Oh, but wait...there's more!

We were off to Mom's house after ours for a full day/night of unwrapping, laughing, catchin' up, and eating waaay too much. We all mentioned that we would have a more modest, smaller Christmas this year...ha, I don't think so!

I gