All of December in one Post

This is going to be a LONG ONE!

We started off going a couple miles down the street to cut down our Christmas tree.
This was our first year cutting down our own tree. We had such a fun time searching for the one we wanted and the kids enjoyed watching Josh cut it down and drag it back to the car.

Right near where we cut down the trees we saw a house that dressed up an old car to be Mater, from the CARS movie. Since Will is obsessed with all things CARS, he loved seeing this!

Then we came home and decorated the tree.


Later that night we had to go back to see him all lit up. Too Cute!

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Then we took a ride one Sunday afternoon on the "Santa Express." It is a new train ride in a town nearby. The kids were to dress up in pj's and take a ride on the train to the north pole to meet santa, like the polar express. Being that we don't really do santa up big, the kids still enjoyed it and know that "santa" used to be real.

Us and the kids on the train.

Abby's first time meeting Santa. I'm surprised she wasn't scared or anything.

It snowed the night before, so it was so pretty outside.

Will, holding his ticket and looking out for santa to make his way onto our train.
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The next weekend we went to church for a day called "gingerbread dreams." We got to decorate a gingerbread house together as a family. A first for all of us, including Josh and I. We got to eat cookies, watch the new Christmas Veggie Tales movie, and make lots of Christmas crafts. It was a fun family time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Then we were blessed to have Mimi and Poppi come to visit. They came for a whole week! That never has happened before. To have both of my parents in for that long. They were up this way for a family wedding, so were able to break up their long drive with a stop in at our place. Lets just say the kids got so attached and were SO sad to see them go.

We made LOTS and....

LOTS of cookies ALL week!!!! :)

We played games upon games, and built lots of towers!

We cuddled and watched movies.

My parents and Will did some yoga :)!!! I just watched and laughed.

And we played in the snow and did lots of sledding.

We went to dinner and then to our church's Christmas Eve service. The kids were all in the service with us and surprisingly, Abby did well. They all did. Nate was jumping around like a crazy man because of all that was going on. Abby loved seeing this one girl do a "ballerina dance." It was nice to worship together as a family, and with my mom and dad too. Doesn't get to happen often.

Then came Christmas morning. What fun. We had Will sleeping in our room all week while my parents were in his room. We were woken up by him singing Jingle Bells :)! Great memories. Will really was into it this year. Daddy started by reading Jesus's birth story out of the kids Bible. Then we let them open their stockings.

The kids got one big gift from us this year and stocking stuffers. Will's was this motorized gator, that he loves!

And Abby's was this kitchen. She really enjoys playing "cook" and feeding us all sorts of stuff. Josh's ecretary blessed us with this set and we were so grateful. Thanks so much Jeanine!!!!

Nate slept through it all, and when he woke up we gave him Will's old turtle spinner toy. He plays with this non-stop :).

We let Will ride his gator in the snow and temperatures in the teens... haha, but he was thrilled.
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Then Christmas mid-morning we took the kids down to celebrate with Josh's family. It was our year with his family for Christmas, so after opening gifts at home, we went down there.

Will and Abby with Nana hanging up their ornaments. Nana has an ornament for each kid that they get to put up on the tree with her Christmas day.

Papa read the Christmas story and each child put up a character from the story into the nativity scene during the reading.

Then we opened gifts and had a meal together. The food was amazing!!!!!

After a bit the little ones, Nate and Ren, joined us!
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Then we had Mimi and Poppi here for a few more days of fun and spoiling.

It was a great December! What a joy to have family together during this season. We are so thankful for the gift of our Jesus to us! He has blessed us in many ways. We are so thankful for health this year, especially for Nate. Praise God for sending us his Son, so we can have hope in ALL things!