Christmas? Yay!

After a long and peaceful Advent, time to get out the stockings!

 Kids decorated the tree for us...

 Did you really think we got you GF crackers?

 His rescue pack?

 My favorite gift, a Dan-original

 Lights for everyone?

Christmas day...best gift of all!

Mommy and Talia got to come home on Christmas day!

Yay!

Saint Nick's Day

Everyone knows who santa is, right? From http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=44,

In the West Nicholas is most widely known as the patron saint of children. Many of his stories tell of children rescued from calamity and returned to the care and keeping of their families. In France the most familiar story, both told and sung, is of three little children lured into the clutches of an evil butcher and rescued by St. Nicholas. Other stories, as well, tell of children who disappeared, were kidnaped, fell into a well, or suffered some other disaster-all to be delivered through the good offices of St. Nicholas. These accounts of a child forcibly taken from parents, followed by a time of grieving and despair, then the miraculous return of the child, have profound and universal appeal which makes Nicholas the much valued Guardian of Children. It is no wonder he is the beloved patron saint of children.

So here we are...today we set up our stockings, and let the miracles happen.

Christmas Shots

At the church, after the service..at home

Lighting the Advent wreath on Christmas Eve

Things the girls made...    

Gifts we love

Christmas Prep...

Some of the things leading up to our wonderful holidays...

Christmas parade with the boys scouts.

Sam, Emily and Rachel made the bell tower on the float (that alone took some time lol)

We added Children's Choir practice to our weekly activities

The kids sounded beautiful when they sang

We spent some time helping the HUGS project.

We didn't spend as much time there this year, as Breanna was having such a hard time with life this year

Add a new baby and I just couldn't do it. Emily and Rachel were able to volunteer when their scout leader was up there, and the rest of us spent a few hours.

Emily and Rachel earned a few patches at the Sam Noble museum

Here they are learning about oil spills and how they are cleaned up

(and how difficult they are to clean up!)

Dan and Ava spent a great deal of time playing with clay

Here Emily and Rachel play with dreidels while the little ones and I read a book about Hannukah

We visited the OKC Museum of Art

(and yep, one of those girls does not belong with me, we borrowed her for the day!)

Helped prep for the Christmas day community dinner

Decorating trees is fun, the girls had a good time making paper chains

There are probably dozens more that I could have posted, but lets move on, shall we? LOL