Merry Christmas!

Heading to church on Christmas Eve

 We started our Christmas celebration by heading to church on Christmas eve.  The evening service is always a bit challenging to us as it starts at a time that is normally past W's bedtime (he is our early to bed, early to rise little guy!) but as always we were so glad to went to remind ourselves of the true meaning behind this glorious holiday season.  We even left the service with no candle catastrophes, no ripped hymn books, and no running and escaping through the church doors into the parking lot so overall, this was a huge success in my mind (1 of the 3 events have occurred...the other two are just events I FEAR occurring!)





The kids checking out Tidmouth Sheds









 We spent Christmas morning together as a family reading the Christmas story, opening gifts, and enjoying a big breakfast together.  The kid's were all pretty excited about their gifts and what they had picked out for each other--pretty cute!  Then we headed over to our friends' house to enjoy Christmas dinner and spend the afternoon playing games.  I just love this time of year with kids!  It is so fun to share in the wonder of Jesus' birth and to talk frequently about the meaning of the season.  We hope you all had an equally beautiful Christmas! 

Busy Week with Grandma

Grandma Sue came to visit us before the holidays this year.  She was able to see G1 perform in the Nutcracker one evening and attended B's work kid party with us on Saturday.  Then we started a super busy week full of activities!

G1 at ballet

G2 at Storytime with Santa---he was so brave sitting in the front row by himself
while Santa was reading but when it came time to meet the big guy he wanted NOTHING
to do with him!

School choir concert

A little time with Elmo while the big kids were at school

 

Craft time at playgroup



More dance

Weekend birthday celebrations with Grandpa Craig

Thanks Grandma Sue for spending time with us during the busy holiday season! And to Grandpa Craig for flying out on your birthday so we could celebrate with you and G1 together! Thanks to a delayed flight, we got some bonus time with the Grandparents as well! We enjoyed our time with both of you and are already looking forward to you visiting us again!

Birthday Girl

G1 with her reindeer cupcakes

  From the very start, we have done our best to separate G1's birthday from Christmas....no presents in Christmas paper, no combined gifts, no not celebrating because the holiday season is too busy.  Well, this year, our girl wanted a Christmas themed birthday party!  She has always loved the excitement that goes along with celebrating Jesus' birthday and wanted to share that excitement with her friends on her birthday!  We had a great selection of accessories for the party since it is the season so that did make it easy to pull together a theme and get decorating!  G1 specifically wanted a holiday pj party, so the guests arrived in pj's and slippers.  We had a fun morning filled with a lot of games, several crafts, a pancake breakfast, reading Christmas stories, and plain old fun!  Grandma and Grandpa were in town for the big day and we could not have had such a successful party without their extra pairs of helping hands--thanks Grandma Sue and Grandpa Craig!!


Grandma cooking up some pancakes and bacon



A vigorous snow ball throw game with the assistance of Grandpa

Taking drink orders from the hungry kids



of special note: G1 and Grandpa Craig share a birthday but this is the first time they have been together on their big day!  Thanks for making the trip out to celebrate with us Grandpa Craig!

Dear Santa......

The Nutcracker

The last few months have been filled with Saturday practices in preparation for G1 to dance in The Nutcracker.  She has had so much fun during this whole experience which culminated in two performances over the past weekend.  She was a "chef" which was the youngest group of dancers in the cast.  Our little ballerina had a special audience with her Grandma Sue in attendance one night.

I split the videos up into several segments because it makes them easier to upload (but very chunky to watch!)!  In the first segment, you can see G1 bringing in the pot running backwards.  She starts off the dance on stage right (left hand side of the screen).

The next video, she is the chef in the front.  The one who the Nutcracker prince makes the face at (this was a big deal to the chefs!).

In the final video, she is the girl in the front with her bum to the audience. 

The whole production was beautiful!  (Thankfully so, since I watched the just over two hour performance three times in 24 hours!)  And a totally magical experience for G1!