The past six weeks have been full of holiday activities, play dates with friends, and school activities. Staying busy pushes us through the dark, winter season, and helps burn the never ending amount of energy three six-year-olds brings to our household. As the sun sets before four in the afternoon, it seems like that darkness turns into kid energy and wildness, all while cooped up indoors in the evenings.

We kicked off the Christmas season with a Samaritans Purse evening, organizing and filling boxes that would arrive all over the world, to share a little Christmas joy with other kids less fortunate. The girls were great helpers, customizing their boxes for girls aged four to six, and begging to do more than one box. They colored pages and wrote notes to include in their boxes and stacked them up in the big pile. Bonus was the cookie decorating table, which included some eating and some donating plates to others- all in all, it was a productive and fun night with their classmates.

Thanksgiving was late in November this year and nicely didn’t coincide with Craig’s birthday. Aunt Jenny purchased blue plaid, kid onesies that were quite the hit at dinner, with the girls wearing them consistently at night and while playing at home the past month, as we continue through our cold season. After a nice dinner at cousins’ house in Eagle River, we headed to the “real” Nutcracker show in Anchorage later that weekend, hosted by the Eugene Ballet group. Last year the show we attended was performed by a local ballet school and a little more kid friendly for noise; this year we watched the fancier one, meeting up with their friend Ava and practically sitting in the auditorium rafters. I had fancy hairstyles planned to match the Christmas dresses, but canned the idea after realizing we had the day wrong and only an hour notice to get everyone ready and downtown.

There were fewer when is it over complaints from Emerie this year; she seemed happy to sit with Ava and watch the show. Reagan also had a nice conversation with Ava’s dad during the show and Harper insisted on sitting with Craig for the whole thing. After a quick cookie snack at intermission -because everyone was apparently starving after an hour- they enjoyed watching the dances and beautiful sets and costumes, but were ready to run by the ending.

The school Christmas show went off marvelously and all three were strategically placed near each other, but with a non sibling in between each. All three sang their hearts out and did the motions to their songs, all smiles. I always enjoy these events, as it makes me feel more like a parent than other days of the year, and gives me a surreal sense of happiness.

A few other noteworthy, funny moments over the past month:

• Harper begged for Mrs. Claus dresses this year, which are harder to find than you might think! Grandma Sue ended up sending Santa and Elf themed sweater dresses from Fred Meyer and the girls continue to wear them at least a couple times a week. They are great for photo ops and warm for winter, not to mention cute!
• Emerie continues her goofball comments, with so many silly commentaries about Grandma’s baby boy– meaning Craig- and it’s hilarious. She latches on to an idea and then rolls with it for quite a while, accentuating the baby booooooy when talking about him.
• Reagan now creates word and spelling games for sisters. You’ll find two of them with heads together and thick as thieves, doing some kind of spelling categorization or asking how to spell a word. It’s very sweet to watch her guide and explain to her sisters; she is definitely our school kid of the three. Maybe there’s a future teacher in there!
• On a sweet note, Harper still starts her conversations with can I tell you something?! I love you. and I hope that lasts forever. Normal conversations often start with that question, and then she waits until you agree before starting her tangent. On the other hand, Emerie goes the opposite direction in the morning and often hollers I told you to stop waking me up! I want to wake up myself; go away! when starting off the morning for school. If you walk away she will get herself up like it was her idea in the first place; funny kid.
• Harper now requests music in a new way- the girls recently noticed the car screen shows album covers and it is often completely irrelevant to the playing music. I now receive requests such as can you play the song with the girl in the pink dress? and I’m supposed to know what that is. At least with the customized song names from the toddler days I could interpret it; I definitely don’t know album covers! All three also ask what song names are, as written on the screen, and are getting better at sounding them out.
• Emerie now tallies our life scores, whether we agree to participate or not. If I can’t answer a question, then my lack of correct response means she gets a point. I am unsure what these points tally toward, but I sure don’t seem to get any on my side. She asked Grandma Sue the other day how was God born? And the lack of “correct” answer earned Emerie a self proclaimed point, because she didn’t know. This is starting to happen more frequently off all her random questions.

Our girls continue to grow like weeds and no longer boast those baby faces and toddler mannerisms. In addition to sailing through an entire clothing size this summer- our quickest yet- we also rearranged their bedroom this month and removed the sofa chair purchased during my pregnancy. This felt like a mental blow to my mom brain, reminding us how rapidly they grow up, and prepared for the oversized beanbag chair arriving from Santa. That chair holds so many memories; used multiple times a day, every single day, for years: triple bottle feedings every three hours around the clock, quick diaper changes, comforting a crying baby in the middle of the night, calming wild toddlers at bedtime, snuggling for naps after Emerie’s many eye surgeries, or reading a gazillion books. I often found Emerie sitting on it with a stuffy, listening to a Tonie story, or Reagan singing along to one under a blanket. I couldn’t bring myself to rehome it, so its new home is downstairs in the family room, ready for more memories and cuddles to come. To this day, I truly believe it was the best purchase we made in preparation for the girls, and the most used piece of furniture those first few years. In other big kid news, the girls slept in the living room by the Christmas tree a couple different nights, which is another age milestone and something I greatly enjoyed and remember doing as a 90s kid.

