Our celebrations began on the 1st of December. The girls and I continued our tradition of using our advent calendar every night. I bought a church shaped wooden calendar from Target a year or two ago and each night I filled it with a little treat. Until my computer broke, we had been using a kids website that had scripture readings and stories for each day of the Advent season. So, we'd read a little bit and talk a little bit about what we read, then the girls would take turns every other night opening the door on the calendar and taking out their treat. I think this was a really good way to keep them focused on the real meaning of Christmas. Plus it helped them count down the days until Christmas too.
Kaylee's Nursery School put on a wonderful Christmas program. They acted out the Nativity story and then sang some jolly Christmas tunes and did some fun finger plays. Grandma Thomas and Maggie got to drive up from Terre Haute to see the show and Pastor Strobel also came to see Kaylee perform. I was just glad Kaylee wasn't sick this year! She did such a wonderful job and yes I am biased!
We then began our family celebrations with the extended Willman family. We get together with them every year on the Saturday before Christmas. It is always so much fun to catch up with everyone...and there are so many of us now that I often find that I haven't had a chance to talk to every one of them before it's time to head home. What a great loving family!
The girls were both in the Sunday Church School Christmas Program this year. They were both angels and did a great job singing the Christmas carols. Here are a couple of pictures from the program:
Kaylee's holding Katie Hollman's hand in that last picture. She's been away at Indiana University for school this year and the girls have really missed her. They like her a lot!
We continued our celebrations with birthdays. Both Maggie's 1st birthday and Christopher's 4th birthday were scheduled for Monday the 21st. We had planned on going to Maggie's 1st in Terre Haute, but the weather kept us in town. I was really glad we got to go to Christopher's party though. All the kids had a really good time. I don't know what we're going to do in the future about those two though. Having two birthdays within a day of each other may prove difficult for us since they are in two separate towns.
On Christmas eve we gathered with the Willman side as we usually do. We had a wonderful time visiting, playing games, eating, opening presents and just laughing. We made it to the Family Christmas Eve service at church (half way through it though). But it was a really nice service and I think the girls enjoyed it. Then we came home, put reindeer food on the patio and walkway, made a snack for Santa and the girls went to bed.
Christmas morning was wonderful. The girls didn't wake up until around 8 I believe. They opened their presents and played most of the morning. Then we met Gramma and Grampa Willman at the movies and we all watched Avatar. It was a really great movie and definitely worth all the hype.
We went to celebrate Christmas in Terre Haute on Monday the 28th. Mom made all kinds of goodies: breakfast casserole, oatmeal cake, cheese cake, roast, potatoes, carrots, green beans, biscuits, etc. We opened presents and talked and laughed and played and ate. Around 7pm we headed over to Grampa Cook's house to celebrate with Grampa, Cathy, Uncle Dennis, Aunt Linda, Rob, Karen, and Nick and Katie. We really don't get to spend enough time together as a family:( The girls were beginning to show their wear by the end of that celebration. Kaylee gets a little wild (I know...yes she does get wilder!) when she's sleepy. And Alexis gets super chatty when she's tired. But the girls did a great job just going to bed when it was time. We stayed over and came back home Tuesday afternoon.
All that time we spent with our family....just didn't quite seem like enough. Merry Christmas!
2 comments:
It was Great! And too Fast. And don't worry about scheduling for birthdays, Chris's party will always be on the 21st, whatever day of the week that falls. And he won't be having parties every year, next year may be his last for a while.
I wish Bryn had done half as well as Kaylee at the school program! As you might recall (and may have even captured on video??), she announced to the entire crowd that she had to go potty, and then she retreated to sit in a corner for the rest of the show. Yep, that made for some great pictures on our end! LOL
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