Sam's Night

We had Sam's night on Sunday evening. He worked hard on his jobs to earn enough money to buy every one a gift, so after church I took him to the dollar store. (What a great place for kids to shop- he didn't have to worry how much things cost- he could pick whatever he wanted.) He was so cute looking through the stuff, finding just the right thing for each person. When it came to me, we walked through the store and he told me to shut my eyes as he put the item in the cart. (I guess he didn't think about check out when I had to pay for it!).

We got home and his sisters helped him wrap each gift and then he excitedly passed them out. A toy for Emma, a dinosaur for Ben, WarHead candies for Anna and Ellie, RedHots for Paul, soap for Zack, cookies for Dad and scissors for me. Yes, scissors. My 5 year old son bought me scissors for Christmas- isn't that cute??

After presents we headed out for caroling. Anna had made some delicious peanut butter cookies and nutmeg sugar cookies and we packaged up six boxes to pass out, thinking we'd have some left over. We tried to pick older people, or people who were alone this Christmas. Most people were surprised when we rang the bell and started singing, but the joy on their faces was our inspiration to sing louder and more joyously. As we drove around, we thought of more people to sing to and before we knew it, we were out of cookies. What a great time and it showed visibly to our children how little it takes to bring joy into someone else's life.

Christmas on the Lake was next. Our community has a good sized lake in the middle and each Christmas, many houses that back up to the lake decorate their back yards. Some of the houses are amazing! It is such a unique treat, and we look forward to it every year, but it had been several years since we've been able to go and we, um, forgot a few things about Christmas on the Lake. Like how much colder it is on the water than on the land. Like how a small breeze is magnified when you're in a moving boat. Like how nice gloves and scarves or a blanket would have been. But we enjoyed it, cold and all. Emma stayed the warmest of all of us!

After the boat ride,we were starving so Dad took us to Waffle House to end the evening. It was a fun time and we all enjoyed it. I personally enjoyed the caroling the best. May I remember all year round how little it takes to bring joy into someone else's life.

Christmas Sunday Morning

My five youngest children. I love how they all kind of match. It is hard to get a nice picture of all of them at once. Check out Emma's tongue!

She had to have that shoe to chew on.

What a sweetheart!

Love her blue eyes.

and her unruly hair.

And her little bitty tongue.

Paul and I with our "second" family.

Our five youngest children. Check out how tall Anna and Ellie are getting!

And notice Ellie's hands. (Or should I say lack of hands??)

How to Contain a 2 almost 3 year old Boy

Why put him in a big cage! Better yet, let him get into the cage on his own and let him think he's having a good time!

Then run around and get a bunch of stuff done while he thinks he's playing.

Works for me!!

JUST KIDDING! He went in the cage and played in this cage all morning.

Emma's First try at Cereal

She didn't care for it. At all.

After about 5 bites, she was done.

And that was it.

Dinner and a Movie

I had my night yesterday. (In case you don't know our annual Christmas tradition of the Night of the Giver, click on the link to read Paul's description of it on his blog). I always do the same thing for my night and have for the past 14 years. We always go to dinner or lunch and see a movie. With a family our size, seeing movies in the theater is very costly, so it is a very special time when we all go together. It is one of our favorite Christmas traditions and we always try and pick a movie everyone will love.
But before the movie, we went to lunch at our new favorite Mexican place, La Parilla. This is a fairly new restaurant here in our town but it has fast become one of Paul's and my favorite places to eat. Most of the kids had never been there yet, so it was a treat for them. Sam and Ben ordered chicken strips (big surprise!) and the chef cooked them too long, so he had to put in a whole new order for them which made their meals arrive late at the table, well after we had begun eating. The restaurant felt so bad for their mistake, they took off the cost of both meals from the ticket and gave us a free dessert. I say they well compensated for their mistake!

After lunch we went to see the new Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We loved it. We have loved all the Narnia movies (in fact, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was a movie we saw during one of my nights!) and this one was no exception. It was a bit intense for Sam and Ben, but not too bad.

It was a fun day and we enjoyed spending it together. But of course, we missed Zack. This is the first year he has missed this tradition and our family just wasn't complete without him. I guess Paul and I will just have to start getting used to the idea of not having all our children participate in our family traditions anymore. That's a sad thought. But on another note, maybe one day we'll have grandchildren participating with us! (Who am I kidding? I know Grandkids are probably in my near future, but with one still in diapers and one not that far out of potty training, grandchildren still seem so far away!)

Wait till you see my little children in their Christmas outfits! They look so cute, but even cuter is Emma in her Santa suit!! Pics to come.

Paul's Night

Saturday evening, Paul had the first "night" of the season for our family. Our nights are a bit different this year, seeing as Zachary is gone and Paul, Jr., is working. So on this night, Paul decided he would take me, Anna and Ellie out to for dinner and then to a community theatre to see:

"The Homecoming", the book that the Waltons series is based on. We enjoyed it so much! The actors and actresses did such a great job and it was a very enjoyable evening. Since Sam and Ben didn't get to go with us, Paul let them open his gift before we left.

Hmmmm. What could it be?

Dad! What kind of wrapping is this??

Now he's getting somewhere.

Ben comes over to help.

He still has no idea what it is.

Nope. Still no idea.

But Ellie's figured it out.

Now both the girls know and was Sam ever excited when he finally realized that Dad had gotten the family a WII for Christmas! Such excitement!

Thanks Dad. It was a great time.

Misc Pictures

Anna and Ellie were members of a homeschool chorus this Fall. They loved singing with the other kids and their choir had a really nice sound. Here they were performing at a retirement home for the older folks.

This is right before Ellie almost passed out. Thankfully she had enough sense to come sit down when she realized she wasn't going to make it. She didn't have anything to eat or drink before singing and it was very hot in that room.

They did a great job.

Emma propelling herself out of her swing.

Look! Under the tree! It's a pair of blue eyes.

It's Schnitzel, the Christmas dog.

He has decided he likes to lay under the tree. Bad thing is he likes to chew things up under there also and he makes a big mess.

Emma Grace getting a bath in the sink. She is a well put together baby!

And a very happy baby!

Benjamin and his "happy" face.

Sam and his "happy" face.

Two onery brothers.