Dec 31

A Very Merry Christmas

Another year down, another successful Christmas weekend with family and first half of Christmas break. Overall things were pretty quiet on activities- not quiet on sound mind you, obviously- and it’s now very evident the girls can entertainment themselves much more than in years past. Other than the massive amount of effort it takes to open toys from their insane packaging; the girls overall enjoyed playing with their new gifts and even let the parents enjoy some down time on the couch. The next sinus cold and cough hit the house a couple days before the big day; luckily it happened after their Christmas show, the Nutcracker event and after school break began.

Knowing the kids would be home this Christmas instead of in preschool child watch, and with Grandma Sue’s arrival after presents were opened and played with, I made a point to wrap a couple boxes every few days before school pickup and stashed them away. It is getting hard to creatively find places for things that won’t be discovered. These preparations made Christmas Eve much more efficient; it only took Craig and I maybe fifteen minutes to set everything out for morning. And it may not look like it, but I definitely have a method to my madness on gift giving procedure. Competition is in full throttle in this household on everything, even more so than in previous years as they mature, so we made a point to get similar gifts for each kiddo to open simultaneously, and one specifically chosen present for each kiddo.

We had a full house on Christmas Eve, with the boys and Keegan and Jenny, Uncle William, and Papa Cliff. Within five minutes of cousins arrival, the living room was a mess of wrapping paper, new toys and clothes, excited children, and general chaos. We all may need hearing aids by the time we are forty at this rate (and that isn’t very far from now for some of us!)! Aunt Jenny’s selections were spot on again this year, gifting everyone cute pink, purple, and blue flower bag clips to signify whose was whose, and lots of girl stuff. The horse set was a hit, as were the Barbies. Everyone paused long enough in the evening to sit and build the Lego Christmas globe ornaments (which are super cool and light up!). Building these is not for the weak, and she did it with all five. The boys were off and running with their Jurassic Park (Corbin) and Minecraft (Elliot) themed slippers and toys. I love that Jenny and I get to swap for Christmas and she can buy all the frilly, girly things while I get to peruse the boys aisle, which I don’t venture down often. Craig made a delicious lamb dish, which the kids even ate (when you call it steak!), and the frozen fruit dessert by Jenny was also a hit. We also forced the children into all matching Christmas pajamas with a less than successful group photo at the end of the night.

The Christmas morning plan involved each kiddo receiving one request from some point over the last month, one big present customized to each, and a few other odds and ends that we knew they would enjoy (or, to be honest, we couldn’t resist buying because they would love it). For the small custom gift, Harper asked for a replacement ballerina jewelry box to replace her broken one, and the new box came with a ballerina necklace she’s worn around the house. Emerie’s small gift was a stuffed turtle notebook I found a while back; and for Reagan, an Ergo-baby doll carrier so she can tote her baby pandas around and be hands free. It’s the cutest thing and a legitimate baby carrier; just in miniature size!

For the big gift, this took more creativity. This is the first year we opted for something specific to each girl’s desires: a doll spa/salon “room” and salon chair for Harper (the chair actually pushes up like at a real hair salon), a gift that remained in the middle of the living room for a week with constant attention. Emerie received a portable Frozen castle set that folds out, and a doll table and chair set, because she kept asking for a doll table and chairs on repeat. Very specific and that was on her mind at least a month, because her answer hasn’t changed. Craig and I found a drivable princess carriage for Reagan and a cute doll bathtub. All three took turns driving their stuffed animals and barbies around the living room and it was one of the more popular choices for the day. They also coordinated a covert op to trash the bathroom and give their dolls baths- you know, or just general drowning of those poor dolls- which resulted in a lovely water mess to clean up. Real life I tell you…at least they were having fun?

