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Sorry if you are a faithful follower of my blog and I have been so bad about posting on a nightly basis.  I will get back into my normal routine soon, I promise. 

This is a picture of my tree in the front room.  I decided to hang my Christmas cards on it this rather than around the doorway. I am loving this idea.  It’s fun to see them lit up around the tree. 

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We spent the last couple of days celebrating Christmas with Tom and Jaci.  Such very special people who have truly become such a special part of our lives.  We love them like family and are grateful for the love they share with us.

 

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There’s no other place I think she would rather be.

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Getting ready for the Happy Birthday party at church to help the little ones remember the true Christmas story. 

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Shadow watched Snowball go out.  She stood there for a long time and debated whether to follow along Snowball’s path.  She would put her little paw in and pull it back real fast and shake.  She opted out of that journey.  She’s not a fan of snow.

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So, I am sitting around watching White Christmas and I remember this tree that I have out in the garage.  This used to be at my Granny’s house and I can vividly remember playing with it as a child.  Such a good memory.  I had to go out and get it and put it out right away when I remembered it was out there.  It has been so long since I have used it.  I don’t have it downstairs b/c all of those pieces come out (I think that is what I loved about it as a child).  I’m just not quite ready for all of those pieces to be lost in my house.  I wish I knew who made this and where/if I can find replacement pieces for the lights.  There are about 10 missing off of it. 

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Will came back later to post this picture.  It is on my iphone.

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Now, if you pay close attention to my blog you will realize that there is not a picture for Sunday.  Yep, I missed a day.  :(  Late Saturday night I woke up with the stomach flu and didn’t get out of the bed until Monday morning. 

But last night I had the camera back out.  This was Haleigh playing with her light projector/music maker.  So sweet.

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Don’t they all look so comfy?1

Here are the kids…playing with the ornaments…except this time Haleigh decided to decorate James.  Notice the ornament hanging off his back!

   

Making cookies with friend…what fun!

Love this shot of James in his “Hugh” robe and reindeer antlers!

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Anyone notice something funny about this gingerbread man ornament?  I know I told you that I decided to let the kids be with this tree thing…but man was I surprised to find Jamesy hunkered behind the tree eating the head off of this ornament.  Now what you must know is that my mom and I made these ornament YEARS ago (I don’t remember how long).  He was not at all happy about me making him spit this out.  The funny thing is that I just thrown out the rest of the gingerbread ornaments we had made this year and I just kept two of my favorites.  Well, this one has new specialness to it, huh?!  You know what Haleigh was doing during this process?  Laughing!! :)

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Had a fun evening with the girl!  Yummy food, good laughs, cookie exchange, fun games…great friends!

 

Here are the girls looking for the pickle in the tree.  All angles were explored as you can see.

 

This was our other game where we all took off our wedding bands/rings and tied them to a numbered string.  Then we went through to see if we could pick out who they belonged too.  A LOT harder than I thought it would be!

 

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This picture looks so similar to one of my pictures I took back in October.  I just realized that.  Oh well, the others were pumpkin cookies.    This is a picture of the cookies I made for one of my favorite holiday events…our annual cookie swap.  These were ginger cookies drizzled with white chocolate.  So yummy!

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Notice anything strange hanging on my tree?  Those  were put there by Haleigh and James.  I’ve really had to just sit back and le the kids enjoy the trees.  I was so nerved when we first put up the tress because they were constantly moving ornaments but then I realized…who cares?  They are having a blast.  I just made sure to move my special ones up high and they can do as they want.  It’s fun to listen to them giggle when they are both behind the tree!  I do admit, however, that I find myself rearranging ornaments while the kids are napping to get them back to being “evenly” spaced! I just can’t help it!  LOL

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This is what happens to James when he decides to get crazy with his Gogurt.  It was everywhere…literally…hair, nose, chair, pantry doors, maybe a little on the ceiling that I will probably find tomorrow…

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This is Haleigh listening to her special video message from Santa.  She loved it!!

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Couple pictures of the kiddos at the Breakfast with Santa….what a fun day we had.  Love spending time with the family and with friends.

 

Chris in his new hat for the Horse Drawn Carriage Parade.  We had such a great time!! And then there is the Santa who lives across the street from where we stand.  Last year he just stood at the door…this year he was in this ginormous chair.  Who is this guy?!

Crazy that I pick the picture below as my picture of the day…out of all the horses and carriages that I photographed!?!