Thanksgiving and Christmas Kick Off

       We spent Thanksgiving here; a low key time which was great after a busy busy month of November. We went to Aunt Jackie's house for Thanksgiving lunch and had a great time visiting with family. That afternoon, after naps, Mere Mere and Aunt Kim and Aunt Rita came over and visited. The last time they were out, we'd just moved in, so it was a big change.

 

     Friday evening we went to Nana's to help decorate her tree. It was fun and a little hectic, as usual with lots of kiddos running around handling very old and breakable ornaments! She let each person pick out a Christmas decoration to take home, which was also special. Ace picked a battery operated candle, Cooper picked a church and I picked (for Dalton and I) a snow globe with the manger scene and a little pillow that said "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas." That's from one of my favorite old movies, Meet Me in St Louis, when Judy Garland sang that song. That evening was a great way to kick off Christmas festivities!!      

       Over the weekend we went Christmas tree shopping and found a good on at Tractor Supply. It has been the best tree we've had; now we know where to buy them in the future. Decorating the tree as a family was a hoot…as usual. Dalton was stressed about making sure the tree wouldn't fall and stood straight. The boys were overly eager and getting out ornaments before it was time. Tucker was right there with them, and I was critiquing Dalton's tree stand, between bouts of laughter.

 

 Cooper helped me haul decorations to the house and the boys decorated their tree.

 

They loved when Daddy put lights on the house and were eager to help unpack ornaments.

       We finally got the tree up and decorated. The kids put on a few ornaments and then lost interest (they would rather dig around in the ornament box), so we turned on a video while we finished. Tucker was interested in the tree and toodled right up to it and started fiddling with an ornament. Then a few seconds later the tree came crashing down on top of him. Ooops! Thankfully the couch stopped it before it landed on Tucker, and we only lost one ornament. Dalton straightened the tree up again and we prayed it wouldn't fall again! Tucker came out with only a spot of sap in his hair, with tree needles stuck in it.

     Of course before we went to bed I had to get a picture of the boys in front of the tree. My efforts were met with resistance and the picture is worth 1000 words. But we got our picture! That night marked the beginning of Christmas festivities, reading Christmas stories before bed, and lots of fun times.

 Our Christmas Card picture!! Photo credit: Kallie Francis Photography

      We went to the annual Christmas stroll and parade. First we got the boys' picture made with Santa, again with much resistance. Cooper was excited and wanted to sit in his lap, but Ace wasn't into it. He was crying and running away, so I had to stand just out of reach and comfort him during the picture. Tucker would've been happier, but he was on Santa's lap during all of Ace's drama so by the time they snapped the picture he was crying too.

      After pictures we grabbed a pizza, ate together in the car and then strolled around to visit with friends and watch the parade. We found a great spot to watch the parade, right at the beginning, but then we heard it start and saw that it was going the opposite way. So we sprinted across the square to get to the other side before it got there. We knew we didn't have the stamina to make it until the end of the parade. The boys really enjoyed the parade, especially Cooper. Of course his favorite were the machines, and he liked seeing his friends in the parade too.

     We had a new Christmas friend this year too. An elf on the shelf came to our house, along with a poem about why he was there (to help celebrate Christmas and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus). The boys were so excited and named him Big Red. Each day it was so fun to see where Big Red was and what he was up to.

Among other things, Big Red tried to decorate a cookie, colored the boys a picture, visited Baby Jesus and even wrote the boys a letter while they were staying with grandparents.

     I helped out with Cooper's Christmas party for his class. They had pizza and Happy Birthday Jesus cake. I brought pin the nose on Rudolph and a goody bag. It was simple but fun.

 

 Cooper with Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Thorne. 

I brought tattoos for all the kids and he refused to put one on…said he wanted to wait for Ace. 

       You know me and gatherings….well I desperately wanted to have a Christmas play date so I decided to keep it simple with cookie decorating, a book exchange and scavenger hunt outside. Unfortunately it was SO cold the day of the play date and I had 17 kids coming to play!! Thankfully though the mamas came prepared with heavy coats and everyone had a great time. The cookie decorating was a little crazy, and the scavenger hunt was kinda chaotic, but I think the kids all enjoyed it. And everyone loved opening a present and getting a new book for Christmas. Even us mamas did a candle exchange so we got something fun too.

Cooper was so happy his buddy Wyatt came to the party, and Ace and Asher were icing buddies.

     The next week we went to Vegas (more details in the next post) but after we got back I was ready to be in complete Christmas mode! I wrapped presents, bought presents, blared the Christmas music and did Christmas baking. I also hosted one last gathering for the ladies I do Bible study with. We discussed the Christmas story and our favorite parts….some great answers; shared our favorite Christmas songs (did you know O Holy Night was written by an atheist and Joy to the World is really about Christ's second coming?) and had a chinese Christmas gift exchange with something from our houses. It was very fun and added to the, already abundant, Christmas spirit in my house.

Just a few of the girls in attendance.

      Another fun activity that we were doing to help us prepare was practice our Christmas Even play. I headed up a Christmas play at LBC and was in charge of practice, as well as all the details. I loved it and we were so excited. The kids learned the songs, and we were so ready….until Cooper got the flu 2 days before. So I missed the play that I'd been dreaming about my kids being in for years! I was devastated for one whole day. But then I finally got some perspective, decided God was teaching me humility (organize without the credit), and looked at it as a Christmas gift to LBC. Here's the stage though, wanted to show off the beautiful background someone painted, and the stable.

       Christmas was  bit different this year, and definietly not as magical as usual because we were sick the week of, but we still celebrated our Lord, and I'll tell you more about that in a later post.

Making sugar cookies, dancing to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the old one)

and playing a human board game one cold morning inside.  

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9

*The only thing worse than posting about Thanksgiving in Jan is having to redo all of the pictures because the Internet froze! Finally got it finished.