Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve...

Sewing Gingerbread Men

Eating Tomato Bisque Soup

 Popovers

 Grandma Bones' Cranberry Cake with Butter Sauce

Roasting Chestnuts by an Open Fire...not really but it's on our list to try.

The girls wanted to go shopping for mom and dad this year so mom got a new pair of much needed slippers...according to Jeff, Kate insisted that mom needed leopard print!

Who is more excited?  Anna or Dad?  Anna is very excited to share her gift she made at school...a new calendar.

New Christmas Pajamas!  Starting a new tradition!

Kate always provides the family a homemade gift that she creates herself.  This year it was a binder full of Christmas stories from various Christmas books we have around the house...and four peppermint patties.

Anna LOVES hot cocoa!  These Christmas pajamas were well suited for her! 

Thank you cousins Eric, Lauren & Lindsey for the treats and iTunes gift cards!

Yes, we live with a sportsman who also loves peanut butter cups...Anna's "surprise" gift for Jeff

Nutcracker 2010

Hudson Dance Academy 

Nutcracker 2010

Our little mice...

Kate & Anna enjoyed their first production of the Nutcracker and were very excited to be little mice with their fellow ballet classmates.

Great job girls!

Caroling

An evening of caroling at the Comforts of Home! Some LATTE ladies including our new friend Wayne enjoyed an evening of Christmas caroling to the residents of mom's place.

The little ladies enjoyed crafts...

Mom and a couple of her fellow residents enjoying some caroling...Harry whistled his way through each song.

Overall a great evening of fun, fellowship and holiday treats!

Going to the Theatre

Taking the girls to the local theatre involved dressing up, going to a nice dinner and seeing the play Annie.  The girls had a great time and we look forward to the next play in February.

A LATTE Christmas Concert

 Organizing my first LATTE (Ladies Achieving Togetherness Through Encouragement) at church was a great lesson in learning how to prepare for approximately 300 women!

After endless phone calls, scratching down notes, numerous emails, dreaming about chocolate, praying and reshuffling my schedule due to a sick child the night went very well despite a pretty good snow storm.  It was a beautiful night of music, testimony and desserts.

Looking forward to next year!

Decorating the Tree

 It's the usual drill:

Jeff puts up the tree & says a few choice words

Sara questions his language

Sara helps critique it's straightness & notes she is not the engineer in the house

Jeff hangs the lights

Sara says we need more

Jeff again says a few choice words

Jeff brings up all the ornaments

Sara trims the tree with a little "help"

The helpers get bored

Sara finishes trimming the tree & awes at it's beauty while singing O' Christmas Tree

Let the ornament rearranging begin!

Anna loves to trim the Christmas tree and she was my only helper this year as Kate was feeling under the weather.

Christmas Tree

This year we decided to venture out and get a real Christmas tree.  We haven't done this in a few years and the girls were now old enough (we hope) to enjoy the experience.  It was a great day to be walking through the tree farm to find our perfect Christmas tree.

The tractor ride out to the fields of trees is always a fun experience especially when you get to eat peanuts and throw them on the floor.

The snow was perfect for making snow balls...and throwing them at dad!

This is the one!

A little play time while dad pays for the gold, I mean Christmas tree!

Yikes, those things are expensive, but it's worth it for a tall Fraser Fir!

Anna made her own Charlie Brown tree.

 Bring on Christmas!