2008 December « An accountable tortoise

Favorite Christmas gifts

Lily's favorite Christmas present was a candy cane,
Elsie's was a real push broom,
Timmy's was a car that sticks out its tongue,
Abby's was coming to Utah where she rode behind a truck on a sled with her uncles,
Kate's was coming to Utah where she got the high score on the long jump in Wii fit,
Gina's may have been two huge boxes of Kerr lids and a hand-cranked wheat grinder, and
Mine was (besides coming here and playing and talking with the family) two neat little magnets that make a noise like a cicada when you throw them up into the air near each other.

Lily, when I told her that she had pretty eyes, looked up, pointed to her eyes, and said "pretty eyes" (Now that she understands, I'll have to be more careful with the compliments!),
Elsie, after hearing Gina talk about what big hands she had, used her hands as counter-evidence when I teased her by saying that she was too little to take some cookies off of a plate,
Timmy got up in the middle of the night and came to sleep next to me and then wet our bed (it's pretty rare for him to wet his own bed, so it was a bit of a surprise in at least two ways),
Abby used her hard-earned class prize as a Christmas present for Gina (the video, Pocahontas),
Kate invited two friends ice skating and smacked her head on the ice,
Gina was set apart as 1st counselor in the primary, and
I made a green meal involving pureed spinach that was, miraculously, a hit with all 5 kids.

I went to see why Lily was screaming in the bathroom and found her holding back her friend Amelia from reaching into a not-flushed toilet,
Elsie learned how to pronounce the 'f' sound at the beginning of words like "food" or "family" (instead of "pood" or "pamily"),
Timmy finished the 27th and final book of his set of red books,
Abby took Kate and Timmy's chores the most that she could, handling not only her own job of dishes, but also trashes (Kate's job) and laundry (Timmy's job) the best she could,
Kate learned to work on a picture more slowly, spending multiple days on at least one,
Gina sewed 20 draw-string bags for Timmy's class,
Doug received his first and most exciting Christmas present from Gina, a flute.

Lily wore Elmo slippers most days, protecting her feet from our cold tiles,
Elsie lost dinner and lunch during tithing settlement but Gina saved the bishop's office by sacrificing her dress,
Timmy built a block castle in his room that he protected and repaired for many hours with great care,
Abby played Jingle Bells at the piano recital,
Kate played Jingle Bell Rock at the recital,
Gina made a 3-Kings cake and for Timmy's kindergarten class and taught them how to make use of it, and
I read to Gina from the Jeeves Omnibus almost every night.