Our Christmas Season part 4

When I was little, my brother & I used to wake up in the wee hours of the morning & sneak into the den to see what presents were under the tree.  Everything was wrapped, so we didn't know what we were getting, but the excitement of seeing the presents & shaking them to figure out what was inside was so much fun.  Needless to say, we didn't sleep much that night.

I told the kids this story a few years back & now they have adopted this tradition.  The funny thing was, they were not very quite.  I was awaken at 3 a.m. by loud whispers of "Come on, Collin, it's time to check out our presents."  A few minutes later: " WOW!  Look at that big present."  It was so fun to listen to them.

Will's favorite present of all...... Starbuck's gift card.

Faith received many wonderful presents, but her favorite was this spin top that she found at Books -A-Million & fell in love with. 

Collin wanted a Clemson pillow case.  He never saw me sewing on the sewing machine, so he didn't think he was going to get it.  He was so excited.

 The big gifts were........

A Karate kicking mat  &

 The Wii Fit Plus                      

Will's scarf.

Faith's Puppy scarf.

Collin's Clemson scarf.

After opening our presents, we had our Christmas breakfast & then played with all of our presents for the rest of the afternoon. 

We celebrated Christmas Dinner at Mammy & Papa's house with Uncle Kyle, Aunt Leahan, Ashton & Nathan. (cousins.)

Our Christmas continued the next day with a White "after" Christmas.  What a fun day.

 Living in the Southeast, we don't get a lot of snow.  We are lucky to get some every few years.  To have snow after Christmas is almost unheard of.  The day after Christmas always seems a little sad.  What a blessing to have a fun day.

 

I love snow angels.  Faith & Collin had so much fun making them.

We didn't have a heavy snow, but it was beautiful none the less.

Our Christmas Season part 3

 We were invited to a Christmas, music party.  I have never been to a party like this.  One of Tony's trumpet student's family is very musical.  Each year, they invite families that have musical talent.

Tony is playing behind the hanging light in the middle.   

Most of these people were from our sister church.  

So even though we didn't know them, we already had

a bond.  

Will played a song.

Everyone sang carols together & then some families did specials.

*****

Christmas Eve Day

We surprised our friends that live about 45 minutes away.  Mr. Dennis loves playing trumpet.  He & Tony can talk for hours about music.  

Tony took him some trumpet books.

Mrs. Yvonne had some play clothes that her grandchildren like to play in.

After trying them on, Faith was ready to join her brothers in climbing

the tree.

Can you find Collin & Will in the tree?

 

The area that they live in is known for gems & gold.  The kids were so excited to try to find these treasures. They had already made plans of how they would 

spend the money.  I was happy to hear that they wanted to buy us a new house. :)

So far, no luck, but they still have plans of going back to find the treasure.

For now, all we have is a lot of big rocks that we brought home.

*******

Christmas Eve Night

Since Tony is a trumpeter, he has to play on Christmas Eve.  In the past, we have gotten together with my Nanny on Christmas Eve, but since she is now enjoying being face- to- face with Jesus on Christmas, I knew that I needed to make big plans so that I wouldn't miss her so much.

We had our first Christmas Eve tea.  We had so much fun.

 

I am looking forward to the day that we can have traditional tea food, 

but until then, we enjoy the kid's finger food.

:Me:

Notice in the background the 3 big presents?

On Christmas Eve, the kids open their presents from each other.  For the last few years, they have all wanted Build-A-Bear coupons.  So they knew what they were getting.  This year, I made up a present clue hunt.  I wrapped the 1st clue in a huge box.  I made them stay in the back while I hid all the clues. When they came out & saw 3 big presents, they were so excited.  The hard part was having to wait until our Tea was over before they could open the presents. (I had to build up the excitement.)

Collin was a little bit disappointed when he opened up his present & there was nothing inside.  He had missed the clue.  After realizing that they were about to have a clue hunt, they were so excited.  3 big clue hunts.  The excitement was in the air.

After the present hunt, we did Christmas Crackers.  I found these at World Market for $8 on sale for $0.80 after Christmas last year.  They pop when you open them & inside is a little game piece.  When you've opened all, there is a game to play.  Each one also has Christmas jokes & trivia.

After the crackers, we put out sheep food for the traveling shepherds on their way to see Jesus.

It looked like snow.  Faith was really hoping that the sheep would stop by. :)

Our Christmas lights.  Sorry, but I could never get the picture in focus.

After feeding the sheep, we read the Christmas story.

With young children, I have found that this is the best book.  The book is all scripture, but has pictures so there little minds won't wander off.

We sang the 12 days of Christmas using this book & began to sing other Christmas songs.

Since we don't have cable, it was a nice treat to find Christmas movies online. 

ABC Family had Holly & Hal's Christmas Adventure.

