Pre-Christmas Happenings

 

Here are the kiddos posing by one of the trees at Disneyland.

We have been having a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas.  Kara and Eddie kicked off the month of December with their first Daddy-Daughter dance.  Kara was really excited for it, and I had fun doing her hair. 

I think Eddie was a little disappointed that Kara ditched him to go dance with her friends.  She's only 7 and already Daddy is not cool enough. 

Kara is part of the Kids Choir at our church.  For Christmas, they put on a production called, "Dude, You Hear What I Hear?"  It was a cute story about the real meaning of Christmas.  Kara sang with the choir, and also go to portray Mary in the Nativity Scene.

The story takes place in a store where a little girl gets left behind overnight, the mannequins come to life, and she teaches them the real meaning of Christmas.  Then they make a Nativity Scene.  Here they are dressing Kara up as Mary.

There's Mary and Joseph. 

Take a bow!

Not far from our house is a cul-de-sac they call "Candy Cane Lane" around here.  All the houses are decked out with displays covering their yard.  I only had my phone so my pictures didn't come out very well but I had to post this one of Blake.  He almost looks like he is glowing.  He's covered in fake snow.  Some of the houses had snow machines atop their displays...it smelled like soap. 

Thanksgiving

This year was my first time to make the complete Thanksgiving meal.  I really enjoyed it.  Everything turned out delicious, just how I like it!

 I was so happy with how the table looked, I had to take a picture.  Kara and Blake made napkin holders.

The girls put on aprons and helped me in the kitchen.  I wish I had a picture of that!  I did manage to get a picture of my little man next to our bird, and the nice towel he made for us at school.

k

We really missed our annual trip to Kansas City to see extended family and friends, so to soften the blow, we went to the beach.  When in California....

This time we went to a hotspot for surfers, it was a sight to see for this Kansas girl.  The kids went right to the sand and had a blast.

 

We also got our tree up and had our annual tree decorating and egg nog.  We even convinced Blake to drink some.

Roller Skating

Lately, the Saturday morning ritual around here includes roller skating lessons for the kids.  We found this place in Fountain Valley, and it is seriously like walking back in time when you walk inside.  I got some skates and gave it a whirl the first time we went, and let me tell you, it's not as easy as it used to be.  I was working pretty hard to not make a fool of myself.  Of course Eddie was perched on the sidelines with the camera, waiting to catch me.  I think the kids have had 4 lessons now, and they can both skate better than me for sure.