A Late Discovery...

So I looked out on the deck the other day (about 5 days past Christmas Eve) and I found this...

They had endured a few cold nights. I'm not sure how Rudolf, Comet, and Dasher missed this thoughtful offering. As you can see (or maybe not, since they are starting to turn black from the frost bite) they were even peeled. I couldn't stop smiling. Kids are so darn cute!

Gingerbread houses!

Kathryn reminded me this Christmas, that last Christmas she made a Gingerbread house with her favorite Aunt Tricia. She wondered if she was going to do it again....so we called Aunt Tricia and asked if she'd be willing to come to our house and do it again this year. She, of course, was happy to oblige...what a good aunt she is!

They had a great time, and as you can see, there was no help from me. Tricia really is a good sport!

Christmas Eve...trying a new twist on an old idea!

Doing the Nativity every year is always interesting...never knowing for sure how it will pan out, like the year one of the kids used his staff as a weapon and started taking out some of the other shepherds and wisemen. Or even the year when we couldn't find a good stand in for baby Jesus, so they grabbed up the dog...we weren't sure it was okay to laugh! Well this year, my ever creative sister-in-law sent out the call to all adults. We would be doing the nativity for the kids....fun!

So Cherlyn made her post as the director...

(pending picture)

4 simply celestial angles! (and that's not even taking into consideration their singing!)

3 very well dressed wisemen (have you ever seen a wiseman with so much chest hair?)

2 perfectly aged Joseph & Mary (with an extremely quiet Jesus, who had a stong resemblance to a doll I use to play with)

1 brightly shining star (beautiful as always!)

and last but not least...3 very handsome shepherds (if we had know sooner we could have had a nice looking shepherdly beard)

We did give the kids the job of music and they did a great job!