Holiday Fun

WOW, did we ever have a great time between Christmas and New Years: family, trips, games, and just plain ol fun!
Christmas Morning was filled with presents and good times, at our house and then later with Nana and Pap and the rest of the family at their house.
Audrey got some wonderful gifts and as always everyone was so good to her.

She especially loved her Horse( Smores aka Snores) and her microphone.
Two days after Christmas Amanda and the kids came to visit. She enjoyed her time with her cousins, as always!
On the 29th, we headed to the PA State Museum for Noon Years Eve, a celebration for kids for New Years. We had a wonderful time!

Then, we headed to Intercourse, PA yesterday, amish country, for some pretzel factory touring/rolling dough and some site seeing and shopping.
Of Course, Audrey liked the Amish biggies best of all.

Twas the night before....

And this house was a mess, filled with present and cookies, it is surely the best!
What a day!

Up to Breakfast casserole....yum!
My mom and I spent 2 hrs at Heel Your Sole, dunking our troubles and getting Happy hands. That place is heaven on earth. RUN there!
When we came back, we got ready for our evening excursions.

After a cheesesteak dinner, we headed to meet the UAFD team to travel around our neighborhood and hand out reindeer dust to guide the reindeer into our houses and candy canes. Santa ( aka my amazing Santa husband) sat on the front of the engine and we got to watch the kids faces light up as Santa rode through our neighborhood. What a great idea my husband had. He makes me so proud,

But, not as proud as he made me during our second evening excursion, which was to take Christmas ( groceries and gifts) to our adopted family of 7. My parents and I and Audrey piled in the car to watch as the fire trucks pulled into the apartment complex where our family lived. The dad and his boys were waiting outside and so humbled and gracious.
If you want to feel what Christmas is really meant to be like, pack up your loved ones some Christmas eve and go give Christmas to a family who needs it. WOW, will it ever make you feel blessed, especially when you do it for a 14, 12, 7, 5 and 3 year old family of boys.
We came home and threw our reindeer dust all over the lawn.

Then, we got in our Christmas jammies.

and then put cookies and milk out for Santa.

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We opened our Advent Tree and placed the Baby Jesus on, our last advent activity.
We sang Away in the Manger.
and now my Dad is reading Twas the Night Before Christmas.
Best Christmas EVER!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night.

For unto us a child is born, a king!
Thank you Lord....for everything!

Baking Cookies for Santa

Today is my Mom's birthday. She's 39, so that makes me 16. LOL!
My parents arrived at lunchtime, just in time for us to enjoy a good lunch together and for my mom to open some presents.
Directly after lunch, Mom Mom got to work on cookie making for Santa with Audrey.

She had aprons for herself, Audrey and I. She came equipped with her new cookie press and some sugar cookie dough. Audrey was in charge of the sugar...which she only made 1 crazy "mistake" with. I am not sure who is eating the entirely green sugared cookie...Santa I guess.
What a fun time we all had!

While, we baked, Dad and Pop napped.

Eventually, Audrey decided to nap too, and while she was down Mom Mom and i went to go look through the stores...no deals. we came home soon enough with only a few things we needed.
We enjoyed a nice dinner for Mom Mom's birthday and some pumpkin cheesecake.
Then, we decided to cut off Audreys scraggley long hair into a cute little bob! Her hair is so cute short.

and she can still can wear sweet barrettes.

Then, we piled in the car to look at Christmas lights.
We opened up the advent tree and placed an ornament.
Whew, is it Christmas yet?

And although i didnt know him....

Today, we did a whole lot of well lot!
We woke up nice and early before Jim and Audrey and enjoyed myself a cup o joe...gingerbread, yum!
I have cleaned this house from top to bottom except for closet, one closet in particular...the hoarding closet...LOL! No, I am certainly NOT a hoarder, although I do play one in this closet. Whew-E! I have everything from luggage, an inversion table, my wedding dress and a mattress in this closet. It is utter and total disarray...and it is connected to the room I call my parents room. If they open the door, it will be like an old episode of that show where everything flies out of the closet...I forget the name. Anyway, I have exactly 12 hrs to make that room shine. It is the last of my christmas worries. So, I worked on it a bit today, but found other things that were more important.
This year UAFD adopted a family of 7. 5 boys and 2 parents. WOW! The food drive was a huge success for this family, and even more so, our members just opened their hearts and their pocketbooks to give this family a good Christmas. The boys: 14, 12, 7, 5, and 3, have no idea that we are coming via fire engine to their home to deliver gifts. My job today was to wrap the gifts that still needed wrapping. As I wrapped I prayed for this family. I prayed for the parents and I prayed for each boy by name. I thanked God for the gifts that have always made it under my tree and for the gifts that will be under our tree this year for our little girl. The wrapping is done and I am so excited to tag along and see the surprise on these boys faces.
Before wrapping, I went on a small excursion to buy the boys some hats and gloves and a few more toys.
I had something else I set my mind to do today. I found a wreath that I made this summer on a camping weekend and I decided to take it and place it on the grave of a veteran for Christmas.
I drove into the cemetary and I explained to my little passenger that when people go to heaven we bury there bodies to give us a place to remember them and that we were going to remember a stranger today. I made 3 loops and I finally saw a grave that didnt have a wreath, but did have a flag marker.

Edward Smith was born 1908 and died 1982 and he was a WWII veteran. I placed our wreath and said a prayer for this stranger I didnt even know and then we drove away. Humbled.

