Gingerbread Houses

Last night, we had Christmas dinner at church.  Our church has a meal every Wednesday evening that school is in session, so they had their final meal for 2012 last night.  After our yummy eats, they had gingerbread houses for people to decorate.  Man, this was a popular activity!!  I don't remember why the kids and I didn't do it last year, but knowing that it is a busy time of year, and I was one parent while Edward was deployed, I'm guessing we had something else scheduled.  Anyways, we won't miss it next year; the kids had so much fun.

 

 

We had reserved one gingerbread house, but the head pastor's wife asked if Madison could help her build her house.  The head pastor (an Army chaplain) and his wife are also new to our church, and they live in the subdivision adjacent to ours.  They seem to really like our kids.  So, it turned out that Edward and the boys made a "boy" house, while Madison and Peggy made a "girl" house.  I took a few pictures and helped with both. 

 Luke was more interested in eating the Twizzlers.

 The finished "Boy" House...they decided to use the ice cream cone to make a church steeple.  Alex added the large marshmallows on the side.

 Madison and Peggy, hard at work

 All done!

Next year, we'll have to make sure to do two houses.  I'm guessing Madison will be requested to help Peggy again  :)

"The Nutcracker" and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"

Madison and I went to The Nutcracker performance here in Fayetteville.  We had been to one before two years ago when we were living in Yuma.  She had asked to go again, so I think it will be a tradition for us.  She enjoys watching ballet very much. We both agreed the Yuma performance was better, but it was still a nice girl outing for us. It's hard to believe how big she is getting.

 

The week after this, I took Madison and Luke to watch "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" play here in town.  They had never seen a live play, and they loved it.  It was the perfect play, as it centers on kids, and both Madison and Luke have a great sense of humor, so it was even more perfect.  Madison's favorite part was when the Wise Men brought Baby Jesus a ham, and I think Luke loved the Angel of the Lord yelling, "Go see that kid in the barn."

Advent Wreath

I forgot to post this (because I had the picture on my phone), but we made an advent wreath at church a few weeks ago.  This was the first year we have made one, and the kids really enjoyed it.  Each Sunday after we get home from church, they have asked about lighting the next candle, so it's been a nice learning experience for them.  I know we'll make another one next year, and I'm glad the church does this craft at our Wednesday Night dinner to start Advent.

Disney on Ice

Madison's Girl Scout troop went to Disney on Ice last week, and we took the opportunity to take the whole family.  Now, Edward was supposed to be TDY to a conference, but thanks to the Army for the change of plans, he was able to stay home and go with us.  These aren't the best pictures, but I knew from last year that nice cameras like ours aren't allowed into the show, so this is all I could get.

 

 The kids had a great time, and we had very good seats (good job Girl Scouts on the discounted tickets).  The show was broken into four different Disney stories. Edward and I thought "The Little Mermaid" was the best with great colors and fantastic acrobatics.  Madison liked "Brave," and the boys didn't really have a preference.  They did seem to enjoy the bow and arrow scene from "Brave."  We really need to see that movie...maybe Santa will come through.

This is from "The Little Mermaid" as the different cast members are all dressed in sea costumes while skating on ice.  Last year, we were able to attend this free as part of a deployed military night, but we were very glad Edward was home this year to go with us.

Christmas at the Vineyard

Two weekends ago, we ventured about an hour from our house to a local vineyard that was setup with a driving Christmas light display.  We had heard it was a great light display, and it did not disappoint.  We also were told that the buffet was worth getting, and again, it didn't disappoint.  So, we enjoyed the food, visited with Santa, and then we finished our evening by driving through the vineyard to see all of the beautiful Christmas lights.

 

 

The Season of Giving

While we were at Target yesterday, Alex started asking if we had gifts for his cousins.  He, then, named each cousin to make sure we had a Christmas present for them.  Then, he asked if we had a present for his favorite neighbor playmate, Becca.  He told me we need to find something "beautiful" for Becca because "she is a girl."  So, he walked up and down the girl toy aisles to find the "perfect" gift for Becca.  Then, tonight, he had to wrap it before bedtime (he's been begging me constantly to wrap it). He picked the paper, bow, and gift tag.  It has been so sweet watching him get so excited about giving a Christmas present.  Enjoy his "fake smile" pose.

Christmas Cookies

We made our first batch of Christmas cookies this afternoon.

