Christmas Day 2015

On Christmas Day we went to church in the morning and then to my moms for our family Christmas.  We were all there most of the day and it was so much fun!  Love my nutty family!

Laura and Chris came to our church for Christmas Day so I attempted this picture after church before the kids changed clothes.

Again, another attempt.  I gave Laura my camera and she couldn't get Mike and I in the picture - we were between Ashley and Laura.  We tried this about 5 times and she cut us out each time.  (And Justin was between Laura and Chris).  There were 17 of us there.  

Julie is in Africa for her Missionary work and this is her first Christmas there.  Her boyfriend Will flew to Kenya to spend Christmas with her.  We were able to skyp with her (sorta - bad connection) and talk to her and watch her open her gifts from us.  

I know a girl who makes signs and I saw this saying on Pinterest and thought it was perfect for mom, her house and her family.

Gifty (on the left) is my moms foreign exchange student and her sister Jamesetta is going to CSP to joined our family for a week of her Christmas break.

Martin & Lisa

 So blessed.

 Since we had so much rain this fall, the small pond in my moms pasture filled up, and then froze.  My brothers (and Mike and Bennett) are thrilled and have been out there constantly.  

Mike bought Bennett a pair of skates as soon as he found out about this pond freezing.  And Bennett got the hockey stick as a Christmas present.  He caught on pretty quickly and it loving playing with the 'big boys'. 

You may have seen the "Saran Wrap Game" going around on the internet this past month.  We did it and it was a blast!  Highly recommended for a fun group game!  

Christmas Eve 2015

On Christmas Eve we went to church for a 5:00pm service which the Sunday School children did.  Both Bennett and Ashley did so nicely during that service.  They both had shepherd headgear on but I was too far away to get a decent picture and, I hate to take pictures during a church service.

After church we got home and Santa once again miraculously came while we were gone.  The kids and Mike leave the house and I quickly get the gifts out of the storage room and under the tree. 

I told them we couldn't open any presents until they took a nice Christmas picture.  I had a couple good ones within 2 minutes.  This never happens and it's usually a struggle to get good pictures from them so maybe presents is the key!  

Each kid had 8 real gifts and 2 small stocking gifts.  The quantity of 8 is higher than other years but dollar amounts weren't.  Neither of them had any really expensive items on their list this year so I was able to get them a few more extra gifts.  I think the most expensive gift was $20.  And, this is the first year that they were both thrilled by every single gift which was great too and lots of fun to watch.  There were a few gifts which during the fall they had wanted when they were shopping with me a few times but I said they couldn't get it...went back and got them during a different shopping trip.

He's loving this dart gun.  I'm not loving all the darts laying all over my house though. 

He wanted this backpack in August when we were school shopping.  The one he had from last year was in good enough shape though so I wasn't gonna buy him this.  But after a few weeks of school I realized that maybe he would actually need a new one so I bought this and put it away, hoping his current one would last him until Christmas.  

She wanted both the swimming pool and the Frozen music book while on a shopping trip with me.  Gee, how did Santa know she wanted both of those?!

New MN Wild cap.

He wanted a helicopter.  You can see it floating in the middle of this picture.  It was $10 at Menards so for $10, I figured it wouldn't last long.  Since I didn't know if he'd actually be able to handle a more expensive one, I bought the $10 one.  It worked really good for about 4 days.  We're now talking about using some of his Christmas money from Great-Grandparents to go buy a better one.  

I got Mike a couple ice fishing things he wanted and a MN hockey shirt. He got me back in November already the Wise Men set to the Willow Tree Angels Nativity set.  

After we had our gifts opened we had grilled hamburgers for supper.  Other years I have spent time making a nice Christmas Eve supper for us...chili, stuffed pasta shells...and it didn't work well since the kids don't like those foods.  So this year we went easy and grilled some burgers instead.  Worked for me.  

After the kids and eventually Mike too went to bed, I went with my siblings and Mom (and Shirley) to the CandleLight Service at 11:00pm at church.  That service is always nice for me because it means that all of my Christmas work is done (4 service bulletins for Church), I don't have kids on my lap whining or that I'm trying to watch say their parts - it's just relaxing and feels like Christmas.  

Merry Christmas from the Fords!

Christmas Prep

The entire month of December was busy busy busy!  But also so much fun fun fun!  Here are a few of the fun things we were up to, to get ready for Christmas.

Kristen, David, Josh and I went to the Minnesota Orchestra for a Home Alone concert!  So much fun.  The movie was played on a huge screen and right below that the orchestra played all of the music live.

 Santa came to New Germany again this Christmas and Laura brought Justin to see him for the first time too.  No tears.  

 Ashley did so great at her preschool Christmas program.  She was so excited for that program and had a countdown going for weeks for it.

 We bought a pre-built house and the kids decorated it on their own.  Mike supervised this project while I was out shopping one day but he said they did the majority of it on their own this year.

Bennett was so handsome and did a great job at his school Christmas program too.  

Kristen and I went to Laura's house to bake cookies one afternoon.  We made 7 different kinds of cookies/treats. 

Also I went to Bennett's school one afternoon to help him make and decorate gingerbread houses.  I don't volunteer in his class very often so this was fun to do with him and he told me he was glad I was there.  It was sweet.

Then one day the Preschool thru 2nd graders went to a children's theater to watch a production of A Charlie Brown Christmas which I went along with.  This was awesome and we all had a blast.  At least I did.  Ashley liked it but 20 minutes in she was asking how much longer.  It was about 45 minutes total.  

Halloween 2015

We had fun filling about 15 of these bags.  

Pumpkins from our garden!

Bennett did a great job on his pumpkin.  The only part Ashley did of her pumpkin was pick out the design.  

We went out on Halloween night and walked to probably about 20 houses.  They both had a bucket full and I was ready to go home.