Playing Catch Up

I've been on another hiatus from the blog.  Just haven't been able to get it together.  So, here goes:

Our Christmas was so fun.  It snowed.  A good snow.  In Alabama, it snowed a good snow.  The  kids tore into their presents, ate Birthday cake for Jesus and went out in the snow.  Around lunch, we headed over to my mom's house to celebrate and, of course, eat.  And don't forget the Christmas play.

I know; no cute Christmas PJs.  Just be glad everybody has their body covered!

Cake and breakfast tortillas(for those of us that can't do sweet in the morning!)

 I think I got 3 out of 4 in this shot.

I love it when Nanny comes for Christmas(and not just because she makes all the fudge!)

What a motley crew!

What tweenager wouldn't want an Ipod Touch?

One of the 3 things he wanted for Christmas.

New Rule:  You buy it, you put it together!

Trying to figure out what charms are on her new charm bracelet.

Holes in her head.

Hayden finally got her wish:  ears pierced.  She did great . . . not even a whimper.

Look who we found walking around BridgeStreet. Shouldn't he be delivering Christmas presents in some time zone around the world?

 

Christmas celebrations

Always lots of parties to attend.  Don't get too excited for me: they usually involve chicken nuggets and cheese puffs.  

I only attended the last 15 minutes of Ally's party.  Something about twenty 3rd graders constructing their own gingerbread houses and twin four year old boys running around just didn't seem to work too well in my mind.  Ally's house looked great.  Her teacher mentioned how meticulous she was in her decorating.   She even had a story line to go with it.

The boys' party was a little more, let's see,  LOUD.  Parents each bring loads of food, they order chicken from Chick-fil-a and the teachers pass out gifts.  After waiting 20 minutes on the chicken to arrive, we loaded our plates, ate a couple of bites, tore in to the gift bags, ran a couple of laps around the party and left.  Well, Nanny, it's our last one at Mt. Zion . . . unless of course we get the urge to crash next year's party.

I wasn't invited to Hayden's party.  Well, I was, but to serve food.  I couldn't find my hairnet, so I left it up to her to party for me.  I think she was a little relieved.

We did a little partying of our own at home this week too.  I bought 2 gingerbread trains and had each girl take a boy.  We ALL felt the love.

Fudge.

My Lunch Bunch group holds a cookie exchange each year at Christmas.  I like to participate, but I don't always follow the rules.  I don't always make cookies and sometimes I don't even make anything edible.  A couple of years ago, I made fudge, decorated it and packaged it ever so sweetly for my friends.  It was such a big hit, that I make it every year for people at Ben's work.  This year I also made it for every kind of teacher my kids have; Sunday school, school, piano, etc.  Well, I guess I should be honest.  Nanny made the fudge for me and I decorated and packaged it.  Thank you Nanny.  I'll get our info in for the craft show next year!

 Who wouldn't want a pretty package of fudge?

Look how straight I wrote those letters.

My box of ornament cookies looked cute, but were probably too hard to eat.  

The shepherds.

Caleb and Joshua were shepherds today.  It was the last Christmas program at Mt. Zion for our family.  I would like to say we went out with a BANG, but they just aren't those kind of shepherds.  Oh, and if you had any doubts about them being identical . . .

It took us a minute to figure out who was who.

I love this picture.  He is watching the angels twirling his way.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, what crazy drama you cause me.

Ah, yes.   Time again for our big Christmas tree search.  It only took us 2 tries this year.  We loaded up ever so slowly one afternoon and after a 35 minute car ride, got there 10 minutes before closing.  You know the looks you get from salespeople when you run in a store at a little before closing?  Yep, we got those.  So, we turned around and headed home.  The whole ride home I toyed with the idea of suggesting we head to Lowe's and be done with it.  I just couldn't do it.  Why would I want to strip myself of the joys of another family bonding experience.

Today we made our second trip and I am happy to announce we are the proud owners of a Christmas tree. We even took it to another level by including the dog.  Since I know you are just dying for a visual, here goes:  it is raining, we have walked miles to find a tree we can all agree on, the dog has tried to run off to join other families, 2 or more of the children are hollering for Sadie, I am screaming at the dog to get back here so the children will be quiet, Ben is the only one that can summon the dog and get her to respond, 3 in our group "peed on the property",  due to the stress of losing Sadie and finding a tree, Hayden has retreated to the truck, Ally and I are trying to "one-up" each other in finding the perfect tree and the boys are trying to pole vault with the 12 foot measuring stick.  I don't understand why more families don't cut down their trees!

 All smiles to start with!

 This is my favorite picture.

 Doesn't it look like he's trying to pole vault?

 See: it's raining and she's in the truck.

 Ally and the boys were trying to give Ben a
break by dragging the tree to the truck themselves.

Supervising.

The right boots.

Ally's Christmas program was tonight.  I was trying to decide if having her participate would be worth the effort.  I can handle the crowd and parking at the back of the parking lot.  I can handle juggling 2 four year olds in  crowded bleachers with 600 other parents vying for the best seat.  I can even handle a tween who has no desire to be there even though many of her friends are there to hear siblings sing.  What I can't handle is finding Ally clothes to wear.  So after 2 trips to Belk's, a trip to JCPenney and one to Dillard's, I finally had the clothes.  Then it took a trip to Belk's, a late night trip to Kohl's, a trip to the Shoe Dept. in the mall, a last minute call to The Shoe Dept. in the mall, a call to Nina to please, please,please run by the Shoe Dept. in the mall and a "moments before the show starts" shoe change, to get her the most perfect boots.  Not to mention the return trips to all those places to return the 5 pairs that were less than perfect and the 4 complete outfits that were not meant to be.

But after seeing her light up as she sings, it was all worth it.

She liked this song.

She was making a funny face at us and I caught it!