In addition to moving furniture to make way for new activities, so begins the arguments and deep discussions related to boy crushes. I thought we’d have more time since they are only six, but exactly that occurred at the end of a school day earlier this month. I arrived with Harper in tears and Emerie mad, and Reagan running up to explain they were fighting because Harper told Emerie her secret crush and Emerie didn’t keep the secret. Emerie told her teacher, who responded they are too young for crushes (which is true!) and Harper lost her mind. Ooof, that was such a fun ride home, believe you me! This is a terrifying preview of the teenage years…SO not ready yet. The girls now intermittently discuss their “crushes” and which boys in their class they will marry someday. Reagan still wants to have twin girls and has their names chosen already, Harper wants triplets (ha!) and Emerie is a no go to having any babies in her belly, at least right now.

Christmas break this year was significantly easier than years past, and not only because of the surprise arrival of Grandma Sue (surprise to me) and Auntie Amanda (to the girls). In addition to all the Christmas arts and crafts and goodie cooking, the girls will now wander off to read a book or write something out with a drawing, which they didn’t independently do last year. Lego building, dolls sets, and a variety of slime related activities help keep the sanity too, in addition to the afternoon parkour gymnastics down the street to burn energy and give me a small break. We watched several movies at the theater, including Moana 2 twice, and had several successful ice skating excursions at the mall. Everyone is excited for skating lessons starting in January, and three impatient girls wanting it to start already.

We visited Santa at Cabela’s, and he asked everyone how old they were. When all three answered six in a row, Santa still didn’t catch on. Instead, he asked them what it was like to be twins; they were not impressed and quickly corrected him. Santa should know better!! Christmas morning did bring one Santa present request; a panda, turtle, and seal onesie, specific to each kid’s favorite animal. Good thing Santa was listening…. 🙂

I took two weeks off work for school break, not knowing that Grandma Sue was coming up for some of the fun. I nearly spilled the beans about Amanda’s visit multiple times but managed to keep that one a surprise. Picking them both up at the airport resulted in three very happy girls, who had no idea why we were driving past Mom’s work to Mom’s airport! So many delicious, Christmas goodies were consumed the past few weeks, and the girls helped Grandma with so much baking. All three liked her fruit dip, or should I say vanilla pudding, and were unimpressed with added spices. They sure did eat all the apples and grapes intended for that dip, but without the dip! Everyone helped me make gingerbread cookies and did great this year cutting out the cookies, including three new custom shapes for our set: a turtle, panda and seal (see the theme here?!). In addition to decorating a couple dozen cookies, everyone was thrilled to display the customized gingerbread house on the table and admire it for a couple weeks over the holiday.

We painted and baked Christmas plates this year and watched a new holiday movie for the first time, Home Alone. The girls didn’t want to watch it at first, but once the story line picked up, they were hooked and giggling at all the torturous activities to keep out the house thieves. A few other new Disney movies prompted some distress and bad dreams, on random things they latched onto; an issue that resolved itself after a few nights and much discussion about life, death, and heaven.

After a quick hour of Christmas Eve prepping after bedtime, which included placing out the already wrapped presents from sneaky wrapping sessions over a few weeks, Craig and Amanda built the new vanity and mirror set and I stuffed stockings. I spaced out all the tasks to prep for the big day, making the night before go much quicker. All three left a cookie out for Santa, Emerie leaving hers on a tiny doll plate after adamantly demanding it had to be that way. Everyone slept well and went to bed discussing Santa’s impending visit.

Emerie and Reagan were up by 6:30, but I managed to contain them until about 7:00, when the excitement was just too much to bear. They dragged a sleepy Harper out of bed to demands of presents, and wandered downstairs to see the big, pink beanbag chair on the floor and presents scattered around the room. After a cup of coffee for the adults, presents were opened in sets of three, just like prior years. It is relatively organized and fast paced, with all three opening similar gifts simultaneously and sharing their excitement. They have different answers to their favorite gifts than I do. For example, I made a princess photo album for our Disney World trip that includes pictures of all the princesses with the girls, and of course the “magic” shots courtesy of the park cameras. I wanted the girls to be able to flip through an album and remember the trip whenever they want, like adults do on their phones. Finding three Precious Moments picture frames was a great find too, and filling them with a picture of each kiddo with their favorite princess; now I just need to find them a home to keep them from getting broken.

