Without further interruption...

...it's the rest of December.  All Blogger/Google/Picasa glitches are fixed, so it should be a number of years before I have to try to figure out something new to do for our family journal.  Yay!

At the beginning of the month (December), I made a little countdown tree of sorts with ideas for each day of things to do during the holiday season.  Often after everything is over and January comes I end up doing a forehead-slap (doh!) because I intended to do this-or-that with the kids, but I got busy and forgot.  Some were just easy things, like making a red and green paper chain to decorate; some were harder but necessary (and fun) like gingerbread house night:

That is probably the kids' favorite holiday tradition.   I only made two, so the kids had to have "partners," and Caleb was quick to claim McKinley as his partner.  Smart boy - she had no opinion about the house, so he had full reign while she walked around happily munching m&ms and marshmallows.  Mmmmm, candy.  I think the kids did a great job on their creations!
We also wrote letters to the Red Cross soldier program, watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original, classic version), and searched in vain for mistletoe to hang.  Maybe it's better that I couldn't find any at the store...I'm not sure we need any kissing or hollering about kissing.  I will re-think that one next year.

Ella got to bring home "Felix" the bunny for Christmas break from Orchard Options, which was very exciting.  Here he is waiting eagerly to open presents with Ella:

He is a world traveler, that one.
Speaking of world travelers; we asked Santa if he could visit early this year since we saw a predicament on the horizon - how would get all those presents home from Oklahoma?  We were packed pretty well in the car as it was.  So, he did.  It was very exciting!  The kids had to get up extra early so Dad could be part of the fun before he had to go to work.

 

 

 

It was a good morning, and the kids were able to play with their new things while I packed up for Oklahoma.  As Ella told Rachel - "It takes a long time to get to Oklahoma.  We have to drive all the way through CANADA to get there!" (I'm pretty sure she meant Kansas!)

We had a great trip to OK visiting the Mitchell side of the family.  We enjoyed meeting Braxton and seeing everyone, most of whom we had not seen in a while.  We had to nab a picture of Felix the bunny in Oklahoma so Ella could show it to her class:

Merry Christmas from us!