Christmas 2014! Tennessee Boswell Edition

I sure do hope that all of y'all had a wonderful Christmas this year. We Christmas-ed for a few weeks (three), and Claire really got into it. Like many families, we alternate major holidays with my family and Brad's. This year, we did Thanksgiving in Alabama and did (most of) Christmas in Tennessee. Because Brad is on a semester schedule, we have the really unique opportunity to take a large-ish chunk of time over break and, consequently, started our Christmas celebrating in mid-December. This was simultaneously awesome and not awesome. The not awesome aspect is entirely related to Claire and her behavior. She 100% loved being with extended family and 100% did not want to do anything that she doesn't like (i.e. anything I tell her to do). It kind of wore me out.

Claire's distaste for all things structured or discipline-related aside, we had a fantastic time. We began our visit by going to my father-in-law's community orchestra's Christmas concert, which was lovely. Claire had a few play dates with new friends, Brad and I got to head out for about 24 hours of child-free time (we lived it up by eating out, watching the Survivor  finale, and going to bed early), we watched movies, played games, and worked puzzles while eating a lot of fudge and puppy chow by the fire. Claire enjoyed discovering Grandpa's tractor and the creek (KEEK!) in the back yard (she also enjoyed doing basically whatever she wanted).

Gran, Aunt Soup, and the stockings hung by the fireplace with care

The tractor

Fun with Ray-Ray

Studying The Grinch for Christmas Eve

Sweeping with Grandpa

We started Christmas partying on Christmas Eve Eve. Brad's dad and 2 aunts host a party for their first cousins and their families every year (for the past 3 or 4 years, anyway) where we all eat a lot and hang out. It was great, as always. We also got a picture for my in-laws to send out as a Christmas card:

We also had a lot of outtakes that looked kind of like this:

Got this once-in-a-blue-moon good shot of Brad and me:

With Brad's Mamaw and Papaw before the party

With Taco (Uncle Tim) and Way-Way (Aunt Ray-Ray)

Boswell siblings

Christmas Eve in the Boswell clan is a really fun event. Several years ago, the Powers that Be cooked up the idea of doing a themed party, rather than drawing names or something along those lines. Here's how it works: we choose a Christmas movie for the year, study it like it's our job, design costumes, eat themed food, and bring themed gifts for a rollicking round of Dirty Santa. It is high-energy, intense, and fun. This year's movie was The Grinch (the one with Jim Carrey). Now, I wasn't terribly enthused about the movie choice, but I did have a really fun time at the party.

Our menu included Roast Beast sandwiches, Who Hash (Chex Mix), Grinch punch, Grinch kabobs, Roast Beast roll-up sandwiches, Who cookies, and Banana Pudding. LOTS of good food. I ate too much. 

Brad, Claire, and I dressed up...but we were WAY not as enthusiastic as almost everyone else, apparently. Here are some examples of the really good costumes (if you haven't seen the movie, please know that some of these are incredibly authentic and awesome):

Brad's Uncle J.D. dressed up as the Grinch (Ginch! according to Claire), and Claire was REALLY excited. She kept running around him yelling "Ginch!"...thus, this is the only kind of shot I could get of them together.

Cindy Lou Who (Aunt Jenny), Grinch (Papaw), a Who lady (Mamaw), and generic Who child (Claire)

Two Maxes. On first glance, it may look like Chris's costume is a whole lot cooler than mine, but I'd like to point out that I cut an antler off of my $1 headband to be authentic (Max only has one horn) AND I tied red yarn around my head (the Grinch affixed Max's horn with red string). So take that.

You would have had to have seen the movie (and paid very close attention) to get Tim's outfit. If you haven't, just know that this is really clever.

Brad is a variation of the Grinch (note the tiny heart sticker- two sizes too small- graciously provided by our generic Who daughter)...and so is Rachael. Also a very clever costume.

Barbara's was maybe my favorite. She really went all out with the detail and cleverness.