We stopped at Paulus Farm Market and snagged 2 sets of our favorite barrette maker, Sunny B's barrettes for the holidays. We stopped by Bed Bath and Beyond and got a popsicle maker( which so far stinks)since Audrey wants popsicles everyday now.

After a nap, we opened up our advent tree and inside was the Angel ornament from the nativity. We hung it on the tree, still 2 more to go.

And, Audrey opened up one of her special advent gifts: a santa music box. She was so excited, and so was the cat! LOL! It plays Jingle Bells, and she is a super Jingle Bells Singer, so she sand along.

I would hope she can keep it safe so we can create a heirloom of the music box.
My parents come tomorrow and the chaos escalates a little, but in a good way.
Our scripture comes from our max Lucado devotional today:
Luke 1:33: His Kingdom will never end.
I believe.

The first to say his name

Today, we open up our advent door and add Joseph to our advent tree ornaments.
I know this because I realized when we opened Mary last night, I put Joseph next. It wasnt the order I wanted, but whatever...she'll get the point of it all.
Ironically, my devotional today with Girlfriends in God was kind of lackluster. so, I went to Max Lucados site and read his devotional...and low and behold...it was about Joseph!
http://www.maxlucado.com/articles/daily/he_called_his_name_jesus/
Take the time to read it. It is awesome.
Joseph, an ordinary, blue collar working man, puts aside his plans and puts God's plan in his plans place. Amazing, right? I can't do that. I try and I must admit I stink at it.
Today we are preparing our house for my parents to come on Friday. As much as I feel like I keep a clean house, I realize that I have so much "stuff" that I need to get rid of or find a new home for after the holidays. Out with the old, in with the new. I get it.
Right now, in the mix of Christmas shopping and cookie baking for the next 4 days, I just want to put God's plans for my holidays ahead of everything else, ahead of my mom's calendar of events, ahead of my cleaning, and focus really on where God wants me.

Mary did you know?

Today, we opened our Advent Calendar and inside was the ornament of Mary.

We talked about Mary and who she was and placed her on our tree.

We played with Audreys nativity set and talked about how Mary was Jesus's mommy, like I am her Mommy. Then, we read the Christmas Story and talked about Mary some more.

On Sunday at church, we watched this great clip from the movie The Nativity Story. In the clip, Mary returns to her village and she is 6 months pregnant. When Joseph, her then fiancee, sees her, he is shocked to see that she is pregnant. I mean, WOW, what man wouldnt be? Can you imagine what the folks in her village thought or called her? Did she really know the immensity of what she was doing? I mean, it is hard enough being Audrey Salter's Mom. Imagine being Jesus's mom!
Then, we had some fun and made snowman marshmellow desserts! They werent pretty, but they sure were a hit!

I can hardly believe how fast the last few weeks have gone! We have just a few more days of Advent to celebrate! I am already looking forward to next year. it has been quite a fun journey.
As I look back on the calendar of events that we have accomplished, i am very proud to have shared this with my daughter. I hope she has enjoyed it all even more than I have!

Monday Monday....fa la la la la

This morning held a sad start, as our friend Blake Lawrence lost his battle with Throat and Mouth Cancer. Such a good man, such a wonderful soul. We were surprised by his sudden passing, although he fought a long and hard battle.
With this loss, I was reminded of just how short our lives can be.
So, add live life to its fullest to my previous list! Blake surely did just that.
We went full force into this item on our list today...hard not to do with a 2 year old with so much energy! Audrey decided she wanted to sit in our sled decoration on her own. Then, she put Jagger in the slide.

Jagger is such a good sport. And Audrey can be hard on him. He lets her know when he has had it with a little bite or a scratch. I mean, look at the poor animal. He even let her dress him up in a snowman costume( I had to help a little).

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Once we got our sillies out, by playing with a remote control car.

We finished our snowman ornaments and hung them on the tree.We, of course, had to make a Lathan snowman. LOL!Luckily, I have enough pics of him that we had one to cut up and add. Then, I hung them on the tree for us.

My friend Darcy posted a link to see Santa's reindeer on reindeercam.com, so we sat down and enjoyed some time watching Santa's reindeer.

Todays Advent gift is an ornament( the angel gabriel).
My scripture reading today comes from another of Blake's friends that posted this on his wall today.
‎2 Corinthians 5
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.
May God Bless you all today!

stacy

Just another Fantastic Sunday

I woke up a little early this morning and headed to church.
I worked at Guest Central in our Acoustic Venue, so I got to sit during services. I enjoyed the message.
While I took some time for myself and God, Jim and Audrey enjoyed the morning together.

I came home to a painted Princess Mask....and I am pretty sure Daddy did alot of the painting.

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While Audrey and Daddy painted, I threw some cookies in the oven to use for a special treat that we made later.

Audrey enjoyed some candy cane dancing while our cookies baked.

We opened up our advent tree and added another nativity ornament to our tree.

AND, we had a special surprise of snowman ornaments( another of my end of year clearance items from Michaels from last year...SCORE!)

There are 24 Snowman in that thing! We certainly didnt need to make THAT many snowmen ornaments. Our crafting time together was hilarious. Audrey does know where a hat, scarf, 2 stick arms, and buttons go...sorta. Where she placed them made the characters of the snowmen quite comical. We had a SNOW ball...hahaha...get it!

By then, the cookies were cooled and I got started making chocolate chip cookie sandwiches....YUMMY!

Take two freshly baked Chocolate chip cookies and some fluffy white frosting and VIOLA...a delicious treat. We wrapped them up and will give them to our special friends during visits this week.