The Christmas Season

Christmas Morning Joy

As the Epiphany approaches we have much to be thankful for and more fun to look forward to in the coming days - so while the holiday season is winding down, our excitement is lingering.  We'll soon be celebrating the New Year with BMC friends, and Stella's 8th birthday.  In the meantime, here's a recap of some of our 2017 memories of this special time of the year:

 Christmas Eve we had a meal at MJ's followed by Christmas Eve Service at Church.  The children at church were featured in the "History of the Candy Cane" skit toward the end of the service and it was great seeing our girls participate!








Some Christmas Eve Pics:

 Claire wanted to snuggle with Grammie during worship!




Before we headed to church the girls worked on building a Ginger Bread House with Grammie.  Claire had been asking about this and we lucked out by finding a kit locally at our IGA that morning!  Despite the impatience of letting the walls and roof dry and stabilize before decorating, resulting in a collapse and repair, it turned out pretty good.

 Some Christmas morning highlights:

The girls were quick to notice silly Santa forgot to hide our pickle!

The luggage Santa brought the girls was an unexpected but appreciated surprise!

Stella received a note from Santa's elves about a chewed craft template - those baby reindeer were up to some mischief!  Although the Silly Snack Sticky Mosaics the elves whipped up for her weren't exactly the same as the ones she saw on a video and wanted, she was mesmerized by the note they left her, especially their misuse of capital letters, so the craft really didn't matter that much.

Claire's favorite gift was the matching Samantha dress and high heels Santa brought, and also the Calypso Season Tickets for 2018!


We had a very relaxing day on Christmas.  Grammie and Pa stayed for most of the morning and we played our new Disney Edition Family Feud game.  Aunt MJ came for a little visit, and  in the afternoon we had lasagna and Mom and Dad watched the newest version of Beauty and the Beast - the girls got bored with it but since Belle is Mom's favorite Disney Princess Dad stuck it out!

 Christmas Eve morning during worship our new Pastor, Jim Foote, shared his experience with the children of being one of Santa's helpers earlier in his career.  They thought that was pretty neat!

Despite the bitter cold, we joined Grammie and Pa in Morley one Sunday afternoon for a wagon ride and carols.  The girls also got to have a sweet treat and sit with Santa Clause.  Oh - and The Grinch was there too!  It was a fun afternoon!

AWANA continues to be great fun for both the girls. Here, they are playing holiday games and were competing to make the best human Christmas tree!












We bought our tree very early this year - the day after Thanksgiving.  This resulted in needing to take it down the day after Christmas so we'll probably hold off a little next year, but the decorating is always fun and we wanted to enjoy it as long as we could.  Here are some pics of our holiday decor.

The girls enjoy crafting and when I saw this DIY hand towel painting project I knew they would love it.  So, for their teachers this year, they made decorated hand towels we then folded into the shape of a teddy bear.  Some of them were pencil eraser dots tracing cookie cutters, while others were a display of colorful lines, but they were all made with love and their teachers seemed to like them.

 Grammie invited us to join in the fun at the VFW Children's Holiday Party again this year.  The girls enjoyed the crafting as well as seeing Santa!

And some other special moments over the past month:

Lighting the Advent Candle
with Miss Marna

 Sweet Start with Santa at School:

Mr. Hirschey reading a book
to the kids who visited school that Saturday morning

Playdate fun with Lydianna and Makala!

Buying a Piano!

 Stella watching the original Grinch movie.  She wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but in the end said she liked it!

New Boots!

Mall Fun!

Capturing some old Artwork
(in case Mommy throws it away!)

Lula Roe Ladies!

Stella learning about captions.
"I'm a butterfly" "No Turkey's here!"

Putting together study snacks for the AKPhi girls.  We didn't see any of the sisters when we dropped off the baskets but Stella and Claire were still excited to deliver them!

Chinese Buffet
Claire tried Sushi! (But didn't like it)

Making cookies for home, and "salty" pretzel snacks for Claire's classroom party.

Family Game Night (even Lily joined in!)

Snuggles with Dad!