Merry Christmas

Things have been a bit hectic...in a good way!

We traveled up to Maine for Christmas. The kids did great and in the two days we took to get here, we only stopped three times...yes, THREE TIMES! How amazing is that? In that time, I was able to crochet Paysie some booties to match her blanket that I finished in the car and two scarves. I also read the first several chapters of a Piper book that I have been wanting to read.

We woke up Wednesday morning to ice in New Jersey and the going was rough at first, but wasn't too bad once we got going.

Everyone was so happy to see the kids and meet Paysie!

We went to Amatos (a local Italian place) to eat on Christmas Eve...a tradition! And settled in, only to wake up before 7am by some excited little boys.

I was quite surprised to open a Canon Rebel that John got me. My camera was on its way out, and I thought that maybe he would get me a camera, but never thought he would get me a Rebel!! I'm still learning how to use it, but love it!

The day was filled with lots of food, family, and faith. We planned to have a devotional that afternoon....which turned into 6pm....and had printed up some booklets of hymns to sing to Jesus on His birthday. There is nothing sweeter than family gathering together to worship Him. John read out of Isaiah and it was just really nice how we were able to do that with people we don't see too often!

The boys were excited to see everyone and received lots of gifts :) My parents know how much the boys love to cook...





We really can't forget that it was Paysie's first Christmas! She just ate up the attention and was enjoyed by all!






To be cont'd....

The Children's Choir

Every Wednesday night, my boys go to their class called Sing to the King. In October, they went to a local nursing home to sing some songs they have been learning.

Since then, they have been singing Christmas Carols!

Here they are last weekend singing for the church services!



Nolan is on the right, at the end. Gideon is in the second row, 5th one in from the right. Haddon is on the bottom row, 2nd one in from the left.

They were so darling standing up there!

Santa Claus??

We don't do Santa Claus. The kids know who he is. They wave to him at the mall. They recognize the red suit, the white beard and his reindeer.

And it ends there.

When Nolan was little, John and I discussed whether or not we would hold up the charade of Santa, and we decided not to. We also don't believe in the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy or leprechauns either.

As I looked around for some articles on this very subject, I came across a few that may be helpful to you in understanding why we are raising our family this way.

Here is what I found....

To Live is Christ: Why I don't believe in Santa...

Christian Parenting Daily: Do Christian Kids Believe in Santa

John Piper: How We See Christmas Symbols

22 Words: My Thoughts on Santa Claus: Who Cares?

Christmas Picture Outtakes

It's that time of year again, lol

Don't worry, I did get a couple decent ones...you'll just have to wait until you get your Christmas card :)

The Advent Conspiracy....

What do you think of this?

The Train Set

For Christmas, we got the boys a train table. It came complete with tracks and lots of pieces! Since we were unable to bring it to Maine with us, we assembled the table and left it hidden in one of the downstairs bedrooms.

When we got home and semi-settled in, we brought the table upstairs. I closed myself up in Nolan and Gideon's room and began putting the track together. When it was finished, we had the kids come in and see their surprise!

They were VERY excited. They kept saying how cool it is, lol. They are constantly playing with it and are really loving it :)

Happy New Year! (a day late!)

I know I've been a bit negligent with my blog, but it's been nice to take a break and visit with family. We are heading back to Tennessee tomorrow and it's supposed to be COLD!

My sister, Erin, and her family spent the night New Year's Eve and spent the day here yesterday. The kids all played outside, while our annual meal of Lasagna and Meat Pie cooked in the oven.




They sure worked up an appetite! Of course, my picky eaters (namely Nolan and Gideon) ate a few slices of cranberry sauce and called it good. Haddon, however, loved his lasagna!




We've had a great trip, but I am looking forward to getting settled back in at home and am definitely looking forward to the temperature getting above freezing!

I just had to show this picture, lol. He looks so sad! He was all snuggled up after playing outside. He just wouldn't smile for anything!


Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!!

Our Christmas

We had a great day! There was fun, games, laughter and family. It is so nice to get together with everyone.

The kids were adorable. Haddon felt like he had to carry around all of his gifts, which he couldn't quite handle and was dropping them left and right and was getting very frustrated. They have a train table yet to see since we left it in Tennessee. They did get conductor hats and their own trains, so they will be quite surprised when we get back home :)



I got the boys each a corn cob pipe. They were VERY happy and VERY cute!



Yes, I didn't get many pictures of Jamison, but he was there. He was feeling a bit under the weather and ended up sleeping away about 4-1/2 hours of the day. With the noise and organized chaos that is often any of the Kelly family gatherings, it was amazing he slept that long. He is feeling better now though....I am still hacking up several lungs a day though!

We had an excellent ham and an array of other goodies to eat. We had quite a full house. We had upwards of 30 people eating, playing games and sleeping....all at the same time!

John was pretty surprised to receive the most awesome watch in the world, lol.



Awww....my brother Chris, hugging my mom after the reading of a very sentimental card.



My mom made my niece, Cosette, and my niece, Ashtyn, dolls for Christmas. The pictures don't do them justice! They are just toooooo cute!



After an exciting game of 'I'm Satisfied', it came down to the Mem vs my mom. They shook hands and the play continued. Mem was the winner, much to my mom's dismay!



We finished our day with a rip roaring game of Quelf...but that definitely deserves its own entry!

Merry Christmas

I write this as I relax in a nice warm (I use that word loosely as I am bundled up cause I am a bit chilled) house in Maine!

