Preschool Christmas Party

 All the Mom's put together a little Christmas Party for our preschool kids today.

I was responsible for ornament making.

I bought some plain glass ornaments and some glitter glue. They squeezed in some glitter glue of various colors, replaced the tops and shook them up. (We discovered you need to use quite a lot of glitter glue and some good shaking muscles!) I think the kids really enjoyed it.

 Then we made candy cane ornaments out of pipe cleaners, plastic beads and red bows.

 They played a cute Christmas present game. There were different paper presents on the wall. Each child took a turn being blindfolded. Once they were blindfolded the other kids pointed out one of the presents. The blindfolded child was given a bow and had to try to discover which present to put the bow on. The other children sang a Christmas Carol. If they were close to the correct present, they sang loud, but if they were far away they sang soft. It was a super cute game!

They also did a little gift exchange. They all brought a little present and put them in the middle of the circle. They each drew a number and went in order of the numbers to pick a present.

Then they decorated sugar cookies.

It's a necessity to sample the cookies once decorated!

Why not skip the decorating and eat the frosting right off of the knife!

Then they played "Santa, Santa, Elf" (Duck Duck Goose)

It was a fun party. All of the kids really enjoyed it. I sure do love our little preschool!

Happenings

 Aubrey had been very much looking forward to Sunday. When she found out that I was in the ward choir, she begged me to let her join as well. I decided to give it a shot. She does a pretty good job of sitting and trying to learn the songs, so I let her join the choir. Sunday was our Christmas program with the choir singing many numbers. Also, the primary children sang the prelude number. Aubrey was sooooo excited to get to go up and sing the prelude number and then get to sit on the stand during the whole meeting and sing with the choir. She's such a little performer. She and a few other "choir kids" even got their own number to sing during the Christmas program. Aubrey was thrilled to get to sing at the microphone with the other choir kids. 

They sang "Samuel Tells of baby Jesus." Aubrey asked me to take a video of her singing it to put on the blog.

 Here' are my girls looking festive.

Aubrey loved wearing her fancy Christmas dress.

Brooke chose this red dress to wear because "Santa wears red" and because she wanted to wear the flower tights. She has started posing for pictures lately, just like her big sisor (that's how she pronounces sister - it's so cute.)

A few days ago Aubrey asked, "When are we going to our next Christmas party?" When I told her that our next party would be Christmas morning she asked, "Well are we going to get to see Santa again." When the answer was "no" she was pretty disappointed. Well when we were out running errands on Saturday we stopped by the health food store because I noticed that Santa would be there. The girls were thrilled to see Santa again! 

I had to laugh at the "skinny Santa". It seemed only fitting to have a skinny Santa at the health food store! Aubrey was a little confused by him. Afterwards she told me that she didn't think he was the real Santa because he didn't look like Santa.

 Poor Brookie has had the flu. Aubrey has been taking care of her sick sister.

I loved walking into the bedroom and seeing Aubrey snuggling her sick sister.

I loved this darling picture Aubrey drew of the Nativity. She has the blue sky (I think the stickers are stars or clouds.), the yellow star, the angel under the star, the green stable, baby Jesus and Mary in the stable, the shepherds with their canes and sheep, the three wise men with their gifts, and a donkey and cow.

On the backside is the field. I'm not sure what happened to the shepherds but she has the blue sky, star, angel under the star, a sheep and the green grass.

When she was done with the picture she said to me, "When I go to Heaven again, I want to give this picture to Jesus." She's such a little sweetheart.

Goodbye Grandma Wilkerson

My Grandmother, Allena Marvella Wilkerson, passed away this afternoon.

She lost her husband, my Grandfather, exactly 26 years ago to the day, in a car accident while serving on their mission in California. She has missed him ever since. I am so glad that she is out of pain and will get to spend this Christmas with her eternal companion.

Grandma was full of life and stories. She was a social butterfly and made friends very easily. She was always willing to share her love of the Gospel with anyone and everyone she met. We love you Grandma and will miss you!

