Our Christmas Shirts

We made the good old reindeer prints. Their feet were the reindeer's face...their hands the antlers...they sponge painted the sky and used a bottle of sprinkles to make the big red circle nose. It was fun but messy as usual. These shirts will be a keeper just as our spider Halloween shirts.

The Christmas Story

He has been a Shepard, an Angel and this year he was Joseph. The audience smiled, laughed, and I cried! A beautiful gift!

The Kings bringing baby Jesus gifts

Mary and Joseph placing baby Jesus in the manger

The Angels bringing baby Jesus to Mary

Sleeping in the night

Mary was one of Parker's new very good friends...Hailey (I have been informed that they play together everyday and when we leave school she gives him a hug goodbye ...everyday...) :)

Covering Mary with his coat

Knocking on the door asking the innkeeper if they have a room.

Every year SLP reenacts the Christmas Story. It is my very favorite gift of the season. It is absolutely the most precious display of Jesus's Birth. I know Jesus looks forward to the plays every year. I know they provide him countless smiles and laughs. Purely Priceless!!!

Jacob was the innkeeper this year

Christmas lights are a very big thing around our home. We love driving up seeing our beautiful home all lit up with bright red lights. We are so grateful to Uncle Jesse and Papa for generously decorating our home every year! It is something that really really means a lot to Parker and Paxson. Paxson screams and points out every light on every house "Mommy look lights" repeat that phrase about 100 times. We take every opportunity to possibly see Christmas lights. Wichita Falls is great to offer the Electric Critters, Fantasy of Lights, Kell House and so many others. We are also planning to take a carriage ride around to see the lights. Meme and Dandy went to the Electric Critters with us this year. It was their first year and I believe they really enjoyed it. We walked through the "woods" owwwwing and ahhhhhing at all the displays and made a pit stop to roast marshmallows for smores and drink a little delicious hot chocolate. We finished out adventure with a visit to Santa. It was a very delightful evening.





Parker thought this was to cool ----





These are from the Fantasy of Lights at Midwestern State University

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

We started the gingerbread tradition two years ago and this was Paxson's first year to "really" help. First we made the gingerbread train and they both had so much fun we made a gingerbread house a few days later. Thanks to CVS and their extra care bucks it was free! Parker wants to give the house to Santa. He is a little partial to the train. The frosting was thicker for the house so it didn't squeeze out as easy. Paxson jumped right in with helping decorate both. His biggest contribution was limiting the amount of candy available for decorating. He would very carefully select a piece of candy from one of the bowls then place it on the house/train then smile...then pull it off and eat it. This happened many times. Parker was extremely patient and let Paxson help in his own way. They had fun and made a pretty big mess. I wonder when I will have to start letting them each have their own to decorate. :)

Thanksgiving day

Family, friends, food & fun! That is what our Thanksgiving was all about. We had a truly spectacular day! It was our first time to prepare the turkey so we had a little help and it was well worth it! The food was delicious and the conversation was even better. Casey and I wanted to do a little something different this year. Usually it's just family for these celebrations but we wanted to share the joy with friends and celebrate our gratitude. We decided that it would be fun to invite our neighbors and truly celebrate ALL that we are thankful for. Randy and Debora (our pool neighbors) were leaving to go to OKC to spend time with some family but the Zaeppels (our German neighbors) were able to spend Thanksgiving dinner with us. We were especially excited to share a traditional American Holiday with their family. The boys enjoyed having a little girl to entertain. It really was a wonderful day with great conversation, wonderful guests, and yummy food! Thank you God for offering us another blessed year to share with family friends. Oh yeah a big shout out to Uncle Jesse and Papa for putting the lights up....and making our home the "house with the pretty red lights"!

Thanksgiving Preparations

The boys helped me prepare for our Thanksgiving festivities by making the place mats and center piece. They water colored paper towels and I laminated them. Then they water colored leaves and we made a tree from a brown paper sack. We finished off the table decorations by using pictures of the boys as the napkin rings. It provided the boys with the opportunity to feel as though they really helped out. Things were not on the fancy side... just sweet and simple. It was as lot of fun and so far Daddy still has not noticed the paint spots in the backyard. LOL