Saturday ... we celebrate an early Christmas in El Paso!

Since it was Saturday, and there was NO school today, we suggested that everyone SLEEP IN, get some extra "winks", catch up on some much-needed sleep, etc. ~ so, did anyone take us up on our suggestion? Well, actually only Emma slept in past 7:00. But the boys were up with the sun and were rearing to go. Good thing we had our day all planned out in advance!

After breakfast, we opened up my new Klutz book: "Twisted Critters," all about how to make cute animals and stuff out of pipe cleaners. We opened up a brand new bag of colorful pipe cleaners and followed directions to make our very first project, a bumblebee. It was very easy to make, so we also made the caterpillar together and then the kids just kind of made up critters of their own. Of the three children, Matthew was the biggest surprise for me ... he really really took to bending, folding, and creating all kinds of cool stuff out of pipe cleaners. He filled up a plastic bag full of them and enjoyed himself hugely.  

Emma followed the directions on how to make this penguin and she didn't need any help from me at all. I think it turned out really cute.

Baby Kaity was (naturally) too tiny to make any pipe cleaner critters, but she enjoyed watching us have fun. She also enjoyed listening to our children's Christmas album that was playing on my computer while we were doing our art. Kaity is a very happy baby. 

Even though it was Saturday, Diana had to go to school most of the day. We told her we would wait until she returned home before we opened up Christmas presents. So while we waited, we played games together and even learned two new dice games. By mid-afternoon, Diana was home and we opened the gifts I had sent. Look how happy Matthew is to receive his very own copy of the Jesus Storybook Bible. He requested this from me back in September. We have had a copy of this Bible here in El Paso for a very long time, but we keep it in Emma's room and it has kind of become the personal property of Emma. So, Matthew wanted his own copy so that he could look through it any time he wanted.

This is Christopher when he ripped off the paper and found a very nice Star Wars LEGO set ... he is a really good builder, very patient, and this is a difficult model to put together. 

Emma received some LEGO Friends sets. She started collecting them a few months ago. I don't have a picture of it, but Matthew also received a super heroes LEGO set. We helped Kaity open her gifts and then we spent several hours working on all of the LEGO models, but we STILL are not finished! 

So thankful for this day here with the children. This narrative is pathetic, but I'm really worn out!