Attridge Family

 My sister Esther found a fun idea to use Christmas lights in their family Christmas picture. It was a new experience for me trying to get the lighting and settings just right so that the Christmas lights would glow and we could still see the Attridges. I don't have a tripod and that would have been really helpful to get a more focused shot. But, with my limited knowledge of this type of photography and not having some of the equipment I should have had, I think they turned out pretty good! (And the fact that my children were literally climbing on top of my while I tried to hold steady and get a focused picture!)

There is extra room on top of these for their text on their Christmas card.

 

This one was the winner for their Christmas card and I think it turned out really sweet.

"Cutie Isla baby" (Aubrey's name for Isla.)

Wagon, Lights & Santa's Reindeer

Wednesday night we took our annual wagon ride through Christmas lights display. This was one of the things Aubrey was most looking forward too.

Staying warm by the fire while we wait for our wagon ride.

Brooke checking out the horses and wagon.

Yay we've boarded our wagon!

Brooke was bright eyed and excited the whole time.

Aubrey snuggling with Daddy.

Here are some of the fun displays we saw. 

 This is the one that Aubrey remembered and was most excited about. She had told Brooke all about this huge waving Santa for days.

Then we went to see Santa's reindeer and have a cookie (Aubrey remembers every year that they have cookies in one of their stores and makes sure we remember to get her one!)

The girls tried to entice them over with hay, but to no avail.

On the way out Brooke said, "We had a fun Christmas day." What a cutie. I love having annual traditions that the girls remember and look forward to. It's the spice of life!

While we were waiting for the wagon ride, Brooke was sitting on my lap singing "Jingle Bells", so I had to take some video!

Story Time with Mrs. Clause

A nearby mall was having story time with Mrs. Claus. I took my girls last year and they liked it, so decided to go again this year. According to the website it started at 5:15. Santa leaves for a dinner break at 5, so I decided to go a little early so the girls could say "Hi" to Santa before he left. We got there just in the nick of time to say "Hi" to Santa.

Then we found a bench to wait the 15 min. until Mrs. Claus came. As we were sitting there, I saw a sign that said that story time started at 5:45. So I went and talked to an employee about the conflicting information. He told me that as far as he knew, it started at 5:45 and that he heard the website had some wrong information. So, we headed over to the play area to wait.

Brooke worked and worked and was finally able to climb to the top of this bridge.

Aubrey working hard to get on the log.

At 5:30 we head back to story time. We get there and it has already started. I ask a gentlemen nearby when it had started and he replied, "5:15." I couldn't believe that the sign and the employee had been dead wrong. Aubrey was disappointed that we missed most of it, but at least we got most of one story.

Brooke was excited to get a picture with her twin Mrs. Claus.

I was frustrated with the incorrect information, but was glad that at least the girls got some of their energy out at the play area!

Week 27

I lost 3 lbs this week, which makes a total of 47 pounds!

Ward Christmas Party

We had a very nice Ward Christmas Party on Saturday.

My girls are very excited to go to any kind of a party anytime! Of course they were thrilled that Santa would be at this one!

First we had a nice dinner.

Behind us happened to be one of Aubrey's friends. They were playing "give me 5, on the side . . . "

Then we sang some Christmas carols. I wished I would have gotten this one on video. They were singing "Jingle Bells" at the top of their lungs. It was so cute.

Then we let them get up and dance around to the carols.

A couple more friends joined in the fun.

When I pulled out this dress for Brooke - she was so excited. She said, "A Santa Costume." Then she asked, "Am I going to have hair on my chin too?" I told her that she wouldn't, but I guess she didn't believe me. As soon as I got the dress on her she said, "I need to go look in the mirror to see if I have hair on my chin." I had to then explain to her that she was actually Mrs. Claus and she doesn't have a beard. Several people called her Mrs. Claus at the party and told her how pretty she looked - and she LOVED every minute of it!

Then it was Santa time! When it was her turn, Brooke ran right up to Santa with no fear at all!

  

I LOVE this picture of Brookie and Santa. Right after I took the shot, she patted his beard. I guess she is very fascinated by the hair on his chin!

Aubrey too was very excited to see Santa! She even remembered the next day that he told her to be nice, listen to her parents and clean her room! That Santa's a keeper!