Cousins' Christmas Program

We got to attend Paul and Hope's Children's Christmas Program at their church today.The boys took a few pics for me while they were dressed up before we left.

 

 Hope is in the front row and the fourth from the left.

Paul is the shepherd in the front row. We had such a good time watching them. They were great!

Christmas Lights Tour 2012

Matching Christmas PJ's-check

Warm, cozy car-check

A map of houses with Christmas light displays-check

A Christmas light scavenger hunt-check

An hour in the car together seeing Christmas lights and no one fell asleep-CHECK/SUCCESS!

Christmas in Collierville

We spent the weekend at Mom and Richard's celebrating Christmas with them and Joe, Shayanne, Gracie and Brylie. It was full of yummy food, lots of presents, and never ending laughter. Whenever you're with my brother, you know you're going to be laughing the entire time.

 

 Lee had the biggest box, and needless to say, he could hardly wait to open it.

 He is figuring it out here.

 A real guitar! He was beyond thrilled and can't wait to learn to play.

 Since I love music and all musical instruments, I am thrilled that he is interested, too!

 Fingers are crossed that he loves it and sticks with it for a long time. I would also love for him to want to take piano lessons, but so far, the guitar is the only instrument he has mentioned. Baby steps!

 G&B have a new house, so they asked for decorations for their new rooms.

 G has a zebra theme, so she received LOTS of zebra items.

 Joe Joe was a good sport and let Wade open his presents, too.

 Mom found this dog at Hallmark that responds  to the book you read aloud. It is one of the cutest toys I have ever seen, and Wade loves it! We are still learning about it, but I'm already hoping there are additional books.

 I think Mom had more fun being in charge of gifts than the kids had opening!

 Sweet angel girl melts my heart.

 Goofballs!

The girls changed out of their cute Christmas attire into the "lounge clothes" they received. Next time, I'll remember to do a "pre-gift" cousin picture! What a fun weekend to kick off Christmas week! Thanks to Mawmaw and Pawpaw for having us!

Sleeping Angel

Christmas Break Party

My friend Katherine suggested that we have a party for our kids and their closest friends to celebrate Christmas Break. I love my kids. I love a party. I love Christmas Break. Let's do it!

The party started with Mrs. Karen reading the group a couple Christmas books.

Then the kids helped make "snowman pizzas."

Here they are with their finished pizzas.

They made an ornament while the pizzas cooked.

They had "Grinch Punch" with their pals.

They wore Reindeer antlers.(with bows:-)

They went on wagon rides.

They played a balloon pop game where each kid wore a balloon on his ankle

and tried very hard to pop everyone else's balloon

before they pop yours.

We have very competitive children!

Ella is going to be babysitter-extraordinaire one day!

The kids played a "dirty Santa" style game with cupcakes. They were only

slightly amused when we told them that everyone got a cupcake after all.

They decorated sugar ice cream cones to make their own gingerbread houses.

They had a blast! Merry Christmas pals!

Coon Sandwiches

"Daddy, can we eat our coon sandwiches in the living room?"

 

 

 

Mark that down as one of the things I NEVER thought I'd hear my baby say! I can't even begin to tell you how much coon these 2 ate and how much they liked it. I have no words.

Tree Lighting

 The best part of Wade's day is when he wakes up before his brother

 and gets to be the one to turn the Christmas tree lights on for the day.

 

Seeing this cute face peeking out might be the best part of my day, too!

Pottery Finale

Lee finished his pottery class and had the CUTEST things to bring home. He was so, so proud of his collection. Mrs. Janice really worked hard and helped the kids make quality items, and they learned to paint and glaze this time, too. I am amazed at how far he has come since the Spring class. I suggested that he select some of his work to give as Christmas gifts, but he wouldn't hear of it. So we have pottery pieces all over the house! He was already looking forward to moving up to the next level in the Spring, but our sweet teacher/friend/neighbor, Mrs. Janice was just diagnosed with breast cancer, so she will have the much bigger job of getting healthy in the Spring. I would love it if you would join our family in praying for her complete and speedy recovery. We love her so!

Operation Christmas Child Boxes

 Our church has partnered with Samaritan's Purse to provide "Christmas Boxes" to children all over the world.

 I decided a few years ago that our family would provide 6 boxes in honor

of our 6 nieces and nephews.

 The kids and I shop together and select items that are age appropriate for each kid, which this year ranged in ages from 4 to 17! We have a ton of fun shopping together for the boxes, and it is a great way for our kids to see a small way how to give back to others less fortunate and share the love of Jesus with them.

 Since we have no idea where in the world our boxes will land, we decided to send drawings and colored pages in our boxes, instead of the letters we've written in the past. We pray that our boxes make it to the destination of greatest need and that they will provide the same joy to the child as we had packing it.

Since we paid for our shipping online, we registered our boxes and received a confirmation a few weeks later that our boxes were sent to Madagascar. The boys thought that was SO cool. I told them it would be easy to remember that when they prayed for the kids who received our boxes.