Last Time

We cooked pancakes for the very last time in 2009 this morning.

It was also our last time using the farmyard plates...yay!

It's Going To Be SO Fast!

The Pinewood Derby is at the end of January. Will drew on his block of pine, and then David used the saw. After that the sanding began. I can't wait to see how this turns out!

Tea Time

Kit & Rebecca have been waiting a long time to sit down and have some tea. Kit is wearing her new dress and ice skates, while Rebecca has yet to change out of her bathrobe!

Christmas Day!

At 8 o'clock we gathered in the living room to see what Santa had brought for us! Will got lots of Lego's and a football!!








Katherine got snow boots - after the big storm!! She also got a table & chairs for her AG dolls!












Caroline got a rice cooker & an ipod. Morgan got some really cool boots!









Morgan gave Caroline a pie crust!












Will did all of his own shopping and wrapping this year. He was so pleased with himself and loved the giving as much as the getting!












Morgan got a car!
And a knife - hope she doesn't take that to school!












More Hess Trucks came our way!












After a morning full of wonderful surprises, we got ourselves together and headed over to Grandmama and Granddaddy's for Christmas dinner & more presents!!









David wore a lovely musical tie!












We gave Grandmama & Granddaddy a book full of beach memories!









We all wore crowns & told riddles at dinner!









We found out that Morgan has definitely grown taller than Grandmama!












Granddaddy got a homemade WFU pillow!

'Twas The Night Before Christmas 2009

Morgan snuggled.

Katherine read along.

Caroline & Will listened.

Will made sure his stocking was hung securely.

Will looked to make sure his stocking was still there.

Will wondered how on Earth that stocking would get filled!

When the reading and wondering were done, the plate was filled with goodies for the fat man.

Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas Eve

Will's Nativity picture graced the cover of our Christmas Eve Service bulletin. He was quite pleased. I especially like the angel!

Trains and Legos

Decorating this train took quite a long time, and quite a lot of discussion!
It collapsed, but only for short minute (as opposed to a long one!) and in no time the kids had it upright and festive once more!

This is Will's advent calendar - or was. He got to make a new Lego piece each day for the final scene. When he was finished he set them all up for the picture, and promptly threw them all in with all of his other Lego's! Yay!

Cookies, Chili & Caroling

The girls asked some friends to come over to decorate cookies, have supper, and carol on our still very snowy road. The littlest girls, who really aren't very little anymore, started their evening making candy necklaces!

Morgan & Caroline & their friends started with the cookie decorating. There would be lots of cookies to frost!

Will, who started out the evening worried that he wouldn't have HIS friends here, had a fun time decorating and being hugged by all of the big girls! He was also the official cookie deliverer!

At one point every girl was decorating.

We added toffee & chocolate covered pretzels to these beautiful sugar cookies!

Katherine's friends braved eating in the living room. They enjoyed the quiet. The kitchen was awfully loud!

We had chili, rice & cornbread! Something for everyone!

After eating and wrapping up the cookie plates, we headed out to sing!

Wouldn't you just love for this group to show up at your front door?!

We stopped at every house and sang. We even sang when we knew people weren't home!

Will had a great time singing along & delivering cookies!

We even caroled at our next door neighbor's empty house - well, Doc was there, and Rascal, and some chickens!

After caroling, everyone welcomed some hot cocoa & hot cider! Caroline enjoyed being in charge of doling out the whipped cream!

Making Cookies

Katherine "all-dough-is play-doh", had a fine time squishing and kneading the dough.
We rolled and cut over a hundred and fifty cookies!
The girls and I had bunches of cookie-making fun. We only frosted enough for my office, and left the rest for the little elves to frost tomorrow!
What you can't see in these photos is the frustration of my hand mixer dying last night in the middle of making the first batch of cookie dough! Luckily I still have my mother's hand mixer that she got as a wedding gift in 1962! It worked better than my 22-year-old mixer!