Christmas in Conyers

Poppy and Elisabeth
We had a wonderful meal at my cousin's house on Christmas Eve thanks to these wonderful cooks! It was delicious!

Who is that straight-haired girl?

Scott and Elisabeth handing out presents

The pogo stick. It isn't as easy as Ansley makes it look. She can jump 100 times without stopping. Such a show off :-)

Anyone want to watch a puppet show?

I love it when they get excited about their Santa gifts!

The aftermath of Santa

Amy's new potty. Santa brought it. Now THAT is funny.

The American Girl bed. They finally have a proper place to sleep.

Elisabeth playing the Kailan Wii game

Elisabeth got alot of Kailan stuff for Christmas. She LOVES Kailan.

Making snow cones for everyone for dessert on Christmas Day.

Elisabeth enjoying her snow cone

John and Ansley ice skating in downtown Conyers

The calm before the BIG FALL.

Taking a break for a photo op.

Grandpa helping Elisabeth (aka: spaghetti legs) ice skate

Skating without any help

And I'm down......

After an afternoon of skating

We had to have at least one goofy picture......

Pre-School Christmas Party

Elisabeth's pre-school class........that's a bunch of boys!
Singing Away in a Manger

Enjoying a yummy cupcake

Elisabeth and her friend, Caleb

Decorating cookies

Elisabeth and her friend, Serena. Serena came up to me while I was eating and told me that Elisabeth was her princess. These kids are so funny!

On the last day of pre-school before Christmas Elisabeth's class had a class party. The parents were invited and the kids sang a few songs, listened to Mrs. Amanda read the Christmas story from the Bible, we ate, decorated cookies and just had fun. Mrs. Amanda and Mrs. Aminie are awesome teachers and Elisabeth loves them! It's hard to believe that pre-school is half over and Elisabeth is just that much closer to going to Kindergarten.

Please sponsor this Compassion International Child!

We have sponsored a little girl in Mexico via Compassion International for years. She is Ansley's age and we write letters back and forth to each other every couple of months. We give $38 per month to Compassion which goes towards a local Church program near Milene in Mexico that helps her learn about Jesus and provides physical, emotional and social support for her. Compassion even does trips every now and then where you can have the opportunity to travel and meet your sponsored child. Visit www.compassion.com for more information about this organization.

I committed to try and find a sponsor for a cute little girl from Brazil by the end of December.

WON'T YOU HELP ME BY SPONSORING HER??

Her name is Keitilly and she is 7 years old. She lives with her mother and father and helps at home with the daily errands. Her father is employed as a laborer and her mother maintains the home. There are 3 children in the family. She enjoys art and participates in church activities.

If you are interested please contact me.......you can even leave me a comment on the blog and tell me you are interested. I have packets with her picture, etc and can send you one if you are interested. We have so much and these kids have so little. Won't you help make a difference in Keitilly's life?

Elisabeth now has bangs.......not by my choice....

Elisabeth likes to help me cut the coupons out of the Sunday paper. This past Sunday I was sitting by the fireplace reading the paper and looking at all the sales ads when Elisabeth came and asked me to please get her scissors so she could cut out some coupons. We've done this many times before so I thought nothing of it. Well.....somewhere in the process of cutting coupons in the kitchen while I was in the den she decided that the piece of hair that was hanging in her face was annoying and she had scissors in her hand so why not cut it off and get it out of her face! Thank goodness the rest of her hair was in a ponytail. If it hadn't been I'm afraid of what she would have done! So.....she now has a few bangs. I must say - she cut them pretty straight for being 4 and not looking in the mirror! :-) I'm just glad they are long enough that I can pull them to the side in a barrett and you can't really tell.

The biggest Christmas Village.....ever

She made the mountain herself

It's huge!

Our friends, The Cantley's, set up a Christmas Village in their basement every year. It's incredible! You'd have to see it to believe it. Our pictures don't really do it justice. We took the kids over there to see it today. Elisabeth could have cared less but Ansley enjoyed looking at all of it and watching the train go around it, etc. Kerri has been collecting these pieces for 11 years and it takes a month or so to put it all up each year. Wish you could see it in person.......for now you'll just have to enjoy the pictures......

A Christmas Photo Shoot

Our dog Winston being made to wear reindeer antlers. He's pleading for someone to please help him......

Winston wearing the Santa hat. He looks thrilled doesn't he? He couldn't even sit up for the occasion.

Belle and Ansley. All Belle wanted to do was shake the crazy antlers off and eat them.

The photo shoot wore Belle out. She couldn't take it anymore!

The next victims....I mean subjects.....were the American Girl dolls.

Elisabeth and Sweet Amy

Santa Amy and Winston.

It was Friday night after a long busy week and very very cold outside so we brought the dogs in to sit with us by the fire and give them some love. As the night progressed it turned into a Christmas photo shoot with the dogs and the American Girl dolls and Amy. The dogs weren't thrilled....to say the least. But we had fun putting Santa hats and reindeer antlers on them anyway.

Oyster Roast and Christmas Tree

Picking out our Christmas Tree
Ansley being goofy and hiding behind the trees and jumping out at us. I caught her in action.

I didn't drive into the garage with the tree on top this time. I've done this twice before. I don't recommend it by the way.

Putting ornaments on the tree

Elisabeth hung ALOT of ornaments down low. The branches were dragging the ground by the time she finished :-)

Finally decorated!

We don't eat oysters so John is waiting at the concession stand to get all of us a hotdog :-)

Showing off her Citadel sweatshirt

The oyster cooker

The oysters......gross

Elisabeth playing in the mud. This is a recipe for a huge disaster....

Thank goodness there was a fireplace in the shelter to keep us warm. Ansley took over our camera and took a zillion pictures of the fire. This is just one of the many.

Me putting my hands towards the fire to try and stay warm. I didn't have any gloves and I was freezing!

Elisabeth playing with her water bottle. Right after this picture was taken she proceeded to squirt water from the bottle onto the camera lens. She thought it was real funny......I didn't.

Last weekend The Citadel Alumni Club held it's annual oyster roast. It was a rainy cold day. The high that day was around 41 degrees. Brrrr! John left before us to help set up and then we came a little later. We stayed for hours in the cold but the good news is there was a fireplace in the shelter so we could stand next to it for warmth! I don't eat oysters (I've had one once and that's all I need) and neither does John so all of us enjoyed a good hotdog and chips and had a nice time talking to couples we already know and some new ones that we met that day. One of the couples had 2 children from China so it was interesting to talk to them. Lots in common! And of course Bunny and Don Knebusch were there.......they traveled to China with us so they really enjoyed seeing Elisabeth and how much she has changed. I think the only time we ever see Don and Bunny is at the yearly oyster roast!

After that we decided it would be a good time to go get our Christmas tree and then head home to sit by the fire, drink hot chocolate and start decorating the tree. It was a nice relaxing day. Decorating the tree is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. We had many new ornaments to add to the tree this year. One from the Bahamas, one from the USS Harry Truman and one from Mexico. We didn't buy a huge tree this year and we almost had too many ornaments for the tree. Everytime we travel we buy and ornament for our tree. It's an easy souvenir and we get to pull them out and look at them and reminisce every year.

I hope each of you are enjoying this Christmas season and are taking time out to remember what it is really about......the birth of Christ. We are so very spoiled in this country and get caught up in all the commercialism. I am trying to make and effort not to do that this year and to just enjoy Christmas and spending time with family and taking advantage of as many volunteer opportunities as I can to help others.