Group shot of the Bill Boswell clan: Tim (version of Grinch), Bill (version of Grinch), Rachael (version of Grinch), Alexis (Cindy Lou), Erin (Max), Brad (version of Grinch), Claire (generic Who child), and Barbara (Betty Lou Who). Nice spectrum of Who/Grinch creativity, y'all.

Two Whos: Aunt Donna and Claire

First pigtails. She REALLY loved the party. SO MUCH.

Post-pigtail hair

Game board #1 (we take our games seriously- Andy and Ashlen cut out that Grinch hand and ornament. Good job, guys.)

Game board #2

The game is what we study and prepare for all year long, folks. It is the centerpiece of our celebration, and we take it quite seriously. When I say "game," you should understand that I'm talking about questions like, "What did the Grinch's hat say in the scene where he coaches Max how to be a reindeer?" and "What time did the invitation say that the Whobilation would start?" and "Who is the first Who in the phone book that the Grinch hates?" We all watch the movie many times over prior to Christmas, take notes, and quiz ourselves. We are pre.pared. My team won, by the way. 

The gift part of the evening involves gifts that tie into the movie somehow. For example, because the Whos eat Roast Beast, one of the gifts Brad and I contributed was an Arby's gift card (roast beast = roast beef). Clever, right? We thought so.

Christmas morning brought a huge breakfast with all of the extended family, followed by presents back at the house. Claire could not have been happier, as evidenced by this picture with Rachael:

And this one by the tree:

Alexis and Bill at breakfast

Brad and Tim

With Aunt Soup (I promise Claire's happy...she is going through a phase where she resists smiling for pictures. It is very annoying.)

Addy during presents. She was a little humiliated by her headwear.

Tim's excited face

One of Claire's gifts. She turned it into a maze of sorts somehow.

We had an incredible time being with our family and sharing lots of fun moments. Barbara made fantastic food, Bill built the best fires, and the dogs were sources of endless entertainment for all. Such a Christmas-y success. :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! And Epiphany. :)

I have a lot of words and pictures to describe our Christmas celebrations, but I thought I would offer up some wishes for a Happy New Year while I process all the pictures and type up all the words. There are a lot of both.

Please note: glitter hats will leave glitter on your toddler's head forEVER.

Stuff Claire is saying (and what it means)

Claire is talking full-time. We always knew that once she started, she would not stop. Pretty much ever. We are there, and it's pretty fun. She has so many thoughts going on and is very interested in sharing them. Sometimes, it's pretty clear what she means, and other times, it only makes sense to Brad and me (and sometimes, it makes no sense to anyone). Before I had a toddler, I always thought it was funny how moms could make out what their kids were saying when what the kids were saying sounded NOTHING like what Mom interpreted. I get it now. I'm actually to the point where I find myself saying the words that she uses- because it sounds normal to me now. How did this happen?

Here is a sampling of how our days go:
To get the day started, Claire enjoys a sippy cup of warm gok (milk) and a bowl of oat-no (oatmeal). Brad then changes her dypuh (diaper) and puts on her hat, boo (boots) and haddah (headband), even though we aren't immediately going anywhere or even changing her out of her jammies (she is really into accessories, y'all).

These boots are well-loved.

One of many headbands.

Mommy comes downstairs and is greeted with a "MOMMY! UPUPUP!" before even getting off the stairs. Kisses are exchanged (and a mini-nose wiped this time of year) before launching into a list of potential activities for the day (list generated by Claire, not Mommy...Mommy just wants breakfast). First request is always Doh (Curious George, not play-doh. We haven't embarked on that childhood adventure yet.). If Mommy doesn't respond to her request for Doh, she immediately follows up with Hunny (Hundley is George's dachshund friend). 

Mommy counters with the suggestion of reading (I try to limit tv to in the evening when I'm cooking dinner and need a distraction for the Bear). She begins listing some favorite books, which typically include Cow-we-you (Corduroy) and Skeeeek (Babylit The Hound of the Baskervilles is a book of onomatopoeia, one of which is "screech." That one took me a while to figure out.).