 

 Three trays of pressed cookies for three kids to decorate.  Coincidence? I think not.

 Luke decided to use the green sprinkles.

 Alex decided to use the red, but he needed some assistance using the sprinkles because...

this is what his first cookie looked like.

Part of the baking staff

 More of the baking staff

 Madison opted to make a batch of green/red Christmas trees.

 Almost ready to bake

Luke snuck this one in on me too.  He wanted the whole Christmas tree covered. 

The kids are trying to decide if the green, red or green/red cookies taste better...

Karate Kid

Luke started karate last month, and his uniform  finally came in.  He is absolutely loving karate.  It seems like it will be really good for him.  He's doing the Korean form of karate, Tang Soo Do.  No, I don't know a thing about karate, other than they are different forms.  We looked for a karate studio that fit, and the form didn't matter to us as much.  Anyways, along with learning Chinese at school, he'll now learn some Korean at karate.  Learning some of the language is required for the belt tests.  I'm so glad he's enjoying it so much.  It should really help during deployments to get out his frustrations.

Jonah

We've had our kitten, Jonah, for a few months now. He's settled in very nicely, and he's been really, really growing.  He is a great cat, very mellow, and he loves the kids.

 

 Jonah is especially fond of Madison's winter hat.  He acts like a dog, dragging it out of her backpack, room, etc. to pull it around on the floor and chew on it.

 He's been enjoying the Christmas tree.

 I think he's mad he didn't get to travel with us, so he's made a new home in the suitcase.  I can't bring myself to put it away because he enjoys playing in it so much.

The Rest of our Wilmington Trip

Before Thanksgiving, we spent a weekend in Wilmington.  My camera battery died, but my mom had taken several nice pictures.  Here they are.

 

 Edward was working in the ER, so the kids, my parents, and I went to take a hike at Carolina Beach State Park.  We walk there all the time, but this time, the water was the highest any of us had ever seen due to Hurrican Sandy.  It just hadn't gone down yet, everywhere out at Carolina Beach. Mom and Dad have talked to several friends who live around town, and people haven't seen the water this high before (except for during hurricanes).

 We started our walk, but we quickly had to turn around.  The water was so high, it had come up onto the walking path, so high we had never had it cover the path.  In fact, we normally have a picnic to the right, out on the beach part, and that was completely under water.  The nice big log we sit on wasn't even visible.

 You can see the water behind the kids.

 Now, this picture comes with a story.  As we were walking back to the car from the trail, we came across a section that had not been flooded when we walked past it before.  Well, with the tide coming in, it had created a small stream, flooding another area.  The stream was too big for the kids to just jump acorss (we're only talking about a period of 15 minutes).  So, my dad said that he would go across and I could hand the kids to him.  No problem. So, we started with Madison, and to this day, none of us know how she ended up with her back in the water, but she did. She had my hand, and she had my dad's hand.  All of a sudden, she's in the water.  It's all my strength to keep myself out of the water, well from falling in.  All I know is finally I had to step into the water, which was almost knee deep at this point, and I somehow vaulted Madison out of the water.  All of this took place in a matter of about 10 seconds, but it seemed like slow motion.  Then, we had a very wet Madison on a very cold, windy day, and I had wet pants and shoes.  I couldn't stop laughing the rest of the way back to the car, and luckily I plan for outings and had an extra change of clothing in my parents' car for Madison.  Now, I still had wet pants, but my mom keeps some running shoes in her car, and while my feet are now bigger than hers, I was more than happy to wear her running shoes  :)  At least this was funny unlike Alex's Arctic water fall at Denali this past summer.

 A clean and dry Madison at Fort Fisher...this was the battle for the last open Confederate port.  Madison is really interested in the Civil War, so we wanted to take her to this battle where 2000 died.  It's right by Carolina Beach State Park in Wilmington, so it was the perfect place to stop.  The kids all really enjoyed going there and learning about the battle.

 Hard to believe this was such a bloodshed during the Civil War.  It's calm and beautiful out toward the Cape Fear River (behind us) and the beach (in front of us).

 Madison is in my coat since hers got soaked in the fall.

They couldn't believe how big the cannons were and how hard they would have been to move.

 

Thanks for going there with us, Mom and Dad.  And a special thanks, Mom, for the dry socks and shoes  :)