends to not happen, since there's more space in the diaper. On Friday afternoon, though, she was in her swing, happy as a clam. When I went to pick her up, she was a little smelly. Okay, that's not unusual. What was unusual was the fact that there was goop, EVERYWHERE! Up her back, up her front, down her legs, it was a massive mess!

Needless to say, she had another bath that afternoon. In the big bathtub, because the baby tub was downstairs. She had fun. Mom and Dad found it easy to laugh about. We usually do. If you can't laugh when you're surrounded by baby poop, you are taking yourself way too seriously! Parenthood is fun. You have to enjoy your kids. Even the not-so-fun aspects of it.what

Today

Happy Saturday, people!

This is the first weekend of Advent, so the Macintyre family is preparing by creating in the kitchen. If you refer back to one of my first posts, I wrote about making perogs. That is what we are doing today. I love them, Hubby LOVES them, the kids used to like them, con't right now but I hope they will again in the future. It's really hard not to like bacon and sweet bread.

We also are going to try to clean and de-clutter a bit. It's amazing how quickly it creeps up if you don't do it everyday! I came across one of those email forwards that said something about cleaning and how dirt doesn't go anywhere but your kids grow too quickly. Those are words I live by. As a result, the house gets VERY messy. Oh, well!