In an attempt to restrain myself from blabbing on and on about the rugrats, I've started a blog to upload photos and videos and the occasional story for your internet browsing pleasure.
It was 70 degrees on Christmas Day and Sam took the kids out to Rockbridge State Park while I stayed home with Leah (to clean and get ready for my mom and Steve coming over).
I got a text after they'd been there for a bit that James learned how to skip rocks!
They took their flashlights and went down into the Devil's Icebox.
James came back with his boots just absolutely soaked.
Amelie packed three books for the car ride, since she thought they were going to the same cave where her class took a field trip, and that was a much longer drive. Anyway, James wanted to stay longer than she did and practice rock-skipping, so they compromised by going back to the car so she could get her books to read in this tree.
For several years in a row now, the big kids have slept in on Christmas morning. They did eventually wake up and open gifts under the tree. James refused to wear Christmas pajamas (despite my genius plan to have a comparison photo to when he was 2 in green Christmas pajamas), but the girls were into it.
They stacked their presents up in piles first, and then Leah stood on top of her pile, because why not?
Her present was taller than she is.
They got a lot of books!
Leah stopped unwrapping things after she got this Daniel Tiger book.
She also used up 90% of her Baby Shark stickers Christmas morning - you can see several of them stuck to the front of her pajamas.
Here's James, contemplating one of his remote-controlled toys:
Here he's driving the remote-controlled car (and Spark is suspiciously watching). Spark got a few presents, too, but I didn't take any pictures.
Updated with video:
James with his stocking stuffer beef jerky (and one of Amelie's books, it looks like).
Leah with her chocolate train engine stocking stuffer. She was a Big Fan of all of the freely-flowing candy.
The aftermath. You can see that someone has removed their pants.
Later Christmas Day, Sam took the kids out to Rockbridge, but I'll save that for another post.
We did gifts and dinner with Sam's folks on Saturday - here are the cousins!
I think we're six years running with our Christmas Eve tradition of attending candlelight service and then going to the magic tree.
There were real candles and also electric candles (for the first time this year - last year, there was an incident of hair singeing - not my family this time!) Amelie had a real candle, and she took her responsibility very seriously.
Leah has an electric candle. This photo's a little blurry but her Santa dress was a big hit. She also wandered up front to contemplate the manger for a bit.
James managed to fall in the water feature at the magic tree, but that didn't dampen his spirits.
Sam likes this picture of these two for some reason.
I think the big kids were off playing by the waterfall by this point, so we took a selfie with the toddler.
She was pretty pooped by the end of the evening (that might be a good reason as to why they always sleep in on Christmas morning - post still to come.) Also, note the boots - we were prepared for the mud this year!
We got some snow! Sam didn't want me to post the video because it looked like the kids might hit a tree, but they didn't! Not all day!
Sam was home with the kids on the first day of snow. He took several really nice pictures of them sledding. Here they are on the trek to the park.
It was Leah's first time! Last year the big kids went out without her.
She is a fan.
James is wearing Sam's too-big hat. He's already lost his nice new hat from this year and his hat from last year. I feel like they may turn up in the school lost and found.
Sam's become a regular selfie pro.
This is me after my brisk walk into the library.
The second day, Sam went into work in the AM (he walked all the way to the Nifong office!) and then we were all home most of the day - the library ended up being closed so I got to go sledding, too.
Amelie and James walking on the way to the park. Our more northern friends are laughing at what constitutes a snow day, but it was icy!
Leah pulled her sleigh, too - but only for a bit, and then she sat in it and I pulled her. (It slid nicely since the road was slick.)
She just would.not.stop. eating the snow. Well over half of the photos have her hand up to her mouth - the bad part is she keeps trying to eat it six and seven days out. (Yuck!)
Such a good big brother.
There's Amelie!
She tried to go out the farthest.
We had a fun time!
I'm pretty sure I found this snowball in the freezer later.