Reading "Bossy." Mommy can only read this one so many times before getting sad and missing Bossy too much. Note the necklace...I'm telling you: accessories.

After reading those (plus a few others), Claire begins asking for a sack (snack), and Mommy redirects with other suggestions (because it is not even close to time for snack yet). Claire asks (enthusiastically) to go ahSIE (outside) to blow bubbos (bubbles), look at twees (trees) and watch skuhs (squirrels). Sometimes we do this, depending on the weather, and other times, we stay inside for warmer activities, like cah-yee (coloring) or stuck-uh (stickers). When she's bored with that, she'll ask to spend time with or call various friends and loved ones, like Wichee (local friend named Richie), Nana, Poppy, Gah (Gran), and Pah-pah (Grandpa). 

Around mid-morning, Mommy <finally> agrees that it can be snack time, so we put on a bob (bib) and begin going through the list of snack options: cacky (oyster crackers), wingy (raisins), seerio (Cheerios), yogi (yogurt), appy (apples), namia (bananas), and pow pow (fruit pouches). Oh, and of course, wah wah (water, not to be confused with Way-Way...who is Aunt Ray Ray).

A yogi day.

Found "A seerio!" under the fridge.

Our day continues with more play time, errands, general housework, lunch, and naptime.

Post naptime, it's time again for a snack, but this snack is usually served in her COP (snack cup...but always said loudly and emphatically). Before it's time to watch Doh while Mommy cooks supper, we may go ahSIE to the park to play on the sie (slide). Claire always asks for sahns (songs) so that she can dass (dance). The song asked for is usually Essa (Elsa = "Let It Go"). We also sing songs that she learned from the local library programs, like "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Guy Skuh" ("Gray Squirrel"). Sometimes, if she's feeling ambitious, she'll ask to watch Diddio (Veggietales "If I Sang a Silly Song") instead of Doh (I usually decline, as we like to save Diddio for special occasions). 

At dinner time, we put Claire (who calls herself Care- minus the "r" sound- by the way) in her see (seat) so that we can pay (pray). She demands hahn (hands to hold for praying) and always says, "Ah-men!" Her favorite item to see on the table is buh (bread...but can also "bird" if she sees one outside). After dinner, she immediately asks for a baff (bath) and to play with ties (toys) in the tub. 

Following bathtime, she likes to help bush (brush) her teeth and hair before heading to her room for a stowee (Bible story). We read a story from her Storybook Bible and pray for friends and family. Then it's time for kisses! And saying night-night (which can also mean Goodnight Moon or the "Goodnight, Junior" song from Veggietales- it's all about context clues) to owies (owls on her mobile), turning off yights (lights), and pointing out the fuh (fan- not to be confused with flower or fire). She snuggles up to Mimi (Lambsy) and Fotsi (Flatsy) and drifts off to sleep.

There are many other words that are said throughout the day (MANY words). Some words are said only in certain contexts (like tactoh- tractor- at Gran's and Grandpa's house or tuck- truck- while driving down the interstate), and some things are mentioned very randomly (like gassies- glasses); this is a list of her regularly scheduled vocab. I know there are things I'm forgetting. Hopefully, I'll remember them before she grows a little more and her language grows with her. I'm honestly not in a hurry. She's growing fast enough as it is. Oi.

Gassies.

Insta-updates

I realize that this doesn't exactly count as a real post, as it doesn't contain any interesting information. However, I realize that not everyone who reads this follows me on Instagram or is a Facebook friend...so I thought I'd post some pictures that I've put up on those sites recently with a few captions to keep you updated.

I found her trying to shut herself between the storm door and the real door. She was very determined and very much didn't want my help.

This outfit is very Claire. What does that say about our future?

Putting herself away...?

Trying on some glasses to see if it helps her look smarter. I think yes.

She gets bored on long car rides.

Dancing to Christmas songs

Brad and I were able to go to a performance of The Messiah at the Duke chapel. It was fantastic! I got a picture of the MASSIVE Advent wreath. It was about four feet in diameter.

