Merry Christmas!

It's so crazy how Christmas is so far away for so long and then all of a sudden it's over. We had a great time with family.

We started celebrating on Dec. 12th with Chad's work celebration.  
at this event we had dinner and since they had a live band that was playing folksy / bluegrass music we did a FUN circle dance. It was a blast!!

On December 18th we had our life group party.
at this event we sang Christmas carols at two different assisted living places.  We narrated the Christmas story (including some of the kids).  This was also fun. I wish we could have spent more time at each place but it was a special night.  After caroling we headed back to the house where we have our life group and we enjoyed some soups and exchanged Christmas presents.  It was a night of much laughter!!

On December 20th we celebrated with Chad's family.
This is always a fun time.  Chad's mom likes to give special gifts.  She made these Santa bags or HUGE stockings for each family and they are filled to the brim with fun gifts for the whole family.  It's always fun to dump them out and see what's inside.  Amaya was also fun to watch since this was really her first year enjoying the presents she opened up.

On December 24th we celebrated with our kids. 
This had to be the highlight of my Christmas season.  Earlier this year, I found a toy kitchen at a re-sale shop.  I had been looking at new ones that were good quality and looked cute. =)  The ones I liked were all over $100 and there was NO way I was spending that much on my 2 yr old daughter.  I would rather be putting that money in a savings account for later. Sooo...on my birthday in Sept. my good friend Nicki (who I had just had lunch with at Olive Garden to celebrate me) called me and said she saw a toy kitchen for $40.  Anyway, instead of going home I went to the store and purchased it.  It's huge and Amaya calls it her house. She didn't get to play with it much since we left that day to come to Shipshewana.

On December 25th we celebrated with my family.  
 My family Christmas is always a bit interesting but very fun!!  This year for our gift exchange we gave gifts to the person who was just younger than us.  The youngest person then had the oldest person which is my dad. Our family spans from 1 month old, Julia to my dad who is 64. That's all 37 of us!!  At this celebration we usually have issues with the kids running around like crazy but my mom had a great idea this year!  She blocked off the path and thus put a stop to most of the chaos. My family loves to sing so before we opened gifts we sang some Christmas Carols.  We also played a couple games and ATE AND ATE!!

 ...and now we're done. 


We had a great time at each event.  I'm so thankful for family and friends!!

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY 100TH POST DRAWING!! DRAWING ENDS DEC. 31ST!