Christmas at the Gardner's House

After we have Christmas at our house, drive to Indiana, have Christmas at the Wade house, we go to the Gardner house for Christmas and then to the extended Gardner family Christmas in Owensboro. It's a whirlwind of a day! The girls love it all! They love to open presents and play with everyone. This year there was a little snow on the ground so they talked Aunt Laura, who graciously plays with them all the time, to go out and "sled". There wasn't really much sledding going on, but they had a blast!

I love this next picture of Laura! She's so great with the girls! They LOVE playing with her. After they came inside their clothes were all wet. She gave them some of her pajama clothes to put on. They were huge on them but they didn't care. Lyla actually brought Laura's tshirt and pj pants back home with her. She is still wearing them to sleep in! I ended up cutting the legs short so she could walk in them. Then one leg of the pants ripped all the way up! It wasn't even on the seam either. We sewed up the rip so she could still wear them.

Christmas at the Wade's

The girls stay in their Christmas jammies all day. I like that. They like it too. The girls carried all of the presents in from the bedroom just like years past. Then they made the present tunnel to take a picture under. It was a little trickier to take that picture with little Elye and Easton in there this year! Then came the presents. Grace and Lyla got a Nintendo DS from Mimi and Papoo this year as well as craft supplies, a purse full of goodies, and several other fun things.

Our 3 Silly Girls...

Silly picture...

More silly picture taking...

Easton was having fun spinning the wheel on the Build a Bear Wheelchair.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning....This first picture is my favorite. I love their faces. I wish you could see Lyla's better but when I zoom in it shows so much excitement. The big gift this year was a Wii. The girls were really excited about this. They got several games for the Wii from family this year too. The other gifts Santa brought were Squinkies and Build a Bear things.

Christmas Eve

We went to our church's Christmas Eve service again this year. But this year, the girls sang in the service. They had the kids that did the Christmas drama for Dinner at Bethlehem sing one of their songs. After that we came home for dinner and then got ready for bed. The girls were excited. They put out cookies for Santa and got their spot ready for reading The Night Before Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Eric has done that with them for the past few years now. Then it was off to bed!

Christmas Ornaments

The girls enjoy painting ornaments each year for the Christmas tree. They like to give them to all of the grandparents too. I secretly want to paint them too but I usually let them have do all of them.

Lyla's Christmas Party

Grace and I went to Lyla's class Christmas party. I was in charge of the craft. I also volunteered to do the craft for Grace's party. Crafts and games are always the last things moms volunteer to handle. No one would sign up for crafts, so at the last minute I said fine. I like to do crafts that are worth the time and effort to do. Not just a sticker page or sucker with a pipe cleaner tied around it. So, I bought little wooden picture frame ornaments for the kids to paint. It was messy and a little more difficult than most moms do, but, that's me, a little more difficult. It went fine though. The problem came when I got to Grace's party, which was right after Lyla's, I was asked if I had the salty snack. Um, no, I have the craft. This wonderful, keepsake, hand painted ornament! They sweetly told me I had also signed up for the salty snack back in August at the open house! UGH!!! So, off I ran to Walgreens to get Doritos. By the time I came back, they were almost done with their snack and the moms were already passing out the craft. In the rush I left my camera in the van so I don't have ANY pictures from Grace's party. That's the last time I do crafts for a party! Ha! Back to Lyla's party...it was good. After the painting, they played a game. They were split into four groups. Lyla was chosen, randomly, to be the tree. They decorated the tree and raced to see which team finished first. I like that party game. It's cute.

Nice picture that Lyla took...

Lyla's little buddy, Owen Minor. He's so cute.