Twas the night before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas (but it really reminded me of the The Night Before the Night Before Christmas), children all tucked in their beds, and the car loaded for a late night drive ahead. When all of a sudden there was such a clatter; Daddy came running to see what was the matter.

And that is how our Christmas started off. We were planning to drive after Phil finished playing at both Christmas Eve services. I decided to carry sleeping children to the car while he ate his dinner. Poor guy hadn't even sat down when I misjudged the number of stairs we have in our house and Evie and I tumbled to the landing. Evie was completely fine and didn't even remember it the next morning. Nana came over so we could head off to Parkwest. Christmas Eve is apparently a great time to hurt yourself because we were in and out of the ER in half an hour. I insisted we would not let this ruin Christmas, so off we went the next morning. My family was a huge help as I hobbled through the day. However, between the pain, percocet, and just trying to get through the day I took zero pictures. The pictures below are from breakfast at my grandparents' house and are courtesy of my sister.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Nativity Pageant

Andrew has been working very hard the past few weeks on learning all his songs for the Nativity Pageant at school. He's never been much of a performer, but he has been so excited to do this in front of all the moms and dads. We were so proud of him as he crawled up on stage (as a sheep) and sang his little heart out.

Christmas Mice

Snow day #2 this week was still really cold and the snow was basically reduced to ice, so it was an inside day for us. I had seen these cute candy cane mice on Southern Plate and bought the supplies to make them over the weekend. The plan was to do this craft during Christmas break, but it worked out to do them a little earlier. It entertained the kids for the afternoon and provided favors to Andrew's preschool party next week. I did all of the cutting, but the kids were able to do the assembly all by themselves. By the way, I learned that 6 and 5 is still too young to break out the hot glue gun! The kids thought they were cute, but Andrew wanted to know where their mouths were going to go. Evie informed him that they don't have mouths so they won't eat the candy canes. Love these kids!

Putting the ears on the body

Gluing on eyes and noses

Our army of mice. Their candy cane tails are color coordinated to their noses thanks to Evie!

The finished product on the tree

Snow Day

We were outside 20 minutes after it started accumulating yesterday afternoon...they just couldn't wait!

He discovered how hard it is to ride on slick roads...lots of wipeouts

Sledding this morning

Merry Christmas

Starlight Trees Christmas Card

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Fun Saturday

Evie has been excited for the past few weeks to go see The Nutcracker with her Nana. She picked out one of her Christmas dresses to wear and counted down the hours as the day went on. I think she had wonderful time! Since Evie was doing something special, Phil decided to take Andrew to Santa's Wonderland at Bass Pro Shops. This was definitely the little boy equivalent to an afternoon at the ballet.

Her ballerina ornament from Nana

Andrew's giant fish

Way Back Whensday

I cannot believe it has been 2 years since we were at Disney World. These pictures still make me smile!

Our 1st Gingerbread House

We have never made a gingerbread house with the kids because they are allergic to gingerbread and royal icing. However, we got the idea from PBS Kids to use graham crackers. The recipe called for cream of tartar in the icing, but we just added some powdered sugar instead and it worked out just fine. I know you aren't meant to eat the house, but trust me, there was a lot of finger licking and candy sneaking going on. The kids loved it!

Construction begins

Phase one complete

Phase 2- another section of roof was added along with some landscaping

Phase 3- put up shingles, doors, and windows

The completed project! Next time we are going to frost that inside graham cracker, but once the roof was stable I wasn't about to try to frost the inside.