Merry Christmas

John got a Christmas shot of the kids yesterday. We were rushed and were lucky enough to get this on in a few minutes. I think he did an amazing job!

And since I am lazy and we only send out Christmas cards to Grandparents and Great Grandparents...the rest of you can look at the picture here. Maybe next year I'll get more sent out. I wouldn't count on it, but sometimes I surprise even myself!

Here are the cards that the kids helped me make this year. I think we did a pretty good job!

And while I'm at my posting today, I'll include the kids Santa letters. This year we've been doing a Christmas activity along with our regular advent calendar. We've had hot chocolate, gone to the store to pick out a holiday treat, made paper chains, made Christmas cards, written letters to Santa.

And we will be reading Christmas stories, going to parties, watching Christmas movies, making Santa Cookies, buying a gift for a family in need, wrapping presents, cutting out snowflakes, coloring Christmas pictures, cleaning the house for Santa (how sneaky of me to put that one in there, is it mean of me to make my kids help me clean the house on Christmas eve??? Maybe we'll do that the day before Christmas eve if I'm still feeling guilty in a few weeks). Anyways, the list goes on, but it's been fun. A lot of our activities are simple and revolve around things that already need done, but this just makes it more exciting for the kids somehow.

So, here are the scanned copies of their letters to Santa. Owen chose to mail his in the mailbox, and Ainsley chose to burn hers in the fire place. Why would she want to do that you ask? Because she has been told the same story I was told as a child. Apparently there are elves up on the roof top that collect the ashes of the letter to Santa that you burn, piece the letter back together, and then hand deliver your Christmas list to Santa. Kind of weird I guess. But that's what I grew up doing and Ains thinks it's cool. So the next time we are at grandma and grandpa's we'll burn it, seeing as how we don't have a fireplace.

In case you can't read Ainsley's hers says...
Dear Santa Clause,
I want a Belle Barbie Princess
I want a hair set.
That is it.
I really like you.
Love Ainsley
I want a radio.