Like past years, presents were grouped in threes so similar things were opened at the same time, and then a couple group things to all open together, such as crafts and alphabet magnets. The other highlight was the princess Lego sets, which HAD to be built immediately before opening more. It took us about three days to open everything; we tried to space it out so everything was played with, and that worked pretty well. On day three the kid digital cameras were opened- one green panda, one purple unicorn, and one pink unicorn- and they’ve been running around with them ever since! One can only imagine the images that are saved when we load them on the computer, and Harper figured out how to add mustaches to the screen so we likely all have mustache photos now.

We may be in some hot water with Harper over the lack of her main Santa request, which was apparently a white teddy bear with a pink dress. Either we weren’t listening or I never remotely considered buying more stuffed animals as presents, but I swear I didn’t hear this request until Christmas morning, when she observed several times that Santa didn’t get what she was hoping for. No such luck in making effort on that and I’m hoping she will forget at some point and not be cross with Santa, who doesn’t listen to her. Poor kid.

In the midst of Christmas morning Reagan’s beloved bestie, her “tiny” panda who she calls Pandarina, went missing. After a week of scouring the house, knowing it’s here somewhere, it has not been found. Craig and I -might- have purchased another much cleaner and softer one from the same toy store and replaced it, just to stop hearing the constant stress over its vanishing. I didn’t realize how gross her companion was until I felt the new one…

It’s been a busy week at home since Christmas Day. My house is covered in paper chains, something the girls learned at school this month and forced Papa Cliff to make dozens of. They are now decorating the tree, taped to the toy bins, and hanging from their bunk bed; it’s pretty cute.

The naughtiness remains about the same, with Craig catching all three eating a whole box of apple sauce pouches in the garage one day. We continue to find ground up chalk all over the place too. The cozy pajamas, messy hair buns, dirty aprons, and generally relaxed atmosphere is nice; sometimes I prefer staying home and embracing the kid chaos, knowing in the future I will look back and miss these days. While I may not miss the high volume (or the fighting), I will definitely miss the activities, the coloring together, listening to them sing a song to themselves or focus while decorating cookies, and the requests to help cook.

We also received quick visits from cousins Tyler, Jaren, and Chatum, with the girls displaying the usual level of crazy excitement to see them and then breaking out into fantastic coughing fits. Not having grown up with any family living in the same state, I really enjoy that the girls get the chance to see five of their cousins on the regular. During the visit Chatum decided the level of child giggles and harassment was enough, and much like Uncle Will has done this winter, opted to toss the kids straight out into the snow pile. Watching him pry three wildly giggling and screaming children down the stairs without help from the other laughing adults in the room, and making it to the back deck with a bit of help from Grandma Sue, was definitely the highlight of that day. Well it was, until the aftermath of screaming and crying and cold blooded rage re-entered the room, which I couldn’t help but chuckle at. Such memories in the making.

Baking donuts in their aprons & messy buns

Grandma Sue arrived a few days after Christmas to give Craig and I help to be able to work over the school break, and with that comes craft projects, cleaning activities, delicious homemade meals, baked goods and the girls excitedly assisting with everything as much as possible. Everyone spent an hour creating a hand sewing project with Grandma (how she did three different ones at the same time, I don’t know because I certainly couldn’t) and a 3d princess puzzle, the first big kid puzzle we’ve done. They already want to do it again!

Homemade donuts with sprinkles were also must and everyone was thrilled to participate and share them with a beloved Jessie (and Sara!). Of course we also had to have my favorite chicken fried steak for dinner, with all three asking for seconds! I bet other goodies over the next week will be the highlight of the girls’ time off.

The earrings I ordered for Christmas stockings were too hard to screw on, so we took the girls to the mall to find different ones. Amazingly, we found multiple turtle earrings for Emerie, panda faces for Reagan, AND pink eared koala bears for Harper, since seal earrings probably don’t exist. The little girl earrings look so big on them compared to studs and they are so proud to be big girls, now that they believe it’s not the same piercing experience to change them out.

Not much else to report this week, other than I sold our last triplet stroller to a younger set (and I might go cry in the corner when I think that entire phase is completely over for us!). Now we are ready to bring in 2024 and see what adventures this year will bring us!

