preschool Christmas program

Emmy was a shepherd in her Christmas program at school tonight. 

Cutest shepherd I ever did see!

She did such a good job with all the motions and singing!

Girl can dance!

She rested up this afternoon so she'd be ready! 

Love this sweet girl of ours!

2nd grade play

The second graders at Bryce's school performed "This Old Gingerbread House" at school today.  It was a cute story based on Hansel and Gretel.  I went this morning to watch the two performances and then we all came back as a family tonight.  

Bryce's class was porcupines. 

Bryce was excited to have a speaking party this year.

Bryce's biggest fan!

Way to go Bryceman!

Christmas RAKs

My friend Kathryn had the fun idea of doing a girls night out and doing random acts of kindness.  We headed out Thursday night for an evening of blessing others.  

Our first stop was at McDonald's for a little snack for us and then we paid for the customer behind us.  We also gave the cashier a Christmas treat.

Next we went to Krispy Kreme and got 2 dozen warm glazed donuts and two bags with two donuts each.

We delivered the donuts to a local fire station.  We gave one of the bags of donuts and a few dollars cash to a homeless man and the other bag of donuts to a Target employee who was out in cold retrieving shopping carts.  

We have a favorite house on the tacky light tour near us so we left them a donation and a little Christmas snack.  

Our next stop was Target.  We purchased six $5 gift cards and spread them throughout the store.  

Diapers can get expensive so we placed a gift card on a big box for a lucky mom!

Milk is a necessity so we put one in the refrigerator.  

Not pictured (We stuck one to a bathroom stall in the ladies room, put one on children's cough medicine, stuck one inside a favorite book, and put one on a large pack of toilet paper.)

Also at Target, we bought a Starbucks gift card and asked the cashier to use if for the next few people who came through the line.  We also picked up some diapers while we were there and did a ding dong ditch delivery to a new mom.  We may have gotten caught, but it made for a hilarious story!

We made a Chick Fil A run for milkshakes and delivered them to nurses at our local hospital.  

We left a treat at the Redbox for someone to enjoy with their movie. 

We gave treats to the gas station attendants at two different Kroger stores.  

Kathryn had also purchased fleece to make no sew blankets so we helped tie those up before heading out on our adventure.  

We had such a fun time blessing others and it was a great night spent with friends.  We're already planning next year's trip!

a fun festive day

Here we are dressed and ready for church on Sunday!  We had a day full of festive activities so we dressed the part!

Our town has an annual Christmas parade and it comes right down our street.  We always invite a bunch of friends over to watch.  Before our guests arrived, I went down and visited with our neighbors.  It's been too long since we've all hung out!

After the parade started, our neighbors all made it down to our house to visit.

It was a bit cold and overcast so we bundled up to stay warm.

Love these two!

The parade always ends with Santa on the fire truck!

When under the mistletoe......

We had a little time after the parade before we had to be back at church for our hanging of the greens service where we decorate the sanctuary for Christmas.

Bryce picked a high branch so Nana had to give him a lift.  

Emmy needed a lift too.

The kids performed as part of the service and Bryce was an innkeeper.  

Of course, Emmy was and angel.  

Here are a few videos of the songs they performed.  

Bryce had a speaking part, but I didn't get any of his lines on video. 

I love Bryce's jazz hands in the first video!

playing catch up

When I was cleaning up the yard to get ready for Christmas decorations, I found Emmy posing her baby doll with our inflatable turkey so she could take pictures.  Cracks me up!  She must find herself in the same situation quite often.

We started what may be a new tradition this year.  We helped Nana decorate her Christmas tree this year in our pajamas!

The kids loved it!

I know Nana loved having us all there to help her as we get through her favorite holiday without Pap. 

My little elf was a big help sending out Christmas cards last week.

My two helpers at Hobby Lobby.

We started Truth in the Tinsel for advent last week.  The kids look forward to reading the Christmas story from Bryce's Bible each night and making an ornament to go along with the topic for the day.

We printed this big tree to put our ornaments on this year!

This guy curled up with me to watch the HOKIES play on Saturday night.  We hated to see them lose, but they played a pretty good game.  Now to see which bowl game they go to.

Emmy said she looked like Santa Claus in my boots!

We had a festive and fun Sunday so stay tuned for more fun!

a visit with santa

We dressed up and headed to Bass Pro Shop on Monday to beat the crowds and visit with Santa.

The kids had fun making their Christmas lists this year.  Bryce has gotten really good at picking a few things he loves and it makes shopping easy.  Before looking at catalogs, Emmy wanted tape for crafts and stickers.  Easy, right?!  After taking a look at the Target and Toys R Us catalogs, she wants everything over $100, ha. 

Cheese!

The cousins!

We have gone to Bass Pro shop to visit Santa every year since Bryce's first Christmas.  It's a fun tradition and we enjoy eating in the restaurant afterward because the kids get a free meal coupon!  My mom and Nanny joined us this year and even got their picture taken with the kids and Santa!

a few other things

I had a little me time last Saturday so I started decorating for Christmas.  I usually try to have it all up before Thanksgiving because I like it to be done when we get back into town.  This tree just makes me so happy.

The kids have trees in their room and I decided to get them new and more personalized trees this year.  Bryce picked a white tree.  He already had baseball ornaments and tree skirt and a red star so I got red beads to go with the white tree.  I love how it looks kind of like a baseball.

Of course Emmy opted for a pink tree!  Such a girly girl.

Just a sweet picture of my big boy!

Waiting in car line one morning before school.

friendsgiving

We went to our first Friendsgiving last weekend.  A friend from high school and his wife (far right) started hosting this event last year and we were excited to be able to go this year.  I think I heard there were 64 people there once all the kids and spouses were counted. 

Excited about a Hokie win!

They have Santa come and he hands out personalized stockings for each of the kids.

It was a fun surprise for our kids because we didn't tell them and they didn't know to expect it since they hadn't gone last year.

They were very good this year, Santa.

He's pretty fun to take to a party!

Everyone brought a dish to share.  After looking through what others were bringing, I noticed the cranberry sauce was missing.  I don't personally like cranberry sauce, but it seems like a Thanksgiving staple to me.  I found this cranberry apple casserole and it was delicious.

Unfortunately, Friendsgiving took on a whole new meaning this year when a friend gave the stomach bug to the crowd.  The last I heard, about 17 people who were there ended up with the bug, including Jason and Bryce.  They were both down on Tuesday, so we thought it best not to head out of town yesterday so we're home and finding our way through this Thanksgiving!