Easy Silhouette Project

Take a picture of you subject facing sideways.

   Then print out the picture on card stock.  I printed it out black and white.

  Then cut each picture out using cuticle scissors.  It makes it a lot to get around those little curves.

Then I painted it with poster paint (because that is all the black that I had).

After the paint dried, the silhouette curled up.  They can be flattened by adding weight on top of it for a few hours.

I found scrapbooking  paper that I really liked & then found matching paint.  I couldn't find an exact match, so I got one that was lighter & one that was darker & mixed the two colors.

Collin painted a few coats of sealer over the painted wooden pieces. 

The final project (still drying)

I just used Elmer's glue mixed in with a little water to glue the scrapbook paper to the wood & then to glue the silhouettes to the scrapbook paper.  Then put a few coats of the sealer over the paper & silhouettes.  (I used J.W. etc's Right-Step water base clear varnish satin finish)

  Gorilla Glue was used to hold the wood pieces together & let dry over night.

I was able to find every thing at AC Moore. Including the already painted letters.

Fight Night

The kids had their first Karate Fight Night. Will had decided that he wasn't going to fight that night.  Collin & Faith were so excited about it.

There were kids all ages and all degrees of belts.  The idea

is to get use to fighting people that you don't know.  Not to be

nervous or afraid.

Faith & Collin got to fight together a good bit.

 Faith gets this guy.  I don't think that she is afraid of anyone.

This guy was so gentle with her.  Very proud of this young man.

But she thought she was David taking down Goliath. 

Then Collin got his chance to fight him.

 

 After a while, Will decided to fight.  He was paired up with a black belt.

:Will:

Brothers fighting.  It was interesting to see the difference between 

the kids fighting someone they know vs. someone they didn't.  

Faith loved this girl that she is fighting with, Savannah.  

Savannah was very good with Faith & tried to teach

her while they were fighting.

Will is on the right fighting.

Our Christmas Season part 2

We have really enjoyed going to the Lowe's Kid's workshop this year.  For December, they have been making a 3 part train.










 Before leaving the store, Collin & Faith wanted to get a picture in front of  Lowe's Christmas tree with Jacob. 

 After the 2nd  train workshop, we went with Jacob & his mom, Karen, to a train museum.  The kids really enjoyed this.


My Ladies Sunday School Christmas party was so much fun.  We have a bunch of crazy  fun ladies in our class. 

 Me & Zelle after the party.

This year, I am making a few things for the kids.  I crochet the boys a scarf & then decided to make a stuffed animal scarf for Faith.  I saw a tutorial online.  {I'm sorry, but I didn't save the site & now I can't find it to give them the credit.}  I was going to use one of her many stuffed animals, but then I didn't have the heart to cut it up.  So I bought a new one.

 Poor puppy, he has no idea what is about to happen to him.

It was so funny, it took me about 4 attempts before I actually could perform the surgery.  I'd start & then I had to wait to get my nerve up. 

 Faith can never see these pictures. No one tell her how the scarf was made.

The final product.  

(For some reason, blogger turned my picture sideways & I don't know how to fix it.)

Orange Belt

:Collin testing for his Orange Belt:

:Collin has really enjoyed karate:

 

:Mr. Gerald presenting Collin with his Orange Belt:

Normally, we have a children's Christmas play at our church.  We didn't have it this year.  All of the choir kids were so disappointed.  I hate to dis-appointing kids.  So this year, we decided to let them participate in a neighboring town's Christmas parade.  It was so much fun.  I was so thankful that the Lord warmed it up to 40 degrees for us.

:Collin riding the train:

: Will is just above the black stripe:

:Faith is in the back car on the right:

The back car was designated for me.  

Collin said, "look at the big caboose."  Didn't find that funny.

Caroling & the Manger

Our children's choir also "went" caroling at our church.  

The idea was to sing out on the front lawn of the church as the congregation came in for the night service.

It was so stinkin cold, rainy & windy that we brought the kids inside to sing.  (Since I was directing, I wasn't able to take pictures.  I'm waiting on some from the parents.)

I felt so sorry for Mary & Joseph.  They still wanted to endure the weather.

Thank you Alex & McKayla for enduring the pain for the Nativity scene.

21 Questions ~ or more

Question Jar

Money is always tight.  I was so excited when I came across this blog that had a very inexpensive gift.  At first I really wasn't sure about making it.  I didn't know if the friend that I had in mind would really like it or just think it was cheesy.  It was a huge hit.  Next time I make the flower, I'm going to make it a little smaller.

If you are interested in making one, click above on the  Question Jar to go to the site.  They even have all the questions typed up for you.  It's a great way to get to know each other, conversation starters, etc.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

What a beautiful group of kids~inside & out. 

I am so blessed & honored to be able to work with these children.

They did such a wonderful job singing It's About The Cross.