Winter break

After Christmas, we got in lots of family time in Hickory. We played with new toys and games. The “Say What” game was hilarious, and poor Uncle Reed got “Pie faced” multiple times.




















Dave got some time in the shop with his new tools.




I took the kids to the beautiful new Y. The pool was perfect for the kids!














Mom, Dad, Reed and I went to the Grove Park Inn to see the gingerbread houses from the competition. Some of them were so impressive, even the kid ones!


























I don’t have any pictures, but we continued our tradition of finger foods and a movie on New Years Eve. The kids got to stay up after 9pm. I don’t think they even know it’s a thing to stay up until midnight!

It was so sad to have the break be over. I was really dreading the alarm clock going off on the 2nd. We received a tender mercy, because School was delayed for 2 hours due to extreme cold. They needed to make sure the buses and schools were heating up!






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Christmas Day!

Santa came! The kids were so cute together before they opened gifts. They were most excited about giving their siblings the gifts they picked out and bought. The boys used their own money.







The big items this year were a Nintendo 3 ds for Lincoln, a family iPad, lots of barbies for Dorothy and Drake asked for a Golden fidgit spinner from Santa.

















Later that day, the crew from Hickory came down for our costume Christmas. This year’s theme was “fantasy.”





Dave made delicious BBQ, and the kids opened more gifts.














It was such a nice day, but boy we were exhausted that night. The dishes sat in the sink all night!





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Getting Closer

We spent lots of time in Hickory, since Reed was home. The kids adore him, and he is so patient to play with them. When I would ask the boys what their favorite thing about the day was, they would say “Uncle Reed had a snowball fight with us,” or “Uncle Reed made up this cool game.” Even Dorothy was smitten.





Papaw saved a bunch of Christmas movies on the TV, and was always happy to put one on.




Our little family spent the night by the Christmas tree. I know it’s a terrible picture, but I was worried about the flash going off! All 3 kids were on the floor, and the adults had the couches. This is such a little tradition, but they love doing it. Dorothy gave me multiple hugs and thanked me for letting them do it.




BB and Papaw treated everyone to a Christmas Eve movie. We saw Coco this year.



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Wrapping things up!

We had to wrap up a few things before we had some time off from school and work. Dave was in charge of “A Night in Bethlehem” at church. He and his counselors put a ton of time and effort into the program, and it was beautiful.










We had 2 different days of school parties. We played minute to win it games in Lincoln’s class and Drake got to be a Christmas tree. He also got to wear pajamas on the last day. It cracked me up that both he and Connor wore super tight Christmas jammies!













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Baking Time

I have never enjoyed cooking, and most people know that if Dave isn’t home to cook dinner, we are most likely having grilled cheese or chicken nuggets! I do love to bake though. We had multiple baking sessions with friends and family.

We made frosted sugar cookies with Lincoln’s buddies. Dorothy had a “one drop of icing on the cookie, three drops of icing on my mouth” method of decorating her cookie.
















Another day, we had a gluten free treat baking session with Penny and Carson. I hate that I don’t have any pictures of Carson, but he made buckeyes (his absolute favorite). Lincoln made cinnamon, caramel pretzels, Penny made peanut butter blossoms, and Drake made peppermint patties. Phew!













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Snow in December???

It has been a long time since we had snow in December! We didn’t get much in Belmont, so we drove to Hickory to have some playtime. Papaw joined us in a massive snowball fight, the kids went sledding down their hill, and Lincoln built a snowman. It was such a fun Saturday!













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Christmas Fun

I used to hate it when Mom would want us to do crafts. I don’t know why, because I love getting crafty with my kids now.

Dorothy helped Ms. C with some of her Christmas coasters she was sewing.




We made countdown chains out of paper bags.













The Church’s service initiative, “Light the World” is such a great program, and keeps everyone service minded during this busy time of year. We baked bread for neighbors, took meals to friends, donated blood, honored our Veterans, fed the missionaries...there was something for 24 days before Christmas.












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