Christmas Eve

 There was a lot of sickness in our house over Christmas break.  Strep and stomach bug.   But aside from the joy of sickness spreading slowly and surely through all 6 family members twice, we had a good two weeks off from school : )

One day, when I was in bed, feeling sorry for myself ... Colin made everyone special Christmas shaped sandwiches.  Served on super cute Christmas plates thanks to the Louis'. 

 

 He chose an angel for Maggie, 

because she really is one.

 

Shaggy Cooper

Jackson evidently requested no shape.   

Colin figured out that he was just concerned about not getting the whole sandwich : )

So, when he learned he could have the scraps, he was in.

And Charlie pouted.

No clue why.

 

Mass that afternoon at St. Gabriel's.  

Colin dropped us off and drove a few miles (ha) to park.

Meanwhile I tried to get some shots of all of them.

Hey kids, stand against that stone wall, and stare in to the bright, setting sun.

I spent a small fortune on Maggie's dress, and regretted it the second I brought it home.

I do love it, and she looked beautiful.   But would have been just as beautiful in a carters dress for a quarter of the price.

The good news is that I spent 0 dollars on the boys.  In fact, these may be their exact outfits from last year ... or the year before.... can't remember. But I found various pieces that fit about 10 minutes before we left for church.

  Cooper was feeling left out, so he switched places with Charlie.

They genuinely adore her.  

And I adore all four of them.

After mass, we went to my mom's house for dinner.   What a treat!

Charlie was pouting. 

Can't remember why.

Because he is three???

Super excited about Christmas.

Love the anticipation.

Ate a wonderful dinner, and headed home to quickly make some cookies for Santa.

He must have been having an off day ?!

Love this tradition.

Daniel and the boys watched some Christmas show ... can't remember.

All ready for Santa

Gingerbread Houses and School Christmas Program

Oh, it was so long ago.  I can't remember many of the sweet moments.... but the boys had a Christmas program at school.   Maggie had the stomach bug (the first touch of sickness that stretched throughout 2 1/2 weeks of Christmas for our family).

She ran outside without pants.  

See how she is looking at the boys? I love how she loves them.

Cooper was too nervous to adjust his hat - so I don't think he could see the whole time.  I'm using my zoom lens - the church was packed, and there is really no chance of your kids seeing you.

Charlie and Cooper sang at the same time. 

The little girl to Charlie's right has a bit of a crush on him.

It's so sweet.

Cooper is in the middle row, third from the left.   

Charlie is on the bottom right, with his tongue hanging out. 

Cooper stood next to one of his best buds, Matt.

Their whole class is so close - they were mostly all together last year, too.

So sad that they will all be split up for Kindergarten!

Jackson was all business.

Sang as told.  No silliness : )

Notice the blur in the bottom of the picture...

this is what you get when you are filing between a persons arm and head while they hold up their  video camera in fron of you for the entire performance.

Slightly irritating, but, what can you do?

My friend said the person in front of her held up and iPad and videoed everything.

That's worse. 

We had a gingerbread decorating party before that.

Two actually.   One with our McKinney friends - a tradition we try to do every year.

Also had some of the boys school friends come over to do it as well.

I will be okay if I don't see another graham cracker for another year.

I think I made (Colin helped with some) like 30 houses.  Maybe more!?!

A few pictures ...

Sunshine (due any day now!) and Kenna

Jessica

Caitlyn

She ate and ate and ate....

Abby, all grown up!!!!

They had a great time.  So did the grownups!

Love all the shoes!!!

We've got alot of kids between us.

Oh, that's right - we had an ice storm before this.  In fact, we had to reschedule because no one could make it to our house for the original date.

Someone's ... 

Love this snowman!!

I would post all the pictures of each kid with their house.  but i won't. 

If I get a chance to make a collage with all of them - isn't there a program for that? - 

I'll do that.