We finally got around to making christmas cookies today. The boys did a good job helping. We made fudge, sugar cookies and ginger bread bears.
Somehow or another we all managed to fit into the closet...err.. I mean kitchen.
Those ready-made frosting squeeze bag things are awesome!!!
The end result! HAHA! The boys were pretty creative! Notice the burnt, non-frosted ones in the upper right corner... those are Dennis's, he likes the burnt ones. ;)
Our church did our annual Christmas performance today. This year they put on a play and did such a great job!! Sean played a Shepherd and Ryan was one of the Wisemen.
The Narrator begins the story:
The children singing 'Away in the Manger':
The Mom and Pop telling the story of Christmas to the children:
Mary receiving the news of her conception:
Joseph has a dream that Mary is carrying our Savior:
Joseph and Mary:
The shepherds receive news that Christ is born (Sean in red):
The wisemen bringing gifts to Christ (Ryan in silver):
Here is a video of some of the clips from the play. I found some neat video editing softward and had fun putting all these clips together - enjoy!! Unfortunately I didnt get it all, because my camera cannot hold that much video. They also spoke of why Jesus came and how he gave his life on the cross for all of us to be saved. The greatest gift of all!
And here is are pictures of the boys and Elizabeth before we left for church this morning. They looked so handsome (and cute for Elizabeth) in their little outfits. :) Merry Christmas!!!
Ok, it's not perfect and the picture is bad. It's very, very late at night, the only chance I get to play with my sewing machine is after all the kiddos are in bed. I've been dying to try out this idea I saw online where you can turn old pairs of jeans into a jean skirt. Long jean skirts are VERY hard to find - especially at a reasonable price. And more than once, I've bought some online, wait a month for them to get here, and then find they fit horrible or don't look like the way they were advertised. The idea of turning my old, holey, super-comfy jeans into a skirt sounded too good to be true.
I made a few mistakes, it's not perfect but it's wearable and BOY am I a happy camper sitting here in my "new" jean skirt. (please forgive my head being conveniently missing in this photo, you dont want to see what I look like at this hour of night anyway ahaha!)
OH and just so you know, I used THIS WEBSITE here to make the skirt. Instead of using a separate piece of cloth in the back panel, I used part of another holey pair of jeans (one of the times it pays to be a pack-rat).
Now, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, tea, whatever and relax because I have a feast of pictures to share with you!
As you all know, we spent Thanksgiving at church. Everyone brought in dishes and missionaries came from all over to celebrate and be thankful for all the blessings God has given us. And boy are the blessings overflowing!!
I managed to get a picture of the kiddos all sitting together right when we got to church that morning... before they started running around and getting their clothes all out of whack.
Everyone is sitting down getting ready to eat.
Elizabeth too!
Then after we filled all our tummies, the Pastor called everyone to sit down and we listened to children sing songs. They did such a great job!!
Click on the video here to listen!!
After the children sang, we did some singing ourselves and then listened to a Message given by one of the Missionaries joining us. A great message about being thankful in ALL that we do and how important it is to ALWAYS thank God, in good times and bad.
After our tummies were properly filled, and our songs of praise were raised, then the silliness began. The auditorium had been cleared the day before and some game tables set up, with lots of room for the children to run around.
One of the missionaries brought his balloons and made a bunch of hats and swords for the children to play with.
The men stayed closer to the food for 2nd, 3rd and 4th servings, while the girls gathered around the piano to sing songs.
OH! But the pictures dont end just yet!
The next day we got up early to meet up again and take a trip into the Stuttgart center to the Christmas Markets!! YAY!
Boothes and boothes of homemade goodies, chocolates, sweets, candles, and decorations!
The boys even met a street performer haha!
At the end of the market, they had an ice skating rink and rides for the kids. We didnt get to ride any, unfortunately... except for this one we saw on the way down... we ran out of time before we had to meet up again and leave. It was a good exhausting day! We had a lot of fun, enjoyed some fun company and got a little Christmas shopping done!
This weekend was our annual big clean of the church. Everyone met at church on Saturday, grabbed a scrub brush and got the place sparkling clean to get ready for our big Thanksgiving feast. As always, we had a good time (who says cleaning cant be fun?), worked hard and the Pastor treated us to KFC for lunch. :)
While we were there, one of the little girls let Elizabeth hold her precious Annabelle dolly. Elizabeth fell in LOVE!! She has dolls at home but they're all cloth. She never paid them much attention so I thought she was still too young to be interested in dollies. BOY! was I wrong!! She just wanted the 'real' dolls, that's all. So of course, I broke my rule that we dont buy anything for ourselves this close to Christmas and we took a trip to the store and got Elli her very first "real" dolly. She loves her so much.... even holds her properly!
And here she is with her "beebee" waking up from a nappy. :)
The boys have off from school this week. I'm only making them read each day and then they have the rest of the day to themselves. Tomorrow, we're going to work on making their own ornament to put on the Christmas tree. It's going to be our new tradition, they're going to make a new ornament each year. Something for them to look forward too: looking for ornaments in the box from years past, and making new ones.
Thursday is Thanksgiving, I'm sure you're well aware. We are going to spend the day at church with everyone, and missionaries from all over Europe, stuffing our bellies full. The children (including the boys) are going to be giving a "concert" for everyone. I will do my best to remember the camera! HAHA! The boys have been practicing hard. I told them, I want to HEAR them singing and not "mouthing" the words. So keep a look out for updates, I'll post our Thanksgiving pictures here.
PS I volunteered to make a turkey, so pray that I dont mess it up in our itty bitty German oven. Better yet, pray that it fits! LOL
Those ready-made frosting squeeze bag things are awesome!!!
The end result! HAHA! The boys were pretty creative! Notice the burnt, non-frosted ones in the upper right corner... those are Dennis's, he likes the burnt ones. ;)
Merry Christmas!!!!
Those ready-made frosting squeeze bag things are awesome!!!
The end result! HAHA! The boys were pretty creative! Notice the burnt, non-frosted ones in the upper right corner... those are Dennis's, he likes the burnt ones. ;)
Merry Christmas!!!!
