Christmas

 House Decorations

I love white lights.

The rest of the family loves colored lights.

So I set up a little tree in the kitchen that was white lights only just for me.

I made a sign for the fireplace and used some Dollar Tree glasses to frost and spell JOY.

Our Christmas card 'wall' of fame. :)

I bought some wreaths at the Dollar Tree, fastened them together with wire and wrapped lights around to make a snowman.  Wide ribbon was used as his scarf.

The outdoor decos.

Christmas Eve

Yep, Santa on a firetruck.

The stockings hung above the chimney with care.

But not for long!  We open stockings the night before Christmas.

My sillies

The presents under the tree

Christmas Morning

The Christmas fire

Waiting...and waiting...and waiting for the oldest to get up.  One child was up at 4:20.  The last one got up at 8.

 

Bought Gifts

Daddy & Court being silly.

A gift from the kids

Our friends sent us a Christmas present.  We are so blessed by thoughtful, giving friends!!

Homemade Gifts 

My idea this year was to make them each a game using a theme from characters that they like:

Ninjago Yahtzee

Dice with Ninjas Mod-Podged onto them.

A half made scarf (still in the bag).  I just couldn't get it done in time.

A Mario gameboard

Close-up of the board.  You roll the die and move your character.  It's like a mix between Candy Land & Chutes and Ladders...but it's Mario themed.

Mario Match

He loves to play Memory, so I made him his own Mario style Memory game.

Mario Chess

A blend of Mario and Chess - his favorite game.

And our most favorite part about gift giving:

Secret Sibling Gifts

She worked on this for weeks!  It's baking pans with painted sceneries. She made Mario characters and items, laminated them, cut them out and placed magnets on the back.

His favorite gift by far!

His little brother loves frogs, so he made him a froggy pillow.

Of course it is well loved, and he took it with him everywhere he went.

His sister saw a Ninjago pillow at the store, but we couldn't afford it.  So, he took it upon himself to make her one.

She likes it a lot and it was even used as her bedtime pillow.

His oldest brother loves Mario and anything yellow.  So he made him the Golden Fire Flower.

He sewed most of it himself (except the hard parts that barely fit under the presser foot).

Tradition

We watched "The Nativity Story".

 Family Time

They spent the whole day playing with their new gifts.  Makes my heart happy.

Some Christmas Cook-like happenings:

1. Our garbage disposal broke, and our cupboard flooded under the sink, spilling out onto the kitchen floor.

2. Our oven malfunctioned, and when our ham was supposed to be done, it was only a balmy 98*.

3. One of our logs that we brought into the house was filled with ants, when we threw it in the fire, they all came running out onto the hearth.

The real reason for Christmas is not the 'perfect' day.

It is celebrating our Lord and Savior's birth.

Because of our mishaps, We couldn't fit in everything we wanted to do on Christmas day.

But that just gives us all the reason more to drag out our celebrations.

This weekend we are making a birthday cake for Jesus,

Reading from Luke, Chapter 2,

and making S'mores in the fireplace...the latter is not our tradition, it's just for fun!

~

"For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6-7