Christmas Morning

Jingle, jingle, jingle. Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!

Santa came to our house & dropped off a few things for the kids. When he left he woke up the kids with his jingle bells & his "Ho, ho, ho"-ing. They came downstairs cautiously & woke us up whispering, "Santa was here and there are things in our stockings!" Too cute. They got to open the Santa gifts right away. After breakfast we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and then opened up the rest of our gifts.

Opening gifts.

Now I can read in the tub!

Eli bought us all gifts with his own money by himself at school & had fun handing them out. He bought Adrienne a toy car in purple (because there were no pink ones), Tony got a tape measure & I got a very pretty necklace.

The kids with their loot.

Trying out their new skates. Makes me want to get some of my own!

Cookies for Santa

Our neighbor Tracey had the kids come over to decorate cookies for Santa.




Adrienne enjoyed using every color of frosting & sprinkles.


Eli was very specific about what he wanted on his cookies & he placed each chocolate chip with care.

I had to post a photo of Gracie & her cookies.

As you can see, she loves sprinkles. I think she emptied at least three bottles on her cookies!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Love,

the Wards!

Over the river & through the woods to our house Grandma & Poompa go!

Grandma and Poompa came out for a visit and an early Christmas. We did a bit of sightseeing too.

We went to the Battle of Franklin to see what Dr. Dobson had been speaking about on Focus on the family. We also checked out the Carter House & met the David Fraley the historian and curator of the Carter House. You can check it out here:

Remembering the Battle of Franklin (Part 1 of 2)http://listen.family.org/daily/A000001657.cfm

Remembering the Battle of Franklin (Part 2 of 2)

http://listen.family.org/daily/A000001658.cfm

Adrienne decided to wear her reindeer antlers everywhere we went that day. She was a cute reindeer!

Poompa with the kids.

Grandma with the kids.

Grandma took Adrienne to go and see Miss Pattycake's Christmas. Miss Pattycake is geared for preschoolers so they had a blast and got to sit right up front!

For your listening pleasure! :P

We all got to open some early Christmas presents and even got to play with them! Notice the warm and fuzzy Pj's. :)

Christmas Day

We had nice & quiet Christmas this year. Tony was working so Santa came really early and we had a little family time before Tony went to work at 6:40 am. For those of you who know Liz that was no small thing! We resumed the festivities when Tony got back from work that afternoon. It was really different to not have 20 other people swirling around us the entire day & those family & friends were missed!





The kids wanted to say "Thanks" to all the family members & friends who participated through the mail & other methods of transport!

Blue Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

We miss you all!

The kids see Santa

Santa came to our neighborhood & the kids got to meet the elves & give them their wishes for Santa.

Sparkles, the elf, told Adrienne that Santa would be expecting water at our house for the reindeer & gave her a little card as a reminder.

Eli's Christmas Program at church

Here are Eli's performances in the Christmas program at our church December 16th. He had so much fun & did a really good job learning all the words & motions. He even taught them to his sister. We are so proud of him! :)

PS. He's front & center with a light blue shirt on.