We had visitors this past week ... COUSINS! Dave and Daisy were here with their 3 kids and Daisy's mom, Susan, from Tuesday night through Sunday morning. So much to do ... so little time ... and now I'm exhausted - AGAIN!!!!
I also stayed up until midnight wrapping the last of our gifts for the children last night. You can't wrap the gifts too early in this house ... too many curious minds and prying little fingers around here... and I was afraid, of course, all my Christmas parcels would shed their bows and holiday gift-wrap long before THE much anticipated EVE arrived.
I'm going to attempt to keep this short tonight so I can get some sleep and stay up really late with the kids to spy on SANTA tomorrow night!!! So here's a quick summary of our activities this past week ...
- Cousins!!!
- Choirs of Angels ;-)
- Cousins sharing (whew they all got along)
- Santa ... and more LIGHTS...
- Cousins fighting ( Hey, they're not perfect - they're kids~)
- Pool Tournament for Per and Uncle Dave (early Christmas present - we found a nice used pool table for Per)
- Cousins splashing in the hot tub - and one jumping in the pool because he didn't realize it was not heated (brrrrrrrrrr)!!!
- A visit to Opryland and the Opryland Mall including the Sting Ray tank and endless rides on the Merry-go-Round (sorry no pics - Dave took all the photos on this outing ... maybe he'll start a blog and share ... hint, hint)
- Anders returns from his trip to New York City!!!
- The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, starring The Rockettes, at the Grand Ole Opry ... and even better featuring a great Live Nativity...
- Christmas dresses for church ...
- Caroling with our awesome neighbors!!!
- Dancing to Daddy's tunes...
- Kids still enjoying their Christmas gifts from last year (yes, some of the Christmas gifts really do last!!!)
COUSINS!!!!
Brynn's choir concert....
in 2 words...
~ Angelic Voices ~
We found a NEW favorite Christmas light display.
Anders said this is what he had been picturing
for American Christmas lights all along.
I think he watched a few too many corny
American Christmas movies before he got here
(he's a bit of a movie junkie) ;-)
Santa lured Kyra in with a candy cane ...
but Mommy and Daddy were just inches away
or Santa wouldn't have stood a chance with her ...
Dave's beautiful family....
The Rockettes!
Ignore the fuzzy photos...
the iPhone's camera is lame~
Admittedly, The Radio City Spectacular starts out a little hokey (ummmm rapping ELVES... need I say more???)
but it got much better as the evening progressed...
... and the LIVE NATIVITY at the end was WONDERFUL
(my fav - the live camels).
Kyra loves her Christmas dress from last year.
That's a good thing considering I haven't finished
making this year's holiday dresses for the girls
(next Sunday ... stay tuned)
Sunday evening's activities including caroling with our neighbors.
The kids were really looking forward to this event
since it was SO much fun last year...
...but then it ended up being about 20 degrees that night,
which is very cold for our thin blood.
I confess - we whimped out and left a little early.
I'm still trying to get the last of the holiday decorations up this week.
Annika really likes the addition of the tissue paper bells this year.
I saw the idea in a magazine at Nils' and Wendy's house
and thought "simple, cute, and whimiscal"...
and they're a big hit with the kids.
They little ones still had tons of energy after caroling,
likely because Mom and Dad carried them around all night,
so they burned off some energy dancing to Daddy's tunes before bedtime.
Have I mentioned how much we love
our incredibly talented patriarch?
His guitar serenades are all the rage in this house.
And finally, it's really hard to get any blogging in these days.
The girls are constantly hogging my computer...
We got them the Giggles computer game for Christmas last year
... and it's STILL A HIT (I'd highly recommend it!)
This quote popped into my head when I saw this photo tonight...
In thee my soul shall own combined the sister and the friend.
~Catherine Killigrew
Annika and Kyra - I hope you are always close friends.
You are so blessed to have each other.
Cherish your lives together!
And Torby and Brynn - This quote is for you ;-)
More than Santa Claus,
your sister knows when you've been bad and good.
~Linda Sunshine
SO TRUE, SO TRUE ... right, Brynn?
I cherish you my lovely little family.
I'm soooo looking forward to spending the holidays with you...
I can't think of anywhere else on this earth that I would rather be ...
than here with you.
~Love Mom
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