We ended up leaving Saturday afternoon and made it here yesterday around 5:15pm! Overall, it was a great trip! The kids were soooooo good in the car. Our trip took us about 16 hours....compared to last Christmastime it took us over 19 hours. That is the difference between traveling with a 3 week old vs a one year old who doesn't nurse every 3 hours :)

I will have some pictures of the drive up for you soon. I haphazardly snapped some shots while we were on the road. I got a couple cute ones too.

When Gideon started seeing snow on the ground....his response was: "Look! It's Christmastime!"

Nolan was thrilled that our van didn't break down. Can you tell we've had issues in the past? He seemed genuinely surprised yesterday morning, when we left the hotel, that our van was in working condition, lol. Last night, he and Gideon were even playing a game called "the van breaks down". Yeah, real cute!

We made it here safely and are blessed to be able to spend Christmas and New Years with my family.

Last night, I stayed up with my mom making goodies that we could easily live off of for the next several months, lol. Ok, that was an exagerration, but there are a lot of treats! I spent what seemed like hours, forming peanut butter balls. We even got a little festive and delicately layered intricate strings of melted white chocolate over them after the initial layer of chocolate had set. Ok, there were some blobs and clumps but it had nothing to do with me! It was fun to do that with my mom :)

Our plan is to go out to eat tonight at the annual Christmas Eve hangout of Amatos (an italian place), get those stockings hung and then go to sleep! I'm sure my dad will be setting his alarm clock to wake up as early as possible, much to my mother's dismay, lol.

The kids are already talking about checking the manger to see if baby Jesus has arrived. We don't put him there until Christmas morning! They are very excited about Jesus' birthday :)

I pray that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

A Chipmunk's Christmas

My boys received gift cards to Walmart from their great-aunt in Illinois for Christmas. I was going to hold onto them and then after Christmas, let them pick out a few things. But I decided that since we are taking a long road trip to Maine, I would let them pick out some new books and a couple of movies.

Now let me preface this by saying that my boys LOVE the Chipmunks. Remember Alvin, Simon and Theodore? It started when they saw a preview for the new movie that was released last week in the theater. Nolan counted down the days, and I was able to go on a date with my two oldest boys...and we went to the movies. They were so excited they couldn't contain themselves!

Ever since last week, it has been Chipmunks 24/7. Which I don't mind, since they were my favorite cartoon to watch Saturday mornings when I was a kid!

Yesterday, when I let them pick out a couple new movies for our trip....Gideon found The Chipmunk's Christmas. You wanna see excited? You should have seen my little Giddy, lol. It has been less than 24 hours and they are watching it for the 4th time. It's all they want to watch at rest time.

There is a line in the movie that cracks me up. It really shouldn't, since it is not a funny line. It just seems funny for it to be in a children's movie.

"Mommy, Tommy will just die if he doesn't get a new harmonica!"

"Don't say things like that, you know how very sick he has been. We
just hope he lasts through Christmas."

I feel bad for Tommy...I do. This line just makes me laugh. Poor Bobby.

There is one other line that also seems funny to me.

Alvin is bringing Tommy a gift and when Tommy finds out he has a delivery, his response is:

"Is it more medicine?"

Alright already...we get it. The boy is sick, lol.

Here is my post about nothing really. I hope you enjoyed!

Thank you for my scarf, Melanie :)

This morning, I visited a good friend and exchanged gifts. I made her a patchwork scarf, and she crocheted a nice, warm, cuddly scarf for me. (Obviously, she has caught on to my scarf obsession.)

On the way home, as I drove with my new scarf around my neck, Nolan said to me:

"Mommy, I love your new scarf. It looks just like a kiwi!"

lol

Adventures in Christmas Cookie Baking

I had such dreams. I let each of the boys choose their own cookie cutter yesterday at the store. Nolan chose a gingerbread man, Gideon chose a snowman, and Haddon chose a Christmas tree.

Oh, they were so excited. They kept asking me when they would be able to use them. I kept saying "Tomorrow" and their impatience grew.

This morning, they woke up wanting to make cookies.

As a mommy who loves to bake...can you ask anything more of your children than for them to want to bake too?

We made the sugar cookie dough yesterday, so there it waited.

I had such hopes of taking pictures of my boys, dusted in flour, creating their cookies. I thought...how memorable...making Christmas cookies with my boys.

But instead, this is what happened....



"Mommy! He took my cookie cutter!"


"No! This is mine! You can't have it!"


"Can we just make cookies already??? I'm getting kinda bored."



They didn't last long...so I made cookies all by myself.

A Christmas Card Disclaimer

A few weeks ago, I went to the post office with the kids. I had to mail something out, but also had to purchase some stamps for our Christmas cards. Since I had the kids with me, I decided to let them choose.

They did not pick anything with a winter theme. They did not choose anything that was even remotely related to Christmas.

Instead, they chose this:



So, when you receive your Christmas cards this year, don't be surprised to see the Hulk (or some other super hero) staring you down!

My boy's Christmas pictures

I decided this morning to try to take a decent picture of my boys for our Christmas card. There were many outtakes...especially as Jamison tried to crawl away after each picture!

I was able to get some cute ones though....which I won't show you...cause if I know you, you will likely be receiving it in a Christmas card :)

Here are some cute ones that just didn't make the cut....cute, but just weren't as good as the one I got.

The one I got has two very necessary things. Firstly, everyone is looking at the camera...miraculous! Secondly, no one is crying...also very miraculous! Who would have thought two miracles would take place simultaneously?!?

Two Library Totes

For my nephew Mark:

And my niece Cosette: