Happy Holidays! (a.k.a. the Longest Blog Post In The World)

   Wow. What a busy few weeks! We have been having lots of fun and I can think of about ten zillion things I need to post about! This is going to be a very long "scribble-scrabble" sort of post and I probably won't be able to do justice to the awesomeness of all the stuff we did over Christmas break, but here I go! (Feel free to  skim; I know it's a lot to absorb.)

1.) Mom and I went to the Nativity Open House and helped out. (This was for my Divine Nature project.) If you don't know what the Nativity Open House is, it's a really awesome display we do every year at the church. There are 600+ AWESOME nativities from all over the world. If you haven't seen it you totally should! During the project I did everything from putting up fake trees to ironing fabric to setting up Nativities. I also got to do stuff like polishing wood and replacing trash bags. One really neat thing we did was hosting a room. This means sitting in a room with Nativities and answering questions.

Mom in the Classical Room.

Me in the Classical Room.

 An awesome silver Nativity inside a huge geode.

 This was in the room we were hosting-I had to put it in after a little boy walking through with his mom took one look at the gate and yelled, "Hey Mom! Look, a dungeon in Bethlehem!"

 Stained glass Nativity (yes, it is on top of the coat racks-probably to keep little kids away from it)

 This one was made from odds and ends from a hardware store. I know it's hard to tell what everything is-oh well, it made me laugh!

 The highlight of this one is the hilarious fat cow right in the front.

 A really, really awesome plastic Nativity...with FIBER OPTICS! This picture does not do it justice.

A Nativity in an acorn! This is one of those things you have never heard of but you love it as soon as you do.

2.) Grandma Schramm was here! Grandma is awesome and we all LOVED having her visit us.
First, I shall post the authorized picture of Grandma...

Grandma and Samuel reading together on the couch

...and then for the ones we took when she wasn't looking.

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Grandma the tickle monster!

Grandma with her "loot."

Grandma helping sweep up pine needles (this is what we do for fun; now you know!)

3.) We went to the annual Jones Family Christmas party, which is always awesome. They always have a great theme, and this year the theme was...NARNIA!!!!!! I was so excited because I love the Narnia books. As usual, we all went in costume. Grandma Schramm was the White Witch, (fearsome with a curtain-rod magic wand) and Samuel was an ADORABLE little talking leopard. Andrew was Peter, and despite his protests I think he looked very dashing in his sweater and khakis. Mom and Dad were Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. Mom made some lovely tails for them to wear, and after she made Dad's, she said, "enjoy it...its the last black leather thing I'll ever make for you." :) I was Lucy. I know the theme is Narnia, but I put on my costume and screamed "HOGWARTS!" (hehe)

Sorry about the picture quality... ah well we already knew what the top of our heads looked like.

4.) Christmas Day!!! We actually had Christmas on Monday, because of church, but it worked out well. We had a great time. Probably the top presents in our (the kids') eyes were: Andrew loved the new WiiPlay game, Samuel got these nifty little building toys called Connectagons (actually way cool and fun!) My favorite present was probably my awesome fuzzy boots, which I really wanted! Christmas was a great day to have fun and to think about the first Christmas-when He who was to save the world came as a baby to a tiny stable.

Waiting to go down and get stockings...

Me wearing: new Christmas pajamas, new bathrobe, new hat, and new scarf reading my new book. My frog hat (his name is Fiyero) is next to me on the chair. Life at its fullest.

(Honestly, I have no idea what this picture is of, I just liked it.)

"Ho ho! What's this squishy thing they put in my cage? I shall step on it and show it who's boss."

 "Oh, so you SIT on it! Huh, kind of comfy."

"Ah, I see. It's a bed! Well, I may as well use it, all this Christmas spirit has worn me right out..."

This was taken on Christmas Day and it doesn't really have anything to do with anything, I just thought Charlie looked funny like that.

Me and Andrew putting together his new Star Wars Battle of Endor Lego set. Andrew almost fainted with joy when he opened it! (Who doesn't love Ewoks, right?)

Andrew and his extensive block domino-racetrack-like thingy, which is really awesome! The moment before the KABOOM.

5.) This is probably the most fantabulous thing that has happened all year... Our family saw Wicked the musical in Detroit! Now, if you know me, you know I'm a huge Wicked fan, and I go around pretty much 24/7 singing the songs. I had wanted to see it forever, and the Broadway production was coming to the Detroit Opera House,  but I was pretty sure Mom and Dad would never take us. It was an awesome surprise to find out we were going! We had a great time with our good friends the Leonhardts and the Lovells. We went to a fancy Cuban restaurant and ordered stuff we couldn't pronounce and altogether had a great time. (You know it's a really fancy restaurant when you can't read and/or pronounce the menu because it's in a different language...well, despite me poking fun at it, it was a good restaurant with yummy food.) The Elphaba was incredible, as was the Galinda. And, I personally think "our" Fiyero was even better than the original! Well, I don't have adequate words to describe the "Ozomeness" (awesomeness) of the show!!! I loved every minute of it.

Andrew and his friend David Leonhardt at Wicked

Me, Andrew's head, and my friend Brinli at Wicked

Dad and Samuel in the Wicked theater

Well, we had a great end of 2011. We are looking forward to a great 2012, and we are so grateful for all our friends and family who have been there for us during difficult times. We love you all!