December ramblings

Well, christmas time is here!! We've begun our baking, crafting, shopping, and caroling. But before all of that came the decorating. Despite Charlie's "pretty please" Mark did not feel inspired to put any lights up outside. But that didn't stop us from decking the halls of our home.

We even had some new additions this year like our mistletoe, displayed prominently in the walkway of the kitchen where mom can grab kisses from her four favorite people.

I always try to get my tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving so I can start admiring it as soon as possible. This year, my wonderful mother-in-law did all the leg work of putting up the tree and lights while I was working my mom's craft show. It was a great treat to be able to skip all the boring parts and go straight to decorating it when I got home.

When it was time to get our pictures taken, the kids excitedly pointed out all the christmas lights they spotted on the way. (This is actually what prompted Charlie's unsuccessful 'pretty please'.) The kids did a great job with Jen (my new favorite photographer). Yours should be arriving in your mailbox soon!

Morgan has been busy exploring the home.

She loves our Little People Nativity set and likes to take Mary, Joseph and the rest of the gang on adventures throughout the house.

She's also quite fond of all our singing Christmas characters. It seems like just yesterday, Charlie was clutching that Frosty and nodding his head to the music.

She's been pretty good at with the Christmas tree, leaving the ornaments alone and just looking from a very short distance. She did seize the opportunity when Mom was busy taking pictures to lick one of the light bulbs.

As mentioned, we've also been baking and crafting.

The cousins have joined in on the fun. The boys made this gingerbread train with Grandma while the girls crafted this gingerbread house entirely on their own.

The nutcrackers have been a big hit this year. The kids already knew what they were and Charlie asked if we could crack some nuts with it. I explained that they were really just decorations and not strong enough to crack nuts. So he brilliantly suggested we try crackers instead. So of course we did! We've learned that goldfish crackers work the best (thanks for the idea, Dad). So behold, our Cracker Crackers!

Mom took a break from all the excitement at home to help run the Secret Santa Shop at Taylor's school. Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Jessica were in charge of the whole thing and it turned out fabulous!

The kids really enjoyed being able to shop for their families.

I know this post was long. I've been reading a wonderful blog called Enjoying the Small Things (thanks for the link, Aunt Julie!) and it's inspired me to take some more photos and be a bit more descriptive with my accounts of the Williams Family adventures. So now to get back to making more magical memories to put in here:

Happy Thanksgiving!!

The williams family had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We started the day with a feast at the Wells house at 1pm.

The kids enjoyed playing together, wrestling, hiding out with Grandma, dressing up, and eating pumpkin pie.

We managed to get this miracle shot before leaving. (Anything with all six kids in the same frame and looking at the camera constitutes a miracle. Plus 5 out of 6 are smiling!)

Next, we headed over to Grandpa Mark's house for some more feasting, wrestling, and card playing.

Look, even Mom got to play this time!

Finally we threw on some PJs and headed home for some much needed rest.

It was a wonderful day spent with family. Family is the single most thing for which I am thankful. I hope to spend the next month slowing down the pace a bit and relishing every single moment of the holidays with my kids. Here's to making priceless memories. Here's to making magic!

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast

Charlie had a Thanksgiving Feast at preschool today.

His teachers did a great job decorating the tables, and making sure the kids were decked out in homemade turkey hats, and Native American clothing. Ms. Leslie even dressed up!

Charlie had a delicious feast while Morgan munched on Cheerios.

Then we headed back to the classroom to collect their bags, but not before taking one more picture of his class.

Taylor's Saint Project

On All Saint's Day, Taylor's kindergarten class participated in a saints project. They had to pick a Saint (Taylor picked Saint Mary since her middle name is Mary), come up with a simple costume to represent that saint, and find out a few facts about them. Then they presented these facts in front of all the kindergartens from her school (50 kids!) and many of their parents who came to watch.

Taylor's class looked so precious dressed up.

Taylor has some sweet friends at school.

Taylor volunteered to go first! I was so proud of her. She was not nervous at all (I don't think I could have done that at 6 years old). Here's the video (It's hard to hear but she's saying "I am Saint Mary. Saint Mary was born on September 8th. The angel, Gabriel, said to Mary that God has chosen her to be Jesus' Mother. Mary answered yes to God's plan."):

After presenting, the kids sat on the sides of the stage.

Morgan just couldn't resist going to her sister and sitting with her!