Full and Fun (yeah right) December (I'm kidding!!!)

Wow. December has flown by. It seems like we've been so busy but it has been good. I have some pics from some of the stuff we've been up to, and I forgot my camera a couple of times which I hate. One of the most fun things we did was our Sunday School Christmas party where we were introduced to "Filthy Santa." You've heard of the "Dirty Santa" game... well, as Heath Peeples told us that night, "If that's dirty, this is filthy!" It was a lot of fun. We laughed until we cried, and that is always positive.
Then we also went to get-together with some friends, the Wardlaws, where they hosted a Spades tournament!!! It was a night of great company, great food, and GREAT competition. We had a really, really good time and hope to do it again soon.
We always get together with my mom, my sister, and my sister's family every year on December 22. (that was my step dad, Joe's, birthday. He passed away Christmas Day, 1995.) We exchange gifts and eat and just let our kids hang out for a little while. We had to move it up a day this year because of work schedules. We had spaghetti and yummy snacks made by my mom and we had a really good time.



My emily, with cousins Cora and Abby.






Jay and Preston and Cora.

If you know me, you know I'm very particular about my main Christmas tree. That's why we have 6 trees up in our house. The one in the living room is just mine. The kids all have trees in their room decorated to match their rooms. Then we have a 6 1/2 foot tree in the kitchen (which I think will have to get about a foot taller next year!) that has the kids ornaments we get them every year on it, the ornaments they make, and ornaments friends get them and just generally any other cutesy ornaments I get or buy that don't match my big tree! Ha! So I put a picture of it on here, because it's one thing they really enjoy. I also allow colored lights on this one, and don't do that on the rest.

The kids also love our advent calendar. It's a Hallmark Christmas tree that has drawers in it for each day. Each day they open the drawer and it has tiny ornaments in it that hang on little hangers. It's cute. They get up and do it every morning.
This year we also discovered Baker's Akers, which I think will probably become a new tradition for us! It's in between Louisville and Noxapater, and it is awesome. This family decorates their property and you can ride through it. It is really, really worth driving to. I am just putting one pic on here from it. But there is a lot of fun stuff, this is just a pretty picture looking across the lake at the house. There's a lot of "kid" stuff too.

Of course there is also the normal array of kids programs. The girls did a program at church, and Emily had a singalong at school. Jay had a program at Methodist which is just a hoot to watch the little kids. He did a very good job! He likes to sing.


We also had KidStuf the first weekend of this month which was so much fun. And Christmas cards are a VERY big deal at our house. After today I'm going to do a blog on those as well, and name the ones we've decided are our favorites. I have to wait though because I have some friends who are behind and just mailed theirs yesterday!!! I want to make sure to get theirs in. We will do our normal stuff this week as well. Steve will come stay with us starting tonite, and we'll go to my grandmother's house tomorrow afternoon. We also have an old tradition of going to Memorial Funeral Home and looking at the lambs in the nativity set. We've done it ever since Kirkland was a baby. Rain, sleet or snow, we go see those lambs. We'll probably also open gifts with the kids tomorrow too. At some point we'll get together with the Burrells (friends as close as family) and do gifts with them. So it'll be a busy day or so here. We hope you all are having a very Merry Christmas as well!!! We'll blog about the cards tonite or tomorrow! Til then!