Christmas Eve {part one}

Our Christmas Eve was a little busy and a lot fun!  We made cookies for Santa...chocolate chips with M&M's!  Mmmm!

Grace wanted to decorate the cookies with Sour Patch Kids.  Yuck!  I wasn't sure what would happen to them once they got hot.  So, we just decorated one cookie with them and they did just fine.  I just didn't taste it.

Next, Grace with some help from Carter Man made a birthday cake for Jesus.

Perfect!

Then, we got ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa's to celebrate Christmas #1 of 4!

We had a Christmas Fiesta!  Grandma made lots of yummy Mexican food!!!  When the kids were finished eating, they played hard and nicely in the playroom!

We interrupted all the fun because it was time to open presents! 

Carter LOVED his puppy from the Taylor family!

Super Grover 2.0 was also a huge hit!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa (and Molly)!

Grace was excited for her turn!

Grandma and Grandpa gave her an entire Barbie wedding party!

She also got a veil and diamond ring to go with it.  She is way too young to be dressed like this!  Ha!

Grandpa wanted to check out her purse that the Taylor family gave her.  She was so cute all night long with that purse.  She got a wallet, chapstick, and hand sanitizer with it and she dispensed hand sanitizer to everyone multiple times!  Her lips were very smooth by the end of the night!

Drew was cracking me up all night...he was so excited!  I asked him if I was getting any presents and he said, "Silly rabbit, presents are for kids!"

Tripp...love!

Watch out!  Charlie's in the house.  He is a little present thief!  Ha!

Grandpa gave Steph and I these awesome oven mitts!  This pic was taken before Charlie stole them.

John is now a owner of Manchester United, his favorite soccer team!  He's stoked!!!

Brad was either excited or surprised or confused about his gift.

We had a great time!  I love Christmas Eve.  It is so fun and easy and calm and fun!

Next, we headed home because we heard that Santa Claus was comin' to town and we needed to get in the bed!

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Grace wanted to share the Christmas story with you.

(These are her words and she set up each scene with her "a-ti-vy.")

A long time ago, an angel came to Mary and said, "God is with you.  You are going to have a new King borned.  You need to name it Jesus."  Her was frightened.  "Don't be afraid, God is with you."  Mary said, "But I don't have a husband."  The angel said, "Joseph will be your husband.  You need to name it Jesus."

Then an angel came to Joseph.  "Don't be afraid.  God is with you.  Mary's gonna be your wife.  And make sure hers gonna name it Jesus."

Joseph took Mary to be his wife and she had baby Jesus in her tummy.  It was hot and them didn't have any drinks.  They went on a donkey.  And them found a barn because there weren't rooms.

Mary said that the barn would be fine.  The baby came born in the barn.  They named it Jesus.

A long time ago, the shepherds were watching over them sheep.  All of a sudden, an angel came.  "Glory to God in the highest!  Glory to God in the highest!  Glory to God in the highest!  Don't be afraid.  There's a newborn King!"

The shepherds came over there and they saw him laying down and they worshipped the newborn King.

The wise men went to King Herod.  King Herod told the wise men that he wanted to worship him, but him was telling a lie.  Him wanted to kill Jesus.   

Jesus grew bigger and the wise men came and brought Jesus some presents and then they went back.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believe in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

We hope you have a very merry Christmas!!!

Santa's Workshop

***First, I must warn you that this post has way too many pictures!!!

A couple of days ago, we hosted an elf Christmas party for our favorite kids!  I didn't really decorate too much since the house is all ready for Christmas!  I made this simple banner...a quote from one of the most famous (and my favorite) elves.

We added some snowflakes in the entryway...we were at the North Pole after all.

I kept the food simple.

We had cheese puffs...

...and donut holes.

I assume that elves love milk just as much as Santa.

Grace and I made these paper chains from wrapping paper scraps...I'm sure elves are resourceful.  Right?

Jingle heard talk of an elf party, so he hung out in the open.  He did not want to miss the party!

Before the elves could get to partying, they had a little more work to do in the Toy Workshop.  They still had some little wooden dolls to make.

Some were very busy.

And some were very disappointed.  More work!  This was supposed to be a party!  (How do you like the elf hats that Steph made?  Super cute, huh?)

Here's a few of the wooden doll elves...I think they are rather cute!  Grace made her elf look just like Jingle...red hat, red clothes, and a white scarf.

Next, we played pass the gift.

The elves sat in a circle.

They passed the gift around while some music was playing.

When the music stopped, whoever was holding it got to unwrap one layer of paper. (and, yes, he is crying as he is unwrapping a gift!)

The game was over when all the paper had been taken off and the elves received their gift...candy canes!!!

Back to work at the Toy Workshop.

The elves made some jingle bell toys.

Then we had a jingle bell parade!

We had story time after the parade.

After that, the elves headed to the bakery to make some yummy candy Christmas trees!

Some elves worked very hard on their creations.

While others just ate the decorations.

Once the trees were made, it was time to eat all the yummy elf snacks!

The party ended with what else but a snowball fight!  (I just rolled up some socks and stuck them in the freezer to get cold.)

This was the boy elves favorite part!  Tripp reminds me of Buddy the Elf with the snowballs all gathered up in his arm.  I also love Drew's huge smile!

Somebody finally got super happy!!!

Throwing balls will always make him happy!

We had snow much fun!!!