Fifi needed a bath. Apparently.

Reading Bible "sto-wees" on the bathroom floor while I cleaned.

Reading a book...in the play place at Chick-fil-A. Obviously the place for a reading nook.

First time on a rocking horse. She was in looooove.

Claire playing with a tiny puppy. Claire was fan...puppy was a little terrified.

Dressing up as either Mary...or a babushka. It's a toss up.

Happy weekend, everyone!

She's a collector.

A few weeks ago, I introduced Claire to stickers. It was pretty immediate love. She is very into "stuckas." I bought a variety pack and stuck it in my purse for situations like church services or car seat hostage situations. 

Our church in Boston always gave everyone sticker name tags, and the church we have been visiting quite a bit here does, as well. She likes to pull off hers, mine, and Brad's to play with every week. It provides quite a bit of distraction during the service, so we're cool with it.

Well, for the first time in forever (much like Anna from Frozen), she stayed in nursery for the entire time this week. This is very much a victory. And...when Brad went to pick her up, her jacket (which she was inexplicably wearing...I'm assuming she asked to wear it. She does that.), she was fairly covered in name tag "stuckas" that she had been collecting off the backs of the other kids. Those name tags came home with us.

Bless us all.

Traditions

I read an encouraging blog post the other day about moms creating traditions for their small children. I have a small child, so I find things like that terribly interesting these days. This time last year, I didn't worry about creating traditions with Claire; she was too little to know or care about it. This year, she is still too young to fully understand much of the Christmas season, but she is definitely able to take in quite a lot. So, I've been trying to thoughtfully and carefully sort through all of the stuff that we could be doing and choose the things that I think will be meaningful to us, teach something to Claire, and prove to be sustainable. We've landed on a few activities that I think we can maintain through the years, knowing that other things can be worked in for different seasons of our life. 

The first thing we knew we wanted to do was go through the Advent readings suggested for The Jesus Storybook Bible. We read a "STO-WEE!" with Bear every night anyway and are Church calendar followers, so this seemed like a perfect tradition to put into place. I found the reading list posted online, and we do one reading each night. She is getting more and more into STO-WEE! time, and we are enjoying watching her connect with the process. We also have an Advent calendar (like, a REAL Advent calendar...the kind that celebrates/counts down to Jesus' birthday. Not just a fancy countdown system to the day that we open presents. Those jokers are all over Pinterest, and I take issue with the fact that they are called "Advent" calendars when they have no connection with celebrating the advent of Jesus. Sheesh.) that we updated daily. So far, we have two stars in place. I think tonight might be an angel. We'll see...

We also knew that we wanted Claire to participate in giving each Christmas (not just to family and friends). To that end, we decided that we will help her pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child every year, as her way of giving to children on an international level. Obviously, this year that meant that I packed a shoebox for her. I had a lot of fun with it. I'm looking forward to when she can give her opinion on what should be in the box (heaven knows she has LOTS of opinions). 

We also want to make a habit of helping her to give locally each year. This year, we chose Salvation Army. I think she will enjoy putting money in the buckets, so we are going to pull out the amount we want to give and let her stuff bills into buckets around town. The organization we give to may change each year, but Salvation Army is it this year.

Those three things are the things we decided on as our yearly activities. There are definitely other things that we're doing to be merry and bright, like watching Eloise at Christmastime and Curious George's Christmas movie, decorating (and undecorating and decorating and undecorating) the lower levels of the tree, and listening to Christmas music. She'll be joining us for the Boswell Family Christmas Eve party (dressed in her Who costume, of course) and I may even let her eat some sugar this year.

I'm interested to see how our Christmas traditions evolve over the years, but for now, that's what we are doing. It's working, so I'll keep it.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to celebrate with the ones you love. I, certainly, have a ridiculous amount to be thankful for, and the 10-hour (each way) car ride to Alabama wasn't nearly enough time to list them all!