Christmas Activities

I can't believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve! I guess it's because the weather has been in the 70's this week and we've been wearing shorts and flip flops! So, let me catch you up on the happenings around here over the past couple of weeks. Grab something to drink and get comfortable because this is a long post!

We did some baking.


We had a Christmas party with our homeschool friends. Our little group collected coats, hats, and gloves for the orphans in Moldova. Together we collected 32 coats, 16 hats, 2 scarves, 14 pairs of gloves, 21 sweaters, 29 winter pajama/clothing items and 8 baby blankets.




The kids decorated a gingerbread house (with the help of our babysitter, who, kept the kids all day Tuesday so that I could get out and finish the shopping--God bless her!).


My handsome boy this past Sunday in his semi-Christmas-y shirt (this is as close as it gets with a 10 year old boy).


Yep, Bailey has worn this before! But she LOVES this dress and only had 2 Christmas outfits for church so I didn't care that she wore it twice.


Here's the little one in her last Christmas dress. I had to bribe her to get this picture. She a mess.


We did some baking with friends. We delivered the goodies, along with non-perishable food to our church, the goodies for the staff and the non-perishables for the food pantry.
The boys made chex mix...


...and the girls made cookies. Pretty much all by themselves.




And tonight we did something extra special. We took a ride on the "Minivan Express". You can read all about it here, but basically, after the kids got ready for bed we told them to go look on their pillows, and this is what they found:


They each had a round trip ticket waiting for them.


And this was waiting for them in the van...

...hot chocolate and popcorn!

They took their tickets to the van, where Jay was waiting for them. He punched their tickets and after everyone was "all aboard", we drove around town looking at Christmas lights. The kids really enjoyed it. There were lots of giggles from the backseat and Madelyn kept saying, "I love this ride!"

So, that should catch you up on our life over the past few weeks. I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season, and in all the hustle and bustle, remember the reason we celebrate. So thankful God sent his son to be the Savior of the world! Merry Christmas from our family!