Better Late than Never AKA The Christmas Post

Yes I have been sadly behind on this blog for a while, but I am trying to get caught up! So yes, this is a little late, but here is the blog all about our Christmas....







The weekend before Christmas we went to Granny & Poppy's to celebrate Christmas with the Duncan crew. As always, it was lots of fun!











































Starla's favorite thing about Poppy, is that he will sit down on the floor and play dollies with her...... :)
























































Christmas cookies are my favorite!!!






































































We were so excited that Nanny & papa, Great Nanny and Destiny were coming to stay the night on Christmas eve. They, along with my brother Nate, his wife and her girls, came to church with us that evening (although my brother had to leave early to make it to work, so he's not in the group shot)






















All throughout Dec. our church set up a beautiful Christmas backdrop and let people come take pictures with a photographer for free, and they provided you with a digital copy. :)





































I love our Church's Christmas eve service, the music, the candles and they even make it snow...check out how much Starla loved the snow...
































































































I love our Christmas eve traditions; tracking Santa on the NORAD tracker, opening new PJ's, hot chocolate and cookies while listening to The Night Before Christmas, and leaving our milk & cookies (and carrots!) for Santa.


















































































Tearing into the stockings and gifts on Christmas morning!










































































Starla found the pickle this year all by herself, which meant she got the special pickle present. The boys were super jealous. :)






















The matching aprons my mom made for Starla & I. Everyone got an apron! This year we had a homemade Christmas, which was lots of fun. We all made gifts for eachother, which took some of the focus off of money and put it more on creativity. My mom also emroidered a pretty kitchen towel with all of our names on it, which I love. :)





















I made my daddy some Rein"beer" and red neck wine glasses full of treats....





















































Destiny Doesn't like that Bourbon is taller than her.....


































Starla even lost her 2nd tooth on Christmas night!



































After Christmas we got to go to Edmond to Alan's Aunt Suzy's house, with Nana & The Blalock family from Duncan as well, for a fun family-filled celebration. We love getting to hang out with everyone on that side of the family, all of Alan's cousins and their families, and the kids love hanging out with the cousins!





























































Our last Christmas celebration was actually not until January 7th! We got to go to Wewoka to my Aunt Vickie & Uncle Worm's (a nickname her earned by being ornry to all the kids over the years, lol)for a fun family celebration.




















































We had a wonderful Christmas filled with food, family and fun. :)

Acts of Christmas Kindness

I read this wonderful book called "29 Gifts" about giving a gift everyday for 29 days, which could be anything including actos of service. I also ran across this article on pinterest about the 25 days of Christmas Kindness, and knew that I wanted the kids and I to do it. These are pictures of the some of the great things we did during the holiday. I'm not sure if I have a picture of everything we did, but here are some things that we did during our adventure, a pictures to follow...

* volunteered to pop popcorn at Starla's school one friday and bought her entire class popcorn
* collected and donated coats to the Salvation Army's coats for kids program
* Taped microwave popcorn & other snacks along with little notes to the Redbox
* made cards and attached candy canes to them and left them on cars
* secretly "elfed" 4 different neighbors on 4 different days with baskets of goodies
* paid $7 towards the next patrons library fines
* brought the night shift nurses a tray of goodies
* delivered lots of homemade goodies to various friends & strangers
* coordinated and ran a virtual bakesale on facebook, making lots of stuff and making deliveries, raising $400 to go towards buying clothes, shoes, and other basics as well as christmas gifts for a set of twin boys in need.
* Leaving 2 gift passes for the next 2 people to come into the cowboy hall of fame when we went one day
* volunteering to ring the salvation army bell for 4 hours in front of hobby lobby (we sang and rand the bells to the tune of lots of christmas carols!)
* singing christmas carols at the local nursing home
* working at an organization called Santa's Cause, where we filled needy families christmas wish lists, wrapped them and got the packages ready to be delivered.
* donated a playroom organizer and lots of arts & crafts supplies to my brother and family to help them make Christmas gifts for friends & family
* wrote letters to friends and family
* I passed on the 29 gifts book with some stationary and an encouraging letter to my sister-in-law
* offered babysitting services
*filled all the toy machines with quarters in the family fun center at wal-mart
* we each wrote a santa letter and dropped it off at the Macy's "Believe" Santa mailbox on their special double day, making our letters each worth $2 towards the Make-a-wish foundation (normally they donate $1 per letter)































































































































































































It as lots of fun finding creative ways to be kind to others, and sometimes to be sneaky in the process. I have a feeling this will become a new tradition for us. :)