Christmas Traditions

We have several family traditions for the Christmas season. It's fun to see over the years how much the kids enjoy them. Here are a few of the things we like to do during this time of year.


Baking. We enjoy baking cookies, usually to give away and share. This was Aaron's first year really enjoying the cookie making as much as the cookie eating.

He was so proud of his creations, that he wanted to eat everyone elses cookies, but not his.

When we were in NC, we went to a local churchs "Journey to Bethlehem" that took us back to the time of Jesus' birth and we got to walk through the events of the night. This year we found a smaller version here and the girls and I went. This is one of Lauren's favorite traditions.

They had scenes from the story set up outside that you were guided by and then inside they had a marketplace with food, crafts and animals that one might have seen in Bethlehem. The girls really enjoyed the live animals ~ sheep, goats, rabbits, pony, donkey, chickens. They also got to try some dried fruit, cheeses,hummus, and flavored oils for bread dipping.

Ken and the girls make a gingerbread house each year. Ken assembles, like a true engineer would : ) and the girls decorate. So far the boys have just enjoyed the eating part.

On Christmas Eve morning I make pancakes shaped like stars with strawberry sauce.


We have a nice Christmas Eve dinner.

After dinner the kids each get a new pair of pajamas and an ornament. I pick out an ornament that to me represents them for the year. Hannah and Lauren both got Breyer horse ornaments for their horse back riding lessons this year. Aaron got a tricycle for completely mastering riding this year and his total joy in it. Caleb got a little boy with wild hair ribboning a dog, for his hair and his love of dogs.

One of our Christmas morning traditions is to do a scavenger hunt for one of the gifts. I have taken gifts with multiple parts and they get a part with each clue or, like this year, they get the gift when they get all the clues. I started this because I didn't want Christmas morning to be all about a flurry of opening packages. This has become one of their most looked forward to things about Christmas, and they start asking me about it weeks in advance.

Finding a clue and trying to figure out where to go for the next one. One of the clues this year was ~ I help to make things clean, though sometimes I end up with a dirty ring ~ they had to find a clue in a bathtub.

Solving the last clue and finding the gift.

We also like to read Christmas books during the season and usually do an Advent reading. We have really enjoyed the Jotham Journey's series. We started these this year for the second time. We have also enjoyed reading One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham.

I enjoy these traditions and hope that they are making for a meaningful Christmas for the kids full of fun memories and a knowledge of the true meaning of Christmas.

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a visit from my parents for Thanksgiving. They were here for a week. It was really nice to have them hang out with us and get to see our new home. (they were here last T-day but our home wasn't completed then).

We got them to try some Wii bowling, and they played games with the girls and did some book reading with the boys.

And time for nice conversations.

Thanksgiving dinner. With a picture perfect Turkey that Ken smoked. You can also see the pretty sunset through the window.

Part of our traditional table decorations, the girls made these a few years ago and the table isn't compete until they add these.

My dad's sister and husband were visiting their son's family just north of us, so they all drove down for a day visit. We had fun hanging out with everyone, sharing a meal and getting to visit.

Around and about (from the fall)

Caleb and Aaron, and well Lauren love the swing in our basement. We ended up with 10 foot ceilings down there and this "extra" room that the builder ended up finishing for us. Ken and I duct taped the left over carpet for the floor and it's ended up being a favorite play space.

Aaron loves to be outside and loves to ride the trike and the plasma car. Love this picture of my handsome boy!



Everyone got in on some golfing action. The girls have gone with Ken to the hitting range. He's trying to help Caleb get the swing of things.

My big girl, needed to include her, though she sometimes does a dissappearing act when she sees the camera coming. What long legs she has, clearly not from me : )

Caleb making his own riding toy out of a dump truck. Thought this was so funny and clever. His hair is just wild with curls and always sticking out. Though the look seems to fit his personality.

Aaron loves to help in the kitchen. He's helping Hannah make his favorite cookies~ oatmeal chocolate chip.

We took a quick trip to NC to celebrate our sweet friend's birthday, just couldn't miss the big 13th.

Caleb and Eliana having fun with each other. These two are quite entertaining.

Packing up some shoeboxes for Samaritans Purse together.

Ken had hoped to take the girls camping this particular weekend, but the weather wasn't co-operating, so we opted for smores on the back deck.

Hannh with one of the meals she cooked for a go along with her school studies. It was Asian and yummy.

Fall Nature

Just some fall pictures from around our yard. Beautiful fall colors.

We have lots of swaths of Golden Rod in the back, where the wild roses and blackberries were in the spring. Beautiful, birght yellow and full of insect critters.

This is Virginia Creeper, it's a deep burgandy red and just climbs up the trees. We have it on several trees in our yard, it's really pretty.

Just some flowers that grew from some seeds we planted in early spring.

We also have some regular visitors ~ of the animal variety. We have at least 4 bluebird couples who enjoy our front yard and roof.

These deer like to come down from the woods and hang out here in the evenings.

And of course, on of our gophers in the backyard. Always entertaining to watch.

A new visitor, a little garter snake.



The night sky, is just beautiful. We live out in the county ~ no street lights, shopping centers etc so we get a good clear view. We're trying to learn more of them, sometimes there are so many stars it's hard for us to pick out the constellations. We've seen the Milky Way, Ursa Major, with the big dipper, Taurus, Leo, Orion, Cygnet, Gemini, Cassiopeia, Ursa Minor, Draco, Bootes, Pegasus. Here is a sunset picture with two planets appearing. Not a great picture, but an amazing view I wanted to share. We miss our personal astronomer in NC (hi Rebecca!), so we're trying to manage on our own.