Holiday Happenings

Here are all our pictures and videos from Christmas! [Well, pickles! I've tried twice, and the video upload just isn't working. When you look at the picture of the girls looking in their stocking, imagine they're all three talking at once, and that's pretty much the video.]
Finally, a few days before Christmas Day, we got to bake and decorate sugar cookies, my favorite goodie of all! I love looking at the finished products. See the Razorback in the middle? :) I don't know why this one is sideways, but I love our forest of Christmas trees, and the sparkly, sparkly angel, and the stockings for everyone. I almost hate to eat them. Almost. Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at our church, then had our family birthday party for Jesus. I made "Snowy Baby Cakes" from a Southern Living Recipe. They didn't look quite like the picture in the magazine, but they tasted good! The girls were so excited that night. I added a new tradition to our birthday party. We've always read the Christmas story from Luke 2, with candles in our special desserts and the nativity on the table. This year we also passed out pieces of paper and had everyone write down what they were giving Jesus for his birthday this year, then fold it and put in on the manger. It helped us focus on Him instead of ourselves, if only for a few seconds. Christmas morning! Here are the girls seeing what Santa brought. After that I was too busy enjoying the chaos to take pictures! I took a picture of these clouds on our way to Conway for dinner. In real life they were amazing. Actually, I took it on our way back to Magnolia to make sure the Christmas lights were turned off while we were on our way to Conway. They were. More presents! We were all quite spoiled. Then we ate a feast, as Jessica says, and sat around talking and played "Would You Rather?" Mike and I hit the sales the next day, and did pretty good! We got to stay in Conway a few days, and even had time for a little quiet reading. (I love this picture.) And we got to go to church with Gran at Woodland Heights and see lots of old friends! Back at home, Mike and Jessica started building the dollhouse she bought with her money from Mamaw. I love it! And we finished our new jigsaw puzzle. On New Year's Eve we played Cranium and Life, and watched TV until midnight when we ran outside banging pots and yelling while Mike set off fireworks! So much fun. On New Year's Day I fixed a "spread" of finger food, as my Mom always called it, for us to nibble on all day while we watched football. And now I'm ready to get back in our daily routine! It felt like spring today--I even opened the windows. So it looks like the only blizzard we'll be having is one made out of paper!