Tag Archives: christmas program

December 24, 2017 ~ 31 weeks

Reid is going so well at sitting for long periods of time. His core is really strong! Our Christmas prep continued this week including shopping, lots of wrapping, and packing! But before we got to any of that Griffin decorated a super cute (and sweet) Gingerbread house. He and Sam decorated both houses and then drew a number to see which house they each got to keep. He had tons of fun and was so proud to show me when I got home from work. On Wednesday we attended Griffin’s last Christmas program at NPCA! It was really cute and there are so many kids! Griffin sang all of the songs and did the hand motions, though you can definitely tell he is shy in front of a crowd. After the performance we had a quick bit of cake and then headed to First Watch for a tasty lunch with Amy, Graham, Rowan, Greta, Debbie, Sam, and Grandma Beilstein. Thanks, Grandma, for the treat!

 

Griffin and Sam (and Reid) exchanged gifts before the weekend. They were so excited it was literally 7:35 in the morning and Sam and Debbie were barely in the door. Griffin loved his Christmas lego set and Reid’s workbench and tools have been a big hit.

This guy here wanted to be a part of everything that had to do with wrapping. We put together a good system where I wrapped and Griffin picked out the name tag. He wrote most tags out as well. I barely had one piece of tape on a package before he was ready to put the sticker on! So much excitement and joy over the little things. Oh how I wish from time to time that I could be a kid again! It took us a LONG time to wrap and organize this year! In the end we had our piles separated and Kevin loaded up the van to head to Enon for the Armstrong Christmas gathering and a couple of nights at his parents. It took much skill to get all of our belongings into the van. You would have thought that we were going somewhere for two months! But with a baby, a preschooler, two dogs, all the baby gear, suitcases, gifts and such we were loaded to the max. We got a later start than we anticipated but we were off and officially on Christmas break! Each morning Griffin was so excited to read the scripture verse and put the next piece on our advent calendar. We didn’t want to miss the last two days by being away from home – so we took it with us! First thing in the morning when he woke up at Grandma and Grandpa Armstrongs was to do the calendar.
Saturday morning we woke up and after lounging around a bit we got to work prepping for the Armstrong family Christmas gathering, which this year was hosted by Jim and Pat. Griffin helped me make some brownies and a few other things too.  After we filled our bellies with all kinds of foods and hung out with the family we sat down and opened Christmas presents. Griffin was super excited to hand them out :).  Baby Jesus! We had planned to get the dogs a new bed to replace the one off to the side in our kitchen. While Kevin was at Aldi (to get diapers, of course!) he found a great one there that just so happened to be grey and go great in our space. Amazingly the dogs shared the bed in the car from Enon to Mansfield We drove from Enon to our house for a quick 37 minute pit stop to drop off presents, swap out clothes, and pick up presents to take to Mansfield. After I fed Reid we continued on our way to Mansfield where I metup with Dad and Amy for our traditional Christmas Eve shopping adventure. We were quite successful! And as always it was much fun. We headed home and had to quickly wrap gifts, eat a quick dinner, and get ready to head to the Christmas Eve Service at Mom and Dad’s church. It was a long and tiring day for all of us, but, especially for Griffin! Part way in to the service he fell asleep while sitting on Kevin’s lap. He was totally out. I think he fell asleep last year too – but this year he was literally snoring for a minute or two. We woke him up in time for the candle lit portion at the end of the service. Needless to say he had a hard time going to bed – partly from excitement for the morning and partly from his mini-cat nap!
One of my favorite parts of Christmas eve is our tradition of taking a picture after church. I love looking back at these and seeing the change from year to year. I think back to Christmas of 2010, the year Graham was born, and how in such a short time our family has changed and grown so much – adding four more kiddos. Such a blessing. And I love the kids being goofy with Grandma and Grandpa each year for their photo. Also, this year Grandpa had a special request for them to create the O-H-I-O and snap a pic. It’s a cute one. Somehow I don’t have the pic of the Bethune family!?
Graham is always really interested in what Reid is doing or what he may be thinking. He loves to come up and talk to him and hold him too. Here they are having some snugs.  Grandma and Grandpa recently added bunk beds to the kids room so that all four big kids can stay together. On Christmas Eve Griffin was lucky enough to get the top bunk! After story time he tucked in tight. But it didn’t take too long before he came downstairs (while we were readying the room for Christmas morning!). He wasn’t able to sleep (thanks, nap!) and as excited as he was for the top bunk he just seems to have trouble sleeping in a room with his cousins! After a couple of times of putting him in our room with Reid, I finally left Brutus in there with him too to get him to stay! It worked, thankfully!  Finally, everyone was asleep and the adults enjoyed some conversation and eggnog (for some!) for a bit while we got the presents arranged for the morning. 

December 20, 2015

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Remember how Finn wrote his letter to Santa? Well, this week he got a letter FROM Santa! He was so excited! He giggled and gasped and did a little dance. He enjoyed hearing daddy read the letter. IMG_3233 IMG_3234 IMG_3236 IMG_3245 IMG_3246 IMG_3250

And here is Finn with his cousins after the NPCA Christmas Program. Finn’s class doesn’t participate, but he joined all of us to watch Rowan!IMG_3223

We also had fun one evening making chocolate caramel pretzel treats thanks to the bag of caramel hershey kisses from Grandma Armstrong. Finn was a champ – he unwrapped almost every kiss himself, and put each one of the pretzel. Then after they were in the oven he topped each with the m and m.IMG_3214 IMG_3216 IMG_3219

All Aboard – It’s the Polar Express! We had a really fun weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein’s house with a couple of overnights, yummy meals, and of course the awesome treat of our Polar Express Adventure! We were on the Saturday afternoon train ride along with the Bethune, Kessler, and Manning crews. It was a 2 hour train ride with a short stop at the North Pole where we saw Santa and waved as he drove by on his sleigh. Later on, however, Santa came through our train car and talked to each of the kids. It was a nice and sunny afternoon and everyone enjoyed a cup of hot cocoa and a chocolate chip cookie (amongst other treats too, lol). IMG_3254 IMG_3263 IMG_3272 IMG_3279 IMG_3281 IMG_3293 IMG_3314 IMG_3315 IMG_3316 IMG_3318 IMG_3325 IMG_3326 IMG_3350 IMG_3379 IMG_3393 IMG_3408 IMG_3410 IMG_3413 IMG_3420 IMG_3422 IMG_3423 IMG_3428 IMG_3432 IMG_3442 IMG_3452 IMG_3453 IMG_3455 IMG_3458 IMG_3459 IMG_3462 IMG_3463 IMG_3473 IMG_3474 IMG_3487 IMG_3488

IMG_3492 IMG_3493 IMG_3503 IMG_3504 IMG_3505 IMG_3506 IMG_3512 IMG_3517 IMG_3522 IMG_3525 IMG_3526 IMG_3530 IMG_3531And on Sunday we went to church and got to hear Grandma play her flute! Then we had some after church shenanigans with Grandpa. IMG_3535 IMG_3537