enjoying the season

So, I've decided that I really dislike iPhoto-blah! My brother sat down and synced my new Macbook to my favorite user friendly picture editor,  Picassa.  Hang tight through some horribly dark, grainy photos until the new Picassa batch of pictures cycles through:) 

We have been enjoying the Christmas season cozying up to Christmas books from our Monday library visits. There's nothing like a good read with the tree illuminating the room.  Eliza Kate's absolute favorite this season is Fancy Nancy's Splendiferous Christmas. Of course, we read together with her matching Bitty Baby jammies to really cozy up to our story. She's memorized her favorite sections of text which we read chorally. We coaxed Miller to read his rendition of the Berenstain Bears Save Christmas. He's been reading his way through the whole Berenstain Bears series for AR points. Three cheers for our all star reader!

 Miller got busy making all of his teacher's happy gifts with me in the kitchen. Between school, church, and Sparks, we crafted 12 of our traditional M&M Mason jar mixes again this year. He's my professional flour sifter and M&M funnel man. He put extra effort into Mrs. K's jar requesting a few more M&M's for his dearest teacher.

I snagged a few cutesy photos in front of the Christmas display at our church. 

Christmas lovin under the tree for these siblings. They do surprise me with spontaneous hugs from time to time. Enjoying this year's memories together.

celebrating frosty:)

December brings on a whole new level of crazy stress as a room mom. Fortunately for the class, there are 3 moms who are shouldering the work this year in the Miller's class. That's about what it takes when you have such an involved school with so many activities & projects going on.  I really do love volunteering in Miller's classroom. He loves it to and is so verbally proud of his momma coming in to help. Mrs. K has offered many festive opportunities to celebrate in first grade this year, but the "holiday party" is always the official school-wide opportunity to celebrate during the year. 

We planned, pinned, and purchased all the goodies with high hopes for a fun shin- dig for the Techies. Of course, in keeping with the public school tradition--it was a "celebrate the snowman winter party":)

We had a class photo booth set up and a mom volunteered to photograph the groups filtering through. This was a hit! I just had to get in on the action with my mustached main squeeze of the day. 

There were too many kids in his rotation group to fit in the photo. Aren't they party perfect with their kabob stick photo props?

 Mrs. K saved a snowball toss pitch game  form last year which was quite the rave. Styrofoam snowballs were launched with mitten warmed hands into the nets. It got pretty competitive with tallied points:)

 Our snack center involved snowman donut sticks and melted snowman water bottles. Since our party was at the end of the day the food was simple and fun after lunch. Miller doesn't put too much effort into the details of his toppings.  A true boy..he didn't care about how his donuts were dresses. He just can't wait to devour it:)

At the end of our party, we gave Mrs. K a stuffed Mason jar full of cash with a cute label that read "Holiday Dough". Her Christmas bonus was generous and well deserved.

And, this was the crowning achievement of our class Give Back project encompassing the spirit of Christmas. This project consumed most of my last "stay at home" days before the break. When I wasn't cleaning, tutoring, wrapping gifts, 2nd grade teaching, or shopping--I was basket stuffing:)

 Each child made a Reading Strategies bookmark with stickers and donated supplies for the Hollydale teachers across the county who don't have stocked cabinets of resources like other schools in the county. It was a great opportunity for the first graders to model generosity to a school who has much less.  Miller's counting down the days to vacation! Mommy is too--I'm ready for some sleep in days and a break from packing lunches.

Mario's antics

The littles have loved waking up to hunt for Mario every morning. Most of the time he does what he was invented to do and just finds a new spot "on the shelf". Just call our elf a slacker. He had a few special surprises in him to add to the magic of having an elf. One morning, he exploded out of a special delivery of Christmas Crunch. It is a very special morning when the littles get to dine on Red and Yellow food dyes to start the day off right.

 Who knew Mario had mad toilet paper tee-peeing skills? Mario slid down our kitchen Christmas tree unto the table with toilet paper. Eliza Kate exclaimed, "What in the world?" to this crazy stunt!

And what to our wandering eyes did appear?--why, it's Mario with Santa and his six reindeer! The teacher in me loves a good Christmas book incorporating places around Georgia for the littles to recognize. Mario was found gracing our kitchen counters on stilts to add another element of surprise.

Since Miller's love language involves little happy gifts, I've tried my hardest to be intentional about making him feel special. Of course, the lesson was having him learn to share his special gifts with Eliza Kate. Mario brought a Merry Okee microphone for them to share. Such a cute little gifty that fills our halls with Christmas sing- a -long songs. The hilarious addition is how is disguises their voices to sound like Mario.

Eliza Kate wanted her picture sitting next to our favorite elf. On this day, he decided to ride on a sled with our favorite Hallmark dancing characters. We just never know where he'll turn up next. Here's to celebrating fun traditions. 

more festivities.....

 The Mr. and I managed an overnight Christmas party trip with his new company in early December. It was a great excuse to get all dolled up for a night out on the town.  Those opportunities are few and far between, so I rearranged my two day a week teaching job to accommodate this trip. Omi breezed into town to stay with our crew. With the littles tucked safely into their beds in Atlanta, we enjoyed a peaceful.....and somewhat fancy dinner in Birmingham. 

On another Friday evening, we got very tacky with our neighborhood friends for a Christmas party next door.  Landon and I channeled the 80's for this party. We shared a babysitter with another family and the kids ended up having just as much fun at our house. There are no words to adequately express my appreciation for Landon's wreath turtleneck with quarter length sleeved crew sweater. Oh my, his outfit was positively u-g-l-y. We ended the evening next door around the bon fire. A parent's night out is just what a SAHM needed at the end of a long week.

