Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve has been well spent. Its been very cozy and relaxing being at home all day and not having to be anywhere. So what, you may ask, did we do with our time. Well, let me show you:

First we had a Lego building marathon that lasted all day. Really it started last night as we organized all of Js Legos into bins based on color. We did this in anticipation for his new ones from tomorrow. But still it took quite awhile to find the right Legos to build stuff.

Then we had a little time for dress up. J was a knight and Haven a pirate. She does make a mighty cute pirate if I do say so myself. And J, always dashing!



After dinner it was time (for the boys) to run around with the Lego fliers that were made earlier while H quietly colored - well, stickered is more like it.


We had plenty of time for hot cocoa and candy canes.
What a great day!! Cant wait for tomorrow!!

Kids Christmas Party

This is my 2nd (possibly 3rd) annual Kids Christmas party. I love to have parties and make memories for my kids.

All my parties have the same structure:

Craft time - This year we made Santa Ornaments out of the kids hands

Decorate Cookie time - Last year I had the kids do their own cutouts but this year I opted only for the deco part



Story time - We must reinforce the True meaning of Christmas. We sang a song, read a book, read from the Bible and talked about Christmas. I accidently picked up the wrong book so my transition from traditional Christmas to Jesus Christmas wasnt as smooth as it was in my head.
Please notice the lack of attention given to the story teller. Maybe its my style, maybe its that mostly its boys (Friend Whitneys girls are sitting nice and quietly). My kids certainly acted like theyve never had to sit still before - oh my!!

Lunch time - Potato soup for the adults and an assortment of Christmasy food for the kids - including wreath bagels with cream cheese.
Followed by cookie eating time


Oh, we also played games mixed in there somewhere - we played Hot Reindeer and Pin the Nose on the Snowman

My kids always end up having meltdowns from all the kids/stimulation, but I think the overall memory will be of fun times with friends! Lets hope so anyway ;) Merry Christmas!!

Cinnamon rolls, but not really

This morning I woke up at 5am to make homemade cinnamon rolls for our church Christmas pot luck thing. I was so proud that I didnt screw it up and they were so super tasty!!!!

Here is the dough all rolled out with sugar and chocolate chips on it

Rolling
Dough not baked - resting
Baked
Baked with icing. Yummmmmmmm......
The only thing is they arent really cinnamon rolls....no cinnamon. They are sweet rolls with chocolate chips. So good!!

Candle lit Christmas

Today at church we had a family Christmas. No childcare (not my favorite, but I see the point), all the kids with the parents and we all had candles. It actually was really nice. The kids got to see a great tradition. They even had a story time for the kids and kept it all short and to the point. It was a great service!

Justus Preschool Christmas party

When it was time for the party Mrs Sharon and Mrs Tracye had all the parents and kids circle up for prayer and sing Happy Birthday Jesus.

This is the great thing about Christian preschool - I love the reinforcement all these people make by modeling a Christian walk
Then it was time to eat

Next the kids got to decorate their own cookie, have a cupcake and candy cane


Even Haven got to get in on the action.

Fun times!

Paint by Numbers becomes Picaso

I got the kids some $1 paint by numbers kits that are Christmasy. I thought it would make for a great craft. They both were totally into it, but the areas were kinda small (especially on Havens) so by the time they got part way through it was more or less, lets see what colors we can make.

San Jose with friend Renee

Renee called me awhile ago and mentioned that she would be up in the bay area this week. Earlier in November she was in Fresno but since I was whisked away to Alabama I didnt get the opportunity to see my Forever Friend. I knew I had to go the small distance to see her now.

So I packed the kids in the car early yesterday morning, drove 3 hours to meet her in downtown San Jose by around11:45.

We had lunch at Johnny Rockets

Headed to Santana Row

Then I was in the car to head home by 3pm. Short and quick, but I do LOVE me some Renee and Karis time!!!