Merry Christmas!!!!

I know this is a really long post, but I have so much to catch you all up on! This week the kids and I have enjoyed being out of school and hanging out at home. You all know me and my traditions, so this week we were busy carrying on our family traditions and making memories.:-)

On Monday, we made our Christmas craft. The kids LOVED painting and making Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus!




They were so proud! I think they did a WONDERFUL job!!!:-)

Wednesday night we had our Gingerbread night! Instead of making one big gingerbread house, this year we did little ones. All four of us had a BLAST!


can you guess what Daniel's favorite color is?!?!?!?

Drew did more eating than decorating!!!

and here are our masterpieces! We will definitely be making our own houses again next year!!! It was so much fun!!!

After we made our gingerbread houses, Grace Anne and I went ahead and baked Jesus' Birthday cake!

GA did just about everything herself, even cracking the eggs!:-)

and this is the BEST part about baking!!!! Drew was busy playing and was not interested at all about baking with us! GA did not mind, more for her!HA!

On Thursday, we went to the Christmas Eve service at church. We had a great time as we reflected on the Birth of Jesus and also took part in the Lord's supper. The kids did great during the service, they were nice and quiet, I didn't even have to pull out my bribe candy!!! HA!

When we got home the kids were ready to open up their Christmas Eve gift, but this year Daniel and I decided to let them open up the presents that the got one another as well. I think we started a new tradition because the LOVED opening them early!!!!:-)
Last year we started the tradition of taking the kids to the Dollar Tree and letting them pick out gifts to buy one another. Grace Anne was so excited and could not WAIT to go and shop again this year for her brother. She was so sweet when we went shopping, she took her purse and also money from her piggy bank, we told her that we would buy the presents, but she insisted that she was going to use her money!:-) She is such a sweetie! Drew had fun shopping also, he just did not understand why he had to get gifts just for Grace Anne, he wanted some too! A typical 3 year old!!!
Anyway, back to the gift opening..........................................

they were so sweet

and excited to see each other open up the gifts!

After they opened up gifts from each other, it was time for their

CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT!!!!

and like always they got new PJ'S!!!!!

They immediately wanted to put them on!

Grace Anne and I finished decorating the Birthday cake.

fun times with my sweet girl!


They wanted to test the icing to make sure it was good enough!:-)

after their sugar high, they finally went to bed!!!!

On Christmas morning, I was surprised when I rolled over and it was 8:45a.m and the kids were still sleeping! I am not complaining, I was just surprised, it was nice to be able to sleep in!!!! That did not last long because Drew woke up @9:00!!!

After finally waking Grace Anne up, we went in the living room to see what kind of goodies we could find!

they both went straight to their stockings


They were so excited about all their gifts

the sweet smiles on their face were priceless!

After we opened presents, it was time to PLAY!

They played ALL day

they stayed busy testing out all the new toys

and in case you are wondering, YES they wore their PJ's ALL day long, we all did!!!HA! It was a lazy day at our house!!!!

It was such a relaxing day, I even caught Drew and Daniel

taking over my NEW snuggie!!!!!HA!

This afternoon, we turned off the T.V., put all the toys away and all 4 of us gathered around the Christmas Tree to read about Jesus' Birth. We talked about the Angel, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the shepherd's, and the wise men. It was such a special time. We ended the night with a Birthday party for Jesus!

I pray that you all had a very Merry Christmas!