Christmastime

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Here are some of the ways we've been celebrating...

David and Veve went to a Kings and Princesses {aka Daddies and daughters} ball at our church.  What a memory for the little girls!

 She wore my homecoming crown and was quite tickled; I had to fish it out of my "baby box" for her.  Ahem.

 Little Angel Girl

 How I love them!

 Daddy even took the camera and remembered to take a few pictures!  What a stud!

Her Uncle Richard took some...

Jules loves all the Christmas books. {Grampy and Nana's, too}.

 We've been watching these guys {part of our home school} and can't help but marvel at them.
Look at these two passing off to each other!  Crazy!
 "Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise." Proverbs 6:6 

I bought a large gingerbread man cookie cutter this summer and we were so excited to get to use him.

We put together a 90 piece foam craft one night.  It is probably something you should work on over time, but no, not us, we tackled it in one setting, and may or may not have lacked patience a time or two or three.  The nuts?  They absolutely love it! 

Their favorite thing to do from the time they tumble out of bed in the morning until right before bed is play with nativities!  Seriously, I wonder what we did before the nativities were out.  I love that they know the ins and outs of Christ's birth and it is pretty funny to hear them act it out and put their own spin on it. 
Olivia is super sensitive if we hear Christmas songs that don't pertain to Christ and will say, "but this is NOT what Christmas is about!". 
Santa just doesn't get very much attention or respect at our house, although, we did go and visit him. 

I think they were more impressed with the huge tree.

Christmas Pageant {O is in the lower left corner}

We didn't have a good view of the little man, but I think he did take the microphone and sing a sweet little solo.  Oh my!  Afterwards, they lounged on the stage and listened to the big kids.

If I can't blame my simple Christmas decor on a newborn this year then what?  It was silver and yellow for me.

Silver painted pine cones anyone?

Or silver glitter stars?

The ever-popular, most-beloved nativity.

Lastly, I wanted to share two really good books with you!

I was only going to read a few pages and ended up reading a few chapters instead.

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

Same thing with this book.  We requested it at the library for Thanksgiving, but didn't get it until last week.  I told them we'd only read a few chapters, but we ended up reading the whole book.  The book does say it is for children 6-10 years ..  KK, it is right up there with Mountain Born.  Really good!  It came with a c.d., so they've already listened to it a few times and are applying its' wisdom and asking lots of questions!