Christmas Time

(Sorry the photos are in the wrong order)

Our Christmas week has began!! We started off by decorating a gingerbread house together. The kids had fun with all of the candy and imagining having a real house made of gingerbread cookie. We tried something different this year and let the kids open their presents not on Christmas Eve or day.(Thanks Dawn for the inspiration) Since Travis is off this week we decided to do it today. The kids were excited when we told them they could open their presents-it was a total shock to them. They even sat nicely while we figured out how to get the self-timer on my camera to work:) So here is some pics of the last couple days:

Oliver getting his creative groove on with a Lite Brite
Thatcher the Viking playing with Woody

Addis with her new dollhouse

Sebastian with his favorite-Buzz Lightyear

We tried to have them open one at a time to make sure we could see every one's reaction-didn't work though.

Family picture before opening presents

On their best behavior because they know what's about to happen:)

Their finished house.

Do I really need to tell you Addis was excited to do this?

CANDY!!!!

Patiently waiting for the decorating to begin. I think when we do this again next year we will maybe buy more icing and candy. We ran out of icing and some of the candy was so small it was hard for the little ones to handle. But still a fun thing to do!

WE are enjoying our time together as a family, but we are still so aware of the members of our family who aren't with us. Hudson would have been there right in the middle of it all-playing alongside his brothers. M & A will be opening their gifts from us soon and hopefully be excited to be a part of our family soon.

Now that the main present part is over, we are looking forward to concentrating on Jesus' birthday. We have a cake ready to make and some activities to help keep our minds on what Christmas is really about.