Merry Christmas from the fire:)

We were feeling even more festive in the photo booth set up at our Sunday School Christmas party. The Wood family was so sweet to host us for dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. Lauren and family surprised us and drove in from out of town for our social. It was a fun reunion!
Celebrating the season with friends that we love !

cookie exchange

 We're celebrating the season and party hopping on our weekends. There are only three weekends this year to cram all the festivities in. Miller slowly counted down the days until our neighborhood friend Marshall's cookie exchange.  Our party guy lives for these kind of socials. The more crazy chaos, the better! It's such a blessing to have so many first grade boys in our hood. 

Can you feel his ho, ho, ho merriment?

He wasn't the only one enjoying the neighborhood party. The PreK girls were crafting up a storm with stickers and stamps galore. I still marvel that I have a calm girl who sits in one place long enough for a craft. Marshall's mom is famous for her neighborhood parties. We huddled inside her rented tent attached to her garage with heaters for this shin dig:) She had prearranged party games to liven up her house. She's one brave lady to host all these kids.

Four dads volunteered to be dressed up like a Christmas tree with tinsel, crepe paper, bows , candy cane earrings and silvery decor.

The trimming results were amazing:)

There was a reindeer nose competition. The party goers had to swing their heads back in whip lash fashion to get the red pom pom to attach to their Vaseline greased noses.  It was so entertaining to watch the pin yourself on the nose game.

Attaching the pom pom by hand always works out too.

Word searches, puzzles, and brain teasers calmed this wild bunch down before dozens of sugar cookies were frosted and sprinkled. Our neighborhood elf crew donated lots of toys to be given to Toys for Tots.  Celebrating the true spirit of Christmas with generosity to others is what we're trying to model over and over. We're hoping it's making an impact!

 

preschool christmas performance

Our family was so excited to share in the joy of Eliza Kate's first musical debut at preschool this week. "O Come All Ye Faithful" was the theme. Each three's class worked with Ms. Ellie during music  to perfect their two songs. For weeks, we witnessed EK belting out Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and Come Little Children in the car. She really liked practicing in the bath tub where her voice sounded especially operatic. Most of the time we would join chorus with her for a Fokens family concert which always lead to her protesting for a solo performance:)

Grandmama and Poppy joined Landon and I at church to save seats for this most special concert.  Then we saw our girl enter the stage in a line with her class wearing a sparkling gold halo of shimmer. She wasn't so sure what to make of the crowd awaiting her performance.

Their motions were precious. The weeks of prep was evident. Although, Eliza Kate did have her hands in her mouth as a nervous habit. She amazed us by memorizing a passage from Luke to recite.

She's rocking baby Jesus here--- "And, see baby Jesus asleep on the hay?" 

Here she is waving to me as I assumed a front row seat squatting with a few other moms at the foot of the stage. Eliza Kate caught Grandmama and Poppy's attention and she gave a big wave across the room.

Bennett is her favorite boy in the room. He's really active, silly and rough just like her brother. It's no wonder she's chosen him to run around the playground with.

Each 3's class performed their own song with motions. It was so festive and perfectly preschool.

We purchased the entire DVD, but Landon still likes to capture snippets of our favorite girl in her element. She rushed to hug Landon's neck before he rushed off to an appointment. I love that he makes it a priority to squeeze in family during the work day. Eliza Kate is surely a daddy's girl.

We managed time after school meeting friends at the indoor playground. Lots of chasing and sliding was the reward for a job well done. Merry Christmas from our preschool girls.

christmas packages

Celebrating all of our family traditions with each passing day. With only three weeks in December this year to celebrate, we've had a busy agenda. Christmas Packages is always a family favorite event. It was a blustery & rainy afternoon this year--boo! 

We bundled up anyway and managed to enjoy all of the indoor events. We posed for a photo inside Santa's sleigh. Nothing like seeing real reindeer in front of your carriage. Miller kept asking, "Why aren't we flying?" The carolers in the background were singing, "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." Soon, the littles were in unison caroling a merry, merry tune.

They had an extra pep in their step all afternoon. Don't you remember that magical feeling around Christmastime? We were all eager to finally get out of the house after a rainy, cabin fever type of weekend.

Eliza Kate was eyeing the princess carriage. She found enough patience to wait it out in the 40 minute line. Grandmama took our princess along for a ride while Miller and I rocked out the caboose on the open air train. A his and hers adventure around the church parking lot. 

A Clydesdale horse drawn, covered coach was just the ticket to put Ek in the most festive of princess moods.

Settling in...I'm glad the carriages were outfitted with warm covers:)

Miller and I watched their loopy de loop circle with camera in hand. He was waving wildly at his sister sitting inside the coach:)

The Little Red Barn petting zoo was in attendance. Eliza Kate wanted nothing to do with petting anything but the fluffy, white bunny. Miller held the handsome rooster again. Because the weather didn't support a live nativity, we just got the opportunity to get up close and personal with the animals around the manger. 

After warming up our hands with hot chocolate and cookies, we hit up the last stop on our agenda. The littles crafted the cutest  of Rudolph ornaments to hang on their individual trees.

Grandmama stepped in with a magic touch. I caught Eliza Kate changing her mind about her necklace choice..ha! She decided on an ornament after all. Oh, how we are indecisive at three years old. Celebrating the season together and savoring the countdown to Christmas!