Christmas in Flippin

We were so happy to get to Flippin on Christmas afternoon and get to spend time with Dad's side of the family on Christmas night--we haven't been there for that in a few years!  

The kids were so anxious to open gifts, of course, so Mom and Dad let them open one thing before all the company arrived.  

The boys love Uncle Greg!  Crosby wanted to show him his new toy.

Dad and his two brothers, Jerry & Greg

We had lots of good food!

It was good to see my cousin, Mack, who was home from NYC--haven't seen him in ages!

With my sweet Grandmother and Crosby

(Poor Crosby had a terrible cold--his nose was so red and sore.)

Tracie & Bennett--I think he was waving?  He's such a cutie!!

Bennett & his mom, Lindsay

I love to hear Dad's family sing and play the piano.  (Except every time I listen I wonder why the musical genes had to miss me!?!)  They sang Christmas carols, old hymns and praise songs.  Reminded once again of how blessed we are!

Because of Crosby's cold and cough, he just did not sleep well at all while we were there.  He kept waking up and disturbing Alexee, so I took him downstairs and we slept on the couch beside the cozy fire.

There was no snow to play in like we'd hoped, but we bundled up and went out to feed, etc., anyway.

Alexee and all her cat friends

The kids had fun playing with their new toys.  Dad ordered a Lego mining truck for C, not realizing how many pieces it had.  I didn't know if he'd be quite ready to work on it yet, but he insisted...and he had so much fun with it and was really good at it.

Alexee brought Princess Louisa in to visit for a while

Micaela, Jaiden and Jeryn arrived on Wednesday!

Ready for bed--cozy in front of the wood stove

Granddad, Mo and the 5 kids! 

We had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning

The kids were actually anxious to go to sleep on Christmas Eve.  I love to see them snuggled in their beds, knowing how excited they will be when morning arrives!

Santa always leaves his gifts by the fireplace.  This year there was a letter from Santa (a response to the letter Rhett left him with his cookies) and also a good-bye note from the elf.

They were ready to go nice and early.  At 6:07 I heard them calling into Crosby's monitor, "Hurry, we're ready!"

They opened their gifts from Santa first:

 Bogart had a stocking full of treats and a new squirrel toy.

 They'd requested robes as one of their gifts.  I thought they looked so sweet wearing them.

 A & R chose this Spider-Man to give to Crosby.

 From her brothers

 Rhett did this at school and wrapped it himself:

 So precious to me!

 Lane working on breakfast

We had bacon, scrambled eggs, pumpkin bread from Jennifer (thanks, J!), fruit and fruit dip, cream cheese crescent bars and Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls that Emily made for us (thanks, E!).  I thought it was all good.

It was somewhat of a rushed morning because I had to clean up the Christmas morning mess and pack to go to my parents' house.  We'd planned to go on the 26th, but with the snowy forecast we decided we probably wouldn't get to go for several days if we didn't go ahead and leave.  We made it there before the bad weather hit, no problems at all.  But my sister and her family were a few hours behind us and had to turn around and go back to their house because of the storm.  I felt so bad for them--they lost power that evening and spent Christmas night in the dark.  Dad met Mario the next day and brought Mic and the kids back to Flippin with him so we still got to see them!

Candlelight Service

We always love going to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church.  The very first song they sang this time was The Little Drummer Boy.  It had all the kids' attention because I'd recently told them that I had to be the drummer boy in one of our church Christmas programs when I was a little girl.  They thought it was funny that I had to be a boy and that I had to put mud on my face for the part.  Crosby has mentioned that so many times--that really stuck with him for some reason.  I'm not sure why I had to play the drummer boy...probably because I was late for church the night parts were assigned and that was all that was left--ha! 

They had several drummers that marched in and stood in front of the stage--it was really good!

The candlelight part is always so pretty and special...but makes me a little nervous with the kids holding candles!

Snow Storm

We got a BIG snow here (by AR standards) on Christmas night!  The kids and I missed the beginning of it because we'd rushed to my parents' house in north Arkansas on Christmas Day in hopes of doing some sledding there.  The winter storm surprised everyone and went south of what was predicted, leaving only a dusting of snow at Mom and Dad's and 11"+ here!  Crazy!  Many many people in the area lost power for several days, but we were very lucky that ours never went out at all.  There are trees  down/limbs broken all over town because of the ice that came before the snow--it's kind of a mess!

Alexee, Crosby and I came home on Thursday.  The roads were totally clear, but there was plenty of snow left to play in.  They got to try out their snow suits and boots (from Christmas 2011--we never had a chance to use them) and Alexee wore her new winter coat from Mo and Granddad.  Rhett missed this snow because he stayed two extra nights in Flippin and rode home with my Dad and sister yesterday.

making a snow angel

There's Bogart over by the fence!

Friday they decided to make a snowman.

Cuties!