Christmas Day, Part II of II.

It all started with two little munchkins swaggering excitedly down the hall, barely able to walk straight because they had sprung out of bed so quickly:
I love this shot of Kennedy and Hayden snuggling on the couch, barely able to contain their excitement:
A quick Christmas morning family shot:
First come the stockings, one for everyone including Rube:



Daddy must have had a naughty streak this year, because a lump of coal showed up in his stocking! I love the kids' reactions to this:
Hayden tries out his huge new racetrack, that basically takes up the entire front library room:
Kennedy has been eyeing this Fairy Dream Set from Magic Cabin for over a year, and her dream came true on Christmas:
Hayden was stunned when he lifted the big box to find his number one wish list item: A Wii, with games and accessories:
The kids each picked me out a great pair of earrings--white gold diamond studs from Hayden and gold etched hoops from Kennedy. I love that they picked them out themselves and got my tastes spot-on!
Kennedy received a Nintendo DS with several learning games, along with a cool veterinarian simulation where you have to diagnose and treat pet illnesses:
Here's Hayden trying out the Lightning McQueen racing game on the Wii:
The kids always get a basket full of books:
And the rest of the morning was spent enjoying our gifts and getting ready for our trip up north. Another blessed Christmas...thank you, Lord!

Christmas Highlights, Part I of II.

Today and tomorrow's posts are devoted to sharing some highlights of our Christmases with our families. At my parents, we enjoyed appetizers on Christmas night, followed by rousings games of "Bingo for presents." The McDonald family cleaned house and captured more than our share of the door prizes. We all slept at Mom and Dad's that night and woke up to a delicious breakfast, stockings, and plenty of wonderful presents for everyone. The highlight of Friday was my parents' gift of a farm sleigh ride for all of us. We all got colorful handmade mittens and bundled up to head out to the Geers' Farm for a sleigh ride pulled by their gorgeous team of Clydesdales. It was cold but such a fun and festive way to celebrate:
Here is my sister, Kendra, with her husband, Dan:

And a family photo of us in front of a very cool barn:

Kennedy would love her own horse some day and spent a lot of time petting and feeding this beautiful team:
Here are all of the girls in the S. family, ready to leave for the sleigh ride:

On Saturday morning, we packed up and drove an hour through pea-soup fog to Matt's parents for their family party. We enjoyed a great meal, our traditional grocery game, and lots of presents for the kids. Here are Hayden and his favorite cousin, Max, with Grandpa:
And here is a shot of Grandpa and Grandma with all of their 21 grandkids (plus one on the way), and also their two great-grandsons Huntor and Jayson on their laps:
We had a wonderful, although tiring, time with our families celebrating Jesus' birth. We shared wonderful homecooked food, lots of laughs, games, and fun with our loves ones. While we love going and seeing everyone, it is always a relief to get home to have a low-key week before getting back to school and work. Tomorrow, I will share photo highlights of our Christmas morning at home.

What a Difference 72 Hours Can Make......

When we left home late on Christmas afternoon to head north for our family's Christmas parties, this was the scene in our front yard: When we returned home this afternoon, after what was not even 3 full days away, this is the scene that greeted us:
The weather has been really crazy. When we left my in-laws' today, they had had a huge wind storm and were without electrical power all day. Yesterday, we had a thunderstorm, fog as thick as pea soup that reduced visibility to a few feet, and temps nearing 60 degrees.

Ah, sweet and fickle Michigan.

What Christmas Eve Looks Like Around Here.

Christmas Eve is a quiet family night at home for us, and we love it that way. Today was a pretty low key day.....wrap a few last gifts, watch a movie, build a snow man, finish a few crafty gifts. Then, at 8:00 pm, we made our favorite appetizers of bacon wrapped chestnuts, shrimp, crab and shrimp dip, and some mozzerella and enjoyed a meal and a toast of sparkling juice by the fireplace.

After dinner, we did a nativity story called "What God Wants for Christmas" and Kennedy read us the Christmas story from Luke 2. These activities really help us to start the celebrations focused on the real reason for Christmas...JESUS. We then had a birthday cake to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

Here is a clay form of Mary and Baby Jesus that Kennedy made today. I absolutely love it and plan to dry it and keep it to pull out next year.

Our sparkling juice toast......

The kids are all freshly bathed with wet hair yet, and garbed in their new Christmas jammies and slippers.

Opening door #24 of the advent house...only one more to go!

We always let the kids open one gift, in addition to their jammies, and I also have sets of 1o stacked boxes that they open on Christmas Eve.

All topped off with "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Usually, I am the reader but I passed duties off to Daddy this year so I could snap a few photos. We finished at about 11:50, and I told the kids that they needed to be sleeping by midnight or Santa wouldn't leave any presents. You should have seen Hayden hop up out of our bed and high-tail it to his! They fell asleep quickly, and I have been busy with last minute things like setting out the milk and peanut butter cups, charging the new Nintendo DS, stuffing stockings, and getting book baskets laid out by the tree.

