Our Family Christmas

Yummy, Yummy!

A princess towel for our little princess! Check out that missing tooth!

We have more wii!

The cheap clearance umbrella was a hit!

Eli likes his new Who zit toy (thanks for the suggestion Connie!). The black and white circles seem to hypnotize him.

We have a tradition of having a special Family Christmas celebration before we leave home to spend Christmas with our Tennessee Family. Mark and I have done this since our first year of marriage. Santa stopped by early in the day and dropped off a few presents on our porch (he is such a smart guy-he knew we were going to be gone on Christmas!).

We started the evening with a special dinner. This year we had steak, shrimp (Isaac's request), and hot dogs (the girls' request), baked potatoes, peas and salad. After dinner, Mark read the Christmas story and then we dug into the presents. We ended the night with ice cream and egg nog. It was a wonderful evening. What a blessing to experience Christmas with childrens' excitement!

Silly Sisters

Here are a few shots of Olivia and Anna Grace waiting for the Christmas play to begin. They are not shy in front of the camera!

The Worst Christmas Pagent Ever????

Our Little Angel adjusting her wings.
Look at that angelic face!

This is a before picture. Thankfully, we do not have an after shot!

So far, so good. Do you think Baby Jesus wore gym socks????

Nearing the end of his acting debut.

Today the children's ministry at our church put on a traditional Christmas play. Isaac was a "singer", Bailey was an angel, and Eli was baby Jesus. Isaac told me weeks ago that I had better make sure that Eli did not fuss (I am a mommy,not a miracle worker!). We had our doubts about Eli staying on stage very long, but he did pretty well. He lasted about ten minutes before I had to rescue Mary from a fussy little man (apparently he did not get the memo about "no crying he makes"). After Eli's departure from the stage, we headed to the nursing room. A few minutes later, Mark knocked on the door to let me know that Isaac had an "issue". He had "lost his breakfast" on the stage. Apparently he had a bad case of stage fright. His tummy was fine the rest of the day, although his pride was quite wounded! I was very glad that I did not get to witness the event, apparently it was not pretty. After Isaac made a quick exit, two other boys followed suit. It was quite a finale! As I was leaving the nursing room, a sweet homeschooling friend said, "Oh, you did not get to see the kid throw up." I said, "Yeah that was my kid..." Another friend called this afternoon to let us know that she got the whole thing on video, so watch for us on America's Funniest Home Video. Isaac and I agreed that the best thing about this Christmas play is that it is over!

Meal Plan Monday

Monday: White beans cooked with a ham bone, rice & cornbread

Tuesday: Tacos, Mexican rice, refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes & chips

Wednesday: Turkey and noodle soup and crackers

Thursday: Grilled Cheese and leftover soup

Friday: Ham, potato casserole, corn, biscuits and salad

Saturday: Jambalaya

Sunday: Isaac and Mark to CiCi's Pizza and caroling, the rest of us get pizza on the way home from church

Catfish!

Isaac and Bailey have gotten into playing Go Fish the last week or two. Mark has been playing with them some and teaching them the rules. Last night Anna Grace declared that she wanted to ply Catfish with Daddy. It thrilled her heart for Daddy to play with her. She did get a little help from her big brother!

Sweet Smiles

Eli started smiling this week. It is a precious sight to see his toothless grin!

A Special Visitor

Our neighborhood had a special visitor at the clubhouse today. Santa Claus came to visit and pose for pictures. I had not taken the children to see Santa in several years because it had turned out to be a traumatic experience in the past. They all did great today. The Littles were not afraid at all!

Food Blogs

I get tired of cooking the same things over and over, so I have been reading a few recipe blogs recently. Here are a few that I have bookmarked:

This one is the blog of a lady who made a commitment to use her crockpot everyday in 2008. Using my crockpot simplifies my afternoon so much, so I love seeing new recipes.

$5 Dinners is one woman's attempt to keep all of her dinners under $5. I have not used any of her recipes yet, but it has already made me more aware of which of my meals are around $5.

For the Love of Grub, Cooking for the Guys, and Eat at Home are all blogs of homeschooling moms. I like them because they usually use ingredients that I already have. Cooking for the Guys lists Weight Watcher points for some of her recipes.

The Pioneer Woman is a very popular blog, that I have seen many other bloggers link to. I used her cornbread and dressing recipes for Thanksgiving, and it turned out good. She is quite a character!