Christmas Morning!!

Merry Christmas!! This year I thought about it ahead of time and got out the Rebel camera that Poppa and Mamaw sent to us and used it for photos. So we managed to take 82 photos! I will not put them all here but I am putting quite a few....for Mamaw and Poppa! Enjoy!!

Maddie's Winter Camp Box...she never did ask if she was registered so that didn't quite go as planned but she loved what was in it just the same!! The favorite part was the bracelet with Camp Fowler coordinates engraved on it.

Owl Slippers!

Then we opened presents from Mamaw and Poppa. Aren't the Amazon gift bags pretty? We loved everything!!

Maddie couldn't wait to get into the big Dick Blick Art box. 

I'm not sure which one she was more excited about...the paper or 

the portfolio!

I've no idea here...none....but it is a typical Brian funny shot so I had to include it!

Book from MG and me...bookmark by Mamaw!

Maddie was so happy! She was sad when we had to give this back to the library! Now she has her own copy!

Maddie said "We should've saved that for last!" 

New dishloth anyone? I'll get right on it!!

Hmmm..its a while until dinner. I think we will have noses in books and maybe even get dressed (GASP!) and go for a walk!! Thank you for everything!!

Baking Day!!

Yesterday we were all alone...no day care kiddos in sight...so it was baking day! We started out with cinnamon rolls with the help of Harry Potter.

Maddie was thrilled to do the cinnamon this year. I think she got it right this time and no one will be burning their mouth! 

Harry playing on my kindle.

Then we moved on to peanut butter blossoms and no photo. Whoops!!

After that we decorated sugar cookies we made earlier in the week. We used this icing recipe and loved it! The icing dries hard so we could stack the cookies back into our rubbermaid tin when we were done. I said we may not be professional but we certainly had fun! And, really, who will complain about our decorating when handed an iced cookie???

Some of Maddie's and some of Momma's

Maddie's tray

Momma's tray

Today we must practice for the church service tonight. Maddie is reading from Luke about the birth of Jesus and lighting the Christ candle. We are also expecting friends for lunch! I think some last minute wrapping and knitting are happening too. Enjoy your day!

Getting Ready!

We have done some decorating over the last 2 weekends to get ready for Christmas! Here are the results....

The chef tree!

Mary is still missing....one of these days I will get her replaced! I think the key to it will be to work on it the week after Christmas.

Truth in the Tinsel tree. This year we are using ornaments made in years past while enjoying the Bible verses.

Nativity Maddie made many years ago in Sunday School.

Playmobil Santa and animals, A Christmas Carol and the family tree.

Paperwhites! Maybe they will bloom for us.

Advent wreath with paperwhites in the middle.

Hmmmm....I think you know who that is!

Hewitt's 4H Wreath decorated by Maddie and Brian.

Birdie from the wreath...he was too cute so we had to bring him home.

Maddie has also been busy drawing, drawing and drawing some more! 

Today we made a trip to the Greenmarket! We bought yarn and kale!! Where else could a person do that? I purchased yarn to make a hat for myself using the coins I was given as my award for being the 4H Volunteer of the year for our county.

I should've taken a picture of the kale too! Its red russian kale and really pretty. So that it is it! More to come as more decorations make their appearance. Happy Advent!

4H Drones, 4H Thanksgiving Box Packing and Operation Christmas Child

We have had a busy couple of days! Here is what we have been up to....

On Thursday night we played with the Drone Discovery Project with our 4H group. We had a lot of fun watching the gliders fly! Those things fly really well! And they are made out of foam plates so they were light with a penny on the top for a bit of weight. The kids were able to decipher some physics in all this too which was great!

On Saturday we spent a little bit of time helping to pack food boxes for Concerned for the Hungry. These will be delivered in the coming week to families in need to help with Thanksgiving dinner. You line up outside the school gym then go in one at a time to wheel a cart around with a box which is filled by the people inside. This way things move along and all of us do not need to know what goes into each box.

Tonight while waiting on dinner we finished packing up our shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. We love doing this every year and bumped it up a box this time! 2 girl boxes and 2 boy boxes for kids in the 10-14 years old age range.

And now I think I am ready for bed! More to do tomorrow....