christmas tradition

i thought it'd be fun to start asking the boys three questions every christmas:

1. what do you want to be when you grow up?

2. what is your favorite thing?

3. what are you scared of?

this year, pace said:

1. i want to be a street sweeper and my vacuum will be big like this (legs spread apart to show the size, i guess), and my sweeper will be like this, fast (rotating his hands like circles)

2. i love a lot of toys

3. i'm not afraid of anything

max said:

1. uh.....

2. the interview stopped there, but i can confidently fill in his favorite thing: "more iddles" [more tickles], and tootsie rolls.  he calls them "hig treats" [big treats] and if i let him, he would eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

christmas day

who wakes up every morning before the sun rises?  oh yeah, the coombs household...nothing new on christmas day!...except we woke up to a white christmas!!

we had a really nice morning--the boys got the requested saws (santa must have found a deal at tj maxx!)

an awesome mailbox set--pace has lately been into deliveries and putting stamps on letters, etc.  this toy kept the boys occupied pretty much all morning.  another awesome tj maxx find!

the other hit item of the day:  a "mote controlled" front end loader from uncle jon erik.  the boys had fun scooping and dumping their candy.

and then it was time to bundle up and play outside for hours and hours!  david kept the boys (or should i say the boys kept david) outside for a looooong time while i was working on our christmas feast. 

i had no problem going out to eat on thanksgiving, but christmas was definitely a day to stay home.  i made mac&cheese and (vegan) hot dogs for the boys with strawberries and whipped cream...

and when they were done, david and i sat down to pan-seared cod with an orange tarragon butter sauce, roasted butternut squash, roasted potatoes and sautéed green beans with dried cranberries, and a savory artichoke dip and a sweet cream cheese almond and dried apricot dip.

this is what i was dreading...dishes...and i still had to make a grapefruit pound cake...

the rest of the afternoon was passed with whack-a-mole, an anatomy/italian lesson (so funny that one "organizer" sheet was in italian!  the rest of the papers and book the set came with were english!)--i loved building the body with the boys.  max was pretty hilarious--the organs in this set are squishy, and max always said, "squishy, ick!" and made a "yuck" sound.  he didn't want to touch them.

merry christmas!

more christmas happenings...

the boys love the smash-the-ornament game from great mom mom!

we made "christmas clay" one night and baked them, then painted them the next morning (i am pretty sure this recipe for homemade "clay" is an old hard tac biscuit recipe from crossing the ocean...just water, flour, and salt).

a couple days before christmas pace informed me he wanted to stay in his pj's "all the day's 'til christmas".  we definitely had a couple all-pj days in there, but we did run errands on christmas eve, so pace agreed to put clothes on for that.

max insists on pulling the paintbrush from my hand--two years in a row now, and he hits the same spot on his forehead/hair!

i also told the boys about an artist named george seurat, who only painted with dots.  they thought doing dots on their ornaments was a pretty cool technique.

on christmas eve pace turned his chair into a bulldozer.  at least clean up wasn't too bad--i told him to bulldoze everything back into his room or santa wouldn't have room to put new presents that night.

i also successfully made my mom's manna for the first time!  i figured if i had just made 120 cinnamon rolls, manna should be no sweat.  turned out just like i remember it tasting!

in other christmas happenings...

we made some more decorations for our tree (pace loves photobombing)

the boys wrote up their christmas lists.  so far, pace's wishlist includes: a saw, a race car track;

max's includes: a tornado.

pace said, "but max, santa only delivers presents.  he will never bring you a single tornado."

thanks for clearing that one up, pace.

our sweet landlady decided it was high time to get rid of some cars and trucks she'd thought were collectable and wanted to pass on to her grandsons.  they aren't that collectable; her grandsons are all teens and not that interested; she noticed 4 boys between the ages of 2 and 6 she knew would just love playing with the cars!  she called over pace, max, tj, and emery, and they all got to pick out their favorites.  what happened if the boys each wanted one car, you ask?  "oh, i've got six more of this in the back!  they can each have one!"  alta said, smiling.  oh, we've got some happy boys!

we made our favorite honey cookies--my little kitchen helpers so excited to eat them!  (max was a little sad that he poked one and it was fresh out of the oven hot!)