Christmas!

The Saturday before Christmas the kids were excited to open presents from Jake's parents:

Ready for Santa:

 Christmas morning! We told the kids there would be no opening of presents until 7 and it actually worked. Gavin slept in until 7 and Amelia woke up just a few minutes prior. Meemaw came over just at the right time to watch the kids open presents.

 Ipod #2:

 Gavin was really excited about a lot of his presents this year:

 The #1 desired present by Amelia, from Meemaw and Pop Pop:

 Legos from Uncle Tom (Gavin got an itunes gift card):

 She put the 2nd set together all by herself:

 We had a great, mostly peaceful Christmas day. We ate Christmas lunch while watching Amelia's new movie, Brave:

 That afternoon Amelia became an official bike rider without training wheels:

 And that evening Meemaw and Pop Pop came over to eat dinner and play a game of Cootie:

Dec 29 -Trying out Gavin's new pitching machine from Jake's parents. Jake and I tried it too -super fun!

 Time to take down the trees. We have lots of great ornaments thanks to Jake's mom:

December happenings

Gavin is playing on a basketball team through the Upward sports program at a local church. He is on "The Heat." They've won 2/3 games so far. He's having a lot of fun. (That's Gavin in the silver in the blue circle). 

December 15 - Christmas Candy! For many years I have made Christmas candy for various friends and neighbors. The types of candy and amount I make changes each year. This year was a good year, I made peanut clusters, saltine toffee, rocky road fudge, and chocolate dipped clementines. My kids LOVE driving around and unexpectedly knocking on friends' doors to give them candy and a Christmas card. Gavin usually hands out all the candy because it's easier for him to get in and out of the car but this year Amelia enjoyed ringing the doorbell at Meemaw's house to give her candy. Hopefully by next year she'll have her car seat buckles figured out and can accompany Gavin at all the stops. 

 December 18 Amelia had her school Christmas concert. It was adorable and she did a great job.

Amelia is terrified of elf on the shelf (we don't have one). The whole coming alive at night part freaks her out. She drew this picture with an x through it and put it on our fridge "because no elf on the shelf is allowed."

 Practicing a few days before Christmas with no training wheels:

 Enjoying the nice weather on Christmas break (when it wasn't raining)

  Tablet fun:

Christmas Party

This year they were having trouble finding a venue for Jake's work Christmas party. So on December 1 we had it at our house. When Jake asked if we could use our house I told him as long as everyone takes off their shoes I'm good. They brought in extra tables and chairs from work and we were prepared for 50 people. There ended up being around 40. It was a rainy day so the kids were stuck inside but managed to have fun playing hide and go seek, video games, and in the kids's rooms. It was warm enough to utilize our porches for the grown ups to hang out, and I took a couple breaks from the crowd outside myself. They did a chili cook off this year which would have been fine except for the poor guy who dropped and broke a crockpot of chili on the laundry room floor. Other than that things went smoothly and there wasn't even a mess after everyone left (except for chili in my broom). And now we know we can feed 50 people in our house if the need ever arises.