Christmas Eve 2012

We spent Christmas Eve morning at home this year.  We hung out and the kids played, while we cleaned a bit and finished some last minute things.  We headed to Palmcroft for the Christmas Eve Service at 4:30pm.

I love how they decorate the sanctuary.  They run hundreds of thousands of white light strands across the whole ceiling!  It is so beautiful!  It feels so Christmassy and spiritual!

Brandee and mom

They did a kid time where they had the kids all go up on stage and then they read a story.  So cute!  The boys are getting so grown up....I can hardly believe how big they are!

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After church we had the Townsend family over to our house to celebrate Christmas Eve.

Logan did a special performance of "Good King Wenceslas" on the trumpet!

It was a nice evening with family, good food, and great conversation.

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Getting the reindeer treats all ready for Santa's visit!  Ryan is the sole believer....but I think Ethan still wants to believe!

We let the boys open one gift before bed.

All ready for Santa!  Merry Christmas Eve!



Riding the Minivan Express!

This year we were not able to use Bob and Sally's RV to go look at Christmas Lights.  We decided to decorate our minivans with lights and do a caravan called "The Minivan Express"!  We were able to surprise the kids again!  They were in their PJs when the doorbell rang and there was Uncle Bill, Aunt Kim,  Kinley, and Madison ready to go!  The boys were sooooooo excited!   Unfortunately I wasn't feeling too good and got sick after looking at the first set of lights.  Chris had to bring me back home and they continued on without me.  : (  At least they had a good time!

School Christmas Parties

I am one of the 4 room mom's in Ryan's class, so I helped with the set-up for the Winter Party.  Once again we brought out our trusty snowflakes to deck the halls with!  They are going on their 6th year at Stetson Hills!  The kids always walk in the room and go "OOOHHHHH" because they look so amazing hanging from the ceiling!

The kids got to decorate gingerbread houses with buckets of candies!

They made little reindeer jingle bells.

And we played Holiday Bingo.  It was a great party!



Ryan and mom




Ryan and Mrs. Lepick

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Ethan's Class Party was a lot more active!  The kids all brought in socks (which were donated to a boys group home) and the room moms rearranged the room and set the kids up for a giant "snow ball" fight!  It was crazy!  And a ton of fun!



Even Mrs. Cullen got pelted with sock-snow balls!

Ethan and Matthew

The kids made a really cute snow globe with a tree.

Christmas with Cubscouts

Ethan's Bear Den had their Christmas Party at our house.  We did a sing-a-long with Mark on the guitar and Logan on the trumpet for 1 song! 

 We did a cookie exchange and had lots of goodies.  Here are pictures of all the boys in our den with their creations!

We made photo snowglobes for a craft.

We played Christmas Bingo.

And we did a gift exchange!

  It was a really fun night!

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Ryan's Tiger Den had their Christmas Party at their Den leader's house.  They played Pin-the-Nose on Rudolph and had a blast!  They did a gift exchange and snacked on some yummy treats!