It's way past Christmas, but it's finally time to post on our Christmas 2009 experience. The most memorable part of Christmas this year was our effort to begin the process of training Drew and Kate in generosity and gratitude. For some reason, the "I want stuff" bug caught Drew for the first time this year, so we've been working hard on gratitude for the things you have and also implementing ways for the kids to be generous.
One way of working on generosity is that Jana and I decided that presents for each other this year would come from the kids. Drew and Kate were encouraged to put some thought into it and to choose a present for mom and for dad. We talked extensively about picking something that the other person would like and would show some thought. After spending lots of time on it, the kids came up with some excellent presents, including Jana's present pictured below . . . bleach!!
I should offer some explanation of this particular gift. Drew was the originator of this idea and he knows that mom "likes to do laundry" so he thought it would help. He also convinced me that she needed a new off-white bathrobe (it's a nice bathrobe, actually) and that the bleach would help keep it clean. Clearly, he put some thought into this and is making a great effort to understand his mom! From Drew and Kate, I got a hand saw, some paint brushes (because I like to paint the rooms in the house), and a toolbox (that Drew wanted :) Jana and I were both thrilled with their choices and touched by the reasoning behind their gifts. The kids are immensely proud of their gifts and love to watch us use them. I think we've started a new tradition!
In an effort to fit with the spirit of our Christmas, I don't have a lot of pictures of gifts or gift opening, but we are extremely grateful for all that we received this year. Below is a representative picture of Kate opening a present with Drew helping. Drew did a great job this year of helping Kate open her presents without taking it over. It was fun to watch him help her.
They have also done a pretty good job with sharing presents. Not always, but most of the time! Kate received this train set and they both quickly took to playing with it. After some initial sharing issues, they settled in to play together.
You can see that as they played longer, Kate and Drew interacted more and more. Drew is either making a car noise or a train noise here :)
Drew has been treating us to "songs" of his creation for quite some time. He will use just about anything he can find to turn into a guitar for accompaniment, so he was very excited to try out his guitar. He strums away on it and sings some of the most horrible, yet endearing notes. We love listening to his songs. What Drew lacks in training, he makes up for with enthusiasm!!
This year in daycare Drew and Kate made ornaments for our tree. Kate's is the snowman below that she colored herself, while Drew's is the ball in front of the hippo (not sure why Drew put it so close to another ornament).
Kate is beginning to work on potty training, and she was thrilled to receive a pair of princess underwear for Christmas.
Although she clearly doesn't totally understand the concept of underwear yet, as she loved having them on over her diaper and tights and proceeded to strut around the house showing them off. I hope she's super-modest someday and I can pull these pictures out to show her :)
My mom has been busy knitting and she made everyone in my family slippers. After receiving them, we all gathered around for a slipper picture. I hope this is the first and last picture my family takes of all our feet.
Kate loved this doctor's kit and immediately came over to check me out with it (although I think this was Drew's present). Jana took this picture as I thoroughly enjoyed my daughter giving me a check up.
Drew was an equal-opportunity helper all Christmas with other people's Christmas presents. Here he is giving Jana a hand with opening a present.
Kate is so excited about shoes, the she grabbed a jewelry holder from one of Jana's presents and tried to put it on her feet. Kate also got some dress up shoes that I'll have to find a picture of her wearing. She's quite stylish.
Another picture of Drew and Kate working together to open a present. We had a wonderful Christmas and completely enjoyed the time spent together with family. What a fun time of year and fun age for Drew and Kate!
Kate didn't get the real deal, but instead got to dabble a little with watercolors. Much easier to clean up!
For a while now we've been praying with Drew in his bed before he goes to sleep. Several months ago we started including Kate in this part of our nightly routine. We read a story and have a snack on the couch, then at the end of the story, Kate runs to Drew's room yelling, "Jesus!" As you can tell, they have tremendous fun sitting on Drew's bed and praying together with us.
Since I've last posted we've had some snow here in the Lansing area and the kids have helped me shovel several times. Here they are all bundled up for the weather and helping me shovel. Kate uses Drew's small spade and Drew uses his snow shovel. They're very helpful :)
This is probably the oddest looking snowman you'll see, so we had to take a picture of it. It has two crackers for "googly" eyes and a carrot nose. It was so cold out the day after we built this that I wet the carrot a little and it froze into the snowman. Drew was quite proud of this creation and commented on it every time we pulled into the driveway.
Jana and I have been enjoying some of the simple pleasures in life. One we try not to enjoy too often is Quality Dairy's "Death by Chocolate" ice cream. It is pure deliciousness. A pleasure we enjoy every single night is checking in on Drew and Kate sleeping. We never can get enough of that!!
A cold, snowy girl coming in from helping me shovel. You can't see her hood, but it was filled with snow. Drew gets a little crazy with his shoveling and doesn't always look to see where the snow is going!
A toy went under the stove and we had to rescue it.
Is Kate wearing her heels? Why yes, she is. Kate got these play shoes and wears them all around the house. How that can be comfortable, I have no idea. 
Kate's hair is finally getting long enough to do things with it. At daycare, her favorite thing is to get her hair put up in a "pony," which is her shorthand for ponytails. She loves having her hair done and will walk around the house saying, "Pony. Pretty. Pony. Pretty."
Here's another attempt at a photo of Kate's hair. We tried FOREVER to get these two shots. Finally, we gave up and just enjoyed playing with her.
After giving up on photos, I tried taking this video. Kate's hair is highly amusing to us, so we are trying to show it off as best we can. Enjoy! 
