More Christmas fun!

 

Younglife Christmas Party

Steve and I are on the local board for Younglife, a Christian ministry to make Christ known to high school kids.  We hosted a Christmas party for the fellow board members and our awesome volunteer leaders that work with the kids.  

Can you guess the theme?

The movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation of course.

I was Ellen Griswold.

 

Cousin Eddy.

 

More Cousin Eddys.

 

It was a fun night, we laughed a lot at the ridiculousness of it all.  I had quotes from the movie posted throughout the house and games and fun referring back to the movie.  

 

We also had a White Elephant gift exchange and the Clark Griswold bobblehead was very desirable and a much stolen item.

 

Bookclub Christmas Party

The next night I hosted my annual Christmas party for bookclub.  We did a Dirty Santa style ornament exchange and had a great night.

 

Bring on the sweetness.

The Children's House Christmas program.

 

Addison was precious and smiley and singing her little heart out.

L-O-V-E

 

 

After Santa read The Night Before Christmas to the children they had all the time in the world to visit with him.  

 

Only 7 days until Christmas so Addison was a perfect angel.  

 

 

Elfis and the Sleighriders

Luke had his third grade Christmas play and it was hysterical.  Elfis and the Sleighriders-complete with an Elfis!  Luke had a premier part, the reindeer Donner!

 

Great job Luke!  You rocked that reindeer onesie costume!

 

Woo Hoo!!!

 

Tennis Christmas Party

Make a joyful noise!

 

In December, our family has so many fun events and performances that are perfect blog material.  The problem is, we are so busy prepping, directing, volunteering, decorating said performances that I run out of time to blog the events!

So here is a sampling of our Christmas celebrations so far.

Church Christmas Pageant

 

 

Our church's Children's Choir, First Praise, did a beautiful job sharing the Christmas story with our congregation.  Addison and Luke are part of the choir and we were very proud of their singing.  

 

Amelia was chosen to be a narrator this year and she was confidant and clear and did a great job!

 

Ocean Springs Upper Elementary Band Concert

 

 

Amelia had her first band concert, along with 176 other beginning band students!  God bless those band teachers, I do not know how they do it.  The kids sounded really great and it was actually an enjoyable Christmas concert.  

Amelia has been absolutely loving band and playing her trumpet.  Proud of you Mimi!

 

Connections China Opera

 

 

 Yes, I said opera!  These kids are gifted and talented remember ;)

Each child picks a tradition, animal, etc. from Chinese culture and researches it, makes a costume, and then writes a verse to SING at the opera.  They are so stinkin' cute, I can't stand it.  

Luke not only sang his opera verse but, because he was the traditional Chinese Lion, he also danced through the crowd.

So proud of you Luke!

 

This was Luke's verse:

Gung Hey Fat Choy

Wishing Happy New Year to each girl and boy.

Ni Hao!

I'm the lion and I like to dance,

Bring cabbage and lettuce and 

I'll give you a glance.

I hear drums playing my

favorite tune,

I"m a symbol of good luck and fortune! 

 

More joyful noises as we continued on to piano and guitar performance.

 

Luke on guitar!

 

Amelia on piano!

Phew, are you tired yet??

We are too, but Merry, Merry, Merry!

More to come...

Happy 38th Birthday Daddy!

 

Per normal, the kids could barely let Daddy wake up and have coffee before they wanted him to open his presents.  

 

What a fun daddy!  He requested Lego Santa Village for HIS birthday!

 

I must really love my man because I bought him his first Chicago Bears ornament.  And I even let him put it on the tree which I thought was quite gracious of me.  

Happy Birthday Stephen!  

We love you so much and are so thankful for the wonderful husband and father you are!  We all hit the jackpot!  

Ocean Springs Tree Lighting

 

The Annual Ocean Springs Tree Lighting fell on a beautiful night.  

Amelia giving Addison a hand writing a letter to Santa.  

 

Off to the North Pole!

 

Amelia telling Santa her list, look at Luke in these pictures.  He was contemplating what to tell Santa.

 

Addison's turn!  

 

Finally Luke's turn and he requested Legos!

Santa then handed each of the kids a candy cane and told them they have been very good.  

As soon as we were out of Santa's earshot, Luke said, "I can't believe Santa said I have been good!"

 

 

Lego Creations Tour!

 

 The Lego Creations Tour came to our town and we knew that was right up our kids alley.  It was really awesome with different stations set up with all the various types of Legos, more Legos than one can imagine!

I loved all the characters they had already built out of Legos.  So neat!

 

Addison found two of her school friends by the Cinderella Lego.   This was in front of all of the Lego Friends sets.  Lots of pink Legos!

 

I LOVE this picture...if I do say so myself.  

Dreaming of Legos. 

 

Grandma Joan even got to come along with us because she was visiting from California!

This was where you could built a car or truck and then race it down a ramp.  

 

This was part of Lego Community.  They had set up an outline of a GIANT Christmas tree and over the weekend they would put all of the creations people made inside the outline of the tree and it would make a community tree.  Amelia made the American flag, Luke made a barge, Addison made a house, Stephen made a 3D art with one side being a "B" and one side being a 5 (showoff).  ;)

I made the really complicated Green and Gold "G" for my Packers!

 

These were tiles that you could make a design using only tiny "single" legos.  

They also had patterns you could follow but everyone in our family decided to design their own.  Luke's is a sunset and Addison's was a person!  Amelia's was a smiley and Daddy did the Cubs logo.  

 

These are unbelievable to me!