Christmas Eve

 Making the birthday cake

 It was fine until Daddy decided to help...

 Cake Wrecks, here we come!

 After church came the Christmas Eve present

 New jammies and slippers

 You don't think they are excited, do you?

Cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer

Christmas Eve is always busy. We have to get everything ready for Christmas Day, cook our Christmas breakfast birthday cake, try not to bust with excitement, go to church, open one present. Lots to do. Gabby nearly made the cake by herself this year. She loves to cook - so glad she does. Sam jumped in at the icing part and Robert decided he was needed at the decorating part. Except he dropped the icing container on top and messed it up. In the end, I hope the "joyful noise" principle applies to birthday cakes too.

We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church where Gabby read part of the scripture during the service. She did a great job.  We came home and opened our Christmas Eve present and put out the cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer and then got the kids off to bed.

Christmas Crafts

Somewhere along the way, I think by way of too much Amazon Christmas shopping, I decided to make snowman kits of friends around here for Christmas. I found the white bags at Micheal's. Gabby painted them all by herself.

 I ordered a pack of 6 Melissa and Doug carrots from Amazon (I did see something similar at Micheal's but I had already ordered them). The fleece I used to make the scarves I had in my stash. Since fleece doesn't fray, I just cut it the width of the fabric and cut fringe in the end. No sewing, no tying, nothing. The hats are foam and I found those at Micheal's, along with the red ribbon I tied around them. The "coal" came from a bag of stones I also bought at Micheal's. One bag gave me enough for all 6 bags. I bought a package of assorted buttons (Micheal's) and pulled the big black ones out. I never came up with anything for a pipe but that's no longer PC anyway so I didn't worry about it.

 The finished products! I put a short explanation with them and we gave them out to friends. Yes, we kept one for ourselves. Later you'll see where we used it.

 My second craft was aprons for the kids. I found these monogrammed handtowels at Kohl's on super clearance. I turned down the corners and sewed across them, leaving about an inch or so casing. The kids picked a ribbon from the ribbon box and we fed it through the casing. I used safety pins to attach it since I figure they will grow and we will need to adjust them. Sam's is obviously long but he'll grow fast. I didn't get a good pic of Gabby's from the front but her's has a cute "G" on it.

More December Fun (and Not So Fun)

Gabby and Daddy going to The Nutcracker

Fall Brownie badges and patches

 Sickness aftermath

 December is always so busy. We had our last Brownie meeting of the fall and the girls got the badges and patches they earned during the fall.

This December was even busier while we were trying to close on our NC house. It was a huge crazy mess, mostly due to the horrible law firm the buyers chose. They single-handedly delayed the closing nearly two months.  

There we were, the Friday before Christmas week, running all over town trying to find an open notary to help us and then trying to get the papers faxed and then overnighted back to NC so the house could close. I suppose to didn't pay much attention to the signs. We dragged the kids into Applebees for supper after all that. Sam was tired and fussy and didn't want to eat and kept thinking he needed to go to the bathroom. Yeah, I should have known but I was also tired and fussy. Finally I had had enough and I was holding him trying to finish up the check and all that when Mount Samuel decided to blow. Unfortunately, I was holding him inside my coat facing me when he puked and it went all over me, including straight down my shirt. I snatched him up and ran out of there only to get to the van with no change of clothes for him and it being 34 degrees. Poor baby. It was a terrible ride home in the van with him throwing up again and again. And sure enough, as soon as we finally all settled down for the night, Mount Gabby decided to join in the fun. Needless to say, we haven't been back to Applebees (no, we don't think they caused it - we just had a bit too much of it that night.) The next day Robert and I didn't feel so great. He had to spend the day at the battalion open house. I stayed home with the kids and did laundry. Gabby recovered quickly, as she always does. Sam spiked a fever, as he always does, and was sick all through Christmas. The bottom picture was taken the day after Applebees. He plopped down on those pillows behind the couch late in the afternoon and fell asleep.

Busy Sunday in December

Sunday School Christmas program - 3 year olds

 Sunday School Christmas Program - Elementary kids

 Chehalis Steam Train

 Santa

 Making gingerbread houses

A busy December Sunday held the Sunday School Christmas program where both kids sang and Gabby had a part in the elementary play, the Santa train at the steam train in Chehalis and then home to make gingerbread houses. December can be like that, especially when Daddy is going to be gone two weeks of the month.

Christmas Photo Shoot

Preschool Program

Sam's preschool Christmas program. He was very cute in his reindeer ears. I think the video is under the video links page.

Decorating Daddy

This is what happens when Daddy needs his ruck decorated for Christmas...

Seattle Kids' Marathon

 Pre-race stretching

 Waiting to start

 Here they go!

 Finishing up

Team Gabby

At the last minute Gabby decided to do the Seattle Kids' Marathon with the group from her former school. They add up all the walking/running they have done all fall to total 25 miles. On race day they complete the marathon around the Seattle Center. We had enough hiking, walking, and Disneyland walking from the fall to make her 25 miles. Daddy ran with her and they did great.