Christmas Eve 2008

Since my uncle and my 2 cousins were going to be leaving on Christmas Day, we had a fun Christmas get-together with them on Christmas Eve.

Our little cutie loved Grandma Nev's tree.Camden & Carly....can you tell that they are twins? Carly loves photography and took off with my camera. Alot of these are hers, except well, the pics that she is in:)

This is our family friend Paul. He just turned 82 on Dec 23rd. Happy Birthday Paul!

Natalie playing a bit before dinner.

Dad relaxing after doing all the cooking.

I like this pic she took. Almost everyone is in it.

Here is our family friend, Gladys. She turns 82 today! Happy Birthday, Gladys!

Carly & I goofing around.
A really good pic Carly took of our Grandma.
One gift that was a hit....this ball that is flat when you throw it, but opens up to a ball, while it is in the air.

And you can never be wrong with these......thanks Uncle Harold, the kids love em.

On our way home this was our view? Cool, huh?

She fell asleep like this. Can you believe that?

We came home to our Santa all aglow on the chimney.

After we got in our jammies, we set out cookies and milk...oh, and don't forget the reindeer chow.
We said our goodbyes to Freddy...we will miss him so much.

And read 2 stories. The story of Jesus and The Night Before Christmas. At this point, Michael was fast asleep on the couch.
And then we all settled in for a long winter's nap.

A little holiday rewind.

Since my computer and blogger have not been cooperating for the past 4 days, here is a little bit of what was going on before Christmas Eve. Just a little taste.

With some fresh baked chocolate chippers and hot cocoa....

we decorated the tree.
That we got the night before at this tree lot. The kids sat on the back of an old pickup. I like for once that this photo shows Michael in a pout and Natalie trying to smile....AND you got to love the leopard jacket and kitty boots:)
AND are your ready for this? Tyler & Lindsey ASKED me to take these photos of them. I almost fell over.

the next morning candy canes were added...yum. {December 2006~~~~the girl loves candy canes!}

Michael & Natalie made blue chocolate stars....yeah that is a candy cane stuck to her shirt, what is the big deal? She is saving it for later. Oh and those stains....they are permanent(adds something to the shirt don't you think?)

Our little ham.

We attempted to make our very own handprint tree.

Speaking of hams....here is Lindsey waiting to perform at her holiday concert.Waiting with her friend Ryan to perform. She looks so calm and he looks well, a little nervous. Cute, cute.

I tried my best from the nose bleed section.....she is on the left in the back(the only time I wish she were a little shorter)

Please forgive the blurriness, I tried my best. She really got into it! Thankfully, my dad had his camcorder.

My uncle and my 2 cousins arrived in town on Friday, so we met up at Zoolights.

And I thought getting 4 kids in a photo was hard....6 was not working out:) 5 in one scene is pretty good!

Carly, my 8 yr old cousin....


When we should have been decorating, wrapping, etc....we did what anyone else would do. We got out our bounce house.

When they were all jumped out, they rested together with their pillows, blankets and bed buddies. It was pretty cute.

We finally got our lights up.

Our cookies were decorated...festive, no?

Freddy brought some very exciting treats.
A basket full of reindeer cake lollipops.........can you take the cuteness? Neither can I.
Along with 4 bags of reindeer chow to feed those reindeers. Don't tell the kids, but Janice is to thank for these(as if you didn't already know)

Freddy update.

Monday morning we woke to a big mess! Freddy had the flour out to make cookies(we think!) and he decided that the flour was too much like snow and made flour angels! What fun he had!

We took his cue and made butter cookies. Here we have the artist perfecting her sprinkles.

This morning we found Freddy on the table. We didn't know that we was a painter elf! He painted some of these for them to finish up....can't show you the end result....presents, ya know!

Tomorrow is sure to be fun!

Holiday Faux Pas # 24 &25.....

24. Sent out half of my Christmas cards without a return address.......no adorable ornament circle address stamp in green!! I actually thought of going home to stamp them all.......I am crazy.

25.Let my 4 year old peel the wrapper off of all the butter sticks and didn't check to see if there was any extras left on the stick......oh yeah, the cookies might be chewy in some areas:) I guess Santa doesn't mind right?

3 days until he goes home!

The last 3 days Freddy has been working hard.

He brought all the kids some special snowmen chocolates from the North Pole.
Then the next day, imagine our surprise when we saw him hanging on our doorknob! With lights! He must of been trying to hang them for us. That crazy little guy!

This morning, Lindsey & Michael had a real hard time finding him. They searched high and low in the living room, but he was in the kitchen writing & drawing on our chalkboard. He must really miss the big guy in red...he is so excited for him to pick him up in his sleigh!