Merry Christmas, from our home to yours!

3 day, 3 photos.

The snow is continuing....everthing is blanketed in a thick garb of fresh white. I would guess that there is 2 feet sitting on the top of our grill on the deck, and you can barely see the trees and bushes outside. I'm glad I didn't waste time putting up all the Christmas lights this year!

Only 3 more days! The excitement here is definitely building, but there is also a sense of calm and peace. 2 weeks off together. Most of the gifts--except stocking stuffers--purchased and many of them wrapped. It is a much different feel than those years we are frantically trying to finish our shopping on Christmas Eve...and it feels really good! I remember the year when I was late for the Christmas Eve service at church (I was singing!) because Matt was standing in line buying last-minute gifts. Oh, I hope those memories (and stress) are long in the past. As I grow older, peace and quiet and the whole "Silent Night" part of Christmas are what I treasure.

In honor of there being only 3 days until Christmas, I thought I would share 3 photos of the past week. The first one is our trip to the Live Nativity at the Critter Barn on Thursday night. It is a perfect place to take kids, because they have lots of hands-on opportunities to hold baby chicks and ducks, to play with bunnies, to pet and feed cows and goats, and (though this is NOT my favorite part of the barn) to go into the cat room and play with cats of all sizes. At Christmas, they stage a live nativity, and we have gone several times over the years with the kids. While I am sure this barn is much cleaner and warmer than the original stable-cave where Jesus was bornin Bethlethem, it at least gives you perspective on how things might have looked and smelled and felt.
Last night, we braved the elements to go downtown to the Devos Performance Hall for closing night of the Nutcracker. It was a suberb dance and musical performance, and Kennedy was mesmerized. After, we picked out a Nutcracker to commemorate her first time at the ballet, and we decided to start a new mother-daughter tradition of coming to the Nutcracker each year and adding a new nutcracker to a collection. I have always thought nutcrackers were rather mean and ugly looking, and I just learned why. In Germany, a woodcarver made a nutcracker to give to his young son, and he made it look fierce and frightening (with teeth) to signify protection from harm. Hmmmmm, OK, so I guess they aren't so bad after all. This one is a Christmas nutcracker and look really festive on our mantel.

Well, off to Kohl's......after getting the drive shoveled, that is. And to think that they are calling for another snowstorm for tomorrow night!

{A Real} Snow Day.

Today was one of those days like I remember so fondly from my childhood. Getting hit with more than a foot of snow. Having school called off. Staying home all day to rest and play in the snow. Perfectly nothing to do except stay home and enjoy your family. Though the day was laid back, I did get quite a few holiday preparations accomplished, along with lots of play time with the kids.
We finally made up this gingerbread house; I have had the kit for 2 years, and we have never quite gotten to it. The kids had so much fun creating the house, and the candy was actually still pretty fresh considering how old it was.

The one bummer about today's snow day was the cancellation of the kids' school Christmas parties. So, to make up for it, we had a little Christmas party at home, and I allowed them each to open a gift. Littlest Pets for Kennedy, and Hot Wheels for Hayden. We spent a lot of the day playing with these new sets together.

I got the small tree up in the front library room, along with hanging some glass ornaments from the curtain rod in the front porch window.

We had several cups of cocoa flowing today...topped with whipped cream and sprinkles, of course.

I framed and hung 9 photos of Christmas memories over the past 8 years, many from when the kids were babies. I hung them in a grid on our family room wall, and we had so much fun remembering stories about Christmas' past. I love the touch of nostalgia that it adds to that room and may switch them out with the seasons.

And, of course, what would a snow day be without lots of outside time playing in the fresh white stuff. The kids had a blast making snow tunnels and an entire snow village, and they are looking forward to playing in the snow again tomorrow. Apparently, we are supposed to get more snow this weekend, so it looks like we will definitely have a white Christmas this year.

And a big THANK YOU to Johnathan W., our wonderful neighbor who came over with his brand new snowblower and saved us from HOURS of snow shoveling.

(I love the pop of red in this one!).

7 more sleeps.

The excitement level is definitely heightening around here. I volunteered in the kids' classrooms today, and I must say that there is a general sense of MAYHEM with the kiddos! Try giving spellings tests to squirmy kids who can only think about Razors, Wiis, Webkinz, and no school for 2 weeks.

This afternoon, I had some time to catch up with my December daily album. I ended up having to replace the 1-inch rings with 2-inchers, and I may even have to move up to 3-inchers by the time I'm finished. This has been a really fun and meaningful project. I plan to share the specific pages later, but here is what it is shaping up to look like.

What happens when.......

....your school's 2-hour-delay turns into a full-blown snow day?



Stay warm, cozy, and safe today!