Hanukkah

Ever since Claire was a small baby, she has always loved when my husband and I sing the blessings after lighting the candles on the menorah during each night of Hanukkah. This year, Claire decided to join in and sing some of the Hebrew words with us. She calls it "the pledge." She enjoyed singing with us each night and helping to light the candles. But, the part of Hanukkah she enjoyed the most was, of course, the presents. Except on night #5.

On the 5th night of Hanukkah (Christmas), Claire was excited to open her gift, as usual. When she opened up the large brown cardboard box covered in menorah paper, she immediately said, "I didn't want clothes for Hanukkah! I wanted toys!"

Despite one night of clothes, Claire had a great Hanukkah. She loved all of her gifts.

Christmas

We all slept in a little on Christmas morning after a late night out the night before. Claire woke up, went into the hallway and picked up a Barbie Doctor set that she had asked me to open for her the night before (Note to self: If I open a new gift and set it up in the hallway, Claire will wake up and begin playing with the toy allowing me to sleep in! A win-win situation!).

After making ourselves presentable, we drove over the river and through the woods to Grandma and Grandpa's house to see if Santa left any presents for Claire. She must have been good this past year, because there was a whole pile of presents under the tree with her name on them! She opened them all before her cousins arrived and was so thrilled with each of the gifts.

This year we had a full house for Christmas because my cousins and Trish and Johnny celebrated with us. We had a nice dinner consisting of spicy lasagna and ham, the proceeded to open gifts. Christmas Day was another whirlwind of gift opening. The kids (3 readers) were able to read the gift tags, pass out gifts and open any gifts bearing their names. The good news was that the gift opening festivities did not take hours. The bad news was that we didn't really get to see what everyone received because of the paper-ripping frenzy. Next year we will be more organized!

Christmas Eve

This year, Christmas Eve was extra special since it was my 60th birthday (according to Claire). I will gladly take "60" because, if I were in fact 60, I would look quite fabulous for my age! My brother and his wife hosted a lovely soiree complete with delectable appetizers, an unbelievable Chilean sea bass dinner and lots of family fun!

The kids eyed the many, many gifts under the Christmas tree, but they were very patient and did not beg us to open gifts the entire day. Once the gift opening began, however, there was a whirlwind of activity with paper flying all over the place amidst squeals of delight and joy. Since both Claire and her cousin can now read, they were reading the names on the gift tags, passing gifts by until they came to packages with their names on them, then proceeding to open them immediately. Next year we'll have to slow things down a bit so we can fully enjoy each of the gifts as they're opened.

We ended the evening with everyone singing Happy Birthday to me and enjoying a delicious ice cream cake. I couldn't have thought of a better way to celebrate my 60th birthday!

Elf Day

All of the kindergarten classes participated in Elf Day at Claire's school today. The festive day consisted of centers in each of the three classrooms where the kids: (1.) played dreidel and made their own "dreidels" out of pretzel sticks, marshmallows and Hershey's kisses, (2.) sang songs and made reindeer food and (3.) made reindeer antlers out of construction paper and cut out handprints. I was lucky enough to be a parent volunteer in the "dreidel room." It was fun working with lots of Claire's kindergarten friends and Claire too!

Holiday Pictures

Each year we take two special pictures in December.

The first is the picture for our holiday card.

The second is a picture of Claire and my nephews. We give this picture as a gift to a few special people.

Gingerbread House Decorating Contest

Our town has a special Christmas celebration each year. We've never gone to any of the events, but this year Claire decided she wanted to build her own gingerbread house and enter it in the gingerbread house contest.

We went to an old fashioned candy store and selected some candy we thought would look fabulous on a gingerbread house and I picked up a few other items to have on hand for the project.

After mixing, cutting and baking the dough, we put together the gingerbread house and began decorating. Claire had so many great ideas for her house. I was merely her little helper. When the gingerbread house was complete, Claire was so proud of her work. We stressed that even if she didn't win first place, the most important thing was that she tried her best. This had to be stressed over and over, since winning first place is an important goal for a 5 1/2 year old.

We dropped off the gingerbread house on Friday night for judging, then came back to pick it up and see the results of the judging on Saturday afternoon. We were absolutely thrilled to see that Claire had won first place!!!! She was so excited!! She received a beautiful medal which she displays proudly in her room and shows anyone who visits our house. Way to go, Claire Bear!!!!