What a Christmas!

We really had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was pretty low key and nice and quite for the most part. Although poor Lily started running a temp on Tues and was sick for all of Christmas. I took her to the Doc yesterday to find out that she has an ear infection. Now that she has some medicine she is doing better. Here is a quick rundown of our Christmas festivities for ya. On Christmas Eve we had a yummy dinner, decorated sugar cookies for Santa and opened our new pj's. Eric was ready to open more presents after that! We got Eric and Lily off to bed then broke out the ol' wrapping paper. Once we had everything wrapped and under the tree, Skip and I watched a movie then went off to bed.

Daddy helped Eric put the frosting on the cookies before he decorated a few masterpieces of his own.

All of Eric's cookies had the decorations in a pile! He loves making Cookies

Lily was the taste tester for us.

Christmas morning Eric came into our room at 6:30am but since I had just gotten Lily to fall back asleep at 5am we made him get into our bed and go back to sleep until Lily woke up at 7. I went out and got Lily and brought her back into our room then told Eric to wait till I called him out- so that I could work the video camera. Well Lily got upset because I left the room without her and then Eric was so excited when I said he could come out that he ran Lily over. Eric got upset and ran into his room crying. Needless to say we took a take 2! Once we got the kids calmed down we went to check out presents.

Eric scored with a bunch of Rescue Hero's and Lily got a doll bed and some dolls
Eric was super excited about opening presents and went through them pretty fast- he even intercepted some of Skip's presents and started to open them!

Lily's favorite present was the purse Skip got her. She started putting things in it right away and has been caring it around the house ever since!

Hopefully next year we will get a White Christmas!

Let It Snow!

Eric and Lily got to play in some "snow" the other day in the form a packing peanuts, sent by Aunt Shawna and Uncle Glenn. It was so funny to watch Eric and Lily run around in the snow as Eric called it. It was great! It kept them busy for a whole hour! Thank you Aunt Shawna and Uncle Glenn for the box of snow!

I made It!

So for the past month and a half or so, I have joined 2 of my friends at 6am, 3 days a week, to do a little running. Running as a way of exercise all makes me think of High School volleyball where my coach would follow us in her car yelling at us to run faster! I am not a very good long distance runner so needless to say I've never been able to keep up with Dixie and Laura the whole time. I always run for as far and long as I can and then I walk until they come back and then I run with them for as long as I can again. Well yesterday I made it! I was able to run the full 3 miles! Now that I feel like an official runner I better go out and get a real runners outfit!

Oh Little town of Bethlehem

Last night we went to Bethleham Revisited. One of the local Methodist Churches has a live renactment of Bethleham. We stood in line for at least 45 minutes before we got to go inside. The whole time we were in line roman Soilders were walking back and forth hurassing people. Once we were allowed inside the city gates the "Tax collector" talked to us and told us the oldest male member of the family had to sign the census. After that we walked into the outside of the temple were on of the Temple Priests talked to us. After that section we went into the Bethlehem marketplace. They had all kinds of shops set up selling things that would've been sold at Christ's time. There were live animals, fresh baked bread, a real olive press, candles, perfume, jewelry, tents, etc. They had a little home that you could look into through the window to see how they lived. One room for a whole family! After the market place we went to see the inn keeper who told us that his inn was so full he had to turn away a woman that was great with child. We then went around a corner and there they had a stable, complete with animals and a little family. The baby looked to only be a month old. There were angels standing in the background and a huge star above the manger. Needless to say it was beautiful. It brought tears to my eyes to see that little family sitting there surrounded by donkeys and sheep. Seeing it really makes it hit home that our Savior was born in such humble surroundings. That the King of Kings was born in a stable. It was a wonderful experience and it truly brought the true spirit of Christmas. It's to often that the true meaning of Christmas is forgotten in the hustle and bustle of shopping. I know I'm going to take a little more time to make sure Eric and Lily understand why we have Christmas.

Christmas Questions

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper for sure- bags are to easy to peek into!

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real for sure! Have the fun is finding the perfect tree!

3. When do you take the tree down? When the needles start falling off and getting all over...

4.What is your favorite family tradation? PJ's on Christmas Eve! That and starting this year making Gingerbread houses with my kids.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes...LOVE IT!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I'm giong to have to say my Cabbage Patch doll.

7. Hardest person to buy for? People that reply "oh I don't know or you don't have to get me anything" when asked what they would like

8. Easiest person to buy for? Right now- Eric and Lily...they're to young to tell me if they don't like something and don't have a huge list of what they want!

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, it's totally kid friendly and even has a palm tree, a true Florida Nativity scene.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. But I have been really lame in the Christmas Card department the past couple years. I need to get on the ball!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? If I have gotten one- it was bad enough that I have blocked it from my memory.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Home Alone 1 & 2 and the The Santa Clause movies

13. When do you start shopping? I like to make alot of the presents so I start after Halloween. I try to be done by Thanksgiving (or the day after Thanksgiving depending on the deals!) so that I don't have to join the masses at the mall.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Like I'm going to admit to that...

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Peppermint Ice Cream-don't even try to get me to share any.

16. Lights on the tree? Of Course!

17. Favorite Christmas song? Away in a Manger and this year it's going to have to be Jingle Bells sung by Eric

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel... specially when it's still stinkin' hot and doesn't feel like Christmas at all!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen, and good ol' Rudolph!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star but right now I don't have a tree topper...I have yet to find one I really love.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? PJ's on Christmas Eve, everything else on Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Stupid Post Office!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Right now our tree is red and white-peppermintish- super cute if you ask me

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Pie and candied sweet potatos- well pretty much all of it- bring on the feast!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I would love to spend a whole day with just my Hubby- kid free- just the 2 of us all day!

ummm that's good...

So yesterday Eric and I made Gingerbread cookies and while I was rolling out the dough he was helping himself to what was left in the bowl. After a few minutes he said "hey Mom, that's good dirt! It's yummy!" The "good dirt" left quite the impression on him- he told Skip about it as soon as he got home from work. I just hope he doesn't decide to try eating real dirt thinking that it's going to be yummy!

Gingerbread House!

I have decided to make it a tradition to make Gingerbread houses every Christmas with the kids. So yesterday as soon as Lily (she will get to participate next year) went down for her afternoon nap, Eric and I got busy decorating our house. He was really funny about what I was allowed to do. I could put the icing on the roof but he didn't want me to help put the candy on. Itwas alot of fun and Eric did a great job covering the roof with candy.

Fair Time

So we took the kids to the Broward County Fair this past weekend. We thought it was going to be an all afternoon event...but it was pretty small so we were only there for about 2 hours. We did get to pet and feed some cows and sheep. Lily was having fun patting the cows on the back- Eric would hold the food out for the cows but as soon as their tongue came out to get the food Eric would drop it!

There were a few fun rides to go on. Skip was nice enough to ride in the little helicopter with Eric and Lily. I got to take Eric on the Dizzy Dragon- it's the same thing as the teacups at Disney where you spin the wheel in the center. Eric and I were spinning and he said oooooooooohhh Mom and put a hand over his mouth like he was going to be sick or something! You better believe I stoped the spinning as fast as I could! It was a really fun day!