Merry Christmas…

Thursday, December 16 – Fancy Dinner

I made an 11 pound prime rib for our family on Thursday night. I had it in my freezer for almost a year, so I didn’t want to make it for company. I didn’t know if it would taste good, but it was still tasty. I made twice baked potatoes and set a fancy table…lots of fun…and it fed us for 3 or 4 more meals besides!

On Thursday night, the night before the last day of school, I remembered I needed to finish the gifts for the girls teachers. I had started them long before, but procrastinated finishing. Phew, I finished them on time. Simple, but cute…don’t you think? They are coffee and tea mixes.

Friday – Shopping Fun

I had errands to run on Friday…but they were fun ones. I had to pick up some Girl Scout uniforms from a store up in Bellingham, but it was in a cool downtown area with lots of cool shops. I got to finish up a little Christmas shopping and buy gifts for a special family. I never do “downtown” shopping, but I sure had fun! This little shop was super cute.

Saturday – Skagit Valley Herald Fund

On Saturday, my older Girl Scout troop volunteered at a local Christmas party given for those low income family that received gifts and food for the holidays. They served cookies and punch, and did a great job and had a good time. Their picture was taken and published in the newspaper.

That evening the girls got to spend the night with their cousins at Gramma Debbie and Grampa George’s house. They had a wonderful time there. Mike and I got to do some shopping so that we could try to finish up our Christmas shopping. Plus we got to eat out at PF Changs…my favorite!

Sunday – Singing

On Sunday morning we had to go and get the girls from Gramma and bring them back home in time for church. They were singing a couple of songs during the church service, so they couldn’t miss it. Gramma had them all ready and even curled their hair for them. They looked so cute.

Monday – Cleaning Day

Our first day of Christmas break was nothing exciting. I had to catch up on so much, then I had to take Kelby down to Children’s Hospital to get a new spacer put into her mouth. We go to the dental clinic there. It wasn’t a bad trip…it just took a good 4 1/2 hours out of my busy life. Tegan and Anika got to stay with Heather and their cousins, so they had a great time.

Tuesday – Singing with Girl Scouts

On Tuesday, we met our Girl Scout troop at the retirement home to sing and hand out our handmade ornaments. It was a very nice time and, as always, a highlight to our season.

Poor Tegan, still on crutches and hobbling around!

Afterward a dear friend came over to my house to watch my girls so I could finish some other shopping. I had so much left on my list. I was so thankful that she did that because I got so much done. I’d have been in big trouble without her.

Wednesday – Singing for Christmas Joy

On Wednesday I spent the morning filling a gigantic basket full of gifts. We have a family in our church where dad is very sick with leukemia. He has four children, a 15 year old boy, a 13 year old boy, a 12 year old girl and a 9 year old boy. When Kelby was sick at Christmas we had a group of friends surprise us by singing carols for us. It brought us a little joy that was otherwise very hard to find. So, I had the idea to do the same thing for this family. Mike and I invited everyone from our church and from Janicki (Jim worked there too) to join us. We wanted to present them with a family fun gift basket and asked if anyone wanted to donate to it as well. Six hundred dollars later, we had a terrific gift basket full of fun activities.

We had some friends bring them dinner that night, so we knew they’d be home. The group gathered on a long stretch of road near their home and walked up singing carols. There was about forty people altogether. This was the absolute best part of my Christmas this year.

Thursday – Starting to Calm Down

On Thursday, we finally didn’t have anything major to accomplish and the house was cleaned up, so we got to play a little. The girls and I went to visit Grampa Lohman and Mildred. They ended up asking us to lunch at the Royal Fork which is always a fun adventure for us!

Then we went over to see Great Gramma Wright and Debbie.

Christmas Eve

On Friday morning, we got out all the snow clothes and headed up the mountain for our traditional sledding trip. It was snowing hard while we were up there. We were on a really steep spot this year and it was a blast.

 

On our way back down the mountain, we had our traditional lunch of Figi’s meats & cheeses (thank you Gigi and Papa!), mandarin oranges, and Christmas cookies…and cocoa of course!

We played some games that afternoon together. Then Gramma and Grampa Wright came over to visit and brought their Christmas present…a favorite every year…new pajamas to wear to bed that night!

