Christmas at home

Christmas has drawn to a close for another year. It has been very fun, eventful and exciting, but I am TIRED! Christmas Eve found us at home playing in the snow before heading to our church's Eve service with Gram in tow. We came home afterwards for a quick supper, then changed into our new Christmas jammies and drove around enjoying the holiday lights. Finally we came back home to settle in for the night - well, the kids anyway. We adults stayed up to "help Santa" with his deliveries and do as much of the meal preparing as we could for the next day. We finally got to bed close to 1am, but Mitzi wasn't much in the mood for sleeping, so we didn't get much either. The kids were up at about 7:45 the next morning and we unwrapped gifts immediately, of course! The girls were thrilled with their dollhouse that Papa helped the elves build! After the wrapping paper was cleaned up, Gram and I headed to the kitchen to get started on our Christmas Dinner, complete with all the trimmings. We spent about 3 hours in there, but the meal turned out great! My extended family joined us about 1pm to enjoy it. Later in the afternoon, Paul's parents stopped by to visit and meet Mitzi. After all our company had gone, we pretty much crashed on the nearest available couch. I spent the better part of today lounging in my jammies watching more snow fall - it felt great not having anything to do or any place to go. I needed a relaxing holiday from my hectic holiday! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, full of all of the joys of the season. May God's grace and peace bless you in the new year!

our Snowman

all dressed up for church

new Christmas jammies

our family of SIX!

the kids check out Santa's gifts

unwrapping our gifts to them

checking out Breckyn's new Care Bears movie

digging in their stockings for goodies

Gram and Grandad

all worn out

School Christmas Parties

In my ongoing quest to wear myself to a complete nubbin during the Christmas season, I signed up to be a room mother for both Preston's and Kellyn's classes. And, of course, both of their parties were on the same day. Last Friday was the big day and all three of the kids had a great time kicking off a nice, long holiday break! Did I say BREAK?! Whew!!!

Mrs. Camacho's class models their newly crafted
reindeer hats


Breckyn chills out with Mrs. C


Kellyn enjoys a snack with her Bubby


More goodies at Kellyn's party

Breckyn gets in on the snack-food feast

Kellyn's Preschool Program

Kellyn gave a great performance at her preschool Christmas program on the afternoon of December 19th. Daddy took off work to come, and Gram came too, so Kellyn was thrilled to have family there to see her. She did great singing and doing the actions, and stopping to grin and wave when we caught her eye! At the end, the kids all presented their parents with an adorable Angel made from their hand and foot prints. Soooo sweet!!!

Breckyn insisted on dressing up
like Sissy!


she's the blond one! :)


reading her adorable homemade card


our beautiful Angel Kellyn

Kellyn poses with Mrs. Patti and Mrs. Laura

WE GOT A DOG!!!!

Paul surprised me after 10 loooooong dogless years by getting me a puppy for Christmas!!! She is a Rat Terrier, 10 weeks old, and could not be any cuter! With my Mom's help, we've settled on the name "Mitzi" and so far it seems to suit her. Hopefully crate and potty training will go well! Here are some of the cutest puppy pics you'll ever see:

Kiddie Christmas Party

Our neighbors Brian and Debra and their son Jaden held a fantastic Christmas party yesterday evening for the kids on our street. We started off with a great dinner of kid-friendly foods, then headed downstairs to decorate a Christmas tree. After that the kids opened gifts from each other, painted Christmas cards, pinned the nose on the snowman, and took a few swings at a festive pinata. Finally, it was back upstairs to color Rudolph cookies, eat more, play and visit before heading home. We all had a great time!

the kids munch on pigs-in-a-blanket


decorating the tree


Cydney, Preston, Jaden, Bryce, Breckyn,
Sterling, Reagan, Haley, Kellyn


the gift exchange

Chas helps the kids paint cards

pin the carrot on the snowman

Preston takes his best shot

Kellyn works hard on her cookie

all the girls color their Rudolph cookies

Breckyn and her buddy Reagan

Shark Tooth

Last night we discovered that Preston has achieved an impressive feat: he's gotten his first permanent tooth without having to lose any baby teeth! Apparently, this is a fairly common occurrence nicknamed "shark teeth" where the new tooth is in a hurry to come up and the baby tooth still has too much root left to be pushed out easily. The new tooth simply takes the path of least resistance and comes in behind the baby tooth. The baby tooth should be pushed out soon (his is really loose) and then the new tooth will move into the proper position (hopefully!). But if not, the dentist will have to pull the baby tooth and possibly others around it. In any case, with Paul's and my dental history, I'm sure we'll be lining the orthodontist's pockets at some point!

Christmas at Nana and Papa's

This past weekend we went to Hutchinson to Paul's parents' house for Christmas. We left Friday evening just in time for the snow! We had to drive about 35-40 miles an hour for most of the way, but we made it safely. After a supper of pizza, the kids opened their presents. Once they were tucked in bed for the night, we adults opened our presents then enjoyed a rousing game of Settlers of Catan. We finally turned in about 12:30, but didn't get to sleep long as the kids were up before 7am. We ate sticky buns for breakfast and opened our stockings and the kids played all morning til lunchtime. After a delicious Italian meal, some of the kids went sledding (Paul didn't get pics of this, sorry!) and had a blast while the rest of us stayed inside and kept warm! We left late Saturday afternoon and thankfully the roads were cleared-off. We all had a great time visiting and playing with our family, eating too much and of course, getting presents! :)

Breckyn and Lucy model their
Christmas sweaters


The grandkids pose patiently before opening gifts


Taylor, Preston, Asher, and Logan


Kellyn watches Breckyn open a present (I think
she likes it!)


Papa and Dad help Preston put together his
new Star Wars Legos


Asher, Preston, and Logan model
new jammies and Transformers


Breckyn, Kellyn, and Lucy get tucked in

Paul scores a new set of screwdrivers

Stephanie beats us handily at Catan

the stockings and Christmas tree

the kids enjoy Christmas dinner

Nerd Herd

Last weekend we went to the Group Leaders' Christmas Party at church. In the grand tradition of these parties, we had to dress according to this year's theme: The Nerd Herd. We really got into it this year! Paul was very proud of the "accessories" attached to his belt that included a palm pilot, pedometer, leatherman tool, keys, cell phone, and probably some other things I'm forgetting. I was very proud of my necktie that had tiny little computers all over it and my cool hornrim glasses (with tape on the nosepiece, of course!). Check us out below!