❤

Nov 15

Snowstravaganza

Well…to no one’s surprised, winter is here! And not only is it here, but it decided to take over in epic force and beat us into immediate submission, breaking a couple records within the first two weeks. In fact, one more inch and it will be the snowiest November on record for Anchorage; this doesn’t even consider that the month is only halfway over. While I should be impressed and awed by the continual snow filled clouds that are sharing their joy (too much?), the lack of plowed roads in our neighborhood makes navigating very difficult, with many distressed vehicles and public school closures. While I don’t generally don’t mind the beginning of winter once it starts- I’m definitely over it by the end though- this year began with quite the bang and dropped two feet on us at a very expedited rate. Was it beautiful? Absolutely! Did it take FOREVER to stop falling? Yes. But we live in a winter state, so I guess we should try to embrace the chaos…as I’ve done in other parts of my life!

I had planned to give a brief update on our Halloween fun last month, and now it feels strange because the level of snow makes it feel like fall ended months ago, not two, short weeks ago. Halloween night weather was much more amenable this year but as usual, everyone wasn’t feeling their best, including me! Harper opted to be Ariel, Reagan continued as Jasmine, and Emerie as Alice in Wonderland. Harper, with her extreme cough and two-hour afternoon nap (which showed she really felt sick!), meant she was the first to want to go home; she made it a few blocks farther than expected before asking to go back. Reagan followed her sister and Craig and opted to go back home, while Emerie and I ended walked a few more houses along our street before heading home. The girls were happy Tyler drove in again this year and walked around with us, and overall the night was pretty uneventful.

Unsurprisingly, the girls don’t see an issue with all this snow. Well, maybe a little if we boot them outside in their winter gear when it’s not their idea…but they will survive and it’s good for them! When Emerie peeked out the bedroom window after a couple inches of snow finally stuck overnight, she instantly hollered at me it’s snowy! That means it’s almost our birthday! Once I calmed down that reality, which is still five months away, she was contented to know the change in weather meant Christmas would be here soon, and all we had to list off all the family’s upcoming winter birthdays. Harper continues to ask when we can put the Christmas tree up; if we get another foot of snow this week, I might just cave in to her request!

With winter comes daylight savings time, with fall falling back and prompting a dramatic shift to darkness in the evenings. The girls are much more attentive to the change this year, and have asked multiple times why we are going to bed before dinnertime, because it’s so dark out they assume it’s time for bed. Luckily the time shift didn’t mess with sleep routines much, but this is more attributed to the lingering cough, fevers and need for more sleep to combat it. As we slowly creep out of the current illnesses and winter plagues, Emerie and Harper are back to being content to sleep in their bunk beds, surrounding by a thousand stuffed animals, blankets and nightlights, and Reagan still makes it about half the night and then ends up in bed with the parents.

Everyone is thrilled to ride with Craig on the four wheeler and “help” plow the driveway. This snowfall is extremely heavy and very difficult to push with a shovel (especially as I still recover from my lung infection!) and so Craig broke out the four wheeler to clear as much as possible using the plow. He immediately broke out the new-to-us inter-tube and pulled the girls around the neighborhood. For the moment all three can snugly fit on it together and we will definitely have to invest in a larger one as they get older. Buddies Kaden and Oaki came over after the first snowfall and were excited to drive the kid wheelers, with the girls riding on the back of Kaden’s for runs down the street and back. In a moment of bravery, Emerie hopped onto one and proceeded to do an unplanned donut as the adults chased her, shouting to let go of the accelerator. She thought that was just hilarious.