At six o’clock we went to our church Christmas Eve service. It was a very casual, but special service. We sang, ate cookies, and heard the Christmas story.

 

Afterwards, we had a Clam Chowder dinner with some other yummies while watching The Nativity.

Christmas Morning

Santa delivered that night! The girls woke up to three brand new pretty white desks for their rooms. and full stockings. They were quite happy with everything. Then we opened all the gifts from each other. Kelby liked her curling iron, band sweatshirt (with “Wright” on the back) and her remote control helicopter. Tegan liked her “makeup”, her writing books, and yarn for crocheting. Anika liked her Barbie and Horse set, some books, and fun craft book.

Then it was time for our traditional breakfast of Lit’l Cheesy Smokies, scrambled eggs, and pull apart cinnamon bread! Yum!

Once that was done, we hooked up via video camera with my parents down in Arizona. They watched us open all our gifts from Arizona. It was fun to see them, almost life sized on our TV!  The girls loved the craft sets...and we all love the Wii drawing pad and Pictionary!

After all that was said and done and I threw together some baked potato soup, we headed over to Debbie and George’s to see the rest of the family, have lunch and open a few more presents.

 

Sunday/Monday – Relaxing

We didn’t do anything exciting on Sunday or Monday…the day after Christmas is always a favorite of mine…just hang out and no stress! We had to go shopping because we had to get a replacement ballast for our kitchen light. Mike solved the problem all by himself. I was very impressed.

Tuesday – Anika’s Birthday

Poor Anika…born in December. I put up some birthday decorations for her and made her some apple fritters for breakfast. She opened some presents that afternoon. She was very excited to get some more!

  

That afternoon we went ice skating for a family birthday party. The cousins and aunts and uncles were all there. Even Grampa George came to skate. Gramma was sick, so she couldn’t make it. We had a great time. It was all the cousins’ first time skating and they did great.

Wednesday – Sleepover

Anika got to have a little friend party on Wednesday night. We threw together a quick owl-themed sleepover. Just two neighborhood girls came, but it was lots of fun. We played Wii games and watched The Guardians of Ga’hoole (an owl movie). The girls got to make their own pizzas. (I think I have perfected my own pizza sauce…and I make my own dough now with my fancy Kitchenaid mixer).

 

 

 

Do you like my owl cake?

Phew…I’m finally caught up with all the fun stuff. Hope you all had as good of a Christmas season as we did!

Baking, Shopping, and Crafting

Monday - Christmas Tea Party Here’s one of our favorite fun advent activities. We’ve been baking a little bit here and a little bit there so that we’d have goodies to eat at our tea. We had fudge, spritz cookies, and little chocolate pretzel bites, plus some cheese and crackers to round it out. The girls think it is funny when I try to talk in my fake English accent!

 

Tuesday – Girl Scouts

At Girl Scouts this week Anika got a few new badges. The girls made some ornaments to keep and some to give away at the retirement home we’ll be visiting next week.

Wednesday – AWANA

All the girls have decided to go to AWANA now instead of Studio A they were attending at our old church. I was surprised they wanted to make the change, but I appreciate it because it is closer to take and pick them up for it. Anika is really good at getting her verses memorized and received her first award last week.

Thursday – Gingerbread

This year the gingerbread kit came with the house already put together. It only needed to be decorated. I think that next year we’ll try to make our own house from scratch…or let each girl make her own small one. We’ve out grown the kit I think.

Friday

On Friday I spent the day helping the Proverbs 31 University people set up for their Christmas breakfast. They spend the whole day setting up including putting up a two story Christmas tree. It was a fun day. Then I had to come home and finish preparing for the workshop I’d be giving there the next day.

Saturday – Proverbs

The event was amazing and beautiful. The worship was fantastic and the message was a tear jerker…it was a fabulous morning. I was so happy because the workshop that I had planned went along perfectly with the main theme. I had the ladies each pick out a word for themselves for next year. “One Word” is better than choosing a resolution. It is a goal to shoot at and more specific, but you can’t fail…that means you won’t give up on it all together. Apparently the ladies loved my workshop! I was so thankful. I didn’t really work too furiously on it, so I wasn’t sure…but it was more a message from my heart and the words rolled out. It was better than last’s month’s “Little House” talk and worked really hard on that one.

There were over 125 ladies there!

