Welcome to the life and times of John, Alisha, Micah, Caleb and Lima the dog!

Friday, December 31, 2010

Christmas 2010

We had a good Christmas this year.  My sister came to visit the week before Christmas, and had to leave on Christmas Eve eve.  But the boys enjoyed visiting with her.

On Christmas Eve, the children of our church had a little program prepared for our Christmas Eve service.  Both Micah and Caleb were in it.  Their parts included carrying a couple of letters from the words Merry Christmas up to the stage while their cousins read some scripture.  Then all of the kids sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  Of course, my kids had to ham it up.  (They get that from their daddy.)  But it was very cute. 

When we got home, we sprinkled reindeer food on the front lawn so Santa’s reindeer knew which house was ours.  The boys got into their pj’s and we left peanut butter cookies and milk for Santa (we have it on good authority that they are Santa’s favorite).

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The boys went to bed, and we anticipated an early morning, so we went to bed pretty soon after them.  I’m glad we did!  They were up bright and early at 5:30.  They climbed into bed with us.  We thought that meant we would get a little more time to lay in bed, but then Caleb wanted to go play.  They hadn’t realized yet that it was Christmas morning.  We told Caleb he could go play, and he came back pretty quickly, saying, “Fanta ate the tooties!”  Translation:  Santa ate the cookies! 

And with that, our morning began!  We all got up and John got the computer fired up so we could Skype with my parents and Christina while the boys were opening their presents.

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After we opened our presents at home, it was off to Nana and Popo’s house to have breakfast.  Fred always cooks a big breakfast for everyone on Christmas morning. 

I think the family may be starting up a new band.  The kids got Paper Jams guitars for Christmas and Nana and Popo got the grandkids a keyboard that, thankfully, will stay at their house.

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It was kind of ironic because later that day, Susan and Fred went up to visit his family.  They gave Fred an electric guitar and Susan a 77 key keyboard and for the grandkids they got a karaoke machine.  So the family really can take their show on the road and be like the Partridge family!  I guess it was a very musical Christmas.

We spent the rest of the afternoon being pretty lazy, which was nice.  Our friends the McGraths invited us over to enjoy Christmas dinner with them.  We had a good time eating and visiting with Susan and Wes and Susan’s mom Alice (I just realized that Susan McGrath’s mom has the same name as our Susan).  The boys enjoyed getting to play with Jeremiah and Jonathan. 

It was a very nice Christmas. 

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Just a little something I whipped up…

My sister Christina is in town visiting until tomorrow.  Before she left, the boys wanted to give her her Christmas present, as well as open one of their presents from her (I suspect that they really only cared about opening their present).

She gave them some really cool interactive books, and they gave her a personalized calendar.  John and I got her a cover for her new Bible.  When Caleb saw that, he started asking about having a cover for his Bible.  He has a board book Bible that he enjoys taking to Sunday school.  He said, “Mommy can you make me one?”  How could I say no?…even though I have never made a Bible cover before.

I didn’t have any fabric that he liked, but I did have an old denim shirt with Thomas the Train on it.  He said he wanted that.  So I cut the shirt apart, and saved the piece with the Thomas applique, the row where the buttons go, and the row with the button holes.  So, the finished product has a pocket on the front, and handles that can even button up if you want your Bible to stay closed (I didn’t plan to be able to button it up, but it just worked out that way!).  His little Bible just fits in there snug as a bug in a rug!

I’m pretty proud of myself, and once again have my cousin Kim to thank, since she was the one who long-distance talked me through my first sewing project at Halloween.  So thanks, Kim!

Oh, wait…you probably want to see a picture, right?  Well, here you go!

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

12 Days of Christmas

Micah had his Christmas program at school the other day.  Here is his class singing their interpretation of The 12 Days of Christmas.  Enjoy!

12 Days of Christmas

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Got Jokes?

I got to have a sneak peek of Micah’s Holiday Program that his class will be putting on next Wednesday.  I’ll be uploading the program piece by piece, but it is just taking so long to load every video into YouTube.  So they will come a little at a time.  But in the meanwhile, I have some jokes for you, courtesy of Micah and a few other kindergartners.

Got Jokes?

Where Are You, Christmas?

John and the boys were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas last night while I went out to eat with a girlfriend.  When Cindy Lou Who started to sing Where are you Christmas, Micah told John that he knew that song too.  So he sang along with Cindy Lou Who.  John of course thought it was adorable, and talked Micah into singing it for me this morning.  Here it is:

Micah singing Where are you Christmas

Not familiar with Cindy Lou Who?  Well, here she is:

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Monday, December 6, 2010

So Many Things to do with Shutterfly!

Well it’s the time of year when everyone is getting ready to send out their holiday cards.  Am I on your mailing list?…Hint…hint….

I was checking out Shutterfly and there are so many options to choose from.  Ever since discovering the wonder that we call the photo card, it has been so much easier sending out Christmas cards.  I was never really good at buying Christmas cards, then signing them all, and then getting them sent out.  But now that you can customize the cards with pictures, greetings, and decorations, it has revolutionized Christmas card sending as we know it!  It might, I repeat might, just be better than sliced bread!

Here are some of my favorite Christmas photo cards so far (and I’m still looking through all of them):

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And you can now even forget the whole idea of buying invitations where you have to fill out all the information by hand.  Shutterfly also has invitations!  Here are a few that I like:

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I like that cute little birdie and all of those circles.

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You can’t go wrong with cookies…EVER!

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And I love these snowflakes!

You can even make customized calendars on Shutterfly.

And when I say they can be customized, I mean that you can add my birthday (December 13th) or my anniversary (February 7th).  These are just a couple of suggestions!  But on to the calendars!

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There are so many different things you can do.  And if you are a blogger, you have a chance to get 50 free photo cards, if you hurry.  Their Christmas card promotion ends soon (December 10th)!

Go here to learn more!