Twas the week before Christmas....

We had a busy week leading up to Christmas. I am combining it all in one big post, in hopes that I can get caught up!

Monday nights in December, we all got our jammies on and snuggled in our bed to watch the ABC holiday shows. Shrek the Halls was probably the favorite, especially since we discovered our Daddy does a spot-on Donkey impression. He has been making us laugh with it ever since.


I helped at the holiday party in Addison's classroom.


We made a Starbucks run for hot chocolate and headed to "The Christmas Ranch" to stroll through Christmas lights. It took the girls about 3 seconds out of the car to realize that they had funnel cake. They were happy!






Christmas cookies were made.


We ventured out to Bass Pro shops, based on a friends recommendation. Who knew they had such great stuff set up for the kids at Christmas. Best of all, it was all FREE!






We had a night of old fashioned caroling with friends. The girls practiced before hand and then we stopped at several houses in the neighborhood before coming home for hot chocolate and cookies. Deafeningly a new tradition. They loved it. The song books were HILARIOUS! Only two of the four can read (and probably not at the pace of the song), but they were all COMMITTED to the books. They checked and double checked to make sure they were on the right page and they kept their eyes glued to the words.






We attended Christmas Eve services at our church. Our family worked in the nursery during one service and we attended another. We had dinner at Outback and then delivered donuts to the staff of a hotel. Our church sends everyone out with boxes of Krisy Kreme and directions to go and bless someone.

The Nutcracker and Zoolights

We had lots of fun, festive holiday plans scheduled for the weekend, but since Gracyn and I didn't feel well, it slowed us down a little. Friday night, Tommy stayed home with her and I took Addison and Reagan to see the Nutcracker. We have gone every year for the last 4 years and we love it. Both girls are thinking about trying out to perform with a local studio, in the production next year. When we got home at 9pm, Gracyn was still up and running. She had fallen asleep, with fever, around 5pm. We only let her sleep for 30 minutes, but even so, she was energized and ready to play until 11:30 that night!


The next day, due to her fever and her late night party the night before, Gracyn still wasn't feeling great. She and I stayed home this time, while Tommy took the other 2 with friends to Zoolights. They went a little early, so they could see the animals and then stayed late for the Christmas light sand hot chocolate. They had a blast. Gracyn and I had fun here playing babies and reading books.

Reagan's Christmas Play

Reagan's preschool does a Christmas program where the children act out the nativity. Reagan was so excited to be the Star of Bethlehem. The teacher had them pick their parts and that is what she wanted. We made her costume, just the way she wanted....cardboard and lots and lots of glitter. Oriental trading had a cute star costume we could have ordered, or if I ever ventured on to Pinterest, I am sure we could have found some fabulous costume ideas, but this is what she wanted, and it turned out precious. The day of the big show Gracyn and I got there early to attend Reagan's special chapel, then we headed to her class for the nativity play and some special song performances. After that we sang Happy Birthday Jesus and ate amazing cake that another mom had made and Reagan gave me several gifts she had made in class. Daddy was stuck in meetings on this day, so we recorded the whole thing for him and Addison and we had a little movie time watching it with them that night.

Gracyn was all dressed up cute for the show.


She snuggled on the floor with Reagan during the chapel lesson.


They had a little worship time during chapel.


Here is the group all set up for their nativity play.


And, performing some songs.


My girls and I.


Here is the amazing 3 layer cake, with pictures from the nativity and "Happy Birthday Jesus". It was so yummy. The kids sang happy birthday, and they had a lit candle, but Miss Julie was quick to tell the 15 kids surrounding the cake....don't blow, just pretend!!!


Gracyn cannot resist playing with a babydoll, even if it is Jesus in the manger.


Here is my sweet, sassy little girl. She did a great job, we were so proud of her!

Festive

13 teacher (and bus driver) gifts ready to be delivered tomorrow.


Trixie the Elf. His name changes yearly. They love him, especially on the nights he does fun things. Thanks to a 9:45pm Iphone alarm, he hasn't forgotten to move a single time this year!


My Coca-Cola tree made it's debut this year. I have been collecting ornaments for a long time and finally felt like I had enough to decorate a tree with. The girls broke 2 of the ornaments the day we put it up. That tree is now look, don't touch.


This is our big tree. This one is on carpet (instead of wood floor) so the ornaments have fared far better.


This year's mantle.


After having our children BEG for years to put up outside lights, we did it this year. It is a meager start, which we can hopefully add to each year. The yard is BIG and outside lighting is EXPENSIVE! They love it and think it is the most fabulous display of lights there ever was. See that small, swirly Christmas tree. Dumb lights went out approximately 5 minutes after we had it out of the box and assembled. We haven't gotten around to tearing it down and returning it. Chances are we won't, and then I'll be mad when we get it out next year!

This sums it up

This pretty much sums up how we have felt at our house the last few weeks. The sickness officially hit 2 weeks ago when I took Gracyn in and she had bronchitis and an ear infection. Addison has a cough that after nearly a month and a dose of antibiotics is finally starting to subside. This week Reagan had the ear infection and bronchitis, not a good combo for her, with asthma. She spent 3 days at home on round the clock breathing treatments. Throw in a sinus/respiratory infection for Tommy and a miserable cold/cough for me and we are pretty pitiful! Especially since Gracyn went in Friday morning for her 2 week follow up, got the all clear on her lungs and ears, and then started running fever again 8 hours later. I think, with the exception of some lingering congestion that we are all on the mend. Let's hope that is it for us this winter!

Who Says....

...bunkbeds are unsafe?

Horse-Drawn Carriage Parade

Saturday evening, our friends, the Bullocks introduced us to a nearby horse-drawn carriage Christmas parade. We had gone to a similar parade back in Texas when we lived there and loved it. The parade was packed!!! I have not seen that many people in one place in a long time, but thankfully our friends have lived here forever and were able to guide us to a great place to park and a good parade watching spot. It was interesting, we drove through the parade route several hours before start time, on our way to dinner. Every inch of curb was lined with hundreds of chairs and blankets, but no people. Apparently, it is acceptable etiquette in Ohio to come early and claim your spot just by leaving your chair. I guess people come early in the day, set up their chairs and then leave until parade time. Not sure that would go over in other places we have lived!

The girls were thrilled to be with their friends and so excited about the horses. Nobody, except that mama's, wanted to take pictures. You can tell they are not into posing for us! We sat on the curb and watched as hundreds of carriages, lit up beautifully for Christmas, rolled right in front of us. There were teeny-tiny carriages with miniature horses and enormous carriages with huge Clydesdales.

We left at carriage number 137, just before the end. Gracyn really needed to go to the bathroom and once we made our way out, there wasn't going to be any getting back in. We made a quick potty stop and then finished the night with popcorn and hot chocolate at Starbucks. We love discovering new adventures here. I am sure we will head back to this event next year.

Big Girl

She's officially a big girl now! Diapers were the last of the "baby" and we said good-bye to those last weekend. Sunday after church, we set out her little potty chair, put tic-tacs reward/bribery and hand sanitizer on the bathroom counter and told her we weren't going to have diapers any more. She did great! She told us throughout the day when she needed to go and/or just went on her own. Big sisters helped (ate the tic-tacs) and she didn't have any accidents all day. We never turned back! I put her in a pull-up, only a few times at the gym, just for the hour I was working out since I wouldn't be in the room. She had only one accident all week. She even made it through a parade Saturday night and she is waking up dry every morning. She picked out Rapunzel undies and we are good to go! So proud of her, and at the same time wiping a few little tears as chapters are so quickly closing.