Christmastime is Here!

We had a wonderful Christmas! Dan, Emma, and Hallie got two weeks off for Christmas break, and I was able to take the week off between Christmas and New Year. Beginning in early December, we have several family traditions. Each night the girls read from a series of Advent Bible verses that tell the Christmas story, they open a small gift, and get a piece of chocolate. One of the girls' favorite newer traditions is finding Holly, our mischievous Elf on the Shelf, each December morning. Her location changes each night, and when Emma and Hallie awake in the morning, they read a message from Holly and discover what she was up to while they were sleeping. Below are a few of her antics this year. 

She hid in different spots all over the house, including in the advent calendar. 

She stole the Lego Duplo train and rode it around the Christmas tree

She even locked the poor Duplo people in jail while she hijacked their train!

She's sweet sometimes, too. She gave the girls cookie houses one morning. Although she did nibble on Dan's cookie for breakfast while she waited for them to wake up.

Emma showing off her lovely cookie house

Hallie incorporated every single piece of candy into her decor. Her house stood for about 10 minutes before she ate all the candy off it.

The morning after we attended The Nutcracker, Holly dressed in her ballerina outfit and reenacted a scene from the performance, complete with her own nutcracker doll and the mice from the story.

She got Santa in shape with a ropes course before his big day.

One night, she decided it was time to hang our stockings but couldn't find them ... so she hung our underwear on the mantle instead! Ha!

During December, we were also on a countdown until the day that my brother, Steve, his wife, Sheila, and their kids, Meera and Rowan, came to Virginia to visit us for 5 days!

Adults, left to right: Steve, Sheila, Dan, Debby, Kay, and Jim

Kids, left to right: Rowan, Emma, Hallie, and Meera

Since they arrived before Christmas, Holly the Elf was curious about our new visitors and decided to check them out one night while we were all sleeping!

That was creepy, Holly. 

Before long, it was time for her to catch a ride back to the North Pole with Rudolph. 

We spent our days with Steve's family eating, catching up, and playing games. Hallie took this picture of us playing "Five Crowns".

We decided to open most of our gifts the day before Christmas, since Christmas day was on a Sunday when we attended church. It was nice for the kids to have all day on Christmas Eve to open and play with several of their new toys.

Ripping open the gifts in record time!

Hallie was so excited about this Little Live Pets Mama Guinea pig that had babies!

Emma got the walkie talkie robot that she was hoping for. She used it to sneak up on us and scare us all week long.

One of Steve and Sheila's big surprises for their kids was that they plan to take them to Disney World for the first time in June. They invited our family to join them there, too! Steve created a scavenger hunt with messages for the kids to find, and the girls are jumping up and down and shrieking in excitement after discovering that they'll go to Disney World together, while Rowan is confused about why everyone is screaming. Ha ha!

Our Christmas day church service at Colonial Baptist was extra special because Emma and Hallie got to sing in the kids' choir while Dan played bass with the worship team. After church, we ate lunch and opened a few more gifts.

The kids on Christmas morning, after opening their stockings and gifts from Papa and Nana

Aunt Sheila made these adorable chocolate peanut butter "gingerbread" boys and girls. They were delicious!

The kids loved bundling up and going outside to jump on the trampoline, despite the freezing temperatures. It was below 30 degrees most of the week and we were really hoping for a white Christmas, but we didn't get snow in our area.

The kids came up with creative ways to entertain themselves indoors, though. They're pretending to go on a train ride with their stuffed animals.

Emma got a disguise kit for Christmas, and she and Meera had us all in stitches one afternoon.

I have to admit - I wouldn't recognize them if I passed them on the street. 

Dan and the girls played "Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza," a new card game that Emma received.

On the day that Steve, Sheila, Meera, and Rowan left, we knew that Emma and Hallie would be sad to see them go. We saved a special gift from their cousins, Naomi and Miriam, for them to open that day - an LOL doll "glamper" toy that they loved playing with!

We also got together with Dan's side of the family to celebrate Christmas. Dan's mom made a beautiful and delicious lunch.

The kids' table. Everyone had Christmas crackers that contained a paper crown and a small toy.

The adult table

The younger kids loved sorting out everyone's gifts into piles. They usually get a huge stack of gifts, while the adults (who ask for more expensive things) only get one or two presents. 

Dan took the girls shopping to choose special gifts for Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa got Peeps candy and Grandma got a new deer ornament from them.

At the end of December, we used our Kings Dominion annual passes one last time to visit Winter Fest with Dan's parents.

 

The lights and decorations were so beautiful!

They had converted the amusement park stores into craft and activity stations for families to enjoy. They even provided free crafts and coloring pages.

Hallie's Snoopy & Woodstock snow globe

Emma made a snow globe and a reindeer ornament

Grandma colored a wreath

There were quite a few shows and musical groups to enjoy, and we watched one show featuring the Peanuts characters.

We also got seats near the stage to watch a musical about Santa's elves, and at the end, it "snowed" foam bubbles on us!

There was a toy shop we could walk through. 

And they had fun photo ops throughout the park.

At the end of the night, there was a parade with singing and dancing as well as lighted floats.

