Santa's Village - 2011

Last night we managed to make our annual trek to Santa's Village.

We of course took a number of traditional cardboard cut-out pics:

Santa was there, but not one of my children wanted to go anywhere near him. We did however visit his sleigh:

EEK:

Jackson and Eric imitating the bears. This just may be my favorite picture of the year:

Of course we had to have the traditional hot chocolate and cookie:

Until next year.......

Christmas Happenings....So Far

We have not been doing a whole lot of Christmas activities around these parts. Sure the kids have watched a few Christmas movies, baked a few Christmas snacks, and done their Christmas wrapping, but crafting and field tripping have not happened it great abundance. I can't seem to find the time this year. But here is a re-cap of a bit of what we have been up to.

1. The kids decorated this gingerbread man given to us by a friend:

We have yet to decorate the gingerbread houses I bought.

2. We finally got an Elf on the Shelf! My poor children have been deprived of his presence until this year. I feel a bit of extreme guilt about it, because he has been massive amounts of fun! I didn't realize that the Elves did fun and/or somewhat naughty things at night, but luckily I was on Pinterest and discovered their shenanigans just in time. Our Elf is quite funny. His name is Max Elfis:

Sadie thinks he is beyond hilarious. He has replaced our stockings with underwear:

Toilet papered the Christmas tree:

He enjoys playing dress-up:

He turned our milk green:

Of course make snow angels out of rice:

And most recently drew mustaches on our pictures:

He even made himself a little stache:

I would love to hear about all of your elves also. I fear my elf might run out of fun things to do in the coming years.

3. My kids also participated in a live Nativity we did for the Young Women. Jackson practicing for his part as a Wise Man:

It was a "No room at the inn" object lesson activity, where the girls went to three different homes to carol, and were turned away from each one. We then went to a stable to see a live Nativity acted out by a few children. Sadie was a shepherd:

As previously mentioned, Jackson was a Wise Man:

And Megan was an angel. She was on top of a large hay shed, and had the spotlight shown on her when it was her turn. Sadly I have no pics of it because Eric was helping Jackson, and I was on top of the shed with Megan. But I saw some video, and it looked very cool:

Lastly, we have been eating. A lot.

That's about it. Are you ready for Christmas? Sadly I am not, and have not wrapped one single present yet!

Christmas Kindness - Part 2

The list continues:

13.  I'm unsure if I should actually count this as service, since there is practically nothing I love more than a newborn, but I am counting it anyway. Sade and I were able to babysit this little 6 week old for a few hours this week. It is a tough call, but Sade may love babies even more than me.

14. While running errands, we have made sure to put money in the Salvation Army buckets anytime we see them:

15. While shopping at Wal-Mart, Eric and I were approached in the parking lot for money by a woman and her child. I was grateful for her approach, and that we had a little money on us.

16. Bring thank you letters and doughnuts to the firefighters.

After ringing the doorbell, and delivering the goods, they invited us in for a tour! Another immediate blessing.

We all agreed the fire trucks looked so much larger than we imagined them to be. Posing with their new hats:

17. Make and distribute kits to the homeless. Our kits included food items, and a warm pair of socks.

They were a bit harder to distribute than I anticipated. To find the homeless you have to generally travel to areas of town where they congregate.  I tend to believe I am NEVER in harms way, even in the most, so-called,  "dangerous" of areas. Luckily I have Eric who travels to these areas a lot more frequently than I do, to let me know that I have to be somewhat careful. We had heard from friends that you have to be cautious when handing out things in this particular area of North Las Vegas, because you can quickly be swarmed by people. I took the advice, and determined to hand them out to individuals who were alone. So far, I have been able to give out two. One to a homeless man in the "dangerous" part of town, who also informed me not to go near the soup kitchen, or I would be mobbed (how nice of him to look out for my welfare), and one to a man who came up to our car (at our neighborhood Wal-Mart), looking for help. I was so grateful to have these in the car! Eric and I determined that he would take the rest of them in his truck, to distribute, as he sees a lot more homeless people than I do.

18. Drop change at a playground for children to find:

19. People that use the laundromat are another group of people I have a soft-spot for. There was a week 10 YEARS AGO, when we were moving from an apartment to our house, that we had to use the laundromat. Only one week! and I gained such an appreciation for those who have to do it on a regular basis. I am so blessed. So for out 19th ROAK (random act of kindness), we went back to the laundromat we used 10 years ago, and left quarters in a number of washing machines:

We have at least 5 more to complete, and have 6 days to do it. I am hopeful.

Six On Saturday - Parties & Performances......

It was busy around these parts last week. Lots of parties, performances, and field trips.

1. Sade decorated this stocking for pre-school. Megan was the driving creative force and designed the entire thing. Eric and Sadie helped with the execution:

2. As I previously mentioned we had a pre-school Christmas party at my house. The kids were kept busy with 3 different crafts, and lots of food and treats.

I was kind of seriously impressed with the kids designs. They did them with virtually no help. I would show you a picture, but it seems to have disappeared! But here is Sadie's:

Another craft:

Although I have no picture, as they have not yet e-mailed it to me, Sadie also had breakfast with Santa at Kiddie College

She is one lucky gal.

3. Her luck continued with a field trip to Bambini's to make pizza:

I am including this next picture so you can enlarge it and see the fake nails on this lady. Sadie could not keep her eyes off of them:

The finished product:

4. Jackson had an activity/party filled week too. Here he is with the gingerbread house he made at school:

5. Jackson also had his winter performance. He LOVES to sing, and has been practicing for weeks. Last month he took it upon himself to learn every word to all four verses of Jingle Bells. He was right up front and center, and did a wonderful job.

Poor Megan. Being a 6th grader has some perks, but you sure miss out on a lot of Christmas time fun.

6. Although this has nothing to do with anything else I have discussed thus far, I would like to share a picture:

That's right! That is ME, on a HORSE! You may not know, but I have been scared of horses for a good portion of my life. But the fear seemed to leave me these past few years, so when I had the opportunity to ride, I took it. It was hugely fun......

My kids almost couldn't contain their jealously.