Christmas time!

We were lucky enough to have much of the Ely clan here for the holidays!  And our extra special surpise came on the 23rd.  Rich was slated to work on Christmas.  The kids were all set to get up at 5 a.m. so they could see what Santa brought them before Daddy went to work.  At about 10 p.m. on the 23rd, Rich got an offer from work to go in on the 24th and have off on the 25th.  He jumped at the chance.  When I told the kids the next morning they were ecstatic.  This had been the first year where we just couldn't make it work.  So glad it did anyway.

 We made cookies on Christmas Eve with the cousins!

 Showing off their gifts from Santa...cowboy boots and a heavy lift helicopter.

 Somehow Santa knew Declan loves head massages (in my hand) and Reese's peanut butter cups!

Reading their notes from Santa.  They write really long letters to him and thankfully, he takes time from his busy schedule to write them a note back.

Merry Christmas!

More advent activities

 These were a big hit...sweet snowflake tortillas!

 We made bird feeders for our feathery friends.  The kids loved watching all the birds come eat off of their feeders.

 We love going to McAdenville, Christmas town USA.  We picked a perfect night, weeknight and rainy.  There was absolutely no line to drive the 3 miles of this small town where the houses are all lit up!

Recital!!!!

The place where the kids take music at moved into a new location and decided to have a recital right before Christmas.  It was short notice and we were surprised that they both said, "YES!"  The last recital ended with Terefech, literally.  It was a couple of hours long, outside in 87 degree heat and she was second to last.  This time they were number 1 and 4.  Whew!

 They both did wonderful and were cool performers.  Terefech played "Jolly Old St. Nicholas."  Declan played "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck.  Although it wasn't very Christmasy, Dave Brubeck had died the week before and it was a perfect homage.  Declan was up there for over five minutes playing!

 Here are their instructors who we love.  Charles and Terefech get along marvelously.  The kids are lucky enough to have him as their music teacher at school as well!  Declan and Kevin are perfectly matched in their laid back style.  We feel so lucky to have adults our kids connect with, see how important a love of music is and share that with our kids.

 Our neighbor Mary came along to watch the kids play.  They thought it was pretty cool to have an audience!  A little alien game afterward was just the relaxation they all needed!

More holiday fun

 Busy unwrapping uneaten Halloween candy to use for these gorgeous gingerbread houses!

 Our favorite local musical house.  We are so lucky to have one of those crazy, musical holiday houses less than 10 minutes from our house.  Yes, we drive by it more than once.  It inspires us to add more lights to our house!

All this fun is part of our advent activity calendar.  Part of the calendar but part of the idea behind it is for us to spend time together as a family during the holidays. Sometimes it gets so crazy and hectic that these fun activities are great reminders to just sit, enjoy and have some fun with those you love!

The Nutcracker

We went to The Nutcracker again this year.  The Nutcracker was the first book Terefech received from her grandfather.  My dad likes to write in the front of the books he gives you.  He is an avid reader and loves to share that love with my kids.  When Terefech first joined our family, she didn't have any books to her but Declan did.  Her heart soared when she got that book for Christmas.  It is almost always on her shelf, rarely finds it's way to the boxes of extra books we have.  And so, she also loves going to see the ballet.  Declan loves it too!

 Meeting the performers is a special treat!

 The candy cane is my favorite!

I love getting us all dressed up and going into uptown for a special family day together.  The kids now look forward to seeing the big Christmas tree, the singing bears and seeing all the decorations!

Decorating the tree

 We have many ornaments that are actual property of our cousins from New England.  They are usually here for Christmas so they go on our tree.  They aren't hear this year but the ornaments make us feel like they are!

 Putting the star on is a big deal at our house...a duty shared by the children.

 And now you will see me trying to get a decent picture of my children in front of the tree...

Yep, those were the good ones!

Picking our tree

We love going to pick out our tree at a local farm.  They don't grow the trees but they have a grower from NC come in and sell his trees there.  It takes us forever to agree on one.  This year we were delayed a bit by a family with a new baby getting their picture taken in the trees...we were okay with that!

 We usually rush home and start decorating as fast as possible.  I loved decorating the tree.  We have ornaments from when we were kids, from our grandparents' and parents' trees as well as all the kids ornaments.  Declan loves to designate part of the tree his and hang all of his ornaments in one space.

 We try to get the kids an ornament (at least one, they usually end up with more somehow) for the year. Declan's was full of gold Lego, very rare!  Terefech got a Melkam Gena 2012 ornament (Merry Christmas in Amharic).  We also got her one this year that said first christmas together 2010.  It took a couple of explanations for her to understand I didn't have my act together back then.  Better late than never.  

Merry Christmas!