We're incredibly thankful for the gift of Jesus' birth, which we celebrate at Christmastime. We're grateful for the special time the Lord has allowed us to have with our extended family during the holidays, and that God has made a way for us all to be part of His family because of His Son! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Winter Fun

 We kicked off December by celebrating Dan's birthday! My parents joined us for delicious food at one of his favorite restaurants, Macaroni Grill, and the girls loved drawing all over the paper tablecloth!

Dan opened some gifts, including this sweatshirt with Charlie Brown in "The Scream" painting by Edvard Munch. Haha!

A few days later, we celebrated our favorite guy again with the Jester family!

The ladies at my office had our traditional holiday brunch and white elephant gift exchange.

Hallie was invited to her classmate's Christmas cookie decorating party, along with the other 1st grade girls.

She decorated about 10 cookies and enjoyed passing them out to all our family that evening.

Dan and I ran the Busch Gardens Christmas Town Dash the first Sunday in December. It's a fun race with lots of great swag! Unfortunately, the porta potties didn't get delivered to the race site (!!!), so we joined a lot of desperate people waiting in a loooong line for two bathroom stalls. By the time we had finished using the restroom, we were the very last people to begin the race!

We ran a couple of miles at the beginning of the race, but then both of Dan's calves cramped up, so we walked the rest. Walking gave us the chance to talk more and enjoy the decorations at Busch Gardens.  After the race, we rushed to McDonald's for another bathroom break (without the long lines) and breakfast!

That evening, we enjoyed the Colonial Williamsburg Christmas Parade with the Jesters.

The pre-parade entertainment was charming.

They used to have the parade at 8:00 in the morning, but they've recently changed it to an evening parade. It was cool to see the floats and cars lit up. This was a Dominion Energy truck, with every square inch covered in lights!

Santa and Mrs. Claus at the end of the parade

We decorated our house for Christmas and the girls had fun opening up the boxes of ornaments and hanging them on our tree. As they found their homemade ornaments from past school years, Hallie said, "My eyes are crying because I'm so happy to see these again!!"

We also visited Papa and Nana's house one day to help them decorate their tree and set up their Bethlehem village.

Hallie loves doing crafts, and she recently had her first sewing lesson from Nana.

She had her first 1st grade field trip to the Virginia Living Museum.

We stayed with a small group of 1st grade girls and explored the museum and grounds together.

Hallie the Tortoise

Hallie the vet

These girls had a great time that day. So did the parents!

That evening was the girls' Christmas concert. 

This is the first year that they've been in the same school Christmas performance, which includes 1st-5th grades.

Emma was an understudy for one of the major acting parts. Although she wasn't needed to perform in the play, she did get to pass out tickets for the "Christmas Express" at the door before the show and take a bow with the other understudies after the show. She loved having a special role!

Emma sang songs with her 4th grade classmates

And Hallie performed with the 1st grade classes.

Dan played bass for our church Christmas concert two nights in a row that weekend. We attended the first night, and as soon as it was over, we drove Emma to a party with her classmates. 

The girls in her class had a Christmas pajama & gift exchange party at a classmate's house.

Emma became fast friends with the family's dog.

The following afternoon, our family attended a roller skating birthday party for Emma's friend, Brooklyn (2nd from right). It was lots of fun! 

Hallie and Brooklyn's younger sister, Bellamy, were big skating buddies.

During the final week of school before Christmas break, there was a dress up theme for each day.

I only got a photo of the girls dressed up for "Christmas Character Day", but they dressed up each day that week. Emma was an artic fox and Hallie was an angel.

I helped Hallie's teacher organize the 1st grade Christmas party. The kids were broken up into small groups and each group visited activity stations. There was ornament making, a Christmas memory game, cookie decorating, and "snowman soup" (a hot chocolate station). 

Hallie with her friend, Brynleigh.

The kids brought a gift and they passed the gifts around a circle while their teacher, Mrs. Gross, read the Christmas story to them.

No one is happier than the staff when Christmas break finally rolls around! Dan is wearing his "ugly Christmas sweater" and a big smile on the last day of school for 2022!

The first weekend of Christmas break, we saw "The Nutcracker" ballet in Virginia Beach. It was a very nice performance, and we love Tchaikovsky's music.

The girls got a kick out of seeing the "hidden" orchestra.

After "The Nutcracker," we ate at the Cheesecake Factory and walked around Virginia Beach Town Center to see their festive decorations.

They have huge snow globes at Virginia Town Center, and at nighttime, Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance in one of them! It was a bit odd to talk to them through the bubble (with a microphone held by an "elf"), but it was a good way to keep Santa warm and germ-free. Heh! Hallie was willing to wait in a line to talk to Santa and make sure he knew exactly what she wanted for Christmas! 

The next morning, Hallie asked for a bun in her hair and ballerina clothes so she could dance to "The Nutcracker" soundtrack. 

Emma is her agent, and she's happy to accept cash if you'd like to book a performance by Hallie. 

Since Dan and the girls had two weeks off from school, he took them out to do fun things on the days I worked.  They went on a top-secret Christmas shopping trip and to a trampoline park.  We can't wait for Christmas!