More Christmas Happenings.....

Christmas time was busy in many ways. Tanner's class Christmas party was one of the celebrations going on and it was a fun time. The class all had Rudolph noses when I got there and were sitting at their seats waiting to eat some sugary snacks! After the food, the kids played a game where they were blindfolded and had to "dress" a snowman. It was pretty funny and the kids laughed like crazy when the things were put in the wrong place. Little gifts were passed out, then the day was done. Tanner has a good little class this year. He's made new friends and is really learning a lot!! It's been a great year so far!!

Tanner - 7 years old

Tanner got each of his classmates a book for Christmas!

Aubrei and Teegan

Jalen

Tanner taking a turn

Look at that cute boy!!

Tanner's choir and RA class at church went to Avonlea, a retirement home, to do some caroling for the residents there. It was Tanner's first time to go caroling. Terry helps teach Tanner's RA class, so he was there singing too. It was a great outreach for the kids to do and they had a good time making these special people happy.

Anna and Tanner made this creation with Anna's new Connectagons she got for Christmas. They were able to use every one of them. It was worth a picture!

Healthworks Hoopla!!

The week after Christmas, Tanner went to a camp at Healthworks (where his mommy works!) called Healthworks Hoopla! One of the cool things they did at this 3 hour camp was make marshmallow shooters! Tanner couldn't wait! After they made them, they had a high time shooting them in our "village" that was made out of boxes. They had a little target practice and had a blast! His friend and our neighbor, Zachary, went too, which made it even more fun! Yea for Healthworks Hoopla!!

Tanner assembling and personalizing his marshmallow shooter

Feet are wrapped (so the kids didn't track marshmallows throughout Healthworks), directions are given, shooters ready.....

Ready for some target practice

Reloading!

The village and the targets

Emily was a moving target and had a blast dodging marshmallows

Emily and Abby - 2 moving targets

Zachary and Tanner realized they could load more than one marshmallow and have a little rapid fire. The more they could shoot at one time - the better!!

Ready.... Aim.....

FIIIRE!!!!

Tanner and Zachary

Christmas with the Goggans

The Saturday after Christmas, Terry's family came to our house to celebrate Christmas. Mama Jane, Tina and John came bearing many gifts and tons of food! (Tiffany, unfortunately, had to work and was unable to come.) We had a late lunch and then opened presents. The best part of the day was spending time with our family. Terry's family is much smaller than mine, so when we get together it is very low key. We play games and talk a lot. It's a special time. For some unknown reason, I did not take any pictures!! What was I thinking!! Scrabble Slam was the favorite game of the day and Tina and John had some rousing games with the kids. I, personally, liked the remote control mini helicopter we gave John as a gift. I'm sure Tina will love it too - when John is flying it around their house! Ha!

It was a fun day spent with special people.

Merry Christmas - again!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was a long awaited day for the kids. Even though they couldn't wait for it to get here, they actually slept until around 9:30! Great for me and Terry! The kids have always come to wake us up first - before they check out the stuff from Santa - so we can catch it on film. It was the same this year. The kids always go into the den a little hesitantly, but once they get in there, they jump right in. They were excited with all their presents. The stilts, over-the-door electronic basketball goal, claw game, IPod stereo and bow and arrow marshmallow shooter were big hits - along with pretty much everything else!

The Claw Game! Trying to win some candy!

Avery trying out the stilts

A bow and arrow marshmallow shooter

Avery got a stereo for her IPod Touch

After opening Santa gifts, we opened presents from each other. This is one of my favorite parts. The kids buy each other gifts and it's always fun to see them open them. The gifts from me and Terry were the last gifts to be opened by the kids. Each child had a box to open and we got them to open them at the same time. Inside each box were pieces of paper folded up. They each had to unfold the pieces (which had letters on them) and rearrange them to form a word. Tanner had the word "Are", Anna had "You" and Avery had "Ready?". They were confused! They thought it had something to do with Ole Miss!!??? We told them to open a 4th box. Inside was a bowl full of cotton! They saw the cotton and thought that meant snow and that we were going snow-skiing!! I had told Terry this would happen! :) Once they looked a little closer, they noticed the bowl (Get it? Cotton Bowl?) and dug into the cotton and found some tickets!! Tickets to see the Rebels play in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX! They were so excited!! Avery had really been wanting to go but we had told her we couldn't get tickets (which we couldn't - through Ole Miss - we got them from Stub Hub). We were all pumped to get to see the Rebels play in a bowl game!

Avery and Anna gave Tanner these mini NFL football helmets that he wanted

He was so excited!

Anna had been wanting a book of Rebus puzzles, but we couldn't find an entire book, just pages of them on the Internet. Avery decided to print them out and make Anna a book. It had Rebus puzzles, personalized word finds, and other work puzzles. Anna loved it! And it was even better because Avery made it!

Anna and Tanner gave Avery a DS game she had been wanting!

The kids opening their gifts from me and Terry. Paper???

Tanner got his word!

Anna got hers!

Avery got hers too!

What??

Opening the last box!!

Digging deeper, they found some tickets!

Cotton Bowl Bound!

Our family had been doing an Advent candle each of the 4 weeks before Christmas and Christmas Day meant lighting the final candle. The advent devotions are great and really help us all focus on the the true meaning of Christmas - Jesus' birth. After finishing up the Advent Candle, we got down in the floor in the den with our Nativity scene to read the Christmas story from the Bible. For years we have done this and to keep the kids focused, we make it 'interactive'. The kids divide up the characters in the nativity and move them into position as the the story is being read. Terry reads from the book of Luke first, then the story of the wise men from the book of Matthew. We talk about how the people might have felt when Jesus was born and from seeing the babe. We talk about the shepherds telling all they saw about the baby Jesus, and how courageous and faithful the wise men were to travel such a long distance to see the King. Then we finish up by praying. We truly have many blessings to thank God for!

A little before lunchtime, Gran, Paige and Mike come over to open even more presents and eat our traditional Christmas Day lunch of chili. This is a special time with my side of the family and we love to have them here. Roller skates (real ones), a voice changer, Spiderman, and North face shirts were some of the loot the kids received. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with everything!

Anna trying out her new skates

Avery on her skates

Tanner's skates light up! He and Anna have made a path throughout the house where they have skated in circles!! They love them!

Uncle Mike with the kids

Mom with her sweet kiddos!

Aunt Paige with the kids

But our day was not over!! Around 5:30, we loaded up and headed to Amory to spend time with the Williams' side of my family. Since our crew continues to expand and no one's house can hold all 60 - 70 of us, we meet at the community center. Even though the time is short, it's a special time to celebrate our family. Our very big extended family! We eat some great food, then the kids open even more gifts. To end the night, the grownups play a rousing 'dirty santa', which takes a while with so many of us! I love this time with family. All of my life, we have celebrated Christmas with the Ashleys and the Williams sides of my family and I feel so blessed that we are still able to do that. Now my kids can see the joys of such large extended families!

All the kids!

Tanner sporting his Ole Miss hat he got as a gift!

A little Dirty Santa

It was a very happy day!