Days 7 and 8

Help wrap family gifts and

color some Christmas coloring pages!

Ryan is a much better gift wrapper than i am, so i always enlist him in December. As a side note his ironing skills also surpass mine...

... but anyway he does the paper, and i do the bows... i'm good at that plus i'm obsessed with cute Christmas ribbon :)

coloring nativity pictures and sneaking Christmas candy

Make a Christmas craft!

Aren't they cute... we even put bells around their necks with red ribbon. Then Porter had the great idea to use the brown pipe cleaner instead of ribbon- " to look more like a collar mommy." genius.... love it! ... And Sophie used the pipe cleaners as reins and the empty candy cane box to make a sleigh... can you say- creative... yes I claim these amazing children!

Well, most of the time I claim them. Okay quick story-

I never go shopping on black friday. Instead i love to stay home, do Christmas crafts with the kids, begin decorating, etc. But this year i took the kids just to run to the craft store to grab some patterned paper for a project (we ran out) real quick... big mistake. Sophie Dear cried and wailed through the whole 15 minutes we were in the packed store. She was crying that her legs were hurting and she was so tired she couldn't go on and then right at the check out she crumpled into a little mush ball on the floor and refused to get up or move. I think people were looking at me thinking- what a horrible mother, she's probably been dragging that poor child around shopping since 6am. Oh well, we survived and Sophie's limbs miraculously began functioning again once in the car :)

I can laugh about it now... i wasn't laughing trying to pay for my items, push a stroller, keep Porter from running into a crowded parking lot all the while dragging a limp crying noodle.

And... Mom and Dad arrived today! With a truck/sleigh full of toys! Look at my mother's beautifully wrapped gifts... is it any wonder i grew up loving ribbon!