Christmas 2010.....Morrison style

Twinkle Toes gave Grace the pink flower in her hair

The girls dressed in their pink skirts the day after Christmas....very cute!

Santa's elves......whew!....we were tired but we even color coordinated!

The kids got a giant bean bag couch for their TV area in the play room.

It's ginormous, about 6 feet long!

Our smoked Traeger turkey turned out wonderful and moist!

Grace has a new baby doll to love and a grocery cart for all her goodies.

My new tablecloth and the table set for Christmas dinner (that's Sparkling grape juice) Luis and Anne joined us for traditional Southern faire and my dressing turned out just like Granny's!

Grace thoroughly pooped out from sledding on Christmas eve

We spent a good part of Christmas eve out in the snow with friends sledding, eating hot dogs, and standing by the fire. It was SO much fun! Christmas eve night we took the kids to another church for a Christmas eve service since our church doesn't hold one. There's no better way, in my opinion, than to spend Christmas eve at church. And since we never have family around, it makes this an easy tradition for us to incorporate so we have for the last few years. It was really beautiful and I enjoyed it so much. It was really nice as they told the Christmas story in their own way. At one point the pastor called up all the kids to sit up front and he retold the Christmas story in really simple words. He would ask questions along the way and Mackenzie answered them all. We could hear her from the back of the church. Then he introduced "baby Jesus in the manger" and that's when Grace got really excited. She stood up and hovered over the manger. I thought she was going to grab lil' Jesus and run. She loves babies after all! To top it off, after they were done he dismissed the children and their children's choir stayed up front and sang to the whole congregation. Twinkle Toes and Sweet Boy are so comfortable from doing this with the Primary children at our church they decided to stay up front and join in! I think there was some confusion and they just ended up staying in line with all the other children. The Hubby and I nearly sank in our seats in embarrassment. I have to say though, without ever having practiced the songs, they did GREAT! They even did the hand moves. They just joined right in. It was utterly priceless. They made themselves right at home. I'm sure the choir director couldn't help notice the two kids he had never laid eyes on! lol

Twinkle Toes came home Christmas eve and told me "Mom, I'm really excited about the presents and Santa, but I know Christmas is really about Jesus." Gush. We have tried hard this year to teach this to our kids. "Nearly" every night of the week in December we have had family home evening with some short lesson about Christmas. It was a fun way to prepare for the festivities. Twinkle Toes had SO much fun this year. Both her and Sweet Boy were a lot of fun this year. It's been a sweet time. I got a little depressed right before the big day when some friends who were supposed to invite us somewhere forgot and left us out, but oh well. It's hard when you don't have family and then you realize everyone else is getting together with their family. Sigh. I just have to remember the memories I am making for my own family and as Toni says, "Forget the rest." Ha. oh and the Hubby and I even managed P90X on Christmas day, are we hard core or what? lol

Sunday Snow

the kids made a snowman, no less missing an arm, his mouth, and a nose, and they posed for a picture in their Sunday clothes before we headed off to church today!

Girls Afternoon Out to See "Beauty and the Beast" at the Elgin Opera House

So could my Saturday before Christmas have been any fuller? NO, I dont' think so! The day started at 9 a.m. when I took my two oldest kids to the Santa Mall. This is kind of a neat thing they do here, just for kids, to shop for either their own gifts or to give away. Every gift is $5 or less, many $2 gifts and they do FREE wrapping for all your presents. So I decided to encourage my two oldest kids to empty out their piggy banks and go buy something for someone else. My rules were you can't buy for yourself and they got to decide for themselves who they wanted to buy for. So with $5 extra each from Mom and the money in their banks, they set out armed to shop. It was a little crazy because there were a lot of people there, but the kids were really excited to buy for someone else. Twinkle Toes got something for Grace, Sweet Boy, and me. Sweet Boy bought something for Daddy and his best friend at preschool. They were SO excited to put their wrapped presents under the tree!

After Santa Mall, we went directly to a birthday party for 2 hours. After that, Twinkle Toes and I headed out with 2 other fun gals to go see "Beauty and the Beast" play at the Elgin Opera House. It was spectacular! Even better than Phantom of the Opera. Twinkle Toes loved it!

After that we drove home in the snow to barely make it to our ward's Christmas party. Whew! What a crazy day. I am ready to relax the rest of this week, clean my house, and plan NOTHING more for Christmas except maybe some sledding and a Christmas eve church service. I am ready to relax! ha

A Blanket of More Snow!!!

Caleb's Christmas Chapel at Preschool

Caleb's preschool did such an amazing job. They really do things so nice there and it was a really spiritual Christmas program. I loved it. Caleb did such a good job singing. He was up there moving his arms, doing sign language, and spinning around. It was pretty darn cute. The kindergartners at his school did kind of a Christmas play and the funniest part was when one angel got up to say his part and he ran up to the microphone and said, "I'm just too nervous. I can't do it!" It was hilarious.

Our Visit to Bethlehem

So last night we took a visit to the village of Bethlehem to be counted in the census. This is the gate going in with the Roman garrisons guarding the gate.

The Census taker

Anne and Mackenzie getting their programs, at each "stop" in the village you got a sticker for your program. Just inside the gate we met Mary and Joseph with their donkey and we saw a camel. (the camel actually got injured and so a lama stood in his place)

our friend Kenny was the Blacksmith

the angels on high

the inn....there was "no room"

the stable

Luis, our neighbor went with us.

Anne! our neighbor

the local apothecary

the food market

the Wool Shop...they handed out real wool!

the Dye Shop

a Roman garrison, they would come around and harrass us!

Qorbanot Market

the Dye Shop and the Woolen Shop

the Candle Shop

So the kids had a great time! It was really authenthic for a Living Nativity. Everyone stayed in character and would talk to you about their scene, like you were really there. We visited a real Jewish home, a basket shop, a pottery shop, and even the Temple where they had an arc of the covenant and the High Priest explained about what went on there. They really tried to replicate things just as they were in Jesus' time. Part of it was outside and they had fires burning in the village to keep you warm as you walked around. There was a Town Beggar that walked around and also Shepherds and wise men were walking around and they even had money changers with real Jewish money. Okay pretty cool. The kids found them all and got their stickers for their program. Our neighbors went with us. At the end they had live Christmas music, hot chocolate and cookies! What a night!

"I Love Christmas" a winter program by Greenwood Elementary 1st and 2nd Graders

Peace out and Fa La La

The company that the Hubby works for had their company Christmas party this past weekend at Foley Station. It had a 70's theme because they have been in business for 35 years. He works with an awesome group of people and their company does so much good. He is loving working there!

The Tree and a Winter Wonderland

the snow was above our knees

we sledded the road

the pink marshmallow

the tree

Sweet Boy keeps moving the ornaments around because he wants to keep decorating