Pillowcases Galore

My Aunt Lainey is a very creative gal ... more creative than anyone I know! It blows me away the stuff she can do. She surprised us with personalized pillowcases this year. Not only are they personalized, but they are also handmade. We are SO touched to have someone so special in our lives & that knows us so well. Each pillowcase reflects who we are individually and then also has our name embroidered on it too (mine has a kitty next to my name too ... perfect)!!! We absolutely love them!!! Thanks bunches Aunt Lainey ... they're fabulous!!!

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The kids & their pillowcases &

Callie with the adorable cup & saucer ...

can you tell how tickled she is by it?!? :)

Here are all the pillowcases. I included the

part with my name & adorable kitty

larger because it was kind of hard to see in the original

picture & it's SO adorable, I didn't want anyone to miss it! :)

Christmas Morning

The Christmas tree area Christmas morning

before the kids saw it.

The kids always have to wait upstairs until they are called down to see the tree & open presents. It's the way we've always done it & hopefully will continue to do so. It works really well for us. Anyway, I headed to the stairs to call them & this is what I saw ... Callie. ha
Forgive my pictures. Apparently I decided to take pictures without the flash & the pictures suffered big time for that. I took bunches of pictures but most of them are blurry & didn't turn out nearly as good as the ones below. I just included a few assorted pictures of Calob & Callie opening gifts.

Oh look, it's amazing what a flash can do! lol

We all had a very Merry Christmas & hope you did as well. May the rest of your Christmas holiday be blessed with love & family!!!

Christmas Eve Dinner

We went to Sharon & Gord's last night for a lovely Christmas Eve dinner. Normally we have dinner on Christmas day but Gord had to work so we celebrated early. It was great as always. It's amazing to have such good friends who are always willing to invite us to share their holidays with them!!!

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Calob & Gord playing Mario Kart.

The 2 families.

"O Holy Night"

Do you have a favorite Christmas carol? In our house, the choices are quite varied. Terence - "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer" ... Calob - "Santa Clause Comes Tonight" ... Callie - "Silent Night" ... and mine is "O Holy Night." Something about that song touches me deep down in my soul. I'm not a super religious person (as you may or may not know) but at the right time and the right place, that song can literally bring me to my knees & to tears ... in a truly wonderful way.

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"Straight No Chaser" is an all-male a capella group we discovered on the radio one day. I LOVE a capella ... and these guys definitely bring a smile to my face. Hopefully they will for you too.

"Miracle on Main Street"

On Sunday, the Kidsing Praise Network, performed "Miracle on Main Street." The basic story is that the mayor (along with some townspeople) no longer want the Christmas pageant performed in the Main Street square. The kids decide they need to save Christmas & set about making it happen. Of course, the kids were successful.

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The preschoolers opened the show &

oh how I wish you could've heard them.

They were a R-I-O-T!!! ☺

"I Hate to Wait for Christmas"

The hippies that didn't want the

Christmas pageant to be performed

in Main Street square.

"I Believe"

The Nativity Scene

More Decorations

A few more pictures of decorations

in our house this year.

Lots of Ornaments

Assorted pictures of

ornaments on our Christmas tree.

Oh Christmas Tree!

We have a new Christmas tree this year. We didn't plan to get one. Nope, not on the list at all. We had everything set & ready to go with the decorating of the old tree. Terence put the tree together & guess what? About 1/3 of the lights didn't work. And everybody knows, you can NOT have a funkily (yes, it IS a word) lit Christmas tree. So we decided a new tree was now on the list. We also decided to get one that was NOT pre-lit so we wouldn't run into the same problems. We ended up with a much larger tree (taller & wider) but much more to my liking. We also bought new lights ... energy efficient something or others. Groovy.

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The kids had a blast decorating it, as usual.

I absolutely love, Love, LOVE this picture!

It truly shows the tree being decorated

from top (Callie) to bottom (Calob)!!!

Christmas Happenings 2008

We woke up Christmas morning to a very white Christmas. We don't have snow on Christmas day typically so it definitely fit the holiday. The kids were especially happy to see the falling snow (Terence & I, not so much).

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Calob & Callie w/their stockings

new pajama pants & slippers from SantaCallie opening her presents from Grandma Judy

Matching nightgowns for Callie & Kit

Assorted pictures of presents being opened

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We were invited to eat Christmas dinner with Sharon, Gord & family again this year. My kids love having the traditional feast there because when we celebrate at home we have tri-tip ... not turkey. At some point in the evening I left my camera unattended on Sharon's dining room table. She picked it up & told her parents to act goofy. They definitely did so. To keep my blog PG I added a little something to Sharon's mom's backside ... and NO, she wasn't drunk! lol

Emily took this picture of Callie & me

Close-up of the necklace Callie got for me. Green IS keen!

A group shot of our 2 families at the end of the evening. Remind me next year to take it w/a flash.

* Merry Christmas Eve *

My kids have unofficially been on Christmas break since Thursday of last week. They have taken every opportunity since then to fight. About anything ... about everything ... about nothing. It's the thing that drives me most crazy during Christmas break ... and summer break ... and any other time when they are home for an extended period of time. So, when I hear nothing and go in search of the kids & find them like THIS ... it brings me a joy I can't explain!!!

Samson cozying up to Gillian
Today we had a bit of a surprise. Snow ... LOTS of it. We woke up to it snowing & it's now 8 hours later & it's still snowing. It did stop for a brief period but I think that was to give us a false sense of relief ... it didn't last long. When Terence got home from work (early) he took the kids outside to finally play in the snow. They had SO much fun!!!

"Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey"

Have you seen the movie "Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey" before? If you haven't, you definitely should. It is my absolute favorite Christmas movie!!! Yes, it's corny & there are movies much better made now-a-days but it's also moving, funny & just plain wonderful. Most people I know haven't even heard of it but when I was talking to Andrea last night I found it was her favorite as well. That makes me happy because I've never found anyone else who loves "Nestor" like I do. I don't own the movie but I plan to get it someday. For now it will be on the ABC Family channel on December 13th @ 11:30 am (but the time might depend if you have Dish or DirecTV) ... so watch it & see how wonderful "Nestor" truly is!!!

Trimming the Tree

Today was the day to "trim" the tree ... and Callie could NOT have been happier. I think the minute she sees Christmas items in the stores she thinks we should do it then but we hold her off to a more appropriate time. The kids still enjoy placing the ornaments, especially the special ones they have made throughout the years. I really enjoy watching & taking pictures. You will have to wait to see the finished tree as I totally forgot to take any pictures once they were all done. Oops! lol

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Ornaments ready to go

Callie, Calob & Terence
Callie receiving a new, special ornament (thanks Andrea) It's Clara in honor of her role in the recital this year.

On another note, today is Terence's birthday ... he's old (well, at least older than me)! 42 years young. We didn't take any birthday pictures though ... so here's a picture from September ... isn't he all manly here?!? lol Hopefully Terence had a relaxing day (besides the tree) and was able to enjoy becoming a whole year older ... Happy Birthday Terence!!!