The Perfect Christmas Gift

Yesterday was the kids' Christmas program at church, called "The Perfect Christmas Gift" and I was so impressed with how well it went!

As you can see, Calvin is very excited to get started! Oliver, not so much. . .

But once the program started, he quickly realized his true passion in performing! It was adorable how well he sang "Away in a Manger" -- He stood there so proud of himself. He was a real show-stopper!

The 3- and 4-year olds (plus Oliver who we couldn't keep off the 'stage') doing their part of the program. Notice they all have gift bows on; they looked so cute! (Calvin is in the back row and Tyler is in the front row right by Oliver.)

The "Holy Family" with the shepherds and wise men. If you look closely, you'll see Baby Jesus . . .

. . . is none other than our little Violet! I'm told this was the first time our church has had a real baby for the manger. She did great -- flailed her arms enough to let people in the back know she was real and cried just enough to be realistic, but not so much that it was distracting (we practiced).

I was so proud of all 3 of my kids; they did so well! And as the kids told us in the program, Jesus is the perfect Christmas gift and one size fits all!

Our Living Nativity

Jo had this great idea to make our own "Living Nativity" with the grandkids this year. I think the pictures turned out really neat (Don't miss Violet as Baby Jesus). Here are Jo's grandkids:

And here we replaced Ella & Ross with Tyler & Brynn to get the pictures with Mom's grandkids:
I think these pictures are just precious, don't you??

Silver Dollar City Christmas

We were so excited when Mom offered to take us back to Silver Dollar City last weekend for their Christmas Festival. We got very fortunate with the weather, and had a really fun time. I knew it would probably be too cold for Violet, so she got some daddy & me time while I took the boys.

Mom was able to borrow this 15-passenger van from a friend, which the boys called the "White School Bus" (this was extra funny since the family we borrowed it from are the Whites). It was so fun being able to all ride together down there.

The kids wanted to stop at Osceola Cheese, which I have a feeling will become part of the 'tradition' when we go to Silver Dollar City.

Oliver is cheesing it by the cheese.

And the toughest decision of the morning is which kind of sucker to get. . .

We made it to Silver Dollar City just as the park was opening and were greeted by this enormous wreath.

Here's our whole crew. (The daddies stayed at home for this trip.)

The first show we went to was Dicken's Christmas Carol, and what a fabulous show it was! I thought the acting and special effects were spectacular.

Next, we went to Calvin's favorite show, Frosty. The kids all got to go onstage and watch Frosty come to life.

The final show we watched was the Living Nativity. It was a very moving portrayal of our Savior's birth.
We also found time for a little shopping while there. We did not buy this $11,999 snowman, but Calvin did get to pick out a very special train ornament for our tree at home.
One of the coolest things I have ever seen was this 5-story Christmas tree lit up by thousands of lights that dance to some of my favorite Christmas songs.
Once we were done watching the beautiful dancing lights, we found our places for the parade.

While waiting for the parade to start, we enjoyed looking at some of the trees all lit up.
Then it was time for the parade to start! The floats, just like the rest of Silver Dollar City, were covered in lights. Here were a few of our favorites. . .

After the parade concluded, we headed over to the train. The boys loved riding the train last time we were here, and this time was SO much fun in the dark!

Guess who's getting a little sleepy.

Here were some of the displays we saw while on the train ride.

The train stopped so we could listen to "Grandpa" tell the true Christmas story as the characters lit up.

In addition to the over 4 million beautiful lights, we got to hear the Christmas story 3 times while at the park. I felt like it was better than any Christmas Eve service I'd been to. They definitely know the reason for the season and it served as a great reminder to us as well.

I told Russ this is going to become an annual tradition for our family. It was just so special!

Some Random Super-Vi

I have several pictures of our little Super-Vi (as Russ has begun calling Violet) from the last couple of weeks I've been meaning to share. . .

First, Uncle John got to meet Violet in person for the first time over Thanksgiving when he was back from K-State.

She kind of got lost in his big arms.
And I think each of his hands are as big as her whole person!

Then, a couple pictures of her brothers continuing to adore her. I have to really watch Oliver, as his favorite place to be is right next to Violet, all the time (and he's still a little too young to truly understand the word "gentle").

Calvin continues to be a great helper, and Violet really loves him back.

A couple of Thanksgiving shots. . . I had taken this picture with Oliver, since he was born on Thanksgiving night. Just figured since I already had the props and Violet fit in the outfit, I may as well get one (or 2 or 10) of her, too.

And finally, a couple of bath pictures. She loves the bath, and just this morning discovered. . .

. . . her reflection! I think she liked what she saw!

I'm getting so excited for next Tuesday, when I can start clicking away at pictures WITHOUT the screws!

Happy Birthday to. . .

. . . the best Grandpa a kid could ask for!

Who else but a grandpa would take this kind of abuse??

A Bass Pro Christmas

We had such a good time at Santa's Wonderland at the Bass Pro last weekend. We went to see Santa, but found so much more!
There's the big guy! Oliver was not too keen on sitting on his lap. In fact, it took a bit of bribery to get him to even sit in front of him. The picture isn't great of the boys, but he sure was a great Santa!

Violet was more than happy to sit on Santa's lap.

Once the pictures were out of the way, the boys were ready to play! Oliver's favorite thing wasn't really a game at all, but he LOVED sitting on the 4-wheeler and pretending to ride.

Then the boys spent plenty of time playing with the slot car and racing it around the great big track.

Next we wrote letters to Santa.

Russ helped Calvin with the spelling, but he wrote all of the actual letters himself. He's getting to be such a big boy!

Yes, the only thing Calvin wants for Christmas is a gun. (As he quickly pointed out to Joy, "Not a real gun, Aunt Joy. . . a toy gun!") I'm not sure Santa is going to be able to come through on that one, unfortunately. He already makes everything in the house into a gun; I don't really want to encourage it!

Mailing the letters. . .

Even though I don't want to encourage it, I was too late when he saw the target shooting. He thought this was about the coolest thing ever.

Cute photo-op, but Oliver wouldn't come anywhere near the big snowman.

Some more fun with the bumper-trucks.

Apparently what the boys REALLY want for Christmas are these boats. . . Oliver informed me he wanted the yellow one, and Calvin could have the red one (although they are playing in the other ones).

What a great Christmas we are going to have with our little ones!

Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade

We got bundled up and headed to Lawrence yesterday for the Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade downtown. The boys loved watching all of the beautiful horses and the fun stage coaches they pulled. First, the color guard rode through:

The boys were watching so intently.

Some of the horses did tricks, like quick stepping or pulling up like this one.

My favorite were the miniature horses, so cute!

It was a crisp, cool day, just as it should be for a Christmas parade!