Christmas around the house

Since many of you won't see our house at Christmas, here our some of our decorations. I finally made a new wreath this year. The old wreath, which I had also made, needed to be retired.



Greenery,bows and lights on the stair railings. Though I didn't finish making enough bows for this year, I'll have to finish the rest before next Christmas comes around.

Our advent calender, a gift from a dear friend, and a favorite part of Christmas. Mary and Joseph make their way toward Bethlehem, we also get to add shepherds, angels, wise men and of course baby Jesus.

The nativity was put up on a bookshelf this year. For the safety of both the nativity figures and two cute boys.

The tree, full of an assortment of ornaments, hardly any matching ones, but ones with stories about places we've been, things we love and the kids ornaments that they get each year, that remind them of things they loved years past.

Stockings hung by the chimney with some care.

We also enjoy getting out our Christmas books and having them in baskets around the family room. Of course there is Christmas music and the fun of finding new cds for the holiday. Two of my new favorites......

Can you tell that I love this time of year!

Christmas Traditions

Gingerbread house making with Dad. This is something the girls look forward to doing each year and it was extra fun as the boys were interested in helping out this year. It usually produces lots of laughter, sticky fingers and a unique house. Caleb really enjoyed the icing and the fact that it squeezed out of a tube for easy licking.

Tree trimming ~ the lights are a huge hit with the boys and the girls love unpacking the ornaments and remembering the stories that go with them, especially the ones that are theirs.

We do an Advent devotion each year. This year we read the third in a series, the others being Jotham's Journey and Barthalmew's Passage. The girls love these adventure books that take you through the Christmas story through each of the children's perspectives. Along the way you learn about the culture and history of the time period and the true meaning and value of Christmas.

Of course all of this can be quite exhausting and sometimes you just gotta go to sleep whenever you can. Caleb had just finished lunch and had turned around on the stool to get some help getting down, I guess his head rested a bit too long on the back of the stool and he was out. One of the perks of toddlerhood, the ability to sleep anywhere and in awkward positions, given your tired enough.

For those wondering.....he was put into a comfortable bed as soon as the moment was captured.

Snow Fun II

It snowed the entire day and well into the evening. We have easily got 2 feet of snow, with higher drifts. We've made snow cream and done lots of sledding and shoveling as well as cycling snow clothes through the dryer. The girls enjoyed sledding with Ken and some of their friends in the neighborhood (sisters from around the corner). Caleb had fun testing out the snow, this was his first real venture into the snow, he enjoyed kicking it and sledding in it. When his nose turned red and he was tooo cold, he was ready to come inside. Aaron took one look out the opened front door, felt the snow falling on his face and signed "all done snow". Apparently he just needed a little taste.

Lauren zipping down the hill

Hannah getting a little extra speed from dad.

Ken giving it a try. I think he had as much fun as the girls and went down the hill as often.

Taking a break at the top with their friends.

Caleb watching the girls going down the hill. I thought this was so funny because as I was watching him through the camera he stuck his tongue out to catch a flake.

Then decided to give it a try with dad

This is the huge mountain of shoveled snow in our driveway, Hannah is not standing behind it but in it.

She went outside to help her daddy shovel the walk, and I caught her taking a break. This just cracked me up, because she just looks like she is casually lounging and having a snack, she's just surrounded by snow which is also her snack.

We have enjoyed our snow day and apparently will get to enjoy it for many days to come.

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow......

WOW! Lots of snow, we already had a foot of snow when we awoke this morning and it is still snowing. We're getting 1-2 inches an hour, according to our local weather. It's supposed to taper off this afternoon, but will stick around all week as our highs are in the low 30's. Today is only getting up to 26'. This is making the snow really light,dry and powdery. Ken and the girls are scoping out the best sled runs for later today. Here are some pictures I took this morning, not out of focus just lots of snow coming down.

This is the most snow the girls have seen ( or at least remember). When we were in Durham, we once got almost 2 feet of snow in February. We were in a rental house, waiting to move, Ken was in France, Hannah was 3 years old and I was 5 1/2 months pregnant with Lauren. I'm pretty sure Hannah and I didn't do too much frolicking in the snow and I'm also confident we didn't own any snow boots or pants. We are finally the proud owners of our first official snow shovel. In NC we just used a regular shovel if anything lasted long enough to be shoveled.

our front door was the same way, we had to dig out to go outside

It no longer looks like this, as the snow has just continued to fall, though much less deep, he's had to go back and do the first part over again.

Winter Wonderland

More snow is falling. We're in the area expected to get 12 inches or more tonight and tomorrow. And the latest predictions are that we might also see a white Christmas with snow predicted next weekend as well. It's beautiful to see the twinkling Christmas lights decorating houses and yards along with the sparkling snow flakes and the glistening snow on the ground. Who said the nature in winter couldn't be wonderful.

Thanksgiving before Christmas.......

Before we get into Christmas post, thought I'd share some of T-day.

We had a nice T-day with some friends coming over to join us for dinner. They had a turkey fryer, something we had never done before so.....we deep fried a turkey. It was surprisingly not greasy, but very moist and took much shorter time to cook than our usual smoking of the turkey. Here are some shots of the big cooking event.

The plunge

The removal

The dinner spread, I didn't take many pictures but we had fun playing games and visiting while we awaited dinner.

Everyones favorite - dessert

On the Saturday following T-day Ken and I along with some of our friends from church prepared and served dinner to about 25 homeless folks. The area churches, in the winter help feed and house the homeless who are overflow from the regular Salvation Army shelter so no one has to sleep outside when it's so cold. It was a neat experience, hearing their stories and getting to serve them. A good reminder of all that we have to be thankful for and maybe a new tradition.