Christmas 2009

This year, we decided to limit the number of gifts that the girls got. Santa brought them three gifts each, we got them three gifts each and they exchanged one gift each. They always get entirely too much! After church on Christmas Eve, we let each of the girls open one gift from their Gramsy. And, they opened the rest this morning.

Last night, we made reindeer food and sprinkled it in the yard and left milk and cookies for Santa. We made the cookies from a mix that we had given as gifts this year. They were yummy!

We spent the day enjoying some good food and great family time. The girls played with most of their new toys and we played a lot of Super Mario Bros Wii with Rachel. It was a nice day.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to you and yours!

Christmas Program

Last night, our church hosted An Evening with Clay Crosse. Our choir sang with Clay on many of the songs so Jeremy and I had to dress up for the event. Rachel and the other children got to come on stage and sing some carols with Clay, too. The program was very worshipful and was a great outreach for our community. Here are some pics that we took before heading to church.

Tacky Christmas

Last night, Jeremy and I attended our first ever Tacky Christmas Party. It was hosted by my Premier sponsor, Sarah Barker. I "designed" my outfit. I took a pajama set and covered the shirt with a tinsel wreath and picture frame, made earrings from ornaments and made reindeer shoes to finish of the look. I bought Jeremy a tacky sweater from Goodwill and sewed on a decorative throw pillow and sewed mistletoe on his elf hat. Needless to say, I was the tackiest one there!

Pics with Santa

We took the girls to see Santa tonight. Rachel was very excited to take him her wish list. Abigail liked Santa until we tried to get pics with only her and Santa. She wasn't sure about him after Rachel got up.

Here is a pic of Rachel's letter to Santa.

Rachel's Kidergarten Christmas Party

Today, Abigail and I went to Rachel's school for her class Christmas Party. Rachel and Abigail wore Christmas tree t-shirts that we made with their handprints. Rachel enjoyed making her crafts that included decorating a Christmas tree cookie.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

I got the girls dressed in their Christmas pj's and gave them a couple of strands of lights. I took MANY pics to try to get a Christmas card worthy shot. These are some of the ones that were not used on our card this year.

Bathtime fun!

The girls were giggling and having a great time in their bath tonight. They were styling each others' hair with shampoo bubbles!

Puppy Love!

Abigail loves Ella. I was able to get this cute pic of them sharing a kiss!

Our Elf on the Shelf

After we got our tree in the house and all decorated, we introduced the girls to our elf. Rachel decided to name her Jamie. The elf is Santa's helper that comes during the Christmas season. She pops up in a new place each day after she flies back to the North Pole to give Santa a report on our girls' behavior.

Jeremy is reading the Elf on the Shelf book to Rachel.Here is our elf, Jamie, perched on her first spot, our tree.