Early Christmas gifts

Our family is so blessed by the love and generosity of so many. Having a pastor as a husband many times means that more is expected of your family.  You are supposed to be models of parenting, your children are to be models of behavior, and you sacrifice family time for the demands of the church.  Though sometimes these expectations seem more than we can handle, God is so faithful to strengthen us through the love of our church family!  

We have always been blessed by loving congregations who show their appreciation and support in many ways!  One of the ways that Alleghany Baptist blesses us is a yearly "pounding."  Members of the church bring in different items to stock our pantry, fridge and other necessary items (aka toilet paper)!  It is always so much more than we deserve!  I don't  have a picture, but really I could list at least 40 different grocery items they brought.  They even try to bring us our favorite brands and preferences.

Also many from our church buy gifts for our girls.  This year Uncle Bob and Aunt Debbie came over to bless the girls with some toys and dresses.  I didn't get a picture of the dresses because a couple had to be returned due to size, but I will try to add a picture soon since replacement dresses were found already.  

Here is Sarah with her new Lego set.  The girls have never had a mini set and she was so thrilled!  They enjoyed putting it together almost right away.

Hannah loves her new game they bought.  She is just the right age to appreciate the humor of this game and learn a few things too!  Uncle Bob and Daddy even played with all the girls that night!

This was the first Mary or Lydia heard of a Lalaloopsie doll.  They were so excited and have been checking it all out on the internet!

We just love the hair on this one!  Lydia has had a good time styling it.

The next day the girls were in for another surprise.  Most of the time we open all our presents on Christmas day.  If we open any on Christmas eve, it is usually pajamas for them to sleep in.  This year we decided to give them their "big" present early.  We were supposed to go out of town the day after Christmas and we wanted them to have time to enjoy it.

 Here they are getting ready to open the gift.  :)

They have now realized that they have a new Wii!  Much squealing and jumping around ensued. 

Time to give it a go after Mom spent an hour setting it up. LOL 

I asked the girls if it was a let down to open the best present first.  They all assured me that it was not a let down.  Instead they were excited about playing with it as well as opening the other gifts.  :)
It has been fun that we have all enjoyed together.

With All My Heart~

Family Christmas Party 2012

A Christmas Forest

I am not a very crafty person.  Nor do I enjoy baking for looks. However, when I saw something similar to these at public school one day before Christmas I thought we might give them a try.  The teacher at school used a waffle cone turned upside down on which the students had spread a thin layer of green icing.  Then they had sprinkled coconut shavings on their trees. I knew my girls would enjoy this except only one can stand coconut.  So I decided to pick up some M&Ms to use for decoration and Memaw Rose knew that a sprinkle of confectioner's sugar would be the finishing touch for our forest.  

Here is an aerial view of the trees.  I forgot to tell Alpheus to buy the waffle cones that were flat on the round edge and he bought the ones that have one high side to the cone.  Rose had to cut them down to sit.  You can see that Hannah chose to have one leaning tree.  The girls each decorated two trees.

The girls used quite a bit of icing and lots of candy too.  I love how some trees have a pattern and some are just randomly thrown together.  It was easy and pretty.  We used them for decoration at our family Christmas gathering the next day, and then the girls ate them. :)

Speaking of family gathering, we had a wonderful time at the Short Christmas Party for 2012.  We just hope to get all the family there for the next one! 

My wonderful parents!

Bruce and his son, Ben.  I missed getting Leah (wife and mom) in the picture, but she was there!

My sweet girls who enjoyed decorating before we started!

My brother Monte and his wife, Sharon.  Bryce, Monte's youngest son was there, but we missed having Aaron, his oldest and Kyle, Sharon's son.

So glad to have Uncle Harry (mom's brother) and Aunt Lisa with us!  It would have been so nice to have all my aunts and uncles there, but alas, only one lives close enough.  

Here is everyone that made it except for my sister, Lorilyn, who is taking the picture. :)

P.S. Did you see the trees? :)