Happy New Year...and I'm back!

Wow! Can't believe my last post was the end of August 2016. I don't know what happened and why I got away from keeping my blog going. Like I've said before, I want to keep it going for my kids. This is the closest thing they have to a "scrapbook" so I need to make a better effort of posting.

We've just come past the fall and the holiday season. Plus, I never finished my cruise posts! For now I will try to just get something up so that I am back kicking!

We went to Paducah in December to have the kids' picture taken with Santa. This is typical Mallory and Michael when we were waiting in line. Mallory is 12 and Michael is 9 and we told them they had to get their picture with Santa until they are out of the house!

We had the Sutton girls over for our annual ornament painting and cookie party. We've done this every year since we moved here as far as I can remember. Afterwards the kids played a game of Quick Cups. I love tradition!

I didn't take many cake orders during the holidays so I could spend time with the kids. But I did do this cake for a special girl who graduated from nursing school.

We had our birthday party for Jesus in Sunday School and Mallory told the Christmas story using her nativity set she got from Martha in 2010. This is her last year in elementary school so I wanted her to share with the younger kids.We had cake and made an ornament like we always do. Sweet times.

I noticed a nice trend in the Christmas cards we received this year...Merry Christmas is back! Not that any of these sweet friends hadn't used it in the past, but you can just see how many cards say Merry Christmas! 

I painted a couple of wooden boxes for a friend's daughters for Christmas. They were actually gifts from her mom to her girls. I suggested the grandmom write a sweet message on the bottom of them.  I painted on the top but decopauged some things I had cut out of magazines on the sides.

Our elves were back this year. Quickly, Snowflake and Jingles the reindeer, made their appearance on December 1st. I didn't get a picture of all the things they did but they had lots of fun pulling pranks and playing games.

On Christmas Eve the kids listened to the recording of The Night Before Christmas my sweet daddy recorded for them on his last Christmas here on Earth. I'm so glad we have this book for the kids to enjoy hearing Granddaddy read the story in his special way.

 My mother, Lothar and brother were all here for Christmas and we enjoyed playing games, going to the movies and eating out at Red Lobster which has become somewhat of a tradition. I loved that Christmas was on Sunday this year. It's just so wonderful to worship the Lord on the day we celebrate his birth. 

The week after Christmas we went over to Frankfort to visit friends. We had a great break and were ready to go when school started back on Jan. 5th. Happy New Year to everyone!