Merry Christmas!

This will be my last post for a while, as I take a bloggy break during Christmas holiday. Here is the picture that I chose for our Christmas card. This is my way of sending Christmas blessings to all of you. May you be filled with the joy of Christmas and remembering the birth of our Savior.

Christmas parties, haircuts, singing and more...

We decorated our Christmas cookies last Sunday afternoon. Here is the result of some of them. (We only have about 4 left at the time of this post - sadness!)

Some of Shaelyn's Christmas cookies.














Chelsea picked these 3 cookies of hers to spotlight.














Katelyn with 2 of her cookies.



















Shaelyn had her Christmas program at church, last week Sunday. She sang in the Cherub Choir. They sang, "Come on Ring those Bells" and "King of Kings" Doesn't she look beautiful?
































Katelyn got a haircut last week. Here is how she looked before.














Katelyn after her haircut. Cute - Huh?














Last Friday, we had our family Christmas party with all of my Dad's brothers and sisters. The kids always love this one. Everyone who is 16 or younger gets a gift (brought by their parents) We have a potluck supper. We rent out the schools gym. Can you all imagine about 100 of our relatives together in one building? There's a lot of noise and laughter!

Waiting for the plane to come In!

As you know from others, our favorite soldier has returned home for Christmas! What a happy group of people there were at the airport last night. In spite of the plane coming in a 1/2 hour late, we managed. After that, we headed for supper at the Old Country Buffet. Sorry I don't have pictures of that but here's some of what happened at the airport!


Waiting for the plane....














and waiting....













and waiting....


















Where is that plane?














Heeeeeere's Andy. (Sorry for the darkness of it)



















A happy army sister!














Grandpa seeing Andy again. Notice the yellow, smiley balloon. I couldn't find one that said "welcome home" so I hope the smile said how we all felt.














A joy-filled Mom and Dad

I am Friendly and Fun!

Mari has this on her blog today. It's kind of cute. Give it a try!

You Are a Snowman

Friendly and fun, you enjoy bringing holiday cheer to everyone you know!

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

Look what I got!

Every year, my sisters and I exchange "sister" gifts. What a lot of fun. We never have a clue as what we'll be getting. Last Friday we did our exchange. Look at all the great stuff I got. Thanks guys, - Love ya!



These came all the way from South Carolina! It's a notepad and magnet. Mari got these from Dena's store when they went to see Andy graduate.















This is my nice, fuzzy and soft, sage green blanket from Mari. It says it's for 2 people but I think it fits me just fine. It's had quite a bit of use already and it seems that the whole family is trying to take it over!














This is an oil burner. Cheri gave this to me. I've wanted one of these for a while. The smell is much stronger than a candle and it lasts. You can buy all different scents of oil and mix and match them!

The Sweet Smell of Christmas!

Saturday was a busy day at our house. It was the day we chose to make a lot of our Christmas food. It's become a tradition to do this on a Saturday. Lets see, we made:
Puppy Chow, White Christmas Mix, Toffee Cereal mix, fudge, pretzels with chocolate, tiger butter, pretzels with kisses, truffles, peanut butter balls, and toffee squares. Can you smell it all through your computer? We each had certain things that we made. 2 years ago, Katelyn tried fudge which never hardened so she took over the white Christmas mix. Last year, she added the wrong cereal, so Dave and her picked through it. She started with it this year and Wow, it worked. So she proceeded to do the truffle mixture. Chelsea was a bit concerned but I told her that Katelyn could handle it, I mean how hard is it to melt chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk? Well...... do you know that 3 cups of chocolate chips is 1 1/2 bags - NOT - 3 bags total? Needless to say, we have a lot of truffle mixture here! It's kind of becoming a tradition to get a few laughs out of Katelyn's baking. After a weary afternoon, we have quite a bit of food. I have some frozen to take out as needed. You're all welcome to stop over and sample... hmmm...maybe just some of you!



Chelsea busy stirring her chocolate for the puppy chow.













Look at that concentration!















Shaelyn made chocolate pretzels and pretzels with kisses and M&M's.

















Here is Chelsea with her puppy chow and tiger butter. Tiger butter is a mixture of peanut butter and white chocolate swirled with milk chocolate.



















This is the puppy chow, white christmas mix and toffee cereal mixture!
















Here is some more of the finished food.

Who's the Stranger in my House?

Katelyn's home for Christmas. I realize that she does come home throughout the week, but now she is home until early January. She's 1/2 way through her first year in college!
I'm hoping we see a little of her because I was informed that she's got plans with a lot of friends and she's working full time. I'm guessing that she will be around on Christmas Day though!

Shaelyn's Acting Premiere!

Shaelyn had a really cute Christmas program last night. They sang, Polar Puppy, Jesus, Our Brother and Jingle Bells. They all got to wear some puppy ears, as you can see. Unfortunately, she was the first one in and was way on the right, so we couldn't see her for the first two songs. But then.....she got a special part for jingle bells. She got moved up to the microphone! She's the little one in the pink and black dress (next to the girl in the plaid dress) and she says, "Boy, that was a fun sleigh ride!" She's got some enthusiasm. Take a listen!

Slippin' and Slidin'

I didn't really have a lot to say today but Dena advised me to talk about this crummy weather we have here today. This morning we had a storm come through which caused a lot of icy roads which then turned to slush. It came through right around daybreak when schools decide if they will cancel for the day. At 6:30 there was still nothing much cancelled in my county. Then at 7:00, I heard a cancellation for Cheri's schools. I gave her a call, to her relief, because Nick had just headed out to the bus. Chelsea continued to hope but to no avail. It does seem that our school system hesitates greatly to delay or cancel. As the day continued, it began to rain. This is what our deck looked like this afternoon. All the ice was melting off and now it is just very slushy out there. It was not fun delivering papers this afternoon. We all looked like drowned rats - no I did not want a picture of myself looking like that. Sorry! Tonight we are going to Shaelyn's Christmas program at school. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures for tomorrow.

Memory Verse Monday

I'm going to continue on this week with Luke 2:7-14 - the Christmas Story

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord, This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests"

Shaelyn's artwork

Shaelyn has really been doing a lot of drawing lately. Here's an example of 2 of her latest. The first is cars driving on the road and the 2nd is of Chelsea and Millie. I love how she gave Millie a true Pomeranian nose.

What holiday food are you?

Cheri had this on her blog the other day and I thought it was cute. For those of you who haven't seen this, give it a try.

You Are a Trifle

No doubt, you have many intricate layers. But deep down, you're a little squishy.

What Holiday Food Are You?

Wordless Wednesday

Something from Chelsea's Concert Monday Night

Chelsea's Christmas Concert

Chelsea had her band's Christmas concert last night. She is in the concert band for 10th graders but last night they joined with the symphonic band (11th and 12th graders)
too. She is playing clarinet - the 2nd person from the left in the front row.
All went well in the concert, aside from the fact that we had to take Shaelyn. She sat pretty good until the orchestra played. They played 5 songs and 4 of them were slow and long. The last song was better because it was Jingle Bells and she recognized that one. The band ended with a medley of 4 different Christmas songs and they did a great job!