Gingerbread houses and Santa!

Making our gingerbread house...




Then on to the Enchanted Forest with good friends! We go every year to see Santa there, because I always get a great picture and it's just good fun. We all piled in my van and had a blast!  Conner, Sydney, and Aaron in the way back...


Claire and Hannah in the middle, and me and Stacy up front, trying to have grown-up talk while ignoring the noise in the rear!










We got to see how gingerbread houses are REALLY done!


The train is a crowd favorite.


Hannah loved this little white bridge. If I let her out of her stroller she would run like mad over to the bridge. Once I even lost her for a minute and found her over at the bridge!




Loved this gingerbread "church".  I think it's supposed to be Bellevue.


The kids with Santa...real picture to follow. It was a GREAT Santa pic!


Aaron had taken his list but Claire never finished hers so she didn't bring it. That morning Aaron put "Wii" at the top of his list. He had never mentioned getting one prior to that morning, and I was shocked he even thought to ask for it! Thankfully, Santa already knew he would love one and had already bought it!



After the Enchanted Forest we went to a fun yogurt bar for dessert. It was so fun hanging out with our friends!

Christmas Programs

Claire and Aaron had little Christmas programs at church one Sunday night. Claire's little choir, led by me and the other Little Kids Time Workers, sang Away in a Manger and Joy to the World.

Claire looked beautiful in her pretty new dress and braids!


Aaron had fallen at Kohl's the day before and got a HUGE cut and bump on his head, hence the band-aid...


My pictures during the program are not great because I gave my camera to a middle-schooler since I was directing and couldn't take pictures. I should have specified which child to photograph since very few of the pictures even included Claire. Ha!


Aaron's choir sang a few little songs, but I don't remember what they were!


Later in the month Claire and Hannah had their program at Mother's Day Out. How cute is Hannah with her little class?


I labeled Claire for you...


Singing Twinkle Twinkle...


And Jingle Bells!


They were all so cute!

Christmas for foster kids

There's no way I could possibly blog about our entire Christmas celebrations, but I'll just sum it up with one word--AWESOME!

About 3 months ago we started a small group meeting in our home on Sunday nights. We have 3 other couples coming and we are so excited about where God is taking this! I read the book Radical: Taking Your Faith Back from the American Dream and it stressed the importance of having a small group to meet with on a regular basis, for accountability and strength in numbers. It's so much easier to do mission projects when you have a small group you can work with--so much more can be done!

Several different parts of the book talked about the author's church doing things for foster children in their area, so I had been mulling over how to help there. Then one day on Facebook I saw a lady had made a post on the local Chick-fil-A page asking them if they wanted to sponsor some foster children for Christmas again this year. I sent her a message asking about the opportunity, and it went from there. I mentioned the need to some other Sunday school classes and members at church, and in all we were able to sponsor 9 foster kids! We got their wish lists and gathered money and donations. I was so pumped when one church member saw the wish list and immediately ordered size 13 Nikes for one teenage boy we were sponsoring! Hot dog!!!

Some of the classes delivered their own loot, but I ended up with 5 of the kids' stuff to deliver to the DHS office. I got it all organized in my living room, and check it out!


For a 4 year old girl...


For a teenage boy...


For a teenage girl...


For an 8 year old boy...


For a 6 year old girl...


God is so good!!

Christmas with extended family

On the Saturday after Christmas we got together with Chris's extended family and had a great time! The kids were elated to play with their cousins AGAIN and open presents AGAIN and even ride the zip line! Brrrr!

Claire


Boys will be boys!



I like to take some pictures of the big people too...I know one day the kids will enjoy laughing at what we looked like back in the old days! Ha!




Mammaw, our matriarch.


Once lunch and presents were done, most of us headed out to the zip line. The grown ups wanted to try too!


Chris's great aunt, who is at least 65 years old, was one of the first to ride. I just knew we would end up in the ER, but she did great!


Here she is starting off...

Closer...


Walking back victorious!


The lanyard was actually too long for her so when she got to the end, she was turned around backwards and her bottom dragged the ground!


We had some distant relatives from AZ visiting. Here is Billy riding the zip line, no harness, just the handlebars. It's really more fun for grown-ups this way.


Here is Aaron riding.


Family friend Michael going for a ride.


Mimi from Arizona riding.


Aaron and Nate got hooked up together for a ride. They thought that was great fun.




Here is Jen Jen with a lap full of kids! They love her iPhone!




Girls in pink and brown...


And that about wraps up Christmas! I can't wait to do it again next year!