Sunday – Football

After church we had a couple come over for food and football. The wife and I did some scrapbooking. I love having people over. It was a great time.

Monday – Catch Up

As always, Monday is cleaning day. I did laundry and all that stuff. I got all my Arizona gifts wrapped and ready to ship. Then, in the afternoon I took Tegan in for a follow up on her foot. It has plateaued now. She doesn’t seem to be improving anymore. So, the doctor gave her a walking cast and told us to come back again next week. Poor thing. I don’t know what she is going to do when we go sledding on Christmas Eve. I might end up having to take her to a specialist. I don’t know how long to wait on that. They say it takes a good six weeks to heal a sprain. She’s been hobbling for four.

Tuesday – Girl Scouts and a Concert

Our Girl Scout meeting was lots of fun this Tuesday. I had the older girls. They each made a hat and scarf for their Buildabears and for some bears we’ll be donating to Toys for Tots this season. They also made ornaments to deliver to the retirement home. We played some games and discussed how poor Ruldoph felt when the others were mean to him! Loves those kind of meetings!

Then, the big event was Kelby’s very first band concert. It was at the high school auditorium with all the 7th and 8th graders from the middle school too. It was such a cute little concert. I even have video. Kelby did very well and enjoyed doing it! She looks so grown up.

Try this video…

Wednesday – Breakfast and 1st Grade Concert

I wish that all my girl relatives lived close so my mom, sister, and gramma’s could have come to my little breakfast tea party I had yesterday. Great Gramma Wright, Debbie, Heather, and Melissa all came over for breakfast and tea. We had a relaxing time to just eat, hang, and chat. I love to have an excuse to gussy up my table and use my tea cups!

Then, Anika had a special concert for the 1st graders that night. She sang lots of songs and even got to read her letter to Santa.

Try this video…

Hope you all have a very merry weekend! Love you…Shawna

Countdown to Christmas 2010

Now we are talkin’ December! I love December. For all it’s busyness, I love the lights, the music, the “fireplace”, and all the fun activities. I don’t know what to get anyone for Christmas and I hate shopping, but besides that…(and the gaining of 5 pounds) we are doing great!

On Tuesday last week, Anika’s Girl Scout troop had a little tea party. It was a fun little event for which the girls did most of the planning and a lot of the preparation. The each got to invite two people…and adult and a friend. Anika’s friend didn’t get to come, but Gramma did. They had all kinds of healthy food for their party and when done eating, they got to sing on the stage. It was “open mic”, so they all just sang whatever they wanted. They loved being able to do that for their guests! I even had them doing a couple active sing-a-long songs that we learned at our mother/daughter retreat.

On December 1st, we started our countdown advent activity calendar. So far we are caught up! On the 1st our activity was “make sugar cookies”. We got the cookies made that night and decorated the next day. I was proud of how cute they turned out this time…and yummy too!

On the 2nd, our activity was “Tegan’s Project”.  Last year we each picked a project to serve our community, so we continued that again this year. Tegan picked to help a high school student with a Christmas party she was hosting for the homeless children in the area. We provided a craft kit. This was the craft we had them make. We’ll be doing these for Girl Scouts too.

Our activity on the 3rd was “Watch a Christmas movie with popcorn”. This is a favorite (and easy) activity. Mike was having guys over from church for a movie night anyway, so the girls and I snuggled up in my bed to watch “Elf”. On the 4th, our activity was the Christmas parade. We go every year, but this time we got to hand out candy canes with little invites for our church on them. Anika and some other girls went around and handed them out to people waiting to watch the parade and Tegan (with her hurt foot) gave them out by the door of the church business office where we were also serving free cocoa and coffee.

 

But, the most exciting thing about the parade was that it was Kelby’s first time being in a parade with her band. She was so excited to be in it. You can see the joy and confidence on her face. It was so precious!

She also played a “concert” for Gramma and Grampa on Sunday after church. We need to video her so I can share it with everyone!

I guess we are actually not caught up on our advent calendar. I forgot that we were supposed to make some crafts and do some baking yesterday, but we never got around to it. That’s okay. When I invented the calendar, the girls weren’t in school all day. That makes it tricky now to get it all done, but the girls and I are understanding and flexible.

Hope you are all enjoying the season! God bless,

Shawna