Christmas with Family

We spent Christmas at the beach house this year and had a fabulous time. The girls all arrived a few days early so we could decorate while the boys finished out the work week. We went shopping at the outlet mall, wrapped gifts and prepared food for the upcoming festivities.

The girls getting their model groove on at Old Navy.

On Christmas Eve we ate tasty treats and then exchanged white elephant gifts followed by watching the movie It's A Wonderful Life.

Tasty cheese ball.

 

Most of our hors d'voures.

White Elephant gifts.

 

Mika and the girls worked on a dance routine for Taylor Swifts song Shake It Off. They were so cute and did a pretty good job for only practicing a couple of times. This is one of my favorite songs these days and it's gotten me through some tough times lately. She is definitely one of our favorite artists.

Christmas morning we awoke to a note left by Santa for the girls and a ton of presents under the tree. It looks insane but there were three families plus friends there for Christmas.

 

Girls reading Santa's note.

Picture Santa left for the girls of himself with the gift he left at our house. They thought it was a tent.

K with the afghan my mom made her.

L with her afghan my mom made her.

 

 

Karen opening her memo board M made for her.

 

Graham Cracker Houses

With me being sick and Christmas coming on so fast it'd make Dale Erhart jealous, we decided to go with graham cracker houses instead of traditional gingerbread houses. In the end I think everyone agreed that gingerbread houses are actually easier and much nicer to look at but the kids had fun trying.

M's masterpiece.

 

L's masterpiece.

K's masterpiece.

New Belts for Everyone

The girls each had their Taekwondo belt test in December. L was a yellow belt and has been working for her camo belt while K was a camo belt working for her green belt. They both did a great job and received the belt they were testing for.

L is a Tiny Tiger so she performed with a teacher.

 

K is in the Juniors class so she performs alone.

December Piano Recital

The girls had a piano recital at their piano teachers home for Family Home Evening. I was unable to attend because I was home throwing up with the flu. M recorded their performance for me. K played Angels We Have Heard on High.

L played Oh Come All Ye Faithful.

School Christmas Program

K had her 4th grade Christmas Program entitled Happy Holidaze on the 4th of December. They performed holiday songs starting with The Purple People Eater and The Monster Mash for Halloween and leading up to The Santa Claus Rock for Christmas. There are quite a few songs so I won't put them all up. Here is The Turkey Tango which K danced the Tango to with a partner.

K and a few other girls were asked to sing a song, each singing one verse as a duet. She did an amazing job; I was so proud of her. I would have been too scared to sing in front of everyone.

She also got to dance to Do You Know Blitzen? with her friend Aurora.

The final song of the night was Santa Claus Rock which K danced to as well. I really enjoyed this years music program because more kids got to be involved in different aspects of it. They all did a great job!

Christmas Countdown

Our family has several traditions we do at Christmas time. Over the years I have started using a countdown calendar which has slips of paper with activities for us to do each day. The girls take turns reading the activity for the day. Here are a few of the things we did this year.

We made wreaths at Bahmah's house during Thanksgiving.

We decorated our house with lights, a rare event.

Relfie, our Elf on a Shelf came baring new pjs for the girls.

M helped me make this scrap pallet tree for the front porch.

The girls dressed up for the Creche Exhibit our church puts on every year.

One of the many Nativities I have. Remembering the reason for the season.

We took the girls to Winter Wonderland at the speedway.

 We decorated the tree together. This year we use a fake tree we got after 

Christmas last year. We used LED lights instead of regular ones. 

I don't think its as pretty, it puts off a cold light instead of a warm light.

Going to our ward Christmas dinner and visiting with Santa.

 

We also made gingerbread houses, delivered goodies to friends, gave presents to homeless, watched Christmas movies, read Christmas stories and a myriad of other activities.

MNKL Fall Photoshoot

M took our family out to a local orchard and then a nearby park to take our family photos. He is getting really good at taking portraits. I love how these turned out! Sorry for the picture overload you are about to see.

M took L after church one day to take pictures of her. They turned out very well. I think she would make a great model, she is a natural. I just wish I knew how to get her into it.