Merry Christmas!

In the days leading up to Christmas, we made cookies.....

The workstation.... complete with Dave's homemade icing and lots of decorations (for the record, Dave did ALL of this. He made the cookies, he made the icing, he bought the toppings and set up the "bakery.")

Waiting to be frosted..... including our lone "leg lamp" cookie that we always make for our neighbor across the street!

#nailed-it

Then, on Christmas Eve, we met up with Dave's side of the family for our traditional Christmas Eve movie.

Lacey with cousins Jacque and Alexis.

Tanner, Riley and Ella with Becky next to Ella and Aunt Anne, Uncle Mike and cousin Jordan behind.

We saw Maleficent 

All the Strom Cousins were there except for Tyler

And then the six of us went to Pats to start the Mitchell tradition of going out for pizza....

And then driving all over town to see and enjoy the Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music in the car.

This is our favorite tree. We look forward to seeing her in all her grandeur every year.

It's located on Ullman road.

White Oak Drive.

This isn't a great pic, but we sat in front of this house for 45 minutes. It was all synchronized to music and, even after 45 minutes, it never once repeated a song. We were all mesmerized!

Located in Cypress Landing.

Then we went home, got in our matching PJs, set out cookies and eggnog for Santa, read a Christmas story, watched an episode of Fuller House, said a family prayer and headed to bed.

Everybody was up and at 'em early, the anticipation killing them! But they all know that they all have to wait until we are all ready to go down together and we had set 7:30am as the time the night before. So, they all waited.....

Alas 7:30 arrived and we headed down to open stockings.

And to see if Santa arrived!

He did!

Tanner got a laser pointer and it proved to be loads of fun pointing it around and watching the cats go nuts trying to chase the light.

And the kids all loved their traditional "Ashmore gifts."  Most of them handmade.  Thank you, Maricarmen!! 🎄🎅🤶

Nintendo Switch - whoo hoo!

Riley and Ella's "biggie"..... more LOL dolls than you could ever possibly need!

And from their cousins..... doll-sized school and science sets to set up their doll classroom.

Lacey's biggie.... a much - needed new bike.  Either she keeps growing or her bike keeps getting smaller..... either way, she hasn't been able to ride a bike for at least six months due to being way too big for it!

Then, at Noon, we headed over to Nana and Grandpa's house where we met up with the whole Strom clan and ate a delicious lunch, visited and played games.

And had some good cousin time!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Goodnight! 🎄

'Tis the Season

Wednesday night was Riley's first Orchestra concert.

She shared a stand with one of her besties, Katelyn and played the violin.

Then Thursday night, we went to Tanner's band concert.

Dave and I drove separately so that Dave could get him there early and then Dave took his saxophone home with him immediately after the concert, so I didn't get any pics of Tan with his sax!

But anyway, they did a great job!  What a difference between the elementary school band concerts and the middle school band concerts!

Then Friday, I went to volunteer in Ella's classroom party where we celebrated the last day of school before Christmas break!

If you're wondering why she's in all white..... it's because even though I had her in a cute outfit and ready to go, she tells me right as we're walking out the door that it's "Star Wars day" at school and she wanted to dress up like Star Wars, so we did our best to dress her like Padme.  So, anyway, there you have it..... Rudolph the White Nosed Padme Reindeer!

Ella and her fellow 1st graders in Mrs. Queen's class

That night, while Tanner and Dave were seeing the new Star Wars movie that just came out, I took the two little girls over to a neighbor's house where we met up to go caroling around the neighborhood, then back to their house for treats and a visit from Santa Claus!  That's Riley in the green coat.

Lacey wasn't with us because she was invited to a friend's house to make gingerbread houses.

And she ended up winning first place in the little contest they had. Very cute!

And speaking of Lacey..... this little girl has such a heart of gold. I hope she holds on to that forever.  She asked me to go out and get her a poster and markers. When I asked her what it was for, she said that her bus driver told the kids that the bus aid was out sick because she accidentally burned herself. Lacey wanted to make her a huge card and have all the kids on the bus sign it and give it to her. 

I was nothing but self absorbed at this age, as has been my experience with about 99% of all other middle schoolers I've met.  But this little one thinks outside of herself on a daily, consistent basis. It's in her nature.  And I hope she stays that way forever. 💗💝💗

Saturday: We invited 18 families over to our house to do a Christmas 🎄🎅🤶 Scavenger hunt and then meet back at our house for treats and prizes. I was so busy hosting that I didn't take a single picture!

Today:  We went to church and listened to an hour of beautiful music.  Riley was part of a small group choir, Tanner played the bells for a song and Ella sang with the Primary.  Such a nice way to spend the Sunday preceding Christmas.