More Christmas Fun

We have been doing lots of fun Christmas things this month.  The boys and I dropped off stuff for "Toys for Tots" and Santa was there so they got their picture with him.

 In our town, they have a little Christmas celebration.  It starts with a little fire, with s'mores with Anna and Elsa.  Then, Santa comes and there is a parade following his sleigh.  We end up at a little pavilion where Santa lights the tree and hot chocolate is passed out.  There is also a guy who does ice carvings.  Then, across the street you can see reindeer, eat cookies and get your picture with Santa.  We had never been before, but it was a lot of fun.

 Following Santa's sleigh in the parade...

 Seeing the reindeer….Keegan loved them!!

 The boys in front of our tree with their peanuts pajamas

 Alvin brought the boys Christmas Crunch cereal one morning

 Keegan likes to dress up like Santa lately...

 Matt made a frame for all of our Christmas cards this year and we took a couple fun pics with the boys before we hung it up...

Here is the finished product with some of our cards….we are still getting more every day and we love them!

Although you probably can't really see them, this tree that is in our living room has all of the ornaments on it that were my grandma's.  I love this tree!!!

Alvin and the Tree

Our Elf on the Shelf, Alvin, was waiting for us when we got back home from Illinois after Thanksgiving.  He brought the boys a present…new peanuts pajamas!  The boys were so excited and love finding Alvin every day.  It's kind of sad when we have to say goodbye to him on Christmas Eve for another year.  

 We also bought our Christmas tree the week we got home from Illinois.  Here is a pic of it strapped to our car...

 We got a big one this year….11 ft tall and I love it!  We have tall ceilings so I have always said that we need to get a bigger tree!!

 The boys decorating the tree...

 Landon's star ornament that he got from Santa when he was little.  This is always his favorite ornament to put on the tree.

Thanksgiving

This is what one of my student's made me for Thanksgiving….it says "Joy" on one side for the holidays and then "Love" on the other side for Valentine's Day….so cute!  She is going with me to Spain this summer and has been selling them for $25 each.  She has paid for over half her trip already!

 Here is Keegan in the car….8 hours doesn't scare him!!!

 On Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I got to see all my high school friends again.  We had a blast, like always and just picked up where we left off a year ago.  A big thanks to the Feldman's for hosting all of us!

Here are all the kids...

 And all the girls…Ashleigh, Katie, Autumn, Me, Meghan, Michelle, Brittany and Angie.  LOVE these girls and so thankful that I get to see them at least once a year still!! 

 We were the last to leave so we got to spend an extra few minutes with Autumn's family….love this pic of Landon & Aspen.

 And this is one of my favorites…Keegan, Skylar, Landon & Aspen

 We got up on Thanksgiving morning, made a quick stop in Sherman and then drove to Mattoon for Thanksgiving with Matt's family.  Here are a couple selfies we took that day…

Cara & I

 Rod, Cara & I

 Cara and Gramme

Keegan trying to take a selfie with their dog, Ava

Landon & I

A family pic with Matt's grandparents and all the grandkids and great grandkids

A group pic of everyone

Keegan & Ava

 Look at all the wonderful desserts we had that day...

 Matt, Sophia and Cara getting ready to sample all the desserts..

Keegan eating his dessert

 Keegan reading a story in the car on the way back to Sherman.  

 Here are a few pics from Sherman.

Landon in the sleigh...

 Keegan on the sleigh

 We went to Rod & Dixie's church to take family pictures.  Here is a pic of Matt & I with Cara & Nathaniel in front of the Christmas tree.

 The kids and grandkids

 The 4 of us

 A family pic with all of us

 Cute pic of Keegan

We didn't do a very good job taking pictures with my side of the family when we went to my brother's house in Downs for Thanksgiving.

Here is a funny pic of Cindy and the girls….seeing if that was the right angle for us to set the camera on the basketball hoop to get a group picture!

 All 10 of us

We usually don't get a family pic of just the 4 of us anymore, so I love this one!

So thankful for all of you guys….our family and friends!  We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too and remembered everyone and everything that you are all thankful for!

Grandparents Day and more fun!

Matt went to Arkansas again the for a few days the week before Thanksgiving.  So, my parents were already coming out for Grandparents Day and decided to come a few days early to stay with me while he was gone.  That weekend we went to the Christmas Tree Lighting at Crocker Park, like we always do.  We are usually freezing, but this year it was raining :(.  We had fun anyway though and the lights were set to music this year and a lot of fun to watch!

Mom & Dad trying to avoid the rain

 Us 4 under our umbrella

 The boys in the street once all the lights were turned on

 On Sunday, we all went to church and then back that night for "Hanging of the Greens" and "Jingle Fest".  We all went with the boys to "Jingle Fest" and they made Jesse trees, which our advent calendars.  Each day you were supposed to add one more ornament to the tree.  Both boys have them in their rooms and they are awesome!  They put all the ornaments on at once, but each one symbolizes something important from the story of Christmas and Jesus' birth!

Here is Landon with his Jesse tree!

 On Monday before Thanksgiving, Matt got to help out with Landon's Thanksgiving Feast at school

 So much fun!

Then, on Tuesday, Mom & Dad headed to Landon's school for Grandparents day.  They were there for 2 hours and had a blast….they sang songs, did crafts and took pictures!  After that, they were allowed to take him out to lunch.  When they left Panera and dropped Landon back off, they headed to Illinois.  We followed them 4 hours later when school was over and headed to Illinois through Sunday for Thanksgiving!

Thanks for coming out again, guys!  We love having you here and I know Landon was so excited that you got to go to Grandparents Day!