Christmas 2010

The kids didn’t wake up until 7:30 AM.  Not bad for Christmas Morning.  Ava slept in until 8:30 AM.

We all had fun opening our stockings.

Tyler and I received combs in our stockings.  Right now neither one of us even uses a comb.  Maybe Santa wants us to grow our hair out?

Lauren gave Tyler some Hot Wheels for Christmas.

Ava received some gifts as well. 

Grannie gave us a special Bennington Flags for Christmas. 

Tyler enjoying some time with Grannie and Papa.

Dinner was the best!  Steak and potatoes.  Can’t go wrong there!

Christmas Eve

We had family over at our house on Christmas Eve.  We had our usual Chinese food from Wu’s.  The favorite dish is still sesame chicken.  I think we had to order 4 of those.  Thanks to Gannie and Papa for bringing the food.  Thanks to Meredith for ordering it. She is the one in the family that coordinates things.  Without her we would be lost.

After dinner we watched “Joy to the World” which is a DVD telling the story of Christ’s birth.  After that we had to get out the pipe chimes and show how musical we are.  I am the conductor.  I have created PowerPoint slides that show when each chime needs to be played.  I then hand out the 20 different pipe chimes and somehow we make music.  This year I found some songs that require 4 pipes to be played at the same time.  I was surprised how well everyone did.  The musicians were between the ages 3 to 63.  Ziza just played her pipe chime constantly.  Give her another year or two and she will be and expert.  (Want to make your own pipe chimes?  Click here.)

If family gets together, I feel like I need to make ice cream.  Yummy as always.  Need the simple recipe?  Let me know.

Meredith and Lauren having a great time!

Kyra watching Elf from the coveted red chair.

Ava Jane was working on rolling over and showing off her cute legs!

I told Wes there was room for him on the couch between Ron and Greg, but he politely declined.

The Sharing Tree

Each year Grannie takes the kids to go do some work at Papa’s stores and then they use the money to buy gifts for those in need.  Read Stephanie’s blog post below to see the details about their experience.  I am including it on our blog so we have a record of it.  Thanks Stephanie!

Town Hall Blog – The Sharing Tree
by Stephanie Hall

Every year at Christmas time my mom takes the older grandchildren out for a day of service and giving back. They start with a solid couple hours of manual labor at one of my Dad's Papa Murphy's Pizza stores. They have the privilege of scraping cheese off the walls, cleaning dishes and scrubbing the floors. They each earn some money doing their work that will be contributed to the giving that comes later in the day.

Here is Grannie with Travis- our fearless Papa Murphy's leader!

Let me just say that as a mother of children who all possess differing levels of desire and work ethic, it deeply warms my heart to see my Emma doing this work.

Once the work was done, Grannie and the kids spent plenty of time choosing several hearts from the sharing tree at the mall to purchase gifts for with the money they'd earned.

Aren't those little worker bees a cute bunch?

Alice and Tyler choose some Legos for a little boy on the list.

Cate selected a shirt for a dad on the list.

After the shopping extravaganza was over a stop a The Cheesecake Factory was in order for those hungry little elves.

Alice and Grannie couldn't eat another bite!

I want to make sure I give a shout out to my parents (especially my mom) who makes this service opportunity happen each year. She and my dad are wonderful examples to their grandchildren. We are all so grateful to have the both of them in our lives.

**I keep re-reading this post trying to make it funnier (I know, bad english), but it is hard to make service funny, especially when I didn't even participate in the service! So, I guess I'll leave it at heartwarming and sweet, because that is really what it's all about, right?**

 

Great work Stephanie on the blog post!

Emma and her self portraits

So I downloaded the photos from my camera yesterday and I have about 30 photos that Emma took of herself.  She is so funny!  Thanks for keeping things interesting Emma.

		Emma VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL