Christmas Eve

This year we changed up our routine for Christmas Eve. In the past we have run from one family party to another. We would get to one party early, visit for an hour or so, and then take off to the next party. By the time we made it to the last party, we were tired, the kids were tired, and we felt like we hadn't really had time to eat a meal or visit with anyone at length. This year, we stayed home. Yup! We let the party come to us. Uncle Ed, Aunt Stacey, Uncle Brian, Grandma, and Papaw came to our house. We had WAY too much food. We hung out in our pj's. Everyone ate, played games, and watched movies. At 7 p.m. anyone who wanted to go to church went to church and then came back to continue hanging out.
In the Holdaway-Ellnor family, the dogs are part of the family too. This year they got to be part of the Christmas celebration. Stacey has said that she's not a "dog person," but I think Griffey has changed her mind about that.
Mommy, Grandma, Aunt Stacey, and Grace attended church after some snacks.
When we got back from church, Grandma handed out a few early gifts. What is it, Uncle Brian?
Mommy gave Gabriel and Grace each a gift to open too. Gabriel got the Cars 2 movie.
Papaw got Connect 4 Launch. It was really a fun game for everyone to play.
Hershey and Griffey were vying for everyone's attention. Uncle Ed was happy to snuggle with both pups.
I love my little girl!
Gabriel and Grandma played Connect 4 Launch.
Then Grandma got some cuddle time with her grandpuppy. Griffey is one rotten boy!

Sea Monkeys

Sam gave Gabriel Sea Monkeys for Christmas. Gabriel was so excited to start hatching his Sea Monkeys. The first step was to purify some distilled water. We've done that. After 24 hours, we added the Sea Monkey eggs to the purified water. We have about two more days until our Sea Monkey eggs hatch. We have to aerate the water daily so they have plenty of oxygen. We'll let you know when they hatch!

Ellnor Christmas

Friday evening the Ellnor and Lindsey families got together at Grampy and Barbara's house to celebrate Christmas. With everyone having other obligations and other family to visit with on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it was easiest to get everyone together on the 23rd.
Gabriel and Grace are always so excited to see Bobby and Ben!
Grampy played Santa.
Riley and Grace have so much fun together. Grace thinks Riley hung the moon.
The four youngest grandkids are Gabriel, Robbie, Riley, and Grace.
Gabriel and Robbie play games together so well. They got into a game of Monopoly before dinner.
After we ate dinner it was time for presents. Great Gramma was the first to receive a gifts.
Great Gramma gave Gabriel and Grace new nightlights.
Uncle Rob did great picking out gifts for Gabriel and Grace! He got Gabriel army men, army vehicles, and a box of 72 Match Box cars. Gabriel was in Heaven! Grace got a box of 30-ish baby dolls.
The look on his face when he opened that box of cars was so funny. He was amazed at all of the cars.
After everyone opened presents, Riley showed Dan some of the apps on her iTouch.

The four littlest of the grandkids spent the night with Grampy and Barbara. At 11 p.m. Grampy called "lights out." Robbie and Gabriel slept on the couch in the living room and went to sleep pretty quickly. Grace and Riley slept in the guest bedroom, and those girls talked and giggled until 2 a.m.! Oh my! I'm sure Grampy and Barbara were beat! Barbara had promised the kids pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Dan and I went over to pick our kiddos up about 8:30, and the kids hadn't had their breakfast yet. Barbara sent us away with the assurance that the kiddos would be returned after they had breakfast and a little more time to play. Wow! Two exhausted kiddos were returned home about 11 a.m.
When Dan and I showed up to pick them up, all four kids were snuggled up on the couch watching cartoons.
What a way to start celebrating the holidays! The kids had a ball! Thanks to Grampy and Barbara for keeping them overnight. Mommy and Daddy got lots of holiday preparations taken care of.

Gingerbread House 2011

Friday afternoon the kids and I tried our hand at gingerbread house decorating. I put the gingerbread house together while the kids ate lunch. The kids were ready to decorate as soon as lunch was finished.
I felt pretty certain that our masterpiece would be at least as good as the one on the box. **wink**
Grace put her gum drops in a zigzag pattern on one side of the roof.
Gabriel was in charge of the front of the house and the other side of the roof.
Uhm . . . Grace . . . those decorations are supposed to go on the gingerbread house.
Gabriel . . . that was supposed to be a bush next to the front door. Geez!
The kids decided that the icing was good enough to eat, so why should it be used for decorating?
Grace had more icing on her face than there was on the gingerbread house. I wish I could have video taped their laughter as they ate squirts of icing from the piping bag. They were hysterical.
The is our completed gingerbread house. Notice that there are no bushes around the outside of the house. Only about a third of the candy from the kit actually made it onto the house. The rest of the candy was eaten by two silly kids. Even though the gingerbread house is not exactly beautiful, we had a ton of fun acting silly while we decorated it. AND it was better than last year's because this one stayed together. All in all, I figure it was a successful project.

