Christmas around the house

some of our decorations this year...

all i want for christmas is my 2 front teeth

So we went to church, came home and took pictures by the tree, and then the kids watched Rudolph while John and I got supper ready. All the sudden Mary Beth runs up to us happy as could be because her 2nd front tooth was bleeding and seemed to be dangling. John asked if she wanted him to pull it out and she said yes. It appeared like it was going to come out easily but he had to pull REALLY hard- she didn't shed a tear. Come to find out she had been working at this tooth all day(it wasn't even that loose!!) just so she could sing the song before it was Christmas! That little stinker! She did it though... and it looks so adorable. Now she is just praying her new teeth don't come in for a long time because I told her she couldn't suck her thumb anymore once they do...

Christmas Eve- after church pictures

silly gooses...

sweet

just some pictures from today...

gifts for teachers and friends

I got the brilliant idea this morning that we would make candy cane reindeer for everyone in the kids' classes.... that's about 75. So when it came down to actually making them this evening with the kids, it stopped being fun after about the 20th one. And that's about the time I stopped getting help. Oh well, they turned out cute!

Tomorrow morning is also the "favorite things" gift exchange my friends and I are doing. We are each bring 5 of our favorite things to pass out and so everyone will leave with 5 presents- the concept is like Oprah... but not a car.

I am bringing one of my favorite lip balms and a navy blue wool/felt flower pin that I love making. I hope everyone will like them!

Then we also had to make the teacher gifts: snow globes from jelly jars that the kids made and a gift card to Barnes and Noble for the female teachers- Scheels for Mickey's teacher.

They turned out so cute!

Here's how we packaged it:

Busy night but lots of fun crafts too!

ballet Christmas gift exchange

Mary Beth's ballet class did a gift exchange tonight and were supposed to dress up fancy for Christmas.

(pictures aren't great because I only had my phone)

advent boxes & projects

This year my mom put together the cutest advent boxes for the kids. Starting today they would open one of the bags in it every day until Christmas morning when they will open their little stocking. They were so excited to begin- they'd been eyeballing the boxes under the tree since last weekend...

such a great idea Mom!

Jeffrey was also eager to try out his new tool sets and toolbox project he got from John's sisters yesterday. He and John worked hard on his toolbox this afternoon

while Mickey put together his new lego set.

Jeffrey has more tools than John now!

He says he's like Bob the Builder or Handy Mandy with his toolbox. :)