It's Christmas!

It's a pretty amazing thing, that for the last 13 years we have been spending Christmas Eve with Mark and Mary. It's so natural...we don't know anything different. I have a feeling that when all our kids are grown and gone, we will still spend Christmas Eve together.

But, before heading out to Portage, we had to lay out our special goodies for Santa.



Then, I had the pleasure of singing with my brother to open the service at church. While we were singing all our girls (Mariah and McKenna too) passed candy canes out to the people in the congregation. After much singing, perfect words from Mark and the lighting of candles, we went back to their home to party. A little hot tubbing, lots of food and fellowship.









(Mickey Mouse hats courtesy of dad...so we can all match at Disney next month...an early Christmas present!)

Then, four excited girls and two just as excited parents, drove back home...tucked the kids in...and waited..... waited for Santa to come.

And he did.

:



Too many gifts to post, but let me tell you this; everyone got exactly what they asked for, and more.

A few favorites;






This was at the end of her string:



Nintendo DS's were not on anyones lists this year, but I think they ended up being the favorites.



And THIS was on the end of HER string!







MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Origin of a pretzel

Three years ago, on a Christmas "eve eve", Chris made my night by saying, "lets make pretzels at your mom and dads house." So we grabbed our homemade dough out of the breadmaker, walked three houses down to my mom and dads and said, "Surprise! We're here to show you how to make the best homemade cinnamon sugar pretzels you will ever eat."

My mom, happy to have her home invaded by grandchildren, immediately prepared her kitchen for something she had never done before. It has now become a fun little tradition, because we have done it every year since.

A cozy cabin Christmas

Enjoying an early Christmas in Flint with my "other" family. Staying in a cozy cabin and opening presents, walking through Crossroads Village and riding on Huckleberry Railroad, seeing Santa, eating a scrumptious lunch at Zehnders and just enjoying each other. To make it even better, we had a new baby to love on this year. Merry 1st Christmas Carson!

Progressive dinner night!

For the past three years, our family has begun a progressive dinner tradition. It always ends up being Billy and Lianns family, my family, and my parents. Of course the invitation is for the entire family, but distance and crazy schedules play a huge part in why Marks family and Heathers family have not been able to come yet. One of these years though, it will work out so we can all be together!

We start out at Billy and Lianns for appetizers: the best dip you will ever taste. Oh my....and the scary thing is that Liann makes this HUGE pan of it, and there is never any left. And we still have two more meals to go after this one!








After this part of the meal, we give our stomachs a rest and head to the Jackson fairgrounds to view the "night lights." It's a drive through light scene, and it's gorgeous. The kids love it as do the grown-ups.

By the time we're done viewing the lights, we are hungry again. This time it's to my home, for the main course: chicken enchiladas.

I told Billy that I would probably be posting all these pictures, but he didn't care. Nice face.



After once again stuffing ourselves silly we move on to the final house, grandma and grandpa, for the best part: DESSERT!








These cousins had fun just being together, telling the grownups jokes, and putting on a silly show. I love these kids, and even those cousins who couldn't be with us this night! We were thinking of you!

(scuze those big slippers in the way...I couldn't edit those out!)

Grandpa ended the night by reading the Christmas Story to all of us. Fun times for all, can't wait to do it again next Christmas!

My friends? They ROCK.

Shelly, Marsha, Metter....this ones for you. My super awesome friends who mean more then the world to me. Thanks for all the girls nights...meeting at each others homes with enough food to feed 25 people...and eating almost ALL of it.

Playing games and laughing till we cry, late...VERY late, into the night.

I can't tell you how much I look forward to these nights. You are my girls. I love you!!







See what I mean with the food? It's killer. We don't even need a main course...snacks galore! We all make sure we wear elastic pants on these glorious nights.





Every year we do an ornament exchange....I got four best friend frogs!




Thanks ladies, for staying alittle longer so we could all get into the hot tub. And thanks for being good on camera so I could put you on my BLOG!!! Can't wait till next month when we do this all again!!

There are angels amoung us

Three of my four angels had parts in this years Christmas program at church. Mylie had a little solo, and the look of relief after she was done singing was priceless. Sophie, had a very big speaking role and nailed every single line. Crisilee had the biggest solo in the program. After weeks and weeks of practice, this girl sang like a bird. I have never been so proud of all three of my daughters.

Here is a short clip so you can see for yourself. (a little side note here: Crisilee had already been standing on the highest riser for the past 40 minutes of the program, hot lights beaming down upon her. Shortly before her big moment, she turned as white as her shirt and both Chris and I knew it wouldn't be long till she would be laying horizontal on the platform floor. I mouthed for her to sit until it was her turn, but that stubborn kid...no way. She belted out those notes inspite of the room spinning around her. You will be able to see that she was not doing well. She proved herself worthy that night, and I was beaming....as soon as she was done, she hardly made it down to me. We immediately were helped by friends who took care of her with cold cloths...she missed the end of the show, and didn't even get to take her final bow!)

(scroll down to bottom, turn off my music)

Pennsylvania

After a wonderful Thanksgiving meal in Blissfield with Chris's side of the family, we were off on a long journey to Pennsylvania. My parents invited us to accompany them to Hershey, where we would go see "The Miracle of Christmas" at Sight and Sound theatre. What a way to kick off the Christmas season!
While in Hershey, we toured the Hershey Factory and had a blast getting lots of free chocolate.
















After the amazing show, my parents took us to an Amish restaurant for a wonderful family style meal. Darby was especially fond of the strawberry-rhubarb pie.



From Hershey, my folks went on to Florida, while we went to Philly. Never been. What an awesome city, with too many things to do. We couldn't fit it all in during the short time we were there. We went to Valley Forge, saw the Liberty Bell and went to the Franklin Institute.







One funny story about the Liberty Bell that I have write about, only because I never want to forget it. As we are in this quiet building, taking pictures of the bell, I let Darby get out of the stroller. I turned my back for one second and off she goes with it. She was one of those kids you see and you think, "what a terror". I was commanding her to bring it back and she had this evil look in her eye and just kept pushing it. Remember, she is much shorter than the stroller so she can't see where she is going and she is running with it. I take off towards her because I can see her heading straight for a crowd of people who have no clue that in just seconds they will be taken out by a runaway stroller.

It was very embarrassing and after I caught her, I made her sit in a chair. She screamed as loud as she could which was even worse. I had one of "those" kids that day. And what makes this story so great is that on the way home as we were talking about our favorite thigs we saw on the trip, Chris asked Darby if she liked the bell and she said, "VAT bell?" It made us laugh because it reminded us that she totally missed that part of the tour.





This was such a freezing cold rainy day. After all our outings, we were starved. You can't be in Philly and not get a famous steak sandwich! You can see how cold and tired we were, but it was such a fun day.





On the last morning of our trip, we went to the art museum....you know why. And if you don't, then shame on you.....go watch the "Rocky" movies!