Star Wars Legos

Thursday evening Grandma and Papaw gave Gabriel and Grace gifts to open a little early. They gave Gabriel two packages of Legos. One of them was a Star Wars ship. He asked me Friday morning if I would help him put it together. I have to say I was a little skeptical. I rarely played with Legos as a kid, and I've never put together any specific Lego toy by following a diagram. I was a little nervous.
Luckily, after about 15 minutes, Gabriel and I had built this cool little Star Wars spaceship.
It looked just like the one on the package, so I guess we did it right! Score one for Mom!

Crafts for Kids

This morning the kids and I hosted some friends for lunch and some Christmas crafts. Kids love to give gifts. I remember, as a kid, being upset because I didn't have any gifts to give at Christmas. Kids are so proud to give gifts that they make themselves, so I thought this would be a great way to spend an afternoon with friends.
The McAfee's arrived first, so the kids exchanged gifts. Alicia gave Grace a Dream Dazzler make-up set. As Alicia opened the package for her, Grace said, "I LOVE make-up!"
Sam gave Gabriel a Sea Monkey kit. I think this will be so much fun to do while we are out of school. We have to get some distilled water before we can get them going.
Gabriel and Grace gave Sam and Jake Angry Birds. Jake was thrilled to see that his Angry Bird matched Gabriel's shirt. Ha!
Nora chewed on the wrapping paper, and that made her perfectly happy.
Grace made herself super-fancy with the make-up.
Then Alicia gave her a little help getting fancied up.
Our first project was painting sun catchers.
Gabriel and Grace LOVE to paint!
This is how I know Alicia is hanging out with us . . . . My daughter is covered with make-up while holding a giant Pixie Stick in one hand and a cookie in the other. Oh my! Is it any wonder that Alicia is her favorite person?

Our next project was decorating jars. The kids could choose from a reindeer, a Santa, or a snowman. Jake called his snowman jar a bug catcher. Ha ha! Gabriel and Grace put some M & M's in their jars so they could give them to some special people at Christmas. I didn't get any pictures of this project because it required some adult assistance.

Thanks, Stacy and Alicia, for coming! We had a good time hanging out. We'll have to do it again some time . . . soon.

Christmas at CBC

We went to the Christmas Cantata last night at church. It was a wonderful program. We have some very talented musicians at Culbertson Baptist. Grace is going to start singing in the Children's Choir in January. We can look forward to seeing her perform in cantata with the Children's Choir next year.

P90X

Gabriel had been in the basement this morning watching a commercial for the P90X Workout program. Gabriel came upstairs all excited about how strong the exercises were making him. We asked him to show us some of the moves, and he was glad to.
I love this picture! It is so hilarious! I think he inherited my ninja skills. Ha ha!

A Guest Reader

The McGrew's came over last night for dinner. When it was time for the kids to go to bed, Tony was given the job of assisting with baths and then reading the bedtime story. The kids loved having a special friend read to them before bed.

Portable North Pole

Santa sent Grace a message yesterday on the computer.
She was so excited to find out that Santa had been watching her at Brian and Erin's wedding AND at her Christmas program at school.
We found out that she is on the nice list, and Santa made a note in her file that she wants the Crayola Crayon Maker.
Christmas through the eyes of a child is truly magical.

Breakfast with Santa

We breakfast reservations this morning to have pancakes with Santa Claus.
Gabriel got his two favorite things this morning . . . pancakes and Santa, both of them before 10 a.m.
Chris Cakes prepared and served the pancakes this morning. Gabriel caught his pancakes like a pro.
Santa visited each table and talked to the kids.
Then he read The Polar Express to them.
Grace was not exactly the most attentive listener. We had been waiting a while for the story.
Before we left, we asked Santa for a picture, and he was happy to oblige.
Before heading home, we went to Bridgepoint to make an appearance at Breakfast with Santa there. I didn't think the kids would really be interested in sitting on Santa's lap at Bridgepoint, but that was one of their requests before we left.

We had a fun morning this morning, and then took wonderful naps this afternoon! I love being on Winter Break and the holiday season!