Christmas lights!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the lights!! I love the white bright lights best! I love that I get extra mileage with my lights in all of the reflections from my windows! We were having a beautiful snow storm and I loved sitting in my chair watching the snow and looking at all of the reflections!

I have some lights on 3 pines outside my sun room window and I LOVE looking at them covered in snow!

Work, Sing and Cheer!!

Chris has to work 2 Saturdays a year and or course it fell on the Saturday of the first cheer competition and Tiana's Choir performance! Larisa's competition was first! It went long!! She did a great job and her team took first place!! Yeah! The tricky part was I was driving the carpool and Tiana needed to be to the school for her concert!

Tiana got a ride over to the school with her friend Andrew, and his mom and I stayed at the competition! Our plan was to leave quickly and be there in time for the performance! Well, we left the older girls and found rides for them and ran to the concert!! We made it to the concert just in time for - - the band to play and missed her singing! I felt awful and wanted to bawl. I was hoping that maybe she didn't notice,-- but she did!!! She walked up and said, "You didn't make it - no one came to hear me!" Can you say GUILT TRIP!!! I assured her that I did everything I could and that I was so sad! She had her friend Andrew over to play, and I was hoping that it would be enough to make up! Tiana had fun playing in the snow while we were waiting for Larisa to come to the school from the competition!

Tiana had a great time playing and I thought all was well! Well, when Andrew left, the tears came on and we had a little chat about ALL of times I have made it to her games and performances and basically said I love you, but buck up!!! She brought home a note saying that they were having a choir party and showing a video of the performance. I snuck in to watch it with her and she said that made up for it and all is well now!!! Her songs were beautiful! There was a song in Hebrew that was just gorgeous!!

Wassailing

We had a great time Wassailing in our home town! We have been waiting for snow and it arrived just in time to go and be outdoors! It was beautiful! I love the town square and I love this old church! We had a lot of fun spending time together as a family!

They always have live reindeer to feed and come see!

Tiana's school choir were the performers for the evening! She joined in for a few songs! Can I tell you how impressed I am with this choir!! They meet once a week and they sound wonderful!! I love the director! She always chooses amazing songs! They sing a variety of music, but there are always a couple of songs that seem to speak to me!! I think my jaw literally fell to the ground when I opened her choir folder and found the song, "This is the Christ" by James E Faust! It made me cry and I read the words to my girls! Unfortunately, they ran out of time and I don't think they are going to learn it! It is a beautiful song and I was so excited to see it in the folder!! She sang a beautiful song in Hebrew about peace and is also going to be learning a Native American piece!

It was a fun filled night and I love this tradition every year at Christmas!

Thanksgiving!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving home together as a family!! We had a fairly relaxing day! Chris always makes the turkey, gravy and stuffing! I make the pies, rolls, potatoes and all of the other side dishes!! It works out well!! We put up the Christmas tree and started building Lego houses to build a village under the tree! At dinner time we went around the table and told what we were thankful for about each person! Everyone took their time and such sweet expressions were shared! We then each expressed different ways we were grateful for the gospel in our lives! I loved it and it was a special time for our family!!

Dinner was so yummy and everyone so sweet to express how much they enjoyed every thing! It makes it worth the work when you see people enjoy the meal!!

One of my favorite things was that the girls did the dishes!!! Way to go girls!!!
The girls helped me make pies! This is the Pumpkin Pie we made!
We also made a chocolate pie and a chocolate mint thigh pie! Our friends, the Rowleys, came over in the evening for a second round of pies! They brought their pies too and we had a huge selection!!! We had so much fun and they helped to fill the void of extended family! Thanks Rowleys!!
My family loved the jello (aka Party in your mouth) this year!! Larisa is so excited to have it again on Christmas!!!

Salvation Army!

We had an amazing experience filling boxes at the Salvation Army. Our friends the Staples talked about doing it last year and we wanted to join in! I was so impressed with the amazing program that they have!! They had 600 boxes of Thanksgiving dinners to give those who were in need! I loved that they started off the event with prayer!! I love seeing the faith expressed by so many people!!! I love feeling the love for God expressed by people of so many various faiths! There are so many wonderful people!!!!

Chris handed out the boxes to fill.

Tiana and I walked around and had the boxes filled!

Larisa couldn't get out of cheer and unfortunately and missed it! Next year we will make sure she can attend! This is my friend Sonja and 2 of her children and neighbor!

The goal was to fill all the boxes and beat the record of 20+ minutes. Hurray, we had all 600 boxes filled in 18 minutes!! It was a wonderful night and a great kick off to the holiday season!

Megan's House!

The girls LOVE their Aunt Megan and she loves to spoil them! They always love to go and see Aunt Meg's house!! Thanks for loving the girls so much Megan!!!!

Priceless Picture

This picture is displayed right outside Tom's bedroom at the Veteran's Home. I love it! It was taken when he was in the service and I just couldn't resist taking a picture of it.

Tom and Jackie

Sharing a laugh together!!

Scrabble

When we went back to the Veterans Home it was so beautiful outside that we sat in the courtyard and played a game of Scrabble!! It was warm and so nice to sit and enjoy the sunshine! I had fun taking some pictures while we were playing! I love this picture of Tiana and Grandma making their game plan!!

I think they like the plan!!!

Mark studying the board!!

Tom enjoying the sun!!

Such a nice day together!

Making Pie!!!

The girls really wanted to make pies with Grandma! Tiana and Grandma made a pumpkin pie together! It was yummy!

Larisa and Grandma made a German Chocolate pie - Yum!!!

The girls had a great time and it was fun watching them!

Buffet Dinner

We considered doing a big early Thanksgiving dinner, but thought it would be more fun just to visit! We did go out to the buffet for a Linner and we had a great time!!

Mark, Jackie & Tom

Chris & I

The girls with Aunt Megan!
I am glad that we didn't try to make a big dinner!! I really liked not having any dishes!!!!

Toys!!

Chris' mom did an awesome job at teaching her children to take good care of their toys! While we were there she brought up these Toys to see if we wanted them! Chris and Mark loved them when they were young and a great time playing with them. We were going to leave them, but Tiana REALLY wanted them!! This is a picture of Chris and his brother Mark!

Mark showing how cool the toys is!!!

Mark is getting ready to bit hit by missals!

Can you see the missal just a couple inches away!!!

Veterans Dinner

Chris was only able to get Thanksgiving Day off this year so we decided to go to St Louis the week before Thanksgiving to visit Chris' family. Chris' father lives in a Veteran Care home. They were having the family Thanksgiving dinner while we were there. Chris was able to go and spend the evening with his mom and dad. They had a nice dinner and enjoyable entertainment. He enjoyed the visit!

Daddy's Help

Tiana came to me wanting help with her homework. I was busy and I really don't enjoy having to look things up to help my children with some of there assignments. Her homework was on electricity and currents. I would have read through the information and tried to re-explain it. So I said the old familiar, "Go ask your dad for help!" A few minutes later I heard great excitement coming from the kitchen - this is what I found!

Chris and Tiana were having a great time doing her homework! She loved the visual and she understood it!! What a cute daddy daughter moment!