December Happenings

We have had a wonderful December so far! It's hard to believe that we are a week away from Christmas. I am excited to have the kids home from school this week!

Here are some pictures from our activities lately. 

Tree decorating! 

Gingerbread houses. Please note our cheating. We had to glue the gingerbread to shoe boxes because we just couldn't get the sides to stand up by themselves.

Here is Katelyn's creation:

Here is Lindsey's creation:

and here is Brandon's creation. BM stands for Brandon Maner, MD stands for Makayla Dolan (obviously a girl he likes!) and DM stands for Dylan Maner. Apparently this is the house that Brandon and Makayla will live in after they're married. And Dylan's going to live with them.

And there's even a heart wreath over the door. Hmmmmmm.......

Silly kids....

And here is Lindsey performing in the 1st and 2nd grade Holiday concert. She sang a duet and did a fabulous job! Gooooooo Lindsey!

And I just cracked up at these two during her concert. Dylan and friend Leah are so silly together.

Fun to have friends!

Other fun activities that I don't have pictures for would be going out on a group date to dinner and a show, making tons of cinnamon crunch popcorn to pass out to neighbors and friends, getting Christmas cards out in the mail, gifts shipped, Christmas parties, including one for Justin's work, one at the church, and a "Favorite Things" party that I threw at our house last week. Should have taken some pictures! Lots of fun with 15 ladies!

I've tried really hard to stay on top of things this year and not get bogged down with all of the stuff that can take the fun out of Christmas. And I think I've been pretty darn successful. I love this time of year!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tree Hunt

We love our new tradition of choosing and cutting down a Christmas tree at a local tree farm. It's so fun! Here are a few pictures of our adventure:

New this year, free hayrides

Candy canes from Santa

On the hunt!

Cutting down the tree

We finished up the day with free hot chocolate for everyone. That's just what we needed to warm up.

We love the tree we chose! And it fits perfectly in our living room. Pictures to come soon.....

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving fun

Here is a slew of pictures from our great Thanksgiving! We enjoyed having the Gray family up from Oregon to enjoy the holiday with us. There was lots of good food and fun to be had!

Here are my turkey helpers. We were up nice and early to get the turkey prepared and in the oven.

This picture reminds me of that old Mervyn's commercial where the lady is there ridiculously early and she taps on the window saying, "Open! Open!" Am I the only one who remembers that one?

Miss Linds working on her masterpiece

Here's Brandon passing the time reading

Our lovely table....

And drumroll please......

Everyone gathered and ready for a feast

Later that night we had some cousins over to play games

Love playing the Great Dalmuti with hats! (nice tiara, Justin)

And of Friday we enjoyed taking the ferry over to Bainbridge Island and back. What a beautiful day!

And after we warmed up with some fish and chips and clam chowder at Ivars, the kids fed those crazy seagulls

And finally we visited Justin at his amazon office (he had to work the morning of Black Friday) and we got a nice tour. Here's Justin on the roof of his building.... 

and the kids playing follow the leader

We have so much to be thankful for! We loved our Thanksgiving this year!