On the school front, the girls are greatly advancing on their letter recognition. They are starting to read television show titles and can rapidly rattle them off; and frequently ask what words the letter spell out. We now have a new game to spell the letters on signs and buildings and they all want to do it at the same time. Kids learn so quick! They are also improving on sounding out what words start with and answering their own questions when encouraged. With the turn to cold weather, more time is spent coloring than in the summer time and that includes tons of inquiries on how to spell different words on their creations. I’m starting to think that we may spend a great deal more time than other families using markers, paint, sparkly or gel pens and combing through thousands of coloring book pages, while sitting at the table, all coloring and making creations together. This is a main activity in our house year round, but even more-so when we are inside during the cold darkness. Reagan is still my top coloring kid and takes the time to think out how she wants to design something, spending a lot of time perfecting it. Harper is still on her rainbow kick and brings many papers home with a rainbow theme. Her people sketches are also greatly improving and I love to see who she draws and the interpretation of who they are and why. The girls also enjoy using their school scissors to destroy my house with tiny bits of paper- ahem I mean make art- and cut out grass on their flower drawings. Emerie enjoys making Santa bracelets, no clue why she calls them that, and will sit on the floor and cut out strips of paper and tape them together into a colorful chain. They are popping up all over my house and she is very proud to do it all herself. We will certainly make some to hang on the Christmas tree this year!

All three have already started drawings for Santa and were overly concerned at our lack of fireplace. If anyone asks, Santa can and will deliver presents through a dog door…just go with it! Reagan interpreted my response a bit more graphically than I intended and told me the other day that Santa turns into a dog, goes through the dog door, and brings our presents through the door! Not sure that is accurate…but who am I to argue!?

In the midst of all the fun weather, the girls successfully made it on the ice skating field trip this week. While the majority of students in Anchorage are still doing remote learning because the buses (and normal vehicles) can barely get around the neighborhoods, we’ve been lucky to have no school closures and only one day we decided to keep everyone home instead of venturing out. Craig took the afternoon off to help shuffle kids out on the ice rink. I mean, who wouldn’t want to spent an hour out on the ice with fourteen five-year-olds?! That concept aside, it sounds like the event went well and everyone had fun.

I’m looking forward to starting the holiday festivities and getting all the decorations up around the house. We shall see if I can hold out through Thanksgiving to put up the tree and I’m doing my best to hold on out the Christmas pajamas and fancy dresses. Two more weeks!

❤

Apr 15

Waiting for Spring

Over the past few weeks we’ve had some grumps rummaging around our house, not wanting to settle down for bedtime and acting crazy; and the fighting! But we’ve also had girls mostly sleeping overnight in their new bedroom setup; which is in fact, a miracle. Harper and Emerie haven’t missed a single night since it was built, with Harper waking once or twice and going back to sleep with a bit of coaxing and Emerie getting up and using the restroom, then going back to her room and back to sleep without any assistance. Other than the one potty incident that required her (and me apparently) to sleep in Reagan’s empty bed, she’s been a rock star!

The guestroom bed remains untouched after three weeks and it might be a record, or should I say in “record time.” Reagan, on the other hand, is now more vocal in her snarky comments to sleep in your bed forever, and is entirely against any other options. She claims she doesn’t like to be alone in her bed– at this point we remind her both sisters are in the same room overnight, every night…After watching her sisters both get a tiny, stuffed bunny reward for 10+ days in their bed; she is now concerned she won’t get one and has compromised (in her mind) and given us a few kid free nights. Either way, it’s definitely progress and so far the new bed isn’t broken yet.

A few nights ago was a rough evening, from daycare pickup to bedtime, the girls kept talking back, arguing, throwing fits: being downright unkind to each other. The prior bedtime was late and everyone was clearly running short on a full night of sleep. At one point in the evening Reagan pointedly informed us that Grandma Sue is the smartest person we know, and that it wasn’t either of her parents with a huff. She followed that up with a teenage type comment that she knows everything about HER life. It’s good to know we are already hitting the teenage attitude at age five and looking forward to what a decade from now will be like.

