Christmas Images

 Wow!  Each kid and their pile of presents on Christmas morning. 

 Our Christmas Eve ham dinner.  After dinner we drove around looking at Christmas lights.  On Yale Ave. in Fullerton, there was a neighborhood that worked together to make and hang these beautiful lighted Christmas balls (made from clear plastic drinking cups!).  It was a beautiful site that my camera really couldn't capture. 

 One of my favorite things this Christmas was this platter that my friend Christine gave to me. 

 Below is the nutcracker that Brad made at the free LEGO build in downtown Disney.

 More Christmas lights...  People here really go crazy with the Christmas lights.  It's like they're trying to make up for not having snow or something.

 Another use for those Hallmark gold crown stickers:  I discovered Brad using them for his alligator.

 We have a special lady at church who has adopted our family and two other families who don't have family nearby.  She is always giving things to the kids and offers to babysit, etc.  She is a blessing to us!  This year one of the other moms made this quilt for her with a different kids' name in each sqaure.  We all got together to present it to her.  She really liked it!

 The Christmas performance at church was really fun.  Brad and Lila are on the other side of this picture.  Mostly Lila roamed around the stage with another boy.  It was pretty funny!  Sky sang with the older kids and, as always, really enjoyed it. 

It was a wonderful Christmas!  We're looking forward to more good times in 2012!!!

A Christmas Tradition

 One of our Christmas traditions is attending the MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) pancake breakfast at our church.  Somehow the pancakes always taste so good (I think it's because I don't have to cook them or wash the dishes, etc.). 

Sky is really into making picture frames this year. 

 Then we go, as a family, around to different centers that have a Christmas theme.  The kids got Christmas tattoes.  And everyone brought a set of kid pajamas to wrap and give to a crisis pregnancy center. 
Below Lila is seaching for the baby Jesus (a foam sticker) in this bin of rice.  Later I noticed a new group of kids searching for Jesus and unable to find Him.  Then I noticed that Lila had stuck Him on her sleeper and was walking around with Him.

 Lila is deinitely going through her two year old growing pains (I'm trying to avoid saying "terrible twos" but that's totally what it is).  She's been in trouble at church (for not listening) the past few times we've been there.  I'm hoping this stage is short-lived! 

Brad enjoyed making Christmas shapes with play doh. 

 There was a brief performance of some songs that they are learning in church. 

It was a super fun morning and it has definitely become one of our family's Christmas traditions. 

December Fun

 Every year our church hosts a drop and shop where parents can drop their kids off for a few hours and go shopping (or whatever).  Every year, they have a Santa (actually a guy in our church) who comes and takes pics with the kids. 

 Ice skating in southern CA???  Not really.  This is synthetic ice (plastic) but people actually come out to skate on the stuff.  This was Sky's first experience with ice skating and she liked it but was pretty terrified of falling (thankfully she didn't!). 

 One day while Sky was at art class, I decided to do some creative cooking with Lila and Brad.  First we made this cream cheese/moz. cheese snowman and then we made gingerbread.  Brad has been enamored with this gingerbread ornament on the tree (he really wants to eat it) and so I thought he would enjoy making his own gingerbread.  WOW!  What a mess!  I didn't even get any pictures because we were all covered in flour and dough.  Lila especially made a HUGE mess (flour in her hair, dough in the carpet, etc.).  But they had a good time.

 The day after Thanksgiving we decorated our little artificial Christmas tree.  Ken loves this tree because it came pre-lit. 

 The kids really enjoyed looking at all of the ornaments and putting them on the tree.  Brad especially seemed very interested in all of it.

 Some of my favorite gifts already this season are a gingerbread table runner from my mom and Bill, a beautiful handmade Jesse tree from my pastor's wife, and a really nice red and white serving platter that says "Jesus is the gift" from my friend Christine.  Maybe I'll post pics of these in a future blog post.

 Just tonight we went to our good friend's, the Denham's, home for dinner and cookie decorating.  That was very messy also, but again, the kids had a blast. 

What else has been going on lately?  We went to a faculty Christmas open house on Sunday and met Norman Wright (famous author who writes mostly on marriage).  That was cool.  He was really nice and down to earth.  And we had a great time visiting with other professors and their spouses. 

Yesterday we went to Downtown Disney to the LEGO store for a free LEGO build.  The first Tues. of every month, the LEGO store hosts a free LEGO build.  Every month it's a different thing.  Yesterday Sky and Brad got to build a LEGO nutcracker.  It was super fun and you get to keep the LEGOS you build with!!!  Hopefully we can do it again sometime.