Christmas Fun Highlights Week #4

Special Breakfast
Kept it super simple this year but still fun! Pancakes, Cool Whip and Christmas sprinkles. Yum!

Christmas Caroling
We headed to Oklahoma for Christmas with the Bohlmanns this year. One of my absolute favorite things to do growing up was go Christmas caroling with the various members of the congregation. It was always fun and made me smile. Since I have the inside scoop with my mom being in charge of all things music at church, she scheduled caroling for the evening we arrived. I was so excited for the kids to get to experience one of my favorite memories. :)







Christmas Eve
We enjoyed our first day at Nana and Papas. We frosted cookies, fed fish (we hope) in the ponds in the pasture, fed cattle and watched Prancer.

Then we headed to another one of my favorites, the candlelight service!
(Pictures all dressed up before and after.)

How many treats does it take to take 20+ pictures with a dachshund looking at a camera. ;)

They got to open one gift that night.

Milk, Cookies and Carrots For Santa and Reindeer

Christmas Day
Presents galore

Amazing Food

Mom made our favorite feast - Brisket and Cheesy Potatoes, which was amazing.
As you can see we had way more dessert than we could handle, and Nana made dirt per Makin's request.
Who says dirt isn't Christmasy???

Wonderful Company

Lorelei actually got sick Christmas Day afternoon, so that did put a damper on our day. She has gotten sick several Christmases so we are trying to figure out if its the stress/travel etc affecting her.

Other Christmas Visit Memories

Christmas Books With Nana

Lots Of Lou Time
(Makin loved going out with Heather for her potty breaks)

Heather Explaining the Physics of Rocket Boosters

Super Special Bunk Beds
(These were ours as kids, they reassembled them and added a guard, complete with Dad's brand.)
The kids had an absolute blast sleeping on them, and took turns on the top bunk.

Sad early goodbyes. There was a huge blizzard in the forecast, so we had to cut the trip in half.
We were very sad we didn't get more time together.
(Top pic is Makin and Nana playing catch with a "snowball" while we were packing up the van.)

Thanks for a beautiful Christmas Mom and Dad! 

And for making us feel so loved when we come to visit!

Miss you!

Christmas Fun Highlights Week #3

Sleep-Out By The Christmas Tree
The kids loved getting a chance to sleep all night by the Christmas tree. :)

Special Visitors
We had some super-special visitors arrive! Grandma and Grandpa made the trip south (leaving at around 2 am to avoid the icy roads nonetheless!) to visit us before Christmas. The kids enjoyed fun right away playing some games of checkers with Grandpa.

Sewing Ornaments
(We do various crafts, but this one was the most picture-worthy.) It was great having Grandma here to assist on the sewing!

I wasn't sure Makin would like to try these, but he really loved it and did a great job!







Christmas School Party/Grandma and Grandpa Makin Date
I was one of the 1st grade room-moms this year, so I was helping with all things Christmas party related. It was a flurry of activities as they wanted it done in an hour...but the kids still enjoyed it. I think I learned for next year not to pack as many activities in! Loved getting to see Lorelei around her classmates. :)

Each table in her classroom.
 She is super-excited to be surprised when she goes back to school as they will be rearranged!

Lorelei with Mrs. White and Lydia (and Christopher photo bombing ;) )

I asked Makin what he would prefer - go to Lorelei's party, go to preschool or hang out with Grandma and Grandpa. Thankfully he picked the easiest for me - Grandma and Grandpa date! He got a chance to have them all to himself all morning and then treated to lunch and play area at McDonalds. He was pretty happy with that decision. :)

We then met them at the public library, where the students performed some of their songs they would sing for the program that night.















Christmas Program
Lorelei's class had some songs they learned for the school's Christmas musical. The girls in her class wore angel halos and it just so happened that her dress was perfect for the part this year! (Really...I didn't know that when we picked the dress!!) She had the usual program excitement that day, and loved seeing her friends in their fancy clothes and socializing outside of school time. Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed being able to see her perform (this helped them decided when to make their visit!) and Makin loved having a Grandma along to buy him a giant muffin at the bake sale so that he could eat it during the performance. :)

Top Picture: Lydia, Peyton, Lanie and Lorelei
Bottom: Cassie and Lorelei

Artwork On Display

The Mall
Grandma and Grandpa took the kids and I to the mall so they could pick out a Christmas gift and some clothes. They also enjoyed a carousel ride with Grandpa and Dip N Dots.

















Christmas Lights
We were so excited to be able to see the amazing Christmas lights.

Christmas Game Day
We enjoyed our game time again this year with company!

Babes
We get treated to some yummy meals out with Grandma and Grandpa in town. Babe's was Grandpa's request.















Evenings

Books with Grandma

Games of Gin

Loved spending time with these two! Thanks for a fun visit Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Christmas Fun Highlights Week #2

Reindeer Games
This was our 4th Reindeer Games and we enjoyed having the Hughes family join us!

We played some games outside and had great weather!

We headed inside for a few more games and finished the night with salad and pizza.

Baking Gingerbread

Yes, not only did we make gingerbread men, we made gingerbread rockets. Makin had that idea quite a while ago so we had to make it happen. They had lots of fun decorating both people and rockets!

Had to include this special ginger-girl. :) "Mom, look, its me!"
Notice the GCA logo? :)

Making Bird Feeders

Northwood Christmas Festival

We headed about an hour away to check out a church's Christmas festival I heard about years ago. It was very affordable and sounded like a great activity to try out. While we probably won't go again, we enjoyed our evening. :)

We started off the night with a petting zoo and inflatable slides.

Then we enjoyed a hayride that took us to various scenes through Jesus' life, which had live actors at every stop. It was all people volunteering from their church playing the part of the scene over and over for each hayride.

My Favorite Reenactment - when the friends lowered the man down from the roof

Polar Express Movie Night

Our usual Polar Express movie night became a night with friends this year. Trying to fit in our date-night exchange meant the Hughes kiddos joined us for our fun! The kids were memorized by the movie and had fun with their hot chocolate concoctions. :) Brad even punched their first initial on their ticket. :)