Christmas time 2013

We enjoyed the season of Christmas this year and it didn't seem to sneak up on us like it sometimes does.  I suppose that is because we decorated early for Marissa's Christmas Birthday party.  With all the busy-ness, I still scrambled for time, but we had a wonderful Christmas season and Christmas day(s), and loved all the family bonding time. 








This December....

Addisyn's Daisy Girl Scout troop went to a nursing home to sing carols and hand out the decorations they made as part of their badge about "Making the World a Better Place."

Addisyn and Piper sang at the Christmas Eve children's service at church, as well as at the "Falafel House" performance.  Everyone in our family was singing "Fa la la la laa Falafel HOUSE!"  I was really impressed with the leaders of this program, the singers, the story line, and the beautiful message which was about each and every one of us being important, no matter how small or inconsequential you may feel, because you never know when God will appear in your life.

Addisyn sang with her 1st grade class in a singing performance led by her guitar playing teacher Mrs. Lindgren.  They are dressed up as presents since THEY ARE our presents.

Piper sang with her preschool class in the "Sing-a-Long" that I thought was going to be a casual pajama evening, but turned out to be a full-fledged performance.  Piper's class sang "O Christmas Tree" and "Feliz Navidad".  Piper stood in her nearly too-small worn out blue zip up jammies with rainboots behind a Shirley Templed blond classmate in a satin red dress.  No matter, all the kids enjoyed the event! 

This year, since Marcy was in Virginia, Stacy and I baked Christmas cookies here, and Marcy baked on the same days and we did FaceTime so it was kind of like we were all baking together!  Addisyn and Piper had fun decorating sugar cookies with goopy gobs of frosting and lots of sprinkles!

I must have been enjoying all the activities, because at 11:30 pm the Wed before Christmas, I did some down-to-the-last-half-hour-of-guaranteed-shipping-in-time-for-Christmas from Amazon.com for some last-minute gifts I had been procrastinating on.  I got all but one on time, and speedily wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve, just in the nick of time. 


Addisyn and Piper sang in church again at the family service on Christmas Eve.  I am so proud that my girls are comfortable enough on stage.

 

 

We managed a decent family picture on Christmas Eve at my sister's house:

...and a silly one too...

The girls were excited to put out cookies, carrots, and milk for Santa by the fireplace, carefully putting it off to the side, so he wouldn't knock it over when he came out from down the chimney.

Christmas morning, the girls gave their sister gifts and they got their big gift from mom and dad.  The quad wasn't actually exciting to them until they started riding it at Mike's house though.  Then, Addisyn cried because Santa made a mistake and gave her something she already got (and wasn't excited about) the night before.   But the best moment was a hug from sis to sis for being so thoughtful to get each other a gift, and this moment of the girls hugging daddy is pretty awesome too!

Chris and I got the girls a 50cc quad for the desert.  Marissa "helped" daddy install the remote shut-off switch before it's first use. 

Marissa "Who-ville" with the curl in her hair

The girls didn't realize they liked the quad until we made a mini course to practice on at Uncle Mike's house on Christmas day.  Then they LOVED it!  It got a lot of use out at the desert the next few days.

This is Addisyn on her first ride outside of camp, following daddy (she was being careful not to get too close).

Kids on a burm track in camp:

Marissa fell in love with Connor and Shelby's jeep (and we ended up getting one of our own the following week).

 

Hopefully we'll get our Christmas decorations all put away before the end of January!