Then no one wanted to get in their beds and settle down. During all the arguments and excuses times three, Emerie was whining my legs are soooo tired and that she couldn’t climb the FOUR stairs up into her new bed, so Craig did his dadly duty and shuffled her up there in one fell swoop. In that moment, she turned to him with unwavering, confident eye contact and said daaaad, I wanted to climb the stairs MYSELF! Parents are not kidding when they say that most kid fight outcomes don’t involve winning, when all options somehow equal a loss for the adult, no matter what choice you choose. In that moment Craig and I both cracked a smile and she knew she wasn’t in trouble and laughed too. Kids can be so silly and so fickle sometimes!

Winter colds finally caught up with us Easter week and somehow Craig and I both contracted strep throat. It’s been over a decade since I’ve had the pleasure, and somehow none of the kids caught it, but likely shared it with us somehow. On day three of my soar throat, Harper began barking orders because Mom’s sick, which meant trying to bring me a Pedialyte popsicle, a warm blanket and telling me to relax and take a nap on the couch. When I refused the popsicle offer, she informed me that is what she gets when she is sick and I should comply. Quite the little nurse when she wants to be.

Easter this year was pretty chill. With the multiple inches of snow falling over the weekend, it still doesn’t feel like spring is around the corner, but we tried to do a few things anyway. Once Craig and I were feeling a bit better we took them to see the Easter bunny, and it was quite a different experience than last year. They immediately ran straight to said bunny, asked him a bunch of questions all at the same time, and Harper instantly snuggled up next to him and provided hugs. Needless to say, snapping an insanely cute photo took about thirty seconds.

I should also share that it was about twenty degrees outside and yet all three demanded to wear the dresses we wore to the daddy/daughter night. Oh and when can we do that again? If you look closely, each dress has bunny ears and, of course, rainbow styled tutus. No, we had the pleasure of carrying their coats around the store because they wouldn’t wear (or carry) them; and yes, they wore dress up heels out in public in the winter. But excluding all of that, the picture sure turned out great and we all survived.

We didn’t let the falling snow stop some easter egg fun. Since the jump park was closed, Craig entertained the tiny humans for an hour at the fast food play-land while I somehow conned older cousin Corbin to hide the eggs in the frigidly cold and snowy backyard. My original plan to toss them off the deck seemed less efficient than convincing an eight-year-old to do my dirty work, and he willingly went out into the cold and hid them. In reality, everyone spent maaaaaybe five minutes out there in coats and gloves, and we will probably find the rest of eggs later this year once the huge snow drifts melts.

Jenny and I hid the rest of the eggs around the entire house while Corbin worked to make them a bit harder to find- those ones we found throughout the rest of the day. The girls started out sharing with each other, and somehow Emerie managed to convince Corbin to collect for her and fill her basket up. Everyone shared their colors with each other until I convinced them they could choose any color. This year’s eggs were filled with chocolate kisses, M&Ms, pennies, gum balls and smarties-pretty much anything I could find in the cabinet.

Everyone devoured their Easter baskets and nibbled on their hollow chocolate bunnies for a few days. It was a sugar filled day, and yet by the time it all wore off, they were so tired and ready to go to bed that they requested it. This was also the snowiest easter for the past several years, meaning we spent most of the weekend continuing indoor winter activities to avoid the lack of spring outside.

Hopefully by my next post we will be out of the eternal winter and into spring, breakup and a lot less snow. The girls consider to hold the parents personally responsible for the lack of warm weather and summer- not quite sure how we can solve that for them- but hopefully we are getting close to some outdoor adventures. We are so ready!!

❤

Dec 19

Christmas Kittens, Anyone?

The past few weeks have been all about the massive amount of snow hitting our city in the past week, in record levels. 41 inches in total officially, but we probably saw a bit more than that at our house! Something that should definitely excite my children, and yet they hardly even batted an eye at each growing foot! When it gets too deep to play or sled in, I guess it becomes a little less fun. From the adult perspective, driving (and shoveling) is terrible but the atmosphere is absolutely stunning. The last few days turned cold and sunny, creative a beautiful frozen tundra look across the city, with frost capped brush. The frost fairies have been busy!

Breaking city snow records is not our news for the month. So if you need to hear about something other than snow and the fact we are in the very middle of the dark, cold, never-ending winter, then here you go!

