Catching Christmas Up

We had a wonderful Christmas with both sets of family! I have included some pictures here of the great times. The first trip was to see my family, and have one day with just Woody and I to celebrate our anniversary. It was a great trip! We went up to the mountains to hike and the visibility was excellent, as you can tell from the photo.

We hiked a couple of hours, then went back into town, found a room and cleaned up to walk around the town and enjoy time just by ourselves! Of course, the hiking was great and pretty, but we did have to skirt around ice like this:

It made the hike quite a bit more interesting! But, the views and the good conditions on the other side of the mountain improved it all. Woody didn't have to carry me down the mountain with a broken leg, PTL!

Just the two of us eating breakfast together, with all the pretty decorations. We had a great Christmas with Mimi and Poppa, while picking up the kids to go back as the weather was reported to be turning bad through the mountains. However, we decided to stay another night instead of trudge back. It was a great decision. The next day we found out how good it was. I will always remember the drive back. Hundreds of cars had been stranded along the highway, conditions were still terrible but the scrapers had been through. We almost were hit one time and saw a lot of damaged vehicles. We stopped at a Mc Donalds to eat (not our first choice, but we needed food for us and the girls!). Here was some of the conditions we drove in.

We were just praising the Lord that we were not one of the stranded vehicles the night before. Wow, what a trip! The trip to Woody's parents was better weather and I'll have to pick that up in the next blog.

We cooked cookies for Santa. We decided he wanted peanut butter blossoms with Hershey kisses! Good choice!

One great memory was Christmas Eve where Woody had the good thought to fix a bonfire and grill out hotdogs and marshmallows with the girls. It was wonderful! We had some more healthy side dishes too, but the girls really loved this memory. It might have to become a tradition! Rosco thought it was great too!

Natalie pretending to cook the hotdogs!

The girls both woke up around 8am the next morning, although it took Natalie until about 11pm to sleep because she was so excited the night before. They had a blast eating breakfast, then opening stockings and gifts. I was excited for them.

I had to post this very meaningful gift Woody gave me. Natalie painted it! The ornaments are pictures of every Christmas we have had together as a married couple. Wonderful!

We then celebrated Happy Birthday for Jesus that night with Grandma & Grandpa. It was a great meal and enjoyable time with them too.

More posts to come. I'm catching up slowly!!

Christmas Card

Make a Smilebox greeting

Christmas Prelude

Natalie's first program of the season...what a wonderful job she did. Here she is waiting to sing her songs with her friends. They did a great job! We enjoyed hearing them get us in the "Christmas mood." She sang really well. I wish I had gotten a closer seat so I could get a short video at least! But, I ran up to the front like the parent I am and at least got this shot of her!

After that program, we journeyed to see Mimi and Poppa so we could see Aunt Angelia and Uncle Doug. When we left the car, we wanted to go out and do something, even though it was cold! So, we went walking on the street. Their street has as many lights out as you need in a drive by area, so we were quite happy to see all the neat displays.

The first morning after travel is always tough, and Poppa got up earlier than he usually does to help me out with the kids.

We then went to the mall to play on their rides and little play area. We then ventured down to Santa. Neither one of the kids were too happy to see him at first. Nicole clung tightly to Poppa's leg most of the time, except when one of the workers tried to bribe with a candy cane. Natalie dropped her fear to get the candy cane, and eventually got a nice picture on Santa's lap.

Nicole said "no closer than this!"

We had a good time visiting with Uncle Doug and Aunt Angelia. Nicole liked backing into Doug's lap and sitting there for a while. Then, repeat the process!

Angelia with Natalie.

We then came home for Natalie's Christmas program and party at school. I forgot my camera and didn't get any photos of the program (hey, we brought presents, fruit, and ourselves..the camera was left on the desk!). But, Natalie was happy to get a couple of gifts from her classmates.

We did actually get at least one round of cookies made this season. I hope to have another round made soon. Although, I don't need to eat any more!! We had fun with the cutters and sprinkles.

Then, off to a birthday party for Natalie's friend, Timothy. It was a "dress up" party, so Natalie was a cheerleader and Nicole was able to wear the bear outfit she didn't get to wear for Halloween. They were very cute and had a great time. There were two Batmans and two Robins there, plus one Batgirl. I was surprised that 4-5 year olds would even know who Batman was. I know Natalie hasn't seen the movie (and won't anytime soon). The theme was dinosaurs and they had story time, craft time, then eating time. Nicole discovered a new item that she had never had before: big cheetos. She didn't like me limiting her to two, and tried to take them off other kid's plates!

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Natalie with her friend, Elysia. Scooby Doo!!