The Best Part of My Christmas

 Having all these sweet faces near me!  I didn't love that we couldn't all be together on Christmas Eve and Day...but I did love that I had multiple days with family.  Here's a peek at the faces I saw on the 25th and 28th of December.  Two Christmas celebrations equals two times the fun!!

 

Mandy gave Lulu a Mooshka doll...the doll kind of resembles Lulu!

Jacqi's due date is Jan. 8th...she's about ready!

Penelope is modeling her new gloves from Gramma & Grandpa, & her new vest from my mom. 
Look at Katie and Kevin admiring her modeling skills!

Elijah thought that modeling looked fun...so he gave it a try!

Mark is the baby whisperer.....he can always get Lulu to sleep!

Another special moment with Caleb...he's sitting on my lap!  This does not
ever happen...it helped that he was watching something on the TV.

Grandpa and "the Lu" taking a little snooze.

Penelope is enjoying her new Rapunzel book...beautiful illustrations!

After dinner and presents...some of us enjoyed a little down time.

Sweet Caleb.

Charlotte and her momma playing with the
 Rainbow Loom...and thousands of tiny rubber bands. 

They're watching some silly cat videos on my laptop...I'm not sure what Caleb
is thinking...but he sure looks cute!

Charlotte, Lulu, Penelope....my three sweet grandgirls!

This guy will be six...tomorrow!!!  What?!!

Cousins.

Mandy thought this tree had sold out at Target...but her mom found her one! 
Such a good mom!

Elijah got this Spelling Bee game from GGma.  He got a birthday card from her on
Saturday and told me that GGma spells great-grandma!

We love having Mark's mum visit us from England each Christmas. 
I know Brenda loved having some special time with Lulu...
the last time she saw her was in June.

Guess what Johanna's favorite Christmas movie is?  Yep,
"A Christmas Story"!
Katie gave her the tote filled with fat quarters
of fabric.  I think she likes both the tote & the fabric!

Joe - "I never cease to amaze myself".....and you
never cease to amaze me either!!

How blessed I am....just look at them all!

Not only do we all live close by...we all get along!

We love each a other  bunch!!

Most importantly, we all love the Lord, and we had a blast celebrating Him and celebrating family during Christmas 2013!!!

 

The whole crazy, wonderful bunch!!

 

Crafting & Christmas Eve

About a week and a half before Christmas, Charlotte and Penelope spent the night. 

They had dinner with us, and then tea and cookies for snack. 

They got to choose their own tea cups...a high point of the evening for sure!

 

They also got to make Christmas crafts for their parents.  Here's their little snow storm jars...in progress.  They're made out of plastic wine glasses!  Charlotte and Penelope painted and decorated photo frames too...and the created "I Love Dad" plaques.  These ended up being painted with metallic gold paint and then a liberal amount of gold glitter was poured sprinkled on.  The parents loved everything!!  The girls had a great evening...they managed to stretch the activities all the way to midnight. 

But when they finally put their heads on their pillows, they were out in seconds!

 

 

Elijah and I didn't get to create together until after Christmas...and I forgot to take photos.  Johanna was kind enough to send me photos of the gifts he made.  A paperweight for Dad...with a caterpillar. Elijah loved that it had a caterpillar!! 

He painted and directed gem placement on the treasure box for Mommy.  That gold star on the right side was the last one applied. He thought long and hard before picking that spot for it.

Time flew right by and then it was Christmas Eve. These two stopped by our house right after church.  Don't they look sweet in their pretty dresses!

We had a yummy dinner of National Coney Island hot dogs....direct from Michigan. A big thank you to my mom for sending them to us!!  We enjoyed every bite!!

Christmas Eve is a great time for taking pictures of a cute baby  by the tree!

 

I'm not sure what these two were up to...but I loved the expressions on their faces!!  I love watching them play together.

Christmas Eve is a good time for games too...the game of choice for this night was dominoes.  But all good things must come to an end...especially when three little girls needed to get home so they could be tucked into bed.  So all three put on their Christmas PJs and said good night!

 

 

While about 20 miles away two little boys were already in their Christmas PJ's watching a Veggie Tales Christmas DVD.  Look how pretty their tree was.  Thanks Johanna for posting these photos for me to 'borrow'!  I missed the boys Christmas Eve and Day...but seeing these nice shots helped out a bunch!! 

 

Christmas morning with Elijah and Caleb.

 

I'm closing in on the end of Christmas 2013...but not quite yet.  Stay tuned!!

 



Road Trip, and a possible Sugar Overload.

  Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's Through the tunnel and under the bay to Joe and Jo's house we go.  I know it's pretty sad...but I couldn't help myself.  Even sadder...we didn't actually go to their house, but we did go to their neighborhood!  We met them at The Avenue for lunch and a bit of shopping. 

 

I snapped this photo at the end of our day together.

A little shopping and reading at Barnes & Noble.  Love the photo of Elijah reading to
Charlotte and Penelope.

Lulu did some shopping too...at A.C. Moore with her momma.

Shopping for a blanket at Pier 1...Elijah was testing the warmth of it in this photo.

Dinner at Red Brick Station, with free coloring books from one of the stores we stopped at.

 

My two favorite photos from this family outing.  Caleb does not often 'engage' with me...this
little bit of playing with him was so wonderful.  Elijah LOVES Lulu...this shows it perfectly! 

Charlotte hugging a duck, Penelope riding a duck, and Elijah enjoying it all.

Inspecting the giant tree and it's ornaments.

The giant tree...with soldier and drum. Caleb liked the drum way more than he liked
posing for a photo.

 

Hugging the soldier.

 

Couldn't resist sharing these two photos.  Lulu was well bundled up during our family outing, and
later that night she was hanging out under her Christmas tree.

 

Three days later I got to join Charlotte at her school.  Her kindergarten class was making gingerbread houses and I volunteered to help.

Charlotte's gingerbread creation

 

Don't you love the heart on the roof?!

My favorite part is this stack of gummy Lifesavers
on a pretzel.  When I asked her what this was she said,
"gummy Lifesavers on a pretzel".  : ) 



I love having this blog....it's really helping me to remember the fun times my family has together, among so many other good things.  I sometimes find myself thinking that maybe I share this kind of stuff too often.  But then I remember that this is my blog, my journal, my memories...I should blog about what I want to blog about. And right now I want to 'document' December 2013 and all the good times we had.  So it's still gonna Christmas around here for a bit.

Someday I'm going to get my blog printed into books...6 months in each book.  In July 2014 I'll be celebrating 6 years of blogging!  That'll mean 12 books full of fun!!
I best get busy on those books!