The Douglas house now has its SECOND set of triplets! Now you all take a deep breath, because it’s not inspired by me (thank heavens!), but our littlest kitten Molly, who managed to get herself knocked up earlier this fall. She’s still a kitten herself, probably around six months or so, and this past Monday she delivered three tiny kittens. A fitting number for us, don’t you think?

This set is definitely fraternal, with one fully black and two tabby orange striped. None of them look like their mother, who is white/grey with some brown. Mother and babies are doing well and they are already growing like weeds. When she’s not tending to her litter, she adamantly demands affection and snuggling naps, which I’m sure I wanted when the girls were newborns.

It is a funny comparison to watch, remembering the tougher, newborn days years back. She will wander off for hours, snuggling on our bed overnight or sitting on the couch with the girls; but immediately treks back to them at a single kitten shriek. You can’t pet anywhere near her stomach or a vicious attack results, because those nipples are raw. I remember that for sure, even just from pumping. She is constantly whining for more food, pointing out when the food bowl is lower than to her satisfaction. Teen moms, I tell you! 🙂

The girls are excited to share them with visitors, but overall we’ve kept them at a distance until they get a bit older and less fragile! Eyes will open sometime over the next week and then they will become more like triplet toddlers- you know, moving around constantly, wreaking havoc and getting into absolutely everything. After that we will let the girls play more a little more.

Harper is telling people we’ve named them Harper, Emerie and Reagan, and the black one is Harper! She of course claims that one since her favorite color is black and pink. From what we can tell the two tabby’s are boys and the fully black one appears to be a girl. Who knows what names they will end up, but it won’t be duplicates of the first triplets of the house!

Reagan also keeps asking how the babies “got out” of her belly. THAT, is a lesson for another day!!

You better believe there will be some up and coming videos and photos of the girls playing with the furry, newborn triplets, once they are more mobile and wild(er). And for now, we will try to keep our household capped at one set of identical triplets and one set of feline triplets and NO sets of future ones…

❤

Dec 31

Hanging onto that Holiday Spirit

This holiday season the girls are no longer fearful of the jolly red man and acted like such big girls meeting him earlier this month. We overdressed everyone in their fancy Christmas dresses and loaded up in negative six degree temperatures for a quick visit.

So very Alaskan of us, the passenger door of the car wouldn’t latch due to the cold, so we drove there manually holding it shut so we wouldn’t miss our reserved time slot.

The girls all approached cautiously but without cowering, which is much more impressive than last year, which even had a anti-covid glass divider at the time. They talked to him and quietly answered his inquiries and questions. When asked for their names, Harper and Reagan were more silent while Emerie responded for all three. The funniest response was all three telling Santa that they don’t ever fight! Insert major eye roll here, since we ALL know that definitely isn’t the truth!

This holiday season was full of colds, ear infections and pneumonia! Not exactly a great combination for a fun filled holiday experience, but we managed to enjoy it as much as possible, went to the gingerbread town downtown, decorated cookies a few times, colored a million ornaments, and spent a great deal of time at home.

Even with all the illness, the girls made it to almost every school day, with most symptoms seeming to appear over weekends or allowing ear infections to improve before school starts back up for the week. Each morning at breakfast the girls have a rotating request for one animals friend to attend work with us for the day and check on them after school. It’s pretty cute and so thoughtful they want us to have a friend, even if my office is only upstairs in the loft!

The girls vocabulary and explanations continue to improve and with that comes better stories about their school days. I try to ask what their favorite daily experience was at least a few days each week; sometimes they copy each other’s answers but overall everyone is getting better at individual responses. For example, they now explain games created at school. One afternoon’s favorites were Emerie playing hula hoops, Harper playing basketball with Elijah (one of the teachers aides) and Reagan’s response? Playing cows and chipmunks. After asking for clarification, she reiterated she played moooos and chipmunks with the boys that day. Another drive home prompted the response that Harper and Reagan played fall on me with Arlo and Gavin, and that this resulted in a smashed nose and tears but that the game was “so fun.” It’s intriguing to see my little pre-kindergartners start to grow and innovate their own playtimes at school, even if they sound painful!

