Christmas Event #8--The Annual Potato Party and Hayride

Tonight was our church's Christmas party. Three years ago we started the tradition of having a potato party and hayride. A couple in our church bakes a metric ton of potatoes and everyone brings toppings to put on the potatoes and that's our dinner. It's fun and easy and who doesn't like a loaded potato??? Of course we also have lots of desserts. After dinner the fun really begins when we go on a hayride through town singing Christmas carols. The town we live in gets all lit up for the holidays and draws tons of people on the weekends leading up to Christmas. So the town was full of people and we had a great time singing Christmas carols and wishing people Merry Christmas.

Here's me singing and trying to get a picture of Joe and I, I missed him completely.

Here's Joe singing his heart out (or is he making a goofy face because I'm trying to take his picture?) to "Angels We Have Heard on High."

Hannah posing with Ms. Amy in the background leading us off. She knows every word to every Christmas carol--even "Silent Night" in German. Impressive.

Lots of happy, singing little girls.

Christmas Event #7--Christmas Concert

Christmas Event #6--Happy Birthday Jesus Party

So today we had our annual "Happy Birthday Jesus" party. I've been throwing this party since Hannah was about 18 months old. It used to be more elaborate but as the years have gone by and I've gotten busier and our group of friends has grown exponentially it's gotten simpler and simpler. The basics--we come together mid-December, read the Christmas Story, sing Happy Birthday, and then eat cake. Everyone brings a "gift for Jesus," which is either a donation for Toys for Tots or something to benefit a family that we know going through a hard time. And, most recently--we've added running over any leftover cake as the first person leaves. This has been the tradition for the past 4 years. It started from a distracted phone message about what we could do with an extra cake. So, now we actually have to save cake to be sure we have some to run over. Last year we ran over Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes. Here are some pictures from our day. Can you believe all these kids???

Below you will find a video of Julie running over the cake. It was fun but not as exciting as some of the bigger cakes we've been able to run over. I think next year we need to make a cake with lots of frosting just solely for running over. Won't that be fun???

Christmas Event #5--Snow in the Park!

Every year our town trucks in snow for some fun sledding in Florida! There are four "runs" and the line stretches as far as the eye can see. We usually stay far away from the park on this night but instead go the next day when there is no line and play in the leftover snow. However, tonight, everyone wanted to go even with the lines. We were in line for about 45 minutes--all for a 5 second slide down the hill. The kids thought it was worth it though and that's all that matters. We also got free hot chocolate from the Kiwanis and free cookies from the library. Now we are back home, warm, and watching "Annie."

Here's a short video, unfortunately, it's impossible to even tell it's my kids but you get the idea.

Christmas Event #4--"A Christmas Story"

Yesterday, Monday, we saw the play "A Christmas Story."  It was just like the movie, I don't think they missed a thing.  We all enjoyed it and made me want to see the movie.  Julie took a picture outside the theatre in front of the poster and hasn't posted it yet (shame, shame), so I don't have that picture.  But--here are two pictures from our picnic in the park after the play.

Christmas Event #3--The Parade

Today was the annual Christmas parade--definitely my favorite parade. It's long and lots of fun floats and Christmas merriment. Hannah walked in it with her theatre group.

Christmas Event #2--The Christmas Walk

Here are some pictures from last night, there's not much to tell because I covered it in my last post. I will say that we didn't get to see the elderly cloggers--a big disappointment but the kids just had to go to the jumpy house--the big excitement of the night. We finished off our night with ice-cream and then walked home. It was a fun night!

If you are a Christmas special junkie like me...

Go here for a rundown of this year's Christmas specials.  I wish we had ABC family!

Christmas Event #1

The town we live in is Christmas crazy! There are so many different events this time of year and we usually attend most of them. I decided to use my blog to count how many events we go to this year. Today was the first. We went to the Tree Lighting Ceremony at the library. We had wonderful entertainment by Mr. Scott, Santa made an appearance and handed out candy canes and there was cookies, hot chocolate, and punch on the back lawn.

The winner of the cutest baby award!

Here's Mr. Scott and Santa. Joe was not convinced that this was Santa because he had on glasses. Definite fake. Below is the big tree all lit up--not terribly impressive. Hannah wasn't too happy about having her picture taken and let me know it.

And--the refreshments on the lawn...