Monday, December 31, 2018

Christmas 2018

 This Christmas was so wonderful.  We stayed home and just relaxed and watched the kids open presents.  We acted out the Nativity and talked about Jesus.  I don't have a lot of memories from last year's Christmas except for sitting on the couch holding Finley, so I really tried to soak it all in this year.  The kids make it so fun.  They were pretty happy with everything they got. 

 This picture is actually from October, but I like it a lot, so I posted it here.  The girls are wearing their Halloween shirts. :)


 I saw a tutorial on youtube on how to make Christmas cookies and decided I HAD to try it.  I invited a few friends over and this is what we ended up with.  It was fun, but I decided it's not really my thing.  It's hard for me to spend so much time making a cookie look pretty when it's just going to get eaten.  Oh well, it was a fun time with friends and Sadie made a few too. 

 On the left is a picture I took of some snowflakes on our driveway.  I love when you can see their shape so well.  And on the right is a picture of some Christmas pancakes we had at our house.  I invited the neighborhood to bring their kids and have pancakes for lunch.  Some people showed up and we enjoyed these fun Christmas tree pancakes and chatting. 

 Santa came to our city hall building on a firetruck one night.  I braved the crowd with all of the kids by myself (Rob had to work late that night...) and we survived.  Not without lots of crying and drama of course.  Hot chocolate in the car + 5 kids = big mistake.  ha ha



 Rob and I decided to take a couple pictures before church with Finley because she matched us.  Thanks Sadie for being our photographer!

 The older kids were sad that they missed our Christmas tree pancakes, so we made them again for dinner.  

 We acted out the nativity story on Christmas Eve with the kids.  It was very fun and entertaining and we had a good discussion about Christ.

 Finely got to be the baby Jesus.

 Emery was the Angel.

 On Christmas eve morning, I went to the store with Sadie.  We came across a magic 8 ball and I asked it if the kids were going to get along that day.  The answer was yes and when we got home the kids were reading together on the couch.  They actually did get along that day.  :)

 Elf chart gifts!  This year they sent us some puzzles to put together and they had a secret message on the back telling the kids to look in a black cabinet in the basement.  They went down and there wasn't anything in there, so they came upstairs and looked on the black bookshelves thinking maybe they were talking about those.  Then we all went down again and looked in the black cabinet, and there was a gift in there!  Christmas magic!  In the cabinet was a Nintendo Switch with a few games!  The elves made sure in their note to tell the kids not to get used to big gifts like this on the elf chart.  :)




 
 Christmas morning!  The kids all slept downstairs together and were really good and didn't come up until 6:30.  I don't have any idea when they actually woke up, but they did a good job waiting until then to come up stairs and check out their stockings!

 The girls all got some fun stick on earrings in their stockings.  They have loved those.  Zac got a boomerang.  (not pictured)

 Here is Emery with her earrings and the girls all got bracelets that can be turned into little animals. 

 I made this blanket for Zac.  It's minky fabric so it's really soft.  And Riley wanted to feel it so Zac gave her a hug.  I love this picture!

 My mom made Finley her own pillow.  She loves it!

 Riley and Finley got this ice cream cart to share.  We are still working on the sharing part, but they both LOVE it!  It's so cute seeing them play with it.

 The kids picked names for who they got a gift for.  Sadie bought for Emery, Zac bought for Riley, Emery bought for Zac, and Riley bought for Sadie.  Rob is sick in the background.  I think he had influenza.  It took him more than a week to get over it.

 The kids loved their gifts, but more so they loved seeing the reaction of the person they got their gift for.  I loved seeing that.  That's what gift giving is all about!

 Group hug!

 Zac trying out his new gift!

 Sadie wearing some new stick on earrings.
 It was really great weather on Christmas day until it started raining, so the girls were able to skate with their new roller blades.

Emery is learning fast and doesn't need Rob's hand all the time now.  






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