Merry Christmas!!
With only three weeks between Thanksgiving
and Christmas this year I felt this whole holiday season was rushed.
Regardless, we made sure to enjoy and appreciate the holiday.
Christmas Cards are important to me.
I like to send them and I like to receive
them.
(Remember when we used to send out photo
DVDs?)
This year a good friend of ours with a
fancy camera offered to take our family picture if we would take hers.
Deal! Thanks Amy and family!
My two favorite pictures.
After Christmas cards were sent out the
School Parties started.
I volunteered to make Grinch Kebabs for
Lauren's class and Strawberry Santas for Tyler
The Grinch Kebabs turned out great but my
Strawberry Santas didn't look exactly like I wanted them
to. (My inspiration on the bottom left, my reality on the bottom right.)
They were all gobbled down though.
My Photogenic
Kids at their School Christmas Parties.
They love to pose
for pictures.
(is there a font
for sarcasm?)
I wasn't very good about taking pictures of our Christmas
decorations. We did decorate though. Matt put lights outside and I
took care of the inside.
Chris, our Elf on the Shelf, came back for
the 12 days before Christmas.
He wasn't as creative as last
year. This year he stuck to the perimeter of the family room.
Some days he decided not to move at all. Which made Lauren think her
Daddy might be moving the Elf because the days Chris didn't move corresponded
to Daddy's poker nights. BUT... I'm thinking the kids behaved so well
this year that he didn't need to make the trip back to the North Pole as often.
Every year Grandma Jan creates (paints,
sews, molds with her own two hands) a new Christmas decoration for us. I
love them and they are the bulk of my decorations. This year she quilted
a Santa. She really outdid herself and when I grow up I want to be her.
Did I mention I love to receive Christmas
cards. I let them take over my glass table and my entire refrigerator.
Totally felt the love this year.
I believe this was the last year for our
cute little fake tilted Christmas tree. Our ornaments have outgrown it
and Matt said I could get a bigger cute fake Christmas tree next year.
Here's a pic of the mantle and also a pic
to show how tall Tyler
On Christmas Eve we made our
traditional Cinnamon Rolls & icing
We put Reindeer
food out on the front lawn and set out Santa's plate of cookies plus carrots
for the reindeer if they didn't get enough food outside.
Christmas morning did not disappoint.
Santa came!
He and the Reindeer chowed down on their
snacks.
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Santa filled the
stockings and brought the children a very special gift!
Before diving into the stockings L and T
took some time to check out their special gift from Santa. New iPad Minis!
Santa was kind enough to put them in protective cases before he left.
Blue for Tyler
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Stockings
Present Time
Let's Get it
Started
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I'll spare you the blurry action shots of
each kid opening up each gift. It sure was fun to watch though.
We were all excited for all of our new
Christmas treasures. I love how appreciative L and T truly are of each
gift. Thank you, thank you, thank you! The thank you cards are on
the kitchen table just begging to be filled out.
Gift Piles
Lauren, Tyler, and Me...didn't Daddy get
any gifts?
Now it's Time to Play!!!
(clockwise, top-left: Lazer Maze with the Nerf gun handy and ready
to attack at any minute, Pinball Baseball, Minecraft Legos, telescope)
(top row:
5-in-1 Table Game. Rock came over to play too.
bottom row:
The Claw Carnival Game. Unfortunately The Claw did not come to us
fully functional. Matt was able to figure out what was not working and
solder some wires together. That guy can do everything. I have a
bill to The Claw manufacturer in the mail. It's not an easy game but they
love trying for the candy.
Lauren
My Beauty Shop Pal and 3-in-1 Styling Tool
(curler, crimper, &
flat iron)
PicWits Game
(like Apples to Apples but with
pictures...fun!)
Make your own Cat
Treats kit
Make your own Lip Balm kit
(This is pretty cool. She's already
made two different flavors.)
Minecraft Legos
during the build, after the build
Making origami from instructional YouTube
videos on her iPad.
Christmas Dinner
Once again Matt's work gave their
employees a gift card to Honey Baked Ham. So once again we got our
Christmas ham for a very low price.
Christmas Menu: Ham, Green Bean
Casserole, Skillet Creamed Corn, Honey Roasted Red Potatoes, Cheddar Biscuits
and Graham
Cracker Eclair "Cake" for
dessert.
Since it was just the four of us we had A
LOT of food.
I am so blessed by my wonderful family and
this Christmas season really reminded me of that.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas
and took some time to celebrate the true Reason for the Season.
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