Merry Christmas

Well, I seem to have a Friday thing going on... updating my blog. It's been such a busy week and I am so glad it's over. We've been busy with the Christmas program & parties at preschool & parties and more parties at the boys school & trying to finish up running all my errands and getting last minute shopping done. I'm pretty much done, just waiting (praying) on a few packages to arrive via mail. I'm looking forward to 2 weeks of spending time with family & friends, sleeping in & wearing my pj's all day if i want to. I hope the weather gets back to normal though. These 70 degree temps are not consistent with Christmas for me. The boys keep asking when it's going to snow next week. I could only wish!

Since I have so many blogger friends & cyberspace buddies, there is no way I could mail Christmas cards to everyone, so here's our family Christmas e-card to you (plus another included in this post... i had a hard time deciding which one this year). I wish many blessings to you & your family this season!

Santa House 2008

Tonight we had our annual "stand-out-in-the-freezing-cold-to-see-Santa" visit to the Santa House at Uptown Shelby. Even though it was freezing, it was fun! The kids run around the courtsquare until we hollar "it's our turn" and then they come running to get in line... not just my kids, everyone's kids. The fun thing is you know most everyone in line so there's plenty to talk about & plenty of friends for our kids to play with. The air is crisp, the lights are pretty & normally we get to drink hot chocolate to warm up, but didn't find it this year. Kensley was excited to see Santa until it actually became our turn then she cried "I don't want to!" So Corby held her the entire time and she just looked at him. The boys spouted off lists of things I've never heard they want before & they kept telling more and more. (Sorry, but Santa has already shopped in this household...) We've had to have the conversation of "you can ask, but doesn't mean you'll get" several times. After the visit with Santa we walked through the Santa's Toy Sop which was incredibly crowded & lost track of the boys a couple of times because they just wandered with the crowd. We went to eat (along with everyone else uptown) at the new Wood Fired Grille (used to be Ichabod's for those who know where that is). It was so yummy! It was a fun night & I'm still thawing, but it just wouldn't be the same if you didn't freeze your buns off. (You can see how cold it was from the red noses & cheeks on my kids.)

Getting ready for Christmas

I've been so behind with my blog lately & I've got tons of pictures to share, so this is going to be a long blog today. Here we go....

Putting up the Christmas tree
The boys assembled the tree for me the day before Thanksgiving. It was great!
All I had to do was fluff a few branches, but then the hard part came of putting on the lights & decorating. I decided to do a themed tree this year... white, silver & blue... I think it's pretty.

We took our pre-K class on a field trip this week to a Christmas tree farm here in Shelby. It was a really neat trip...kinda makes me want to buy a real tree again.


We went to Chick-fil-A last night for school spirit night & it was Pictures with Santa Cow


Making a gingerbread house
I've always wanted to do this with the kids but I don't particularly like to do projects that make a mess, so I've waited a few years on this one. The kids had fun decorating the house & mostly liked eating the icing & candy... especially Kensley.




Chandler got creative with his last lick of icing... I think this is pretty funny!




And the final project...

Haneline Disco Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I love Christmas! It's my favorite holiday & I love atmosphere of the season. Some people cringe at hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but I LOVE it... sometimes I've even been know to start listening to it in August (yes, I just said..typed... that). Now that it's official, I'm even more excited. I went Christmas shopping this weekend and had so much fun with my Mom, aunt & cousin. I love the smells of walking into a store scented with cinnamon & peppermint & I love seeing all the decorations everywhere. One of my favorite things is driving through uptown Shelby & seeing the court square trees glowing with white lights and waiting in line at the Santa House & freezing my bum off. I love the excitement of seeing my kids yell when they see Christmas tree lights as we drive down the road & I love to hear Kensley scream "Tigger" at the Tigger snowman inflatable on our road. I love to drive to see Christmas lights (although, I haven't found anything spectacular in the past few years) and I love the joy that seems to linger throughout most everywhere you go. I love the anticipation of snow (although it hasn't snowed in forever here & I can only really remember 2 Christmases growing up that it actually did snow). Regardless, it's fun to wish and I love snowmen!

So here's to a wonderful season & blue is my color this year... (the new blog look & my Christmas cards). May we stay focused on the true meaning of this season... Jesus Christ our Lord & Savior. May we all feel the joy & excitement of HIM... because He is the only reason all of this happens anyway. I heard this in a movie this weekend... it was said "God came from heaven to earth... in the form of a tiny baby boy... to save YOU!"

I'm stuffed

I have a tradition in my family that I've tried to pass to the kids and this year I think it finally took, with the boys at least. I've always, as long as I can remember, watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I remember getting up early (well, 9am was early for me back then) just to watch the parade, looking forward to seeing all the "big" balloons characters & seeing my favorite group/band/actors perform or wave & smelling Mom cooking in the kitchen all morning. This kind of kicks off Christmas for me. I look forward to it each year but the kids have never really been interested in watching it. They may come & go in spurts and watch a few minutes, but it's never held their attention and they've never been excited about it... until this year. I mentioned it a few days ago & Carter has asked about it everyday. We got up around 7:30 this morning & the boys asked all morning "how much longer until the parade comes on?" That really tickled me to hear those words! They sat & watched almost all of it today. (I watched it too, but I was the one in the kitchen cooking this time.) All 3 of them were even curled up on the couch for a little while.

After lunch we headed to Morganton to my Aunt Connie's house for Thanksgiving with my family. I ate too much as usual, the boys had too much caffeine & cookies and we sat around all afternoon & enjoyed some relaxing time with family... as usual. The kids played in the leaves and took their annual ride with Mimi in Brandon's big army truck.

Here's a few more pics of our day

Kensley was a little unsure of laying in the leaves!

Here's my whole family... me, Daddy, Corby, Brandon (cousin), Chandler, Carter, Mom, Kensley, Aunt Connie, Dereama (cousin)

The cutest little turkey you've ever seen

Kensley had her first "performance" today at the preschool Thanksgiving program. This is a big production that the preschool puts on each year that includes a performance from all the classes (and they all dress up), a silent auction & a meal. It was wonderful! My 4 yr old class did a great job & they looked so cute in their indian outfits. But, I must say that Kensley was the cutest turkey on the block! Here's some pictures & a video of her little class singing.