While Christmas isn’t all about presents, we still endeavor to make sure to have a fun and magical day. It was fun to share it with Sue and Amanda, and allow Craig to make his fancy beef wellington in peace while everyone checked out their new toys. Each kiddo received something to play with customized to their specific desires, since they aren’t all the same, a few clothing items to wear, and doll sets from both Grandma Sue and Grandma Anne. The girls ran around with their new doll pets and carriers from Grandma Anne and danced with light up animal ballerinas that play music from the Nutcracker from Grandma Sue and Papa Lon. Adults helped opened the toy contraptions and enjoyed laying on the floor playing together, mostly nicely!

Craig found dresses for all three in their favorite animals -not an easy feat- and a princess dress for each was also unwrapped. By mid-morning all three had changed outfits at least three times with no end in sight. Another outfit change was prompted later that evening after opening presents from cousins…wait for it…white wedding dresses and vails! This was met with great excitement, immediately running upstairs to change into “wedding girls.” Not going to lie…they look SUPER cute in those outfits, and had so much fun running around in them.

When asked what their favorite gift was, Emerie responded the turtle costume and really I just like everything. I like my Elsa photo. Harper responded she liked all her presents and opening them and can’t choose a favorite. Reagan’s response was her stuffed panda from Amanda and the pink mirror (vanity) where we can do our hair.

Only one real hiccup on the big day occurred and kept us on our toes for holiday events with family. I left carpet cleaner spray on the stairs, intending to better clean the carpet where the cat left us his own Christmas gift; Emerie picked it up at some point in the evening and chased everyone with it, ultimately spraying those chemicals into cousin Elliot’s hair and eyes and prompting an unplanned shower and face scrubbing and some red eyes. Can’t say we’ve had that happen before…nothing says holiday cheer like spraying dangerous chemicals at your cousins, right?

The week between Christmas and New Years is a type of no-mans land, where you don’t know what day it is and time is spent doing whatever you want to make it through Christmas break with the kids. The gymnastics afternoons greatly assisted giving Amanda and I short kid breaks, and we filled the mornings with other fun activities like cleaning and organizing the house, painting creations at Color Me Mine, playing outside and with the neighbor kid, building Lego sets and watching Star Wars with Amanda, creating slime and play dough creations, and hitting up jump parks and playgrounds. I was hoping for a few sledding adventures while Amanda was here, but the cold temperatures and lack of snow conditions were less than desirable. Build days at Lowe’s and Home Depot were also a hit, as was Zoo Lights one night.

Having family visit during the break was such a much needed treat. I love being in a central location (by Alaska standards) and getting unplanned (and planned!) drop-ins, something I did t have as a kid with no nearby family. Grandma Sue and Auntie Amanda staying with us not only gave Craig and me a chance to recharge (I even got to sit down and read a book one afternoon!) but also created so many fun memories for the girls. Cousin Jaren flew in for a couple hours one afternoon before returning home; Uncle Will stopped over a few times to enjoy dinner and make glittered slime with the girls. Papa Cliff stopped by with a few presents. Cousin Tyler brought Chatum, Dorian, and Beckham over, and the kids had a blast riding the four wheelers in the freezing dark. It’s amazing how much longer they can endure the cold when they’re having fun! The boys were such good sports about it. At one point, Chatum and Harper came speeding down the street, with Harper at the wheel, laughing and shouting, we won! as they zoomed toward the house. Emerie and Dorian’s four wheeler died at one point in the neighborhood and they required rescue, but no upset kiddos from being out that long in the cold.

The cherry on top of all the visits was getting to meet the newest additions to the family- (second) cousin Amber’s identical twin girls, who made the trek all the way from Kenai just to see us. I believe this was the first time the girls have held babies this small and everyone was eager to participate, Reagan really taking her momming skills up to the next level. In fact, baby Kylan took a nap on her and it was so very sweet to watch her tuck her into her blanket and whisper. Elsie took a nice nap on the new beanbag chair and looked so cozy and happy, and they slept through the noise of our house! Spending a few hours with three month olds is a good reminder at how far we’ve come, and how much easier the day to day is now that the girls are more self sufficient and are out of naps and diapers. I am SO excited for next summer when they are mobile and we can get out and about.

It was a wonderful holiday season, and I tried to treasure every moment, knowing how fleeting they are. We only have a few more years to enjoy the magic of childhood at Christmas and I can’t even believe how fast it’s gone. A meme I saw earlier this month summed it up accurately: remember this is the youngest they’ll ever be at Christmas again. Pretty solid thought! Merry Christmas and happy new year…here we go 2025!

❤