Family holiday fun

 Loving those gluten free cupcakes

 Always having fun with the cousins

 Declan's gift...so excited to make a basket!

Terefech and her girls...and her skateboard

The day after

 Enjoying their toys!

Terefech got a matching outfit with her doll.  The skirts are from Village Thread, a great company making items and using their profits to help others in Ethiopia.

Christmas 2011

 Loving their gifts from Santa...skateboard and a 2 person sled!  Let's hope for snow.

 Santa wrote letters back to the kids...obviously he is using the computer now to be more efficient.

 Terefech loves penguins and she gets lots of penguin gifts....3 pairs of penguin socks this year!

 The kids donated all of their give money shortly before Christmas to AHOPE.  Santa put some money in their stocking to get their give jars a jump start.

 Reading Terefech's letter from Santa.

 The leftovers...Santa enjoyed the cookies!

 Note Declan's penguin underwear...Terefech's gift to him.  He was the last family member not to have penguin underwear courtesy of Terefech.

 Opening her Barbie carrying case from Nana.

 The kids got Daddy some Merrell shoes, much like his Vibram's but they prevent broken feet!  Now we all have a pair and the kids love it when we match!

 Opening Declan's present for her...they love picking out gifts for each other.

 Terefech on her skateboard and Declan working on his geomate.  We will be doing some geocaching soon.  There is a treasure about 600 feet from our house.  Going to be lots of fun when we travel.

 Waiting for Brandon and Suza to arrive...a little Merry Christmas Curious George.

 Loving cousin Suza

 Terefech got an American Girl doll from Grandmas.  Needless to say she was thrilled.

 Watching Suza and Brandon's Christmas video.

 After opening all those presents, Brandon apparently needed a drink!

 Rich having fun getting through all that packaging!

Declan spent hours watching the hexbugs and rearranging the track.  Who knew they could be so entertaining...we all found them a little hypnotic!  The kids have admitted it was a great day and they got some wonderful things.  We all loved having Suza and Brandon here!  Missing the rest of our family!

McAdenville, Christmastown USA

McAdenville is a town filled with wonderful Christmas lights.  The town lights up everywhere and is visited by lots and lots of people.  It was warm this year so many people were walking the couple of miles through town and enjoying the lights.  Most of the lights are on private homes although there are trees and the small lake decorated by the town.  I love it!

Waiting for McAdenville

We drove out to McAdenville, NC to vist Christmastown, USA.  When we saw the sign saying 90 minutes from where we were sitting, we were a bit discouraged.  Taking pictures helped the time go by!

It ended up only being 35 minutes...we actually enjoyed the time in the car being silly and together!