Happy Birthday Jesus!

We had a birthday party for Jesus this week at AWANA and the kids were asked to dress up as their favorite biblical character.

Riley chose Noah. His 'accessories' included a walking staff, 2 lambs, and ark plans.

Noah playing before Cubbies started.


Watchful of his little lambs.

The three kids (yeah, only 3?!?) who dressed up were recognized in front of everyone! We had 2 Mary's and a Noah.

Miss Kim loved Riley's accessories and used them to tell the story of Noah.

Story Time with Cubbie and Luv-E

Party Time - the kids were dancing to 'Celebrate Good Times' all dressed up!

Hee hee.

Birthday cake - all the kids blew out the candle together after singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

We finished the evening with Christmas Cookies!

Christmas Baking

We made some Christmas cupcakes to share at our Gingerbread House play date last week.

Riley was a champ with the cups! And he mixed the sprinkles into the batter wonderfully!

Don't even get me started on his icing skills!

And the best part - sprinkles on top!

YUMMY!

I think they look great and taste delicious!

We also made a batch of our Reindeer Food. This year we made it a little differently.

We like to give the Reindeer something to look forward to when they get to our house!

Lots of goodies! And of course, we get to eat the extra!

Gingerbread House Play Date

Riley and I hosted a play date at our house last week and we all made our Gingerbread Houses!

The kids had a great time decorating...and eating all the candy!

Everyone brought a finger food, so we had such a variety of snacks and goodies!

Riley chose to create a Snoopy Gingerbread Dog House and was VERY proud of it!

A Little Christmas Fun

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Bags, unless it's TOO big!


2. Christmas Tree - Real or Artificial? Artificial (real ones are messy and make me sneeze!)

3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? January, after New Year's Day

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, only in the month of December! lol

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Cabbage Patch Kids & Barbie Dream House

7. Hardest person to buy for? My mom, she gets everything for herself these days!

8. Easiest person to buy for? Riley, of course!

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, several. This year we displayed one that belonged to C's grandparents, it is beautiful!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail them (they usually have pictures on or with them!)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A THONG from my aunt! I was like 14 yrs. old, how embarrassing!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I can't choose! I like The Santa Clause, The Family Man & Scrooged (with Bill Murray) as well as ALL the kid ones like Frosty, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town...and I althought hated it for years, it has grown on me, and I have to admit, I do like A Christmas Story!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Early Fall...too late, I want to start earlier!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, but only for one of those gift exchange parties where you are supposed to! lol

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas Cookies

16. Lights on the tree? Pre-lit tree, all white

17. Favorite Christmas song? Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree and Hark The Herald Angels Sing

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Stay at home for Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning then go visit family the rest of Christmas Day! LOVE IT!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Used to be a large bow with ribbons flowing down sides of tree...but this year we have a new one...a light up star with two snowmen! So cute!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We exchange all our family gifts (us to Riley, Riley to us, and us to each other) on Cmas Eve, leaving Christmas morning all for Santa!
(In the future, we'll switch to one on Cmas Eve and the rest on Cmas morning)

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Shipping Gifts! I get so stressed getting gifts bought, ordered, made, wrapped, etc. to ship in time. It's freaking me out this year especially, too many on backorder!

23. What theme/color theme do you use on your tree? None- it is all a happy mish-mash!

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey and casseroles

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? New ostrich feather duster, new calendar, maybe a dvd and/or a book, not much. Ooooh, the new David Cook CD! I should have asked for that! I already got Guitar Hero World Tour, early gift!

26. Who is most likely to kiss under the mistletoe? I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus...

Thanks for tagging me, Mel, it was fun!

Christmas Lights

Good Morning America is doing a feature on Christmas lights this week, and one of the houses showcased is nearby, so we went driving through the neighborhood to check it out Tuesday night! WOW! Be sure to check out the videos! It was AMAZING!

Recognize something in the window?!?!

Apparently this family uses 104,000 lights and spends over 100 hours preparing the musical arrangement!

Thought this was cute!

The end of a culdesac...it was so bright and colorful as we turned on the street.

Riley says this was his favorite - Rudolph flying high up there!

Breakfast With Santa

A local kid's place hosted 'Breakfast with Santa' last Saturday and we had a great time! We started off with a breakfast buffet, and while we were eating Santa came around and visited with the kids. When he came to our table Riley quickly told him he wants a Bike, Batmobile, and Book. (and possibly the letter B?! lol) Then he told him that he had been a nice boy, not a naughty boy. It was very cute. After breakfast the kids got to go bounce for the rest of the time, which for us was almost an hour! Riley had blast, as did his Mommy and Daddy.

Trying something new with blog...if you are interested in seeing more pictures, click on the link and enjoy the album: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbNW7Vm1aNGTkI

Santa Visit

A new shopping center near us is hosting Santa this year, and as a special treat two of Santa's reindeer visit him on the weekends. The first weekend they were there we decided to take a trip and see the reindeer and the big Christmas tree, as well as mail a letter to Santa in the special North Pole mailbox. We were surprised, and lucky, to discover Santa wasn't very busy so Riley got to sit on his lap and visit for awhile, which was unexpected and sooner than usual, but how can you say no to that?!

Signing his letter to Santa

He did such a great job with his name and everything!

A close-up of Riley's 'wish list'

Wanting to lick the envelope himself

It's ready to go!

Donner and Blitzen were the reindeers visiting the weekend we were there.

Posing with the reindeer - it was so neat to be able to see them up close!

Dropping his letter in

With the Big Guy!

I think the pics turned out great!

After visiting with Santa, Riley got to play in these little buildings they have for the kids

How fun is that?!?!

Not sure why Riley looks scared?! We're standing on the ground! Ha ha ha.

A gorgeous shot and edit Chris got of the tree