Happy Holidays, Week 1

Here's a summary of our first week of December:

Monday the 1st we had our first "snow day", even though this was what it looked like...a little bit of sleet on the deck with the grass still visible.  It started sleeting right before daylight, so I guess they had no choice but to cancel school. I was sad to have to use a snow day this early, but in a way it was nice to have one more day of Thanksgiving break.  Cookie the elf returned the night before, so the kids were excited to search for him Monday morning.  Alexee and Crosby also decided to be crafty and make toy soldiers.  C hung his on his bedroom door and A hung hers on the Christmas tree.  

Cookie usually shows up with a little surprise on his first day back, and this year he brought flannel pjs for the boys and a Christmas outfit for Lex.

Tuesday was back-to-school, which was good because Tuesday evening was the 2nd Grade Christmas musical, and Alexee did not want to miss it due to bad weather!  They'd been working on the songs in music class for weeks and weeks, and their hard work paid off!  It was a really cute program called "A Nice Nice Christmas".  This is a picture of her with her wonderful teacher and several of the girls from her class before the show.

Her class doing their dance to Here Comes the Snow:

We were happy to have my parents join us for the program.  (This was a bad choice for a photo location with that bright light.)  I had dinner cooking while we were gone, so they came by our house to eat with us afterward.  It was a fun evening.

Wednesday I went to Home Depot to get a Christmas tree.  Sadly, I couldn't find a cut-your-own-tree farm for us to visit near here.

Lane wasn't going to be home until later that evening so I had to get creative with the unloading process.  The boys had haircuts after school that day, then we hurried home to start decorating!  They wanted me to get a tall tree, and I think they were pleased with it.  

I love our new ornament--I bought it in Little Rock when we were there for Halloween.

Friday night we drove out to the Chateau on the Lake.  Lane had seen something on the news about their candy village display in the lobby so we wanted to take the kids to see that.  The candy church was my favorite, especially the "stained glass" windows made from jelly beans!  They also had a beautiful Fontanini nativity set and several Christmas trees. 

We loved having a quiet day at home on Saturday.  Here are a few of our decorations around the house:  fireplace with stockings (and a Christmas cactus on the table that I think might actually bloom at Christmas!), a recycled wood Christmas tree that Dad built for me last weekend.  He made a barb-wire star for the top and I pinned ribbon to the branches for Christmas cards.  I decorated the dining table with sycamore logs that Dad also cut for me, pine branches from our yard and the pretty "holiday forest" candle that my sweet friend Jackie gave me for my birthday.  And this Santa's pipe candle smells so good too.  I love having the house decorated for the holidays!

Crosby was so sweet to want to write Cookie this note the day he hid on his bookshelf.  :)

Alexee is always making things.

Saturday night we were crazy enough to think going to Silver Dollar City was a reasonable idea.  It was beyond crowded, but once we finally made it inside and pushed our way to the back corner of the park it was okay and we had fun.  They didn't even route us through the usual entrance...they sent us down a dark path through the woods, behind buildings, around dumpsters, etc.  Ha!  They kids kept saying, "Where are we??"  The lights there really are so neat, and we had a funnel cake, fried Oreos, hot chocolate and wassail.

Alexee & Rhett are in the seats on the right:

Our sweet gingerbread boys and girl:

Enjoying the giant singing tree on Main Street:

And because I just never learn....on Sunday evening I was crazy enough to think that going to the Christmas parade was a reasonable idea.  :)  Actually, it wasn't bad at all.  We got there too early and had to wait for a while, but I expected it to be more crowded than it was (not complaining!)  We found a warm place to wait inside a hotel lobby then walked back across the street just before parade time and found a front row seat.

It was almost an hour of fire trucks, marching bands and fun local school and business floats.  The kids thought it was great!  I'm glad we went!

                            

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had already had our traditional Thanksgiving meal on the 15th so we had homemade waffles for breakfast on Thursday.  Then the kids and I went to my parents' house, and Lane had to be at work at noon.  Thursday evening we went to Aunt Judy's and had a great time there!

Then & Now--Dad & his siblings 

(minus Greg, the youngest, in the first picture):

It was nice to see cousins that I don't get to see often:

Carrie, Stacie, Casey, Sharmin & Tracie

Stacie and Noel just got engaged--so happy for them!

Friday morning Dad & the boys cut wood.  Crosby watched from the truck at first because the chainsaw was too loud for him--I thought this picture was sweet.  

My sister and her kids came up on Friday.  The kids spent most of their time building a fort in the field.  It was so cute to see them work together.

How are they all this big!?!

Jaiden is into knitting now--she made this purple headband that Alexee is wearing!  :)

After baths that night they settled in for a movie (The Boxcar Children).

Saturday morning they couldn't wait to get back to work on their fort.  My Grandparents came by to visit.

We went back out after dark because they wanted to pretend they were camping.  Dad told them some scary stories about bears and mountain lions (hoping they'd decide to go back to the warm house-ha!), but I think they figured him out because they kept saying, "Grandad, you are making that up!"

It was a fun weekend!