Potpourri of Christmas Pics

Before you look at this picture, it is NOT the one I was going to post. It was supposed to be another picture of Dalayna adding candy canes to the Christmas tree. I am a little late in posting the rest of our Christmas pics, but I figured as long as I got it done before next Christmas I was doing good!! That is about the time frame I need sometimes to accomplish things!! Dalayna adding candy canes to the tree. Her main concern was how many candy canes each person gets to eat. She is my candyholic. I asked her the other night if she could not worry about or eat candy for a whole day. Her reply was,"Mom, I don't think that's possible!!"

This was supposed to be on our Christmas card this year, but we forgot to add ourselves. I am not sure how we forgot, but we did!! We walked away from the counter, and I said, "Hey Garris,(that is my name for Terry), we forgot to put ourselves on here!!" I was not going to spend more money to fix it, though.

The mantel in the family room. The garland was a little crooked, but who's paying attention?

Our Christmas tree. I felt so rotten that I put just enough ornaments on to make it look decent.

Colby and Grandma. A picture to be treasured for sure!!

Mavery holding the Christmas star during the play. She was so cute!! In the background is my Aunt Debbie and cousins Brett and Shane. Brett is another one of my cousins who is serving the Lord away from home. He just moved to central Illinois to help be a church planter. He, like our family, has found that other believers in Christ will make you feel so welcome and at home when you are far from family.

Our family Christmas took place on New Year's Eve this year. It was a little different, especially making the kids wait that long, but they were patient. We went out to eat, then came home and opened gifts.

Colby is opening a different kind of gift in this picture. This year, instead of spending a lot of money, we decided to give gifts of service or time to one another. Each person made a set of coupons for everyone else. We all enjoyed figuring out what we could do for one another, and seeing the look of surprise on everyone's face as they read their book of coupons. For example, each of my children received one coupon each to spend the night in our bedroom. Dalayna received coupons for having books read to her, etc. Colby received coupons for spending time alone, no mom, no sister, or chores. Terry gave him a coupon for shooting b.b. guns together. One of mine from Terry was for him to cook dinner, clean it up, put the kids and dogs to bed. Another coupon was good for a weekend trip to St. Louis. Dalayna gave Terry and Colby coupons for her to make sandwiches for them for lunch one day. She loves to make sandwiches!! I think this idea went over so well we may use it for other occasions too!!

Dalayna's loot.

I thought a make-up kit for Dalayna and me would be fun, so that was one of the things I picked out for myself. W can polish nails, try out different colors, just do girly things!!

Colby is a Chicago Bears fan. It seems like everyone around here is, so he fits right in. This is one of the gifts he picked out for himself. He requested picking out his own gifts this year. I thought that was a great idea. I think I was about his age when I made that same request, and I still like picking out my gifts. Anyway, that meant there wouldn't be any gifts he DIDN'T like. I think he was afraid I would buy him a bunch of sweater vests:)!!