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.

More Christmas Cookies

Lyla was also invited to another Christmas cookie decorating party. We had dentist appointments that day though. I thought we could make it for about half of the party but by the time we got there, everyone else was gone. Rachel was kind enough to save some cookies for Lyla and Anna to decorate together. They enjoyed it and got a little carried away with the icing! After cookies, they played for a while too.

Christmas Cookie Party

Grace's friend, Sara Kathryn, invited us over for a girls night out to make Christmas cookies. Sara Kathryn also has a little sister that is Lyla's age. It works out great for all four of them to play together. We had yummy food and time for playing before the cookie dough was actually brought out. The moms enjoyed the food and conversation while the kids ran around being crazy. Then the cookie dough came out and they were excited to start. There was flour all over them and the table and quite a bit on the floor! The girls had a blast! Thank you Anne for organizing a fun night for everyone!

Painting Ornaments

One thing the girls love to do each year is paint Christmas ornaments. I love this too. It's much easier now that they're out of the toddler/preschool stage. I think my tree may fall over from the number of ornaments I will have by the time they're in high school! I guess we'll have to stop painting in just panties by then though! Ha ha! I love doing thess little things with them though. If I had my way, we'd do these kinds of crafts all the time!

The Gingerbread house

If I was a "good mom" I would make our own gingerbread house pieces with the girls. In my mind I see them in their cute matching aprons, sweetly measuring ingredients, saying, "yes, Mam, I'll wait my turn", learning the math behind the measuring ingredients, reading books at the kitchen table while the cookies bake and then calmly putting together a wonderful winter wonderland scene of gingerbread and icing. But in real life it would go something more like this.....Lyla, stop burying your hands in the flour....Girls, stop licking your fingers and dipping and redipping them in the sugar....No, you can't have a 4th tablespoon of brown sugar to eat....Lyla, don't rub the cookie dough all over your arms....please stop laying on the counters and dragging flour off onto the floor....please WAIT until we measure to dump it in....UGHHHH....just go play wii while I finish!

So, instead of that mess, I went for the quick, less mom-of-the-year approach. I bought a $10 gingerbread house kit. I only bought one because it's $10!!!! They enjoyed putting it together and got along pretty well even though they had to share it. But, it just didn't last long. It just wouldn't stay standing up! Oh well, at least they're smiling.

This is of the girls decorating some sugar cookies a day or so later. I did make these cookies with the girls. It went pretty much like the description above! I think I kept my cool though. Ha!