the tree

I don't know what it was about this year, but I just felt like Christmas came out of nowhere. I constantly felt like I was behind schedule & had to catch up. I didn't do any new holiday crafts. Decorating was stressful (toddler & preschooler may have had something to do with that). I was behind on my blog so I wasn't taking a lot of photos. All of a sudden, it was nearly Christmas & I hadn't taken the time to soak it all in. So on the eve of Christmas eve, we squeezed in some photos by the tree.

The traditional photo of Carolyn & me hugging the tree (+ loved ones that have joined our families through the years). :)
This year, Cedar was awake for the photo. Carolyn & I have had our photo taken hugging the tree for many years - since one random photo in high school. We haven't done it EVERY year, but lately we've made it happen.

Papa & Memaw brought Uncle Erik over to see our home all decorated. We got a photo with the grandsons before they were on their way. :)

Cedar really enjoys pointing to ornaments, pulling them off the tree, separating the ornaments from their hooks, leaving them here & there. It's been interesting trying to keep track of him during the holidays, but luckily I put the precious ornaments out of reach. In this photo, he knows he's not supposed to be going near the tree...you can see the look in his eyes. Stinker! ;)

happy birthday pappa

We celebrated Pappa's birthday on December 22nd, with tri-tip steak & butterscotch pot de cremes! Delicious! We surprised Pappa by all going in together to get him a Nook E-reader. He was pretty sure it was a box of Sees candy, so we fooled him. :P

Happy Cedar!

Checking it out.

Finn loves his Pappa & wants to be in on the action.

Everyone was curious about the new gadget. We'd never used one before. Pretty cool, though!

Checking out videos on the computer together. Those boys adore their Pappa.

I borrowed these next 3 photos from Outi. I'm usually behind the camera, so it's nice to have a few photos to prove that I do exist. :)

The whole family.

No one is really ready for this photo by Cedar. I just love looking at everyone's expressions. Such a great candid shot. Thanks for sharing, Outi! :)

small group christmas party

This year, our small group went all out & did a turkey dinner, complete with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce & rolls. Yumm! It was so good.

After dinner, we decorated cookies!

The kids loved it & the grown ups all helped out with the decorating & eating! :)

Each kid had their own knife & bowl of frosting. Good thing, huh? :P

Cedar was very interested in eating his frosting covered cookie.

The whole group.
This year two more families joined our group.
Back row: Kenton, Cedar, Colin, Katie, Frank, Justin holding Ava, Jon, Amy & Emma
Front row: Katrina, Stephanie, Macey, Finn, Malia (baby girl due in Feb), & Ethan

After cookies, we played the Father Christmas dvd for the kids & had a white elephant gift exchange between the adults.

Kenton almost ended up with some new art for his office...

Jon ended up with the gift Kenton brought - a CD case wall display kit. :P

Amy ended up with the gift I brought. :)

I came home with a pretty cute frog statue & Kenton got an over the door wreath hanger. Not too shabby for a white elephant gift exchange. ;)

christmas lights

I was so excited to go on a Christmas Lights drive this year. Cedar has been noticing all of the lights around town, saying "Ooooh" or "Wow!" Finn is at a great age for appreciating nice decorations. I thought, for sure, the kids would have a great time. Everyone had their own cup of hot cocoa. It was great...for a while. But I forgot to factor in short attention spans. ;)


Cedar likes Christmas lights!

Finn really wanted me to take his picture - fake smile & all. ;) This was just before Finn started complaining, "This is taking a LONG time."

I suppose the kids were impressed for the first few houses, but apparently, you've seen Christmas lights once, you've seen them a thousand times. Nothing special anymore. Oh well. Can't please them all. :P Kenton & I were impressed.

grace community preschool christmas program

Cedar was so happy to be in the big auditorium at church for Finn's preschool program.

Finn & Griffin standing right next to each other, singing so nicely. The kids were supposed to wear green or red, but Finn ended up being the only one in his class wearing green. Doesn't he look nice? :)

Cousin Cohen's class.
He did a great job singing & doing the motions too!

"...the little, Lord Jesus asleep on the hay." :)

All 3 classes together.
They all did so great! I loved seeing all of Finn's friends & his cousins up front, singing songs. They were so sweet. :)

happy birthday mummi

Mummi's birthday was on December 6th. We celebrated with dinner & dessert. Finn was excited to show Mummi that he had written his name in the card. He also told me what message to write. :)

Place card holders - just what she wanted. :)

Written by Finley on his white board. He is just now becoming more interested in letters & writing his name. :)

And this is a totally random picture of Cedar after he had put his friend Ava's boots on all by himself. We didn't see him do it...he was just walking around showing us what he'd done. So proud of himself in her pink, sparkly boots. Adorable. :P

happy birthday griffin

On Friday, November 26th, we celebrated Griffin's 4th birthday!

The happy, birthday boy!

The "Novemberists" gathered around.

Griffin got a giant nerf gun from his parents that all the kids were interested in trying.

Tyler & Cohen taking some time to cuddle Tate.

Digging in to the delicious Batman cake!

Cedar enjoyed putting the darts back in the holder.

Group photo. This one includes Erik, who was down for Thanksgiving, but is missing Aaron, who was at work. Hard to get everyone in a family photo lately, but this one was close. :)

thanksgiving #2

We celebrated with the Hecht side later that evening, at 7 pm. We waited for my dad to get off work & then feasted (again, for some of us). :)

The spread.

Pumpkin pie from our own home grown pie pumpkins. Based on this recipe from last year's sweet meat pie.

I also made the traditional Henry family cranberry orange salad that was Kenton's great, great, great grandmother's recipe. So yummy with whipped cream! :P

Again, no pictures of people, only food. Go figure. There are more photos of people coming up. :)