Saturday, January 13, 2018

New Year's Eve Dance Party!



This was my view for about two hours on New Year's Eve right before the big count down to 2018.  SO.  MUCH.  FUN.  And yes, I danced too!  Be sure to watch the videos.  Each one is only about a minute and they are hilarious. :)




Christmas Day 2017

My mother in law still wanted to host us for Christmas dinner (she is pretty amazing!), so we spent the afternoon and evening at her house.  After dinner we stayed for several hours, playing a strategy board game that takes a long time, so she would not be alone and we could spend more time with her.  It was a quiet afternoon, but fun.  And we were together.  Moms of all ages love it when their children are together. :)




I apologize for the darkness of this picture and the lightness of the next one.  I just switched from a dumb phone to a smart phone, and was learning the camera on my new phone.  But.... grandma with most of her grandchildren!



Christmas morning!

Our tradition of the children piling on our bed to open stockings continues!


New, cool socks.

We gave son C several new fitbit bands for Christmas.  This is the "fancy" rose gold one for church and other special occasions.


New scarves.


Art pens.


2017 ornaments.

Christmas Eve 2017

If you have been a long time reader, these pictures will look familiar.  They are just the 2017 version. :)  We started our family Christmas celebration at the Christmas Eve service at church.  I always love the Christmas Eve service!  We end it every time just with candlelight, while singing Silent Night.  So special.

At home we ate our traditional Chinese food for dinner, and then had our own worship service, with sons G, A, and C helping to read the Christmas story this year from my grandfather's Bible.
     




After prayer, we began opening our gifts to one another.  Daughter H was able to join us for the evening, and we had fun being all together!  She gave my husband this Keurig for Christmas!


Little Man is obsessed with this show.  We watch it with him....it's a little edgy (scary)....but we are all enjoying the very good acting by child actors, and can talk about each episode after we watch.


So happy that two of my boys still want legos!


Son L received these cool water speakers (behind him on the bookcase).  They light up and water spouts up with the beat.  We had fun trying out different songs to see how they would affect the water.


These are daughter G's feet.  She has long wanted Chaco sandals, and this was her year to get them!


We faked son G out with this gift....it was so fun!  He had wanted the battlefront 2 game (Star Wars, for those of you who may not know), but we packed it with a heavy book in a bigger box so that he wouldn't guess what it was by the weight and shape.  He opened it from the bottom and saw the book first, and was kindof confused....it was a book on eschatology!  Haha!  The rest of the evening, while all the gifts continued being opened, he loaded it on the xbox so he could play some before bed.  He LOVES this game.


Daughter G gave hubby and I light sabers, so we could have a light saber battle for date night!



Kyle Ren's tie fighter.


Daughter H got to open her stocking that night as well, since she wouldn't be with us the next morning.


Merry Christmas everyone!


New Jobs!

Our two oldest boys got jobs just before Christmas at Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  Yes, the same restaurant, and they sometimes work the same shift!  So thankful that our college boy in particular (on the left) has steady income now.




Happy 13th Birthday, Little Man!

Well, our youngest is now a teenager.  I can hardly believe it!  He had some friends over on his birthday.  They played.  They ate.  We went to see "The Greatest Showman" (Little Man's choice, and he LOVED it!  Not so sure about all the friends - ha!)


He opened our gift to him last, and it was his heart's desire.  A build it yourself 3-D printer kit!  He was a happy camper.




After his friends went home, he and my hubby stayed up very late building the printer.  He is very mechanically minded, and loves to know how things work and why they work the way they do.  He has already gotten a LOT of use out of this printer, and has had to problem solve when it didn't run the way it was supposed to.  So far he has printed a pyramid, several dice to use for games, and 2 baby Groots (that are the CUTEST!).





We love you, Little Man, and are so thankful for you!