Party Time!

We've had 5 days of partying with no end in sight!  It all began Friday with the boys' parties. Instead of a classroom party with plates loaded with sweets, their new school does a carnival in the gym for each class. They then go back to the class for a cookie and drink. The parent turn out was amazing, and it was so organized with everyone checked in and accounted for.

 X-man

 Igloo--made off stryro-foam containers--so creative!

 Snowman ring toss

 L. doing the snowball toss 

 L. with his wonderful teacher

Happy L. 

Partying continued with celebrating...

15 YEARS with this young lady. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MISS B!

She has taken on life with a happy smile, 

sometimes sticking her tongue out at it, showing LIFE whose the boss!

We love her bunches.

She started the morning with Poptarts and Monkey bread--the best way to start a b-day!

And finished the day with Boston Creme pie. 

In between, she opened presents, sang at church, played with family, visited with her friend Z and his parents, and LOVED when family called to sing and chat with her.  

Christmas Eve came with our traditional shepherd's dinner, reading Luke 2 and watching "The Nativity" video. We then drove around looking at lights, came home to see who could find the Christmas pickle first (an green pickle ornament) and open the first present. X-man did the honors this year!

Shepherd's dinner of pita, crackers, smoked gouda cheese, Dublin cheese, 

oranges, pears, carrots, dates, and hummus and mustard. Yummy cake balls followed.

Our Santas were READY for the man in red. 

In fact after playing with our new toys and gifts from family, we began following Santa's trek on GoogleMaps. When we noticed Santa heading toward us, L's eyes got big and he insisted on going to bed right away--Santa was coming to town!! We didn't argue with him and off he and the crew ran!

Christmas morning arrived with no coal or switches greeting us. We must have behaved in 2012!

 B with her IPod touch. 

 Xman with Legos--what else!

 A. with her Nexus 7.

L. with a new Wii game, a bunch of Angry Birds games, and a reindeer pooper!

And to make our Christmas even more magical, we looked out and saw SNOW!!

These little guys braved the below freezing temps to play in the white stuff!

Snow angels.

Xman angel.

L loving the snow.

I know. Bags on the shoes aren't exactly a fashion statement! But it works for those of us who don't have snow gear and have become cold wimps (60s is chilly--brrrr).