White Elephant

Our family has a tradition of having a white elephant gift exchange every year. Usually we have it on Christmas Eve, but this year we did it the day after Christmas. It's always a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures.

Uncle Dan was the man to steal from tonight.

Joanna's face shows just how much she didn't want anyone to steal what she had. She didn't seem all that interested in it until Dad mentioned that he liked the kind of candy that was in the box. It seems she then became determined to get and keep that box. Immediately after the game, she came over and shared some with Dad.

Ok, quick story about this one. These are some of my very old pajama/sleep pants. Well, the night before, I was given a hard time about how awful these pants actually were so I decided to try to "give" them to someone else since they all liked them soooo much. At one point during the game, I wound up with them again (but didn't have to keep them).

We had diet coke and mentos for a time.....

Karis tasted them, of course - before they quickly got stolen.

MMMmmm. Eliana won these Christmas nougats. Have you ever had these? They are so yummy. Good job Eliana!

Ok, just another picture of Karis chewing on some Kit-Kats. She chews on everything and always finds different things to put in her mouth. Chocolate I can understand. Maybe even paper and tape, but please not the shoe inserts!

Eliana solves a mystery

Eliana loves Scooby-Doo. So much so that when we are working on a school paper and I ask her to put her name on the top, she has to write Daphne.

Grandfather and Grandma decided to give her something extra special -- a personalized Scooby-Doo book that featured Eliana as the main herione!

Eliana was on cloud nine as Grandfather read to her the story of how she helped Shag, Scoob, and the gang captured and unmask the "polar bear" that had been raiding the ice cream shop. (We had to emphasize to her early on, however, that this time she wasn't Daphne, but herself, in the story!)

The story ends with the gang celebrating Eliana's ingenuity with an ice cream party. We had a real ice cream party of our own for everyone afterward. I think we're going to be reading that book to her a lot!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

My family is all here this Christmas and enjoying being together in our cozy quarters. It is an especially fun year as we celebrate Karis' first Christmas! She's a very curious explorer and tries to get into everything. We're hoping to get the presents open before she does.

(PS - Yes, Karis does have her tongue out like this A LOT!)

Pile-on

Aunt Sharon with Eliana & Joanna

More of us wanted to join in!

Mini Piano Recital

Joanna & Caleb would like to share some Christmas songs with you all!

Enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Joanna & Tina playing "Angels We Have Heard on High"

We played these right before we left for Awana and it was red & green night.

Joanna ended up winning for her age group and was very excited.

She especially liked that I let her wear bright red lipstick and green eyeshadow.

Caleb playing "The Snow Lay on the Ground"

Gingerbread Train Kit

The kids put together this gingerbread train kit. It must be going around a bend since it's leaning a bit.

Joanna's bday present

We gave Joanna a "coupon" to get her ears pierced for her birthday. This past weekend we went and got that done. She was very excited and nervous at the same time.

Should be interesting to see how many earrings she loses. Not even 24 hours after getting her ears pierced we had to go back to get one of the earrings replaced. Joanna was just getting the cat some food and new water and "poof" it's gone. I didn't think that they could fall out so easily. We still haven't found it, so we're thinking Karis will be the one to find it.

Christmas cookies!!

Tonight we made some sugar cookies and started painting them. We always have a lot of fun "painting" and listening to Christmas music.

Caleb enjoyed getting the cookies ready

Ready, set, decorate.

Joanna getting started.

Busy kids

Eliana painted a lot of cookies. She was fast!



Mmmm. They are yummy!

Still have lots of dough left, so we'll have another decorating night soon.

Snow day

We were eating breakfast this morning when we noticed that it was SNOWING!!! I looked up the forecast and it said that we were probably going to get 2 or 3 inches of snow. The kids were ready to go and build their snow fort right away, but we had to get school work done first. What motivation to work quickly!

Here's what I'm left with when the 3 oldest are playing outside in the freezing cold. I guess it's time to reorganize the coat closet again!

Not much snow, but they enjoyed themselves.

Meanwhile, Karis and I played peek-a-boo under the kitchen table.

And chased her to keep her away from the cat's food. She thinks it's a game.

We enjoyed hot soup for lunch.

Caleb warmed his hands around the bowl, but then decided he needed an ice cube so he could actually eat his soup.

And what's left when the fun is over?

Yep, all the wet stuff.

Wall-e

We watched Wall-E for the first time this weekend. I know a lot of you have seen it already, but what a good movie. We enjoyed watching Caleb while he was watching the movie. His eyes just sparkled with delight and wonder. Caleb's laugh is just too fun!

Here's a little clip of Caleb watching.

Climbing Trees

One day we were waiting at Scott and Rebekah's house for them to arrive home, and the kids took to climbing the trees in their front yard. Karis enjoyed watching from the car.

Aviation Museum

These pictures are from a field trip we took to the Aviation Museum back in October.

Caleb loved this field trip!

Caleb enjoying some of the displays for kids. Hands-on fun!

Karis got to try too.

Don't get sucked in Eliana!

A trip to the Art Museum

The art museum doesn't charge admission on Saturday, so sometimes we take the kids for a visit. One of their favorite stops is a glass floor with big, colorful glass flowers beneath it.

The museum offers kids' art projects on some Saturdays, too. Here the kids are making some pictures.

Run at the shore

(Joel here.) Tina went for a run down to the beach at the beginning of the week, and I rode alongside on my dad's bike.

It's always interesting to see a bit of local history. We went past the site where James Garfield died two months after he had been shot. He was brought here in hopes that the fresh air and quiet would help him recover. The small street where this monument stands is named for him.

This church is near the site where Garfield died. Seven different US presidents would vacation at the shore here and all of them attended services at this church. It is currently scheduled to be restored, and is now known as the Church of the Presidents.