Christmas Snow!

Christmas Morning

A White Christmas in Alabama!

Making Cookies for Santa

Zoolight Safari

And the rare picture of Tony and I together!

Santa

Christmas at the Farm

We lost my grandmother this year in August.  She hadn't been herself for a while, but it was still hard.  My kids have no memories of her except in a wheelchair and with some dementia, that is hard for me.  It was their first funeral and there were lots of questions and awkwardness for them.  My grandfather is also not doing well - cancer......  Last Christmas my grandfather commented before the prayer that this could very well be the last time we were all together and it was.  This year he mourned for my grandmother and welcomed a new baby (born after her death).   Here is a pic of him at Christmas.  Strangely I didn't think to take one of him with the kids.......I think my mind was just caught up in the sadness and regret and I didn't think to do it......

Grubbs' Homeschool Christmas Party

You can take the kids out of the public school but you can't take the public school out of the kids!  ha, at least for the fun parts, like parties.  N and E asked about our school Christmas party.  So I  made it a project for them and told them to plan it and we would have it.  They planned the snacks, the crafts and the games......  They also invited guests - Tony and a co-worker (Matt, who the kids LOVE) came home at lunch to join in the festivities!

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Making edible crafts is always fun....you don't have to find a place to store them, or worry that some kid is going to cry when he finds you have tried to sneak it into the trash. You will, however, probably have an argument over who is going to eat the last one, unless you are careful and make it work it where there are 3 left and hand them out at the same time accordingly.  This means you might have to eat one or two extras....you know, to make it work out!

Oliver the Elf

The kids always greatly look forward to Oliver the Elf visiting us.  He did some pretty silly things this year.  Here is a picture of his play date with our Lincoln Logs!

Christmas Card Picture Outtakes

Over the last few years we have been saving money by taking our own Christmas card pictures and having them printed through one of the chain stores.  It is always an adventure trying to get a good picture and we usually just end up happy with a decent one.  So here are some of the pictures we DIDN'T use this year!

 Didn't think this was very flattering of the only other girl in the house!

 Shakey wasn't really in this one and I was unhappy with the visibility of my fat roll (it is showing up b/c I'm leaning over trying to get Z to sit up.)

Eli was tired and not cooperating and Zeke was really too short for this pose.  It is, however, the pose I really wanted.  Tony humored me and we took nine like this before giving up.

We then went back to the original plan, in front of the tree.  And finally got this one, which became our Christmas card!