Merry Christmas

Jacqueline making cookies with Daddy

The first ornaments

It tastes much better on your fingers than on the cookie!

This is Kaleb (he's 19 months and pretty much part of our family his mom and I are best friends and our families spend much of our time together. It took him a while to catch on, but once he figured it out he had fun. till he figured out that little white pile was choc chips. then he spent the rest of the time eating them!

She did not want to get messy!

This is serious work! Don't bother me (isnt she getting so big?)

TADA- arent they beautiful?!?

I can hardley believe that it is nearly Christmas! It has been a whirl wind couple of weeks for us. Christmas is in fact my favorite time of year! I love the way our house looks all decorated and the excuse it gives me to bake yummy stuff. I love having all our friends around and the parties we get to attend. It's all so festive and exciting! I have to say though, the best part is Christmas through the kids. Watching them light up when the decorating is finished and they get to see it all, is so much fun. Hearing them giggle while we decorate cookies and make treats is a blast.

I have been pretty home sick this year and have not been able to shake the feeling of missing out on traditions from when I was younger. Between that and all the stress over Adams job, it had put a real damper on feeling cheery.

But, as Christmas drew near and we got into the traditions our little family has established, the Christmas season just got that snuggly, happy feeling that I look forward too every year. We have some unique traditions at our house for the Holiday some we've taken from other people, and some did not start out with the intentions of them being traditions, they have just happend that way.

1)We put up the tree Thanksgiving night- Its a wonderful feeling that with all we have to be thankful for, we can begin the Christmas season with the friends and family that have celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with us.

2)When we put up the tree, the girls all get to buy a new ornament for the year. Those ornaments are the first ones on the tree, followed by each of the ones from years past, then the family ornaments. The last ones on the tree are the first ones from last year. When the tree comes down each of the girls ornaments go into their own boxes. The first Christmas after they are married they will get the box of ornaments that they have collected over the years.

3) We make gingerbread houses or people... its a mess and the kids love it. This year we had an extra one, we were baby sitting that night so we had to get Kaleb involved. it was fun till he put his fraosting covered hands in his hair and dyed it green for a while. (we got it out before mom got home)

4) we make handprints of the kids with flour, salt, water bake and paint. The kids like it and it's neat to see how much they have grown, I figure next year will be the last one Makenzie lets us do hers with out holding her down!

5) we feel this tradition is our most important, it's pretty dear to Adam and my hearts that we do it. Neither one of us grew up with much money or had elaborate Christmasas that our girls are fortunate enough to enjoy. We never want our kids to take what they get for granted (although they often do anyway) We have always wanted them to realize that not everyone has what they have. Each year, we find an angel tree and pick out a boy and a girl who are in need. We let the girls pick out the gifts the kids wanted and hand the gifts over to the people collecting the gifts. We do the same thing with a food drive at our grocery store. The kids are old enough now that they understand that not every mommy and daddy can afford to buy gifts for their kids. Although last year, Jacqueline had a hard time giving up the doll she picked out to the Marines (she cried) this year, she was so excited to be buying a gift for a little girl like her who might not get a toy on Christmas, so excited in fact, we had to go pick out another name because, "there still more kids on the tree". It was a really neat thing to see.

A few day's before Chrismtas we drive around and look at lights, although we did notice that there were significantly less lights this year than last year. Lots and lots of empty homes made it kinda sad, but we decided out lights were the coolest!

The kids decided this year they were old enough to wrap gifts... this was a site to see and I wish I had taken picktures of the events. There are presents under the tree we can't touch because, well, they are not well hidden! But the girls thought it was way cool that they got to do it. I'd like to say it saved me time, but if you have kids, you know that's just not the case. But it did make us laugh watching Alexandra trying to wrap a basket shaped gift!

Im adding some pictures of some of the holiday events, I hope they make you smile! Merry Christmas to all of you, from all of us!