You also get additional life advice from our big preschoolers, such as Harper’s leave your boobies out, take a shower, put your clothes on and go. Such demands and great wisdom!

After spending more time at home, especially the past few weekends, the girls get more creative during free playtime and interact more than simply fighting. Christmas Eve everyone made a subconscious decision to behave so I could relax on the couch and spent the day playing hide and seek, with their Christmas Eve present we opened that morning (mini backpacks), and finding other ways to play with each other. It was wonderful (and didn’t last lol).

Weather warmed up and cooperated enough for the first sledding adventure of the winter. Last year at this time it was more like our tenth sledding trip; this year has been so cold and full of sickness! Tyler trekked into town and participated in the fun and the girls were so thrilled. After a few minutes Emerie was entirely over the cold air and coughing, so Craig took her back home while Harper and Reagan continued going up and down the hill. Last year Harper was all about speeding down solo; this year Reagan seems to enjoy it more.

Not many other Christmas adventures happened this season, with pneumonia really laying me up and taking all my energy just to try to help Craig a little with the girls while I try to feel better. Luckily presents were wrapped earlier in the week and ready to roll under the tree, or I’m not sure we would have opened them. I gave up trying to find the Christmas stockings and ended up throwing all the planned nick knacks into their trick or treat buckets to go through, prompting some questions on if we were going trick or treating!

Christmas morning wasn’t anything too crazy, pretty relaxed in fact, with the girls patiently waiting to open anything until we gave the green light. It’s quite impressive that not a single curious child opened a present unsupervised this whole month! The method to my madness, last year and probably for many years to come, is to use the same wrapping paper for three gifts at a time, so everyone opens something the same or similar at the same time. Then a few other sets of presents were specifically chosen for the likes of each kiddo, which they all opened at once but were different things. Lastly a couple things were gifts for all to share, like a princess dollhouse Craig quickly built that morning that lets the Barbie doll princesses dance to music!

It took three days to open everything and we opted out of making a fancy Christmas dinner until the house is feeling better. It wasn’t a ton of gifts, but took so much energy and the girls wanted to play with their new treasures after opening each thing. Reagan had a few panda related things and a bazaar yeti I found, since she loves Abominable. Emerie opened a box of mini magnatiles, since she loves tiny things, a new, special holder for her glasses. Harper received several new outfits for her doll and pretty hair clips. Everyone opened a mini princess house with figurines inside (Pan’s tower, Aurora’s wooded house and Belle’s home) and traded around with each other. Aunt Jenny and Uncle Keegan sent a cool fairy house, horse stable and underwater mermaid “castle” that are providing some good entertainment and everyone likes the plastic, Frozen themed container from Papa Cliff. My mom made custom doll dresses for each kiddo during her visit that turned out really adorable! I’m unsure what the favorite presents are this year, since I never quite guess right, but I’d say the dress up clothes, Elsa braid pony tails and Grandma Sue’s princess heels top the list.

This Christmas didn’t quite turn out as planned, but I am very thankful I didn’t have this dreadful illness last year when the girls didn’t independently play very much yet. Also thankful for kiddos who now enjoy movies while parents can relax a bit, with many requests for Merida (Brave), Abominable, Frozen and our latest favorite, Disney’s new Encanto, which the children have conveniently renamed the crack movie. I can’t make that up folks, and really it’s an accurate description, the whole movie is about cracks in the house!

For all those wondering, we deferred Emerie’s eye surgery until January, since everyone needs to be healthier to have it! Reagan’s ENT follow up for tubes consideration will also be next month.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. Wishing and praying for a great 2022 when these girls will turn FOUR! Also praying everyone feels better and my energy returns.

❤

The Douglets

Triplets in Alaska

snow