Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

We had a great time celebrating yesterday and today.  It works best for us to have a large holiday meal on Christmas Eve, so that's what we did again this year.  (This way we can relax on Christmas day and eat up the left-overs before we leave town!)  We had a great meal (my first turkey and it was actually really good!) and a great Christmas Eve service.  Then home to open stockings and try to settle kids down to bed!

And, we've had a wonderful Christmas day today!  We started off with presents, and the girls have been playing ever since (with only a few little squabbles along the way, of course.)

Jaclyn and Ashlyn received some new Lego Friends this year, and they were very excited!

It was a busy day getting it all set up, but oh, so worth it!

Now we're off to Kansas City for more celebrating!

May you all be blessed with love, laughter, and thankfulness this holiday season!

Dreaming of a White Christmas

I'd say that these were perfect conditions for a wonderful Christmas!  We were "blessed" with a blizzard last Thursday, and now we have a White Christmas!  The girls have LOVED playing in the snow these past few days.  It couldn't be more festive!



First-day-of-break Books!

We had quite a few days from when the girls got out of school for break until Christmas, so I decided to give them a first-day-of-break present.  They were thrilled, of course, and the books gave them a little something extra to do while anxiously awaiting the special day.

Hillside Christmas!

Our girls had a delightful time celebrating with their new school this year.  They enjoyed decorating the classroom, having a gift exchange and a big Christmas party!  They also had a great time performing in the Christmas program.  Here are a few pictures from that evening.  They both did very well reciting their poems, singing their songs, and playing their instruments!  It was very fun.

Here are some special friends that the girls have made this year. This is Ashlyn with her friend,  Jane.

And Jaclyn with her friend, Lydia.



Cookies for the Neighbors

We now have a little tradition of making cookies and treats for our neighbors around Christmas time.  So, we pick a Saturday and go to town (or I should say, to the neighborhood!)  I told the girls the night before that we were going to bake the next day, and they got so excited.  They didn't sleep well that night, and of course, were all up bright and early!  Ashlyn handed me this note in the morn:

It's sweet to me that they get so excited about this, and it helps me to get into more of a jolly spirit.  :)  Our neighborhood is growing this year, so we didn't even make it to everyone!  I guess we'll have to increase our cookie production!

Here are a few pictures of the fun...

Christmas Concerts All Around!

We have had fun this year participating in multiple Christmas concerts.  Jaclyn has had the opportunity to sing in the Odyssey Chorus in Cedar Rapids this year and has really enjoyed it.  She's getting to sing great songs and meet new friends, and I'm happy with the vocal instruction she's getting, so it's a win-win situation.

Jaclyn's been busy this year with 4 concerts, 3 of which were this weekend.  One of those concerts was at our church, and Ashlyn got to participate this year too.  Here are a few snapshots of the musical bliss (although it's not always blissful...we had our bumps in the road along the way too!)

Jaclyn's concert at the mall

Christmas concert at church

November Recap

Well, I haven't been keeping up with this blog as much as I would like, so a little recap of November will have to do.

Craig's team made it to the State volleyball tournament again this year.  They did very well, but ended up getting 2nd place.  Of course, that's really good, but anything other than 1st is not quite good enough for my hubby, and 2 years in a row of getting 2nd doesn't make it any better.  But...nonetheless, we are very proud of what he accomplished with his team.  Go City High!

We also celebrated Craig's birthday on Nov. 21st.  His aunts came down from Minnesota for Thanksgiving and made a stop at our house for his birthday.   It's probably the only time they'll make it to our house, so we had a nice time with them.