NYE 2017

We spent the evening with our friends the Shipleys again this year!

My friend Barbara always does a good job planning fun things for the kids to celebrate the occasion. 

We rang in the new year with them around 9:00 before heading home.

They had fun goofing off blowing their party blowers.

This one, she is a ham!

I was sick with a sinus infection on New Year's Eve so I tried to hang as long as I could.  I stopped by our friend's the Jackson's on the way home to say hi before heading home to get in my pjs!

Wishing everyone a happy 2018!

the rest of christmas

We finished up the Christmas prep last Friday with cookies for Santa!  

Royal icing is something I'll never perfect, but the kids sure had fun!

Their cookies turned out great!

Dressed in our Sunday best for Christmas Eve morning.

We had dinner and opened presents at my mom's before we all headed to the Christmas Eve service at church.

Fascinated by the light!

We left cookies for Santa and headed to bed.

The scene on Christmas morning!

It didn't take Emmy long to start flipping on her new gymnastics bar.

Early morning game of foosball.

I'd say it was a great morning.

Our next stop was breakfast and presents at MeMa and PaPa's house.

We went to my mom's later in the day for stockings and ended up taking a Christmas intermission for a visit to KidMed.  Bryce hurt his finger playing basketball on Saturday and Jason told him he'd be fine.  It was still purple, swollen and sore on Monday and Jason't aunt told us it was broken.  We decided to take him in for an x-ray and luckily it was a clean break that can be fixed with a splint for 3 weeks.    

 

Bryce wasn't happy when the doctor said he had to miss PE and baseball for 3 weeks.

The kids spent the night with Chase and Taylor the day after Christmas so we went out for date night with our neighbors.  

We had a yummy dinner, stopped by a fun coffee shop, and then headed to a brewery for drinks and trivia.  

Of course the BelJackLocks won first place and a gift card to the brewery!

Emmy had been complaining of headaches so we made her an eye doctor appointment.  We went Thursday and luckily she checked out just fine!  

christmas celebrations

Last Wednesday we went to dinner with Jason's department for their Christmas celebration.  It's never a dull moment with this guy.

Last Thursday I was invited to our annual Christmas dinner with my old grade level girls.  There are two new teachers this year as two of them retired last year.  There are only 3 gals still working from our original crew.

Emmy had her class party last Friday.  These three were the best of friends last year in preschool and it's been so nice for them to be together in kindergarten too!

Emmy's teacher (left) and class aide (right).

Emmy and her friend Stevie were recognized for receiving a Cardinal Award for good behavior!

Santa came on the fire truck on Saturday.  Always a favorite Hanover tradition.  

Bryce had his baseball Christmas party on Saturday too.  They did a gift exchange and he was excited to get a gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods!

Emmy had her first field trip on Monday to the Children's Museum.

She's made some really sweet friends.

Bryce had his Christmas party on Tuesday!

We had our annual neighbor Christmas party on Tuesday night.  A new couple moved in between us and the other neighbors so we invited them to join us this year!

I love the growing stash of Christmas cards.  My favorite mail month of the year!

We made gingerbread houses yesterday!  We added a dog gingerbread house to the mix this year!

Last night we went to the local fairgrounds for their drive through Christmas light display.  

The light tunnel is always a favorite.

We're having fun doing all the Christmas things as we prepare for the big day!  

SNOW

Snow in December?!?

These kids love snow!  I do not!  But we were out in it at 8:30 on Saturday morning!

It really was beautiful.

Christmas Musical

The kids participated in our church's Christmas musical, All About that Baby, during our hanging of the greens service.  

Bryce was a rapping sheep and Emmy was a Bethlehem dancer.

Emmy had a duet.

Bryce rapped!

Emmy had a few lines.  Bryce was a main character and many lines in the play so I didn't include that video.

Mechanicsville Christmas Parade

Our little town has a Christmas parade each year and our street in on the parade route.  Apparently we've started dressing festive for parade day each year so here we were before church in our tacky sweaters.!

Parade day is always fun with our neighbors.  We call ourselves the BelJackLocks!  

We had lots of family and friends over to watch.

The parade always ends with Santa on the fire truck.

He'll be back through the neighborhood on the fire truck one evening soon.  Such a fun tradition.