All Things Christmas

What a fun holiday! I'll start from the beginning, which was Christmas Eve church service at 3pm. It was geared toward the kids with lots of singing, a reenactment of Jesus' birth, and the candlelight singing of Silent Night (using glow sticks instead of candles - smart idea!). After the service, they had a live nativity scene with animals - see Bill's earlier post.
We prepared for Santa by setting out his cookies and milk, as well as the carrots for Ruldolph and crew. The girls had to test the cookies to make sure they selected the best for Santa.
Grandpa Denny brought a Northern tradition to Texas by making and setting out an Ice Candle with the girls. I can safely say we were the only family in Texas with an ice candle on Christmas Eve! The girls really thought it was neat.
The next morning was very fun. The girls woke up, got Grandma and Grandpa and came downstairs yelling "The presents are here!". We opened our stockings, then had some breakfast before diving into the tree presents. My tradition is to make orange rolls, just the plain old Pilsbury ones in the can, and for a long time, my grocery store stopped carrying them. I was distraught thinking I'd go hungry Christmas morning. But, my Christmas miracle was at Wal-Mart where I saw a case full of those blessed tubular cans of goodness. I bought 3 to be safe.
We played with all our new toys!

We had dance parties!
We bounced at the bounce house.We wore ourselves out!
P.S. I LOVE my new camera. Got a Nikon S710 - more camera than I ever expected in such a small package, and I'm really excited about all the options. It's been awesome taking pictures that actually turn out and aren't blurry! All the pictures above are from the new camera.

Day after Christmas

Jessica has all the Christmas pictures on her new camera so this post is a little out of order. Today it was 80 out. Lauren had a great idea to have a picnic for lunch so while Jessica, Denny and Luci went to a movie the girls and I started the process of looking for a golf cart by going to a golf cart dealer, then got some Rudy's to go and went home and had a nice picnic. We had a visitor in pic 2. After lunch we played outside for about 4 hours. -Bill

Santa Arrived!!

We ran in right after Santa left and saw all these presents he left. Hopefully Emma gets the apple she wanted and Lauren gets her puppy. I guess we will see once we open them up.

Yes thats a camel...

We went to Christmas Eve service today at 3:00 and when we came out there was a live nativity scene. The girls enjoyed petting the animals and are excited for tomorrow!!! -Bill

G&G arrive

Grandma and grandpa have arrived for Christmas. the girls are very excited!! -Bill

Back on the trails

Lauren and I went on another trail. This one has a nice stream that pooled into a mini lake with minnows. Lauren had a great time. -Bill

Trail of Lights

We went to the trail of lights last Friday night. We were lucky that it was in the 70's so we didn't need jackets. -Bill