Christmas 2015!

(more catch-up...)

The kids were a year older...which made this Christmas season even more fun as a family!

GETTING THE TREE:
Always a fun family excursion (with our friend Maddy along this year!)...

The girls pretending to climb the tree that I thought would be PERFECT...

IF I still had a 2-story foyer in my life... ;)

Our tree!

Eliza wanted in on the cutting action this year...

...and Julia took a try at dragging it back!

But Caleb was needed in a supervisory role...

...and it took a team!

The girls enjoyed visiting with their favorite penguins...

...and Caleb seemed to enjoy his first Christmas tree adventure!

The girls were actually helpful in decorating the tree this year...

...while Caleb?  Not so much. :)

MILLER THANKSMAS:
We joined Chad's extended family on the Miller side for the annual tradition of gathering between Thanksgiving and Christmas and theming it around a country.  This year was Germany, and Chad and I were asked to come up with a fun kid activity.  We chose to share about the German traditions behind the decorating of a Christmas tree...complete with "decorating" a German-speaking Chad!

We also had the joy of singing along to Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" with the entire family...

 (some grandparent time during the music for our kids)

 ...as well as making Gingerbread Houses with our kids (their 1st year!):

Julia's...

 Too bad she didn't buy gingerbread home insurance for the unfortunate accident...

(Eliza: "I accidentally took a bite of Sissy's tree...")

And Eliza's...

It cracked her up incessantly that she put "CHICKEN FEET on my HOUSE!!!" (her inflection :)

KIDS CHRISTMAS CHOIR:
Julia was old enough to be part of the kids choir at church this year, and had a great time!

 (She took it VERY seriously...except for waving at seemingly everyone she knew in the church -- EXCEPT her parents -- while in the front row!)

CHRISTMAS BRASS CHOIR:
And Chad got in on the holiday musical action by dusting off his trumpet to play with a brass ensemble one Sunday morning.

 (he had a good bit of "help" during his rehearsal sessions at home...)

CHRISTMAS EXTRAVANZA:
I headed to Calvary's annual event with the kids to visit with old friends, and had a couple of fun photo ops!

(with our wonderful friend Ginger)

 Some JOY sisters!

CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS:
I got to take BOTH girls to this fun production this year!

NEIGHBORHOOD HOLIDAY DROP-IN:
For our 2nd year, we sent out invitations for this, and got to host a great group again!

CHRISTMAS KID PARTY:
Another 2nd year tradition -- a kid party with cookie decorating, Christmas movie, and some Christmas crafts!  This year was Grinch themed...

RUDOLPH SHOW:
We got a great deal on tickets to this, so I took the kids.  Confirmed, once again, that big spectacle, largely commercialized and marketed events are not my favorite cup of tea! :)  Glad for the cheap tickets... :)

(Hastily snapped picture right before the lights went down!)

(Even though the girls liked the show, I think they had the most fun playing on the railing during intermission!)

NATIVITY NIGHT:
The girls dressed up for their special night at AWANA...

CHRISTMAS LIGHT AWARD:
This is an idea that I first heard of way back in 7th grade, with a family I babysat for.  I've always wanted to do it!  We had a great time driving around one evening (with Christmas lights strung in our own car!) and letting the girls decide which awards (Most Colorful, Most Beautiful, etc...) to hand out.  We had some pretty surprised and delighted people when they answered the door to a chorus of "Thank you for your Christmas lights!"

(hard to take a picture in a dark moving car!)

CHRISTMAS EVE:
I was pretty sick over Christmas, but we still managed to get ourselves cleaned up for our church's Christmas Eve service!

And then it was home for our traditional 1-gift opening...

Surprise!  Who would have guessed pajamas... ;)

Even Caleb got to be in on the fun!

A couple last sister shots before heading off to bed...

Some of our seasonal decorations...

So handy that I had left the hooks up from last year, haha...

(Froggy and Giraffy each had stockings this year...) :) 

And I can't count the number of times this season that one of the kids' stuffed animals went "missing"...only for me to find them later tucked in and forgotten in this Santa hat!!!

Our tree...ahhhhh. :)

And then Christmas morning was upon us!

The kids loved their traditional book presents on their beds...and were quite happy to stay put reading!

But they were super excited when they were finally allowed downstairs!!!

 So patient to pause for a picture... :)

 And Caleb showed great restraint in waiting to open his stocking... :)

Some favorite gift moments:

 The beaded spoons I made for each girl...

Our headlamps from spelunking in Israel that we passed along...

Caleb's books from Grandpa...

A "Rody" that as already provided hours of enjoyment...

An IOU gift of an updated framed family photo...

A book of children's poetry for my dad...

And, new this year, the girls had their own money to spend!  We've instituted a chores/commission system since going through a Dave Ramsey follow-up course focused on your kids, and it brought them MUCH joy to be able to buy things for others this year!

 Eliza kept INSISTING that Chad not guess what her gift to him was...but also made comments like, "It's a ball.  Do you think you could share it with me and we could play TOGETHER?!" :)

 And the "Ariel" Barbie doll that Julia bought for Eliza brought SO much glee...

(and it brought Chad and I so much joy to see BOTH girls in this scene!)

And my favorite gift project to work on this year...  In Froggy's stocking...  Was...

FROGETTE! :)

(crafted from the back-up Froggy that's been sitting in my dresser drawer all these years! Never thought I'd ever buy fake eyelashes...especially not to be gluing onto a stuffed animal!!!)

Throughout the day, Caleb got some quality time with his Grandpa...  

(The pictures are so precious, I couldn't choose just one!)

 
Chad and Eliza got their snuggle time in while watching first a concert of Handel's Messiah, and then a handbell concert...

And after Skyping with my sisters and their families, we all took in a "Little House" Christmas special in the afternoon...

It was a great, relaxing family day, celebrating the birth of our Savior!!!

We then had a chance to head to Lancaster the following week, and have a belated Christmas celebration with Chad's side of the family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! :)