Merry Memories

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  Ours was FULL of excitement and activities!!!  It has flown by!!!  Warning, this post is pretty much our entire month of December wrapped up in one post.  Pictures will be many, words will be few!!!!

Our elves had a great time being mischievous - but on a few days they actually made cinnamon rolls for the children, brought doughnuts and even pointed to Jesus a few times - they have their priorities in order!!!!

 The attempts at Christmas card pictures were many!!!!

 Emma Claire and Wilson saw Santa a few times each, Henderson only saw him once - and once might have been too many, he's still terrified!!!

 This is a classic "Emma Claire" look - thoughtful and pensive - I really think she thought she was supposed to just climb up in his lap, say cheese for the camera and get down.  When he started talking to her and asking her all about herself, I think it caught her a little off guard!!! :)

 When Santa asked Wilson what he wanted for Christmas, he responded with, "A Grinch Movie"!  This brought lots of laughs from Santa and his elves!!!  Then, he left Santa's lap and went to get his face painted and his request, A Grinch!!!!  The girls weren't really sure how to respond, but they did their best!!!

 Waiting in line to see Santa at the one event Henderson actually got close to him!!!  You can see Emma Claire holding his hand, not letting him run away!!!  I didn't get a picture with my camera of him sitting in his lap b/c I was so busy trying to make him smile and not cry!!!

 The weekend before Christmas, Emma Claire was in the production of Winnie the Pooh, A Christmas Tail!  It was a wondeful experience and such a cute cast and costumes!!!

 Emma Claire and a few of her friends were surprised on the last day of school when their elves picked them up in a limosine and took them on an elfcapade!!!

 They went caroling at Capstone Village, a local retirement home.  And they were all really quiet and only walked and sang softly to all the elderly residents!!!!

 Yeah, Right!!!!  They all loved us being there, but I think they were ready for this rowdy group to leave when it was all said and done!!!  School's out and Christmas 3 days away was a little too much excitement for these girls!!!! :)

 This sweet man actually sang to the girls when he opened the door!!!!

 The man in charge gave them a clue to go see the BIG MAN IN THE RED SUIT next!!!!

 And they rode the train and posed for a group picture!!!!

 Then got another clue to go make cookies at one of the girls' grandmothers restaurant!!!!

 Christmas Eve and Day were spent at Will's parents house - with 7 children, it was full of excitement!!!

 Santa brought my children a 4 wheeler, which they have LOVED!!!

On Christmas day, Emma Claire was playing on one of her little cousins rocking horse type toys and slipped off and busted her mouth - knocked her front tooth and lateral tooth (is that what it's called?) up into her gums and bit right through her bottom gum all the way into her chin.  I took her to the Emergency Room (in the snow), then to my brother-in-laws, Stan's, dental office where she recieved 2 stitches, 3 shots, laughing gas and lost her very first tooth!!!!!  Stan had to pull her front tooth and the other one is still questionable.  It was all VERY exciting!!!  She was very brave and never cried in the chair!!!  Her lip is still pretty bad and swollen and she's talking funny and slurping alot :)  She's probably the last first grader in her school to loose a tooth so she was SUPER excited about that!!!  The tooth fairy is now alive and well at our house!!!!  All the pictures I have of her are on my phone and I have no idea how to get them on this blog!!!!  You probably would not want to see them anyways, they are pretty gross!!!!

Henderson fell sick on Monday, croupy cough like he pretty much keeps 300 days out of the year along with fever.  Normally fever around here goes away on it's own in 24 hours, but Wednesday afternoon he was still running high!  I took him to the pediatrician and his fever there was 104.6!!!!  Wow!!!  He tested negative for flu. His ears, throat and lungs were fine.  No diagnosis, but we came home on a Z-pack and he woke up fever free this morning!!  Halleluiah!!!!

The New Year is just around the corner and it's such a great time for New Beginnings!  Emma Claire and I both have the Jesus Calling books that we are going to read together this new year!  My hope is to be more intentional with my family and others this year.  To not let moments slip by because I'm too busy or focused on other things, but to treasure life and the people around me, both those I'm close to and strangers alike.  Lord, give me a passion for the lost and open my eyes to see needs around me and give me the strength and resources to meet those needs!!!

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Acts 20:24

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