Family Christmas Photos

Really have not had a moment to post, however, thought I better do at least one!

For Christmas, my niece wanted to do a family photo for her mom and dad and asked me to do the honors.  Getting everyone at the house at the same time was the first challenge. Getting them developed and framed two days before Christmas was another. Getting a horse in the pic was just luck and an added bonus.  Hey, we did pretty good!

Figured it would take forever, but actually went pretty quick and perfect.  

The whole group

The 8 kids

The boys

The girls

The Grandkids

Although these didn't come out as well as we hoped :(

The Guisigner Fam 

Had my niece take a shot for us :)

Merry Christmas!

Much more to come.

Christmas Cards

Think most have received their Christmas cards by now so safe to post.

Think they came out pretty nice.  The only thing not made by me is the envelope...and I even pondered that :)

The photo was taken when Amelia was taking a nap in the back of the house during a wind storm.  The moose pic was one of many in the back yard.  Songs all hand picked, but many of Amelia's favorites!

Yet another craft project.  A used spool painted red and Amelia's wish list for this year.  Thanks Pinterest for the idea.  Will keep this one forever. 

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas

It has been Christmas, Christmas, Christmas here for quite some time.  We talk Santa, Kevin (our name for our Elf on the Shelf), presents and Christmas movies  pretty much every moment of every day.

We received a wonderful email from Santa too.  Amelia was mesmerized.  Portable North Pole  is Santa's digital site :)  Who knew??!

Kevin made his appearance at our house. Amelia named our Elf on the shelf, Kevin.  Why?  Have no idea.  Many of her horses and toys are Kevin as well...or Kelly.   

She has asked me to move him several times.  She loves Kevin, but only from a distance...his eyes are a bit too shifty for her. This is as close as she would go when she first saw him.  I moved him to a shelf.

Our Advent Calendar went up too.  She has already opened 2 of the goodies and now heads right to it in the morning.

Lots more crafts too.

Our pinecone elf was made from an idea on Pinterest.  Amelia picked out the bell, but I glued everything else.  

Our twig stars and tree were made from sticks we collected on our "adventure walks" in our yard.  I asked her what she thought we could make and she said "a tree!" ...so we did.  She lost interest in the actual creating quickly and wanted to make a butterfly for Dad...so we did that too.

In case you can't see it...this is the "butterfly" she made with scissors (LOVES scissors) and she explained how you are suppose to do it as she was cutting away.  

Christmas Cookies and a Letter from Santa himself

I love making cookies…especially Christmas cutouts!  For the past 9 years I have made them with all my nieces and nephews back East.  We each get about 4 to decorate and everyone has a blast in seeing what each other comes up with. 

I was determined to make this year the most special ever and Amelia would love it SOOOOO much that she will beg me every year to make Christmas cookies!

It started out grand.  Plopped her up on the counter and we made the dough.  Ok, enough of Christmas cookies for today…she was on to other things. 

Next day.  Lets go!  Lets roll them out and bake them!  Yay!  Ok…enough of that.  Off she went to play.  I rolled, cut out and baked most of them.

Surely, she will love decorating!

Day Three.  I ran to the store for extra special embellishments.  Stars, balls and Christmas sprinkles and sugar!  Woo hoo!   This was exciting!  I made the icing.  Oh now she was very interested.  I gave her the tools to ice.  GREAT!  She loved it.  Ice, ice, eat some, ice, ice, eat some.  She did 3.  Bye. Perhaps she ate too much icing.

I made 35.

Ok Rob...please come help.  

Santa sent us a note this week too.  

Amelia was thrilled!  Who wouldn't be?!  

Complete with a Santa dollar, sticker and... 

a signed photo!  Of course, I happened to have the perfect frame and it now sits right next to her bed along with Prancer.

Along with the turkey dinner, we completed Christmas cards this past week, as well as, her advent calendar, made my annual christmas calendar refills, did a few more crafts, attended the Nutcracker.... and our Elf on the Shelf (who made his appearance this week as well) is affectionately now named...Kevin.   

All appearing soon on the blog.  Stay tuned.

Christmas Creations

We have been very busy with a daily Christmas project.  

Amelia was a bit cautious on her feet being painted, but then thoroughly enjoyed it ... so we made SEVERAL.  

I painted her feet with the green and red and she added the  yellow finger print dots for the lights and star after the "tree" was dry.

For the pinecone, I gave her the glue and let her go at it.  The glitter was in a shaker which made a bit of a mess, but not too bad. I had to finish up the details as there was gobs of glue that needed glittering :)  

Of course, we did snowflakes.  Amelia appropriately adorned hers with snowflake stickers.

Lastly we did a popsicle stick christmas tree that I absolutely love.  She loved the painting of course and put the white beads on.  I helped with the others.

More to come...