A Very Special Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas with the Voss family on December 23rd this year.

This gave us the chance to have a nice and quiet Christmas Eve at our house.

Brandon left work in time to meet us to go to church with Ken and Susan.

When we returned from church, I finished up dinner while the kids made reindeer food!

They measured all the ingredients and mixed it all together!

We took the reindeer food outside and sprinkled it on the front lawn . . .

it must have worked because the kids had a big surprise on Christmas morning!

Dinner was wonderful - Ken made the turkey and gravy.  I made mashed potatoes,

Grandma Kay's special stuffing, Sarah's favorite carrots and rolls.

We enjoyed fresh baked Christmas cookies and fruit for dessert.

After dinner we played games with Sarah and Caleb played with his tractors from Uncle Jason.

After Grandma and Grandpa left, Sarah made a few things for Santa!

This one reads: "I Love you!  Come into my room tonght plase  Santa and give me a hug."

This one reads: "Merry Christmas Santa. Love Sarah"

So beautiful!  After such a fun evening, we finally got the kids calmed down enough to go to sleep!

Cookie Baking

I had a few extra helpers this year!

Matthew, Olivia and Lainey were here to help (or to distract Sarah and Caleb . . .

it just depends on how you look at it)!!!

Their favorite cookies were the sugar cookies!

I rolled the dough and Grandma supervised cutting the shapes!

Matthew, Caleb and Olivia lasted about 5 minutes - give or take!

Sarah and Lainey lasted a bit longer - a good 30 minutes.

Caleb enjoyed helping me mix all the cookies . . .

we made Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Chip, Devil's Food, Gooey Butter Cookies,

Candy Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, Pretzel kisses with M&M's, and Sugar Cookies.

Sarah and Caleb were the official decorators! 

We mixed and baked all the cookies the first day;

the second day was all about decorating!

Look at his intense concentration. . .

He loved decorating with red hots - I think he ate as many as he used!

Grandpa Ken was our taste tester . . . .

I believe all the cookies met his approval!

The kids' mess. . . I mean decorating area. . .

It was all worth it. . . look at these beautiful cookies!

They were so very delicious!

This was an awesome recipe!

These are the pretzel kiss M&M . . . so good, quick & easy!

This is one of my favorite days during the Christmas holiday season.  I remember growing up when my Grandma would come to our house and bake all day with Mom.  I remember the smell of all the delicious cookies baking and Mom trying to find enough Tupperware to store all the cookies.  I hope my kids will be able to enjoy the same memory of me and my Mom!

Things I Learned on Christmas Vacation

As our Christmas vacation draws to a close,

I've reflected on a few things I learned these past thirteen days:

• Caleb likes to take baths (or showers)
• The kids like to play with my pillows . . . jump on them, throw them, make a mud pile out of them . . . I think I've made my bed about 50 times this vacation
• The kids love eggnog. . . Brandon bought about 3 gallons
• Caleb loves being naked
• I love to bake and because I do, I bake way too many cookies
• Brandon likes an organized and clean house even more than I do (if that's possible)
• Caleb can find any candy in the house . . . even after we've hidden it
• Sarah is a master at making up games to play in her room and then not picking it up . . . maybe that's the game
• The kids like to be pretend puppies
• Caleb loves to eat hot dogs
• I love playing Super Mario on Sarah's DS . . . thankfully she "needs" my help
• Caleb cannot steer his new John Deere tractor

And the most important thing I've learned:

It is a waste of paper to make a to-do list. . .
I only get things accomplished on the last day of vacation, such as:

• clean the storage room
• organize the linen closet
• organize the yard sale items (for a date yet to be determined)
• put away kids clothes that don't fit anymore
• do the laundry
• rearrange furniture
• hang a wine rack in the kitchen
• hang a candle holder in the basement
• check Sarah's upcoming Girl Scout schedule
• enter recipes on the computer
• embroider on Caleb's baby quilt (I know, I know, but better late than never!!)
• clean the kitchen three times (seriously, why three. . should have waited until after dinner)
• packed the diaper bag
• organized my work stuff
• gave Caleb two baths (see above listing) and Sarah one bath
• vaccumed the basement
• updated my blog

WHAT A DAY!!! 

WHAT A HUSBAND!!!

WHAT A GREAT START TO 2012!!!



Church Christmas Program

The kids were in the Sunday School Christmas program this year entitled Do You Hear What I Hear?

They were both Angels and Sarah had a speaking part.

Sara's part was to proclaim, "Fear Not! I bring you good tidings of great news to all men.  Today in the city of David a savior has been born.  He is Christ the Lord."

Here is my little Angel . . . Caleb was so cute!

The halo he is wearing also had white Christmas lights entwined;

it was beautiful!

Both of my Angels getting ready to go on stage! 

The Sunday School classes also performed The Little Drummer Boy;

each of the kids had their own drum to play along with the song.

Caleb did great in practice, but didn't feel like playing once he was on stage!

Sarah, on the other hand, loves being on stage and loved beating her drum!

 Brandon and I were joking that Caleb should have been a camel instead of an angel.

He wondered around the stage visiting with the angels, the lambs, Mary, checked in on baby Jesus several times.  Mary patiently took him back to the angels each time, but then he would just wonder off again!

After the program was over, it is a tradition in our church that all the kids get a Christmas ornament.

Caleb had a great time showing his off and swinging it around for everyone to see!

Doesn't Sarah look beautiful with her halo and gown? 

Beauty & The Beast

What a night!  What a musical! What a great time! What a great surprise!

As part of Sarah's Christmas present, Grandma LaVon bought Sarah, Lainey and me tickets

to see Beauty & the Beast at the Fox Theatre on December 23rd!

We started off the day by having lunch at 54th Street Bar and Grill!

The girls had a great time . . . fancy dinner, fancy clothes, fancy hair!

We had AWESOME seats . . . third row from the stage!

The seat also came with a Fox Club parking pass and we got to use the Fox Club

entrance and bathrooms. . . yes, the bathrooms were a definite bonus (no waiting in line)!

Sarah loved the entire musical. . . I don't think she took her eyes off the stage for a single second!

Her favorite part was all the dancing and seeing Belle dance with the Beast.

My favorite part was the Gaston musical number in the tavern - the characters were tap dancing and clinking all their mugs together - it was really cool!

Sarah and I enjoying the show . . .

I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, me or Sarah!

This is one of my favorite musicals!

 

The last time I saw Beauty & the Beast at the Fox was with Brandon which was a great memory for us . . . and now I have another great memory of my Mom, Sarah and I enjoying the same musical!

Thanks Mom (Grandma) for a great afternoon and for another wonderful memory!

Christmas Pajamas

I have been making pajamas for the kids for Christmas since Caleb was born.

Here are the 2011 pajamas:

Caleb's pajamas had a reindeer jumping Christmas lights;

Sarah's pajamas had a moose with a red sweator.

Here are the 2009 pajamas . . .

Caleb had little snowmen on his onesie and Sarah had little reindeer on her nightgown.

The 2010 pajamas: 

Sarah had snowmen on her outfit and Caleb had Mickey Mouse and the gang on his outfit.

Santa Visit

Sarah wrote a letter to Santa and thoughtfully included items requested by Caleb. . .

although at the end of the letter she told Caleb he had been naughty!

Not to fear, Santa assured Caleb he was still on the nice list!

We patiently waited to see Santa . . .

Caleb ran right up to Santa and hugged him!

He hopped right up and started talking to him about tractors!

Santa reading Sarah's thoughtful letter . . .

The kids were so good, they each got a candy cane from Santa.

Caleb loves candy canes!

See you next year Santa!