Church Christmas Play & Santa

Our annual family Christmas photos by the tree. Couldn't get the kids Christmas outfits this year, and our tree isn't by the fireplace anymore, but we're still cute!









Last night we had a Children's Christmas program at church. It was a short little play with a few Christmas songs and some narration. Leah was an angel. (Literally, not figuratively!)

They borrowed some graduation gowns from a preschool and had cute halos and wings. It was so precious!

I doubt Leah would have had any fun as an angel if she couldn't have done it with her BFF's from church: Hannah, Cameron & Suzanne. She loves these girls.

They did so great! They all sat so still and waited so quietly for their turn to go on stage.



And they all said their line so well! "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill to men." I even saw most of them singing the words to the songs. We practiced a lot at home and now Leah knows the words to several different Christmas songs.

Andrew watched from the pews this year. I'm sure next year he'll be a barnyard animal right alongside the rest of the little boys.

I don't have a great video camera, but here's a little sampling from the end of the play. "Happy Birthday" was probably Leah's favorite song. The beginning is her friend Cameron singing a little solo-- you can tell we're in the south now!!

The kids were told if they sang pretty and did well, Santa might come. And he did! Leah was sooo excited to get her gift and talk to Santa. This was the best shot I could get, as he didn't really sit down with them. She said she was sad he left but she is still talking about how she got to see Santa and he gave her a present.

Andrew got a present too. He was fascinated with Santa and tried to pull his beard. He just stared at him the whole time!

Christmas #1: OBX

Our kids are so blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas 3 times this year!! We had our "first" Christmas this past weekend at Grandma & Grandpa's in the Outer Banks. We had great weather, great fellowship, great gifts, and great fun!

Thursday night we went to a nearby house that does an incredible light show. It's all put together by one family, just at their house, but they have tons of lights, toys, inflatables, and figures on display. We've gone just about every year, but Andrew was really able to enjoy it this year (and Leah was all over the place)-- They both loved it.

Andrew tried to pet the reindeer. He called them doggies.








Friday was so nice we spent some time at the beach. They both loved this, too! Leah especially, talked a mile a minute about everything she saw. She and her daddy took their shoes off and tested the water. Apparently it was freezing!

Andrew loved throwing the sand and carried around fistfuls of it.

Later Uncle BJ, Aunt Chela, and Kudos the dog came over. Andrew wasn't sure what to do with Kudos. He really wanted to touch him, but when Kudos would lick his face, he would sort of flinch, but still giggle. Poor doggy was being chased all around the house by the end of the weekend.

Leah loved playing with Grandpa's smart phone. He had a cool game where she could trace the letters of the alphabet.

Saturday we got to open presents!! But first we tried to get a good shot of all the grand"kids" under the tree.

Take One- BJ told Kudos to "lay down." Everyone but Kudos obeyed!

Perhaps one of Leah's favorite was a Princess coloring book. (That's all she asked Santa for this year.)

Andrew got a cool instrument set. I'm sure I'll love that later!


Andrew's favorite was a hammer. He tried to hammer all his presents.

Grandma helped Andrew with his clothes. He just put them on his head.

Leah got a fun Uno Moo game.

Grandma bought lots of Melissa and Doug toys, that I appreciate a lot more than the kids probably do. Leah got Lacing Beads in a Box and the See and Spell. Andrew got the Pound-a-Peg and the Band in a Box.

Their big gift was a Play Center that has a kitchen set, doctor, tool workbench, and baby care. You can interchange to play with any set and each has its own little box to store all the items. Although it's geared more toward Leah, Andrew also really loved it, even though he didn't use any of them appropriately.

Countdown to Christmas

Last year I felt like Christmas snuck up on us and I didn't get to do many of the things I wanted to do to get excited about the holiday. So this year I planned and planned ahead of time. I actually started planning some last Christmas. So I came up with our family Advent Activities Calendar. Starting on the 1st, we turn over one circle each day and participate in whatever activity is on the back. (The picture in the middle is a more traditional Advent calendar Brett's mom sent us-- you open one flap every day and it has a Scripture verse behind it. We're reading those in our evening family worship time.)

We're also doing a lot of different crafts, games, and activities as a part of our "school" work this month, as well-- some to go along with the family activity, some otherwise. So far I'm not sure that Leah's really excited about the Activity Calendar, but I know she is getting excited about Christmas and is really starting to learn about the true meaning of the holiday (if only we can get it into her head that baby Jesus was born and not baby Moses).

So here's our activities so far:

Dec 1: Ice Cream & Family Game Night

Dec 2: Have a picnic lunch by the Christmas tree.

Dec 3: Ride the float in the church Christmas parade. (Lucky for me, several of our activities were already planned so I didn't have to put any preparation into them!)

Dec 4: Drive around to see Christmas lights and the live Nativity Scenes (something a local church was sponsoring). (No pictures of this-- it was all in the car!)


Dec 5: Watch a Christmas movie in our jammies.



We also made Reindeer Cookies on this day!

Dec 6: Enjoy hot chocolate with marshmallows while reading a Christmas book.

Dec 7: Make an ornament together. We attempted these Cinnamon Applesauce ornaments, but the dough was either too thin or too goopy or something so they didn't really turn out, but we did have some fun making them!

2011 Christmas Parade

This year instead of getting to watch a Christmas parade, we got to be in one! Our town has a great little parade and our church typically participates with a float. I wish I could say I helped a lot, but really I didn't do much on it, just kinda lended a hand here & there. We decided to go with a "Fishers of Men" theme, complete with a real boat and Jesus at the helm! Our float won first place in the parade-- all the hard work paid off! Leah loved waving at everyone (and throwing candy, especially!) and getting to be a part of it.

Moments to Remember