12 days of Christmas... day 11

Merry Christmas EVE!!!!!

 

Today... we took a much slower pace.

 

 

The kids got a Gingerbread house kit....

 

Mommy "built" the houses, and Caleb decorated.  Rachel wasn't too interested...

 

So.... we enlisted the help of big brother Nick...

 

And sister in law, Angelica

 

Caleb was SO happy that they came over for a visit.

 

Ta-Da!  All done!

 

12 days of Christmas... day 10

 

After church, we went to my moms for a yummy turkey dinner.  She always sets the table so beautifully!

 

Nathan is still in town, and it was great to have him and his adorable girlfriend join us for dinner.

Robert had turkey carving duty... good job honey!

Rachels boyfriend joined us too... :)

After dinner relaxing!

 

My mom is getting new kitchen countertops.. and so she got out the sharpie markers, and let us write all over the old countertops.  SUPER fun!

 

Then on the way to Christmas Eve (eve) candlelight service.. we drove through a neighborhood near moms that has fabulous Christmas lights!

Quick stop at Startbucks on the way to church......

 

The kids performed a few songs... Caleb did SO well!!!! 

 

 

12 days of Christmas... day 9

 

We have been having SO much fun for the past 8 days... today we decided to make our fun "bless others day".... Caleb had been wanting to make candy cane cookies - so he helped me make a double batch, and he and Rachel helped assemble them. 

 

Yummy!!!!

 

He made a list of his friends that live cose by that he wanted to bring a plate of cookies to.... I had him also make a card for each friend/family.

 

Robert and I picked LOTS of citrus to go with the cookies....

 

Loaded up the car and spent a fun 2 hours making deliveries. 

 

 

It is more blessed to Give than to Receive.  We sure had fun giving small blessings today.

12 days of Christmas... day 8

 

Rachel has been busy this week, and has not been able to participate in all our family fun.. so today was RACHEL day!!!!!  She chose to go shopping at the mall, and go out to lunch.. and have her boyfriend come with us.  It was a FUN morning/afternoon.

 

Caleb did SO good going everywhere in the mall.. and for a treat, we went to the Disney Store last.

 

Awww.....

 

Lunch at Panera.  (With a gift card!)

 

FUN day...

12 days of Christmas... day 7

 

The morning of day 7... Caleb woke up to his cousin Nathan being here!!!  What fun! 

 

We went to see the Gingerbread Extravaganza downtown.. very impressive!

 

Caleb's Favorite - The Lorax

 

It is always fun to have Grandma come with us!

 

Then off to the mall to see the huge Christmas tree.....

 

And ride the train.

 

Super fun day... mommy was worn out by the end!

12 days of Christmas: day 6

 

After a fun morning at the park... Chick Fil A for lunch {for free!}

 a trip to Chamblin Books, and then the library......

 

We went to see the lights at Crystal Springs... OH MY!!!  Fabulous!!!!! 

So happy we made the drive out there.

Check out their website Christmas on Crystal Springs

Chris' homecoming.. USS Enterprise

At the beginning of November, we drove up to see Chris come home from deployment.. WOW.. what an emotional ceremony that was.  It was his ships last deployment before decommissioning.  It was an honor to be there.

Here are some highlights:

 

It was so impressive watching the ship pull in.. it is massive!!!  Then we had to wait.. and wait... and wait... but, because Chris was one of the new dads, he got to get off with the first group!

 

Home at last... reunited with his family.