Christmas is here again!

"Stand up and cheer again! Let's leave our heartaches and sorrows behind."

"Oh there's no place like home for the holidays 'cause no matter how far away you roam, when you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze, for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home! I met a man who lives in Tennessee..."

Don't you just love Christmas music? I do. At least the classics, the voices I grew up with. Anyway, Merry Christmas! We started off our morning as we have for many years: piling on our bed and reading from the bible with all the kids, then we take a picture on the stairs and head down to open presents! 

The two littles haven't quite got caught up with this tradition yet. Jake was not pleased with taking photos but changed his mind after we finished. 

Now it's on to the presents! Will was very pleased with everything he opened and squealed with delight but was ready to keep opening. Maggie moved along quite well too, what's in the next package after the quick excitement of opening one. Jake. How I love that Baker. He was content to relish the moment and savor each gift, taking time to play with them or at least wanting to. And Allie of course was interested in anything, not her packages in particular. 

 Lil miss stands to eat

What a great morning with the littles. After breakfast, stockings and some play time, we packed up and headed to the grandparents to celebrate again. :) 

Gingerbread Houses

For the last couple of years, I've bought the gingerbread house kit from the store. We've had fun putting them together but the houses didn't actually taste very good, especially because we don't eat them right after assembly. Maybe that's the trick, I don't know. That aside, in our experience, fun to decorate, pretty to look at, not yummy to eat.

So this year I decided to try something different! Sugar cookie house and royal icing plus a few candies to decorate with! Not quite as cool as the 3-D houses, but still fun and much tastier. I did consider making gingerbread cutout cookies rather than the sugar, but knew for sure the sugar would get eaten! I iced a few houses brown for the gingerbread affect, a few white and left a few plain. I also made several colors  of royal icing to decorate the houses plus marshmallows, chocolate chips & crushed candy canes to add. The kids still had just as much fun I think. :)

If we do this again next year, I may get a few more types of candy for everyone to use on their houses. Great job on your gingerbread houses kiddos!

O Christmas Tree

The tree went up in two parts this year. We first started Thanksgiving weekend- on Sunday, the 29th- getting all the decorations down from the attic was a job in itself. Then, as I was putting up a few decorations here and there, Maggie was arranging all the stuffed animals in just the right place. :) Going back and forth between the stairs where they were stacked and the living room couch where she decided the bears should be. I love my girl!

Once time began to get the tree up, everyone but Allie helped initially. Jake mostly hung around, taking a few branches out of the tree bag, then was off to bigger and better things. Will helped with part of the first row before complaining and finally being released to do other things. But Maggie. Our little Maggie was all about the tree decorating!

While Daniel and I continued putting up the tree and adding lights as we went, we heard a rustling at about the halfway point. I look under the tree and what do you know, there Maggie was working the tree skirt all the way around. Yep, that sweetheart girl put that skirt on all by herself! She was so proud and truly enjoyed helping mommy and daddy.

Mr. Opportunity came down at the right time and daddy let him put the star on the tree. 

After getting up the tree and lights we were tired so we decided to call it a night and finish the ornaments in the morning. Well, it's a good thing we did because I found a barely lit tree when I went to turn off the lights before going to bed. Yep, almost all the lights burned out AFTER we strung the whole tree!! Ugh. So then I waited all week going back and forth about whether or not I really wanted to re-do all the lights on the tree. I finally did, and we bought more lights then finished the tree this weekend, ornaments and all with our traditional hot chocolate, this time homemade. Will was much more enthused about this part of the tree trimming process. 

In the middle of all the festivities, Wiill starts rough-housing with Maggie

So then Daniel starts roughing with Will- "running" his head into the door

 And then all the kids start doing it...

Seriously! This is what happens in our house. Even in the middle of putting

up the Christmas tree! Ah, it is cute though. I love these littles.

Allie kept stealing the snowman's scarf. Hilarious. And precious.  

 She's not always happy in the walker...

Then finally after all that. We finished our tree. 

Merry Christmas 2015 from our family to yours!