Christmas Cont. - DS Excitement

I wasn't able to post this with my previous blog post, so here it is:
K gets a DS

Christmas at the Cooks

We started this fire at 6am in anticipation of the kids coming down any second.  Two hours later, it was just still Matt & I waiting...and waiting...and waiting...Finally at 8:30-9am all of the kids got up.  Haha!

Getting ready to open gifts!

And...they're off!

K squealed with delight.  He was so excited to get a DS.  That look on his face pretty much stayed for hours. =)

Gv got his all time favorite movie from his Grammy & Papa.

K was so happy to get a Bible now that he is a Christian. =)

C got more Polly Pockets.

Gv & Gt got a Mario & Luigi racetrack.  They played with it for hours.

He loves his Star Wars Legos!

C always thinks of her brothers.  She got them each two gifts.

Matt got me a tablet. =)

Don't let the look of surprise fool you...He picked out eight of them for us to choose from. ;)

A watch!  Unfortunately the second hand was broken and we had to take it back. :/

Gt got a Luigi from his Grammy & Papa.  He's had a death grip on that thing ever since he opened it.

After an hour and a half of building the track, the boys were finally able to play it.  Gt was willing to let go of Luigi to play with the track.  (Also, notice the floor???  We tiled our kitchen over the last few days.)

Mario trying to survive the Thwamps.

The video below is the boys racing their cars:

Christmas Eve Fun

It is our tradition to have the kids empty their stockings on Christmas Eve.

The stockings contain pjs, notebooks, pencils, and other little fun things.  Like...

...socks. :)

In the mid-afternoon, Santa rides through our neighborhood on a fire truck.  This year he talked to the kids.  They had a blast.  Gavin was bummed that he didn't see "his" firetruck.  (Truck 91 that came to our house when he broke his arm last year)

Matt & I could barely stay up late enough to get the presents under the tree.  The kids stayed up until 10:30.  We thought they'd never go to bed!!

BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. - Acts 16:31

Haircuts for the Boys

Haircuts were waaay overdue!  I got out the clippers and started a clippin.

G's mohawk was inspired by a neighborhood boy's.  He loves it and can't keep his hands off of it.

Christmas Placemats

This year, our Christmas art project was to make placemats.  It's fairly easy and the kids loved it.  I used one of our kids store bought placemats as a template and traced it out on a large roll of white paper that we had.  (Our neighbor from up in Roc used to work in an icecream plant and gave me a couple of rolls of paper. - Score for art projects!)  I had the kids draw Christmas themed pictures.  I printed up a picture of them on regular paper and cut it out in a circle.  I drew an ornament on their paper and placed their pic in the center.  The kids colored all around it. I then used a roll of clear contact paper and covered it.  And, Wa-la a Christmas placemat.

K did all the artwork himself.  He finally learned how to draw a star on his own, and it shows. =)

Gt needed me to outline the trees, but the rest of the art is his.  Notice the train at the bottom of the tree.  He was very proud of that.

Gv wanted to make sure that every last square inch of his placemat was covered.  I say, he succeeded!

C's is of a few of her favorite things.  Including: a snowman, a Christmas tree, one of the girls I babysit and 2 DS games.

McWane Field Trip

We decided to have a field trip to the McWane Science Center today.  Matt was working close by, so he was able to spend some time with us.

Matt was wildly whipping the reigns as the kids jumped onto Santa's sleigh

I was trying to get the camera ready and told Matt not to worry, he didn't look ridiculous at all. ;)

G built a cool slide for the ball to roll down

Then off to the Winter Wonderland.  I told them there was no need to go up to PA or NY now. ;)

This stuff was really cool.  Not literally.  It was slippy like snow & you could make snowballs with it and throw them.  It was some kind of polymer material - the same thing that is in diapers.

G loves trains.  Half of the third floor had lots of them including HO scale exhibits.  His Papa would have been in heaven there.

The all loved Ripline.  K & G had a blast on this.

They wrapped Christmas lights around the slide. On the inside of the slide it glowed like stars.

Getting some PE time in. hehe  The kids had a blast playing soccer.

We had so much fun!  It's a worthy replacement to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester. =)

Christmas Light Walk

Allow me to brag just a little here...It was 76 degrees and sunny today!!  A perfect evening to take a walk around our part of the neighborhood and go Christmas light looking.

Here the boys are at our house at the beginning of our light walk.

They found a house where they absolutely loved the lights.

Posing in the street in front of numerous lit up houses.

In the words of my eldest, "This is the cool rock-star's house!  Isn't it the coolest?"

Cuteness

One thing that amazes me about packages that come in the mail, is that instead of the contents mesmerizing my children, it's usually the packaging. =)

Bubble wrap jumping fun

Yesterday while spending some time in my most favorite store (just a tad bit of sarcasm there), G started calling out my name.  I turned around and asked "What?"  He said, "A clue!  A clue!  I found a clue!"

Look closely and you'll see a blue dog paw print on the bottle.  Now all he needs is his 'Handy Dandy Notebook'.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

This has to be my most favorite time of the year!  I absolutely LOVE Christmas!!

In home groups this past week, we were asked to think about traditions that our family has had past & present.  At first I couldn't think of anything from my past, but later the memories came flooding back.

My absolutely favorite Christmas tradition from my childhood, was going to central Pennsylvania and camping out in a log cabin over Christmas for a week.  We did this yearly for many years and it was awesome!  I remember cold chili that tasted warm, because it was sooo cold outside.  Taking hikes and getting lost.  Sledding down the mountainside across a road and into a pine tree.  Mashing the potatoes for our Christmas dinner with a fork, because we forgot the electric mixer (and btw, the creamiest mashed potatoes I've ever had!).  There are so many wonderful memories from that family tradition, that I could go on, and on, and on...

[And mom, dad, brothers & sisters in law, wouldn't that be fun to do together again, now that we have our own families?]

Now that our kids are a little older, we are trying to think up of traditions for our family.  In the past we have had read the Christmas story from Luke and had the kids open their stalkings (with PJs in them) on Christmas Eve.  (We got the PJ idea from the Buss' up in Rochester).  We watch all those fun Christmas movies from Black Friday until Christmas & have popcorn, hot cocoa,chocolate chip cookies, etc.  I decorate the house trying to compete with the Griswolds. ;)

I decorate our tree with white lights and ribbon, like I do every year.  Except for this year, it is only decorated that way on the top half, so that little hands don't get to the pretty ribbon or glass ornaments. (I'm babysitting now)

We watch the movie, "The Nativity Story".  And a newly started tradition is going to see the play "Scrooge" at Kingwood Baptist.

But one thing I noticed with all the traditions that we have, there are very few that have anything to do with the true meaning of Christmas. So this year, I want to change that.

We as a family have never pretended that Santa was real.  We have always told our kids the truth concerning that.  We have always told our kids the true meaning of Christmas, but we never really did anything to show it.  (I'm embarrassed to admit.)

It's not much, but as a new tradition starting this year, we are going to show our neighbors love by daily giving a different neighbor a gift and a homemade card telling of the true meaning of Christmas.  We'll do this everyday, for ten days.  We will remain anonymous, because I really want the kids not to focus on themselves, but on loving their neighbor. [Okay Ivy Brook friends who read my blog - our little secret =) ]

God gave us the ultimate gift, Jesus.  So it will be our goal to share that gift with others - along with a batch of cookies, a Christmas ornament, money or whatever the gift will be.  And maybe, just maybe, it might change one neighbor's Christmas.  So this week, we will be praying, as a family, that the gifts & cards will change someone's heart who does not know about Jesus, or even if they do, that they will remember Him and why we even celebrate Christmas to begin with, or perhaps it will just simply bring someone Hope.

This time of year is truly a time to celebrate the birth of Christ! (as is any other time of year!)  But so many times we get caught up in the traditions that have very little to do with Him.  My hope and prayer for this year is that we focus more on Jesus while having fun with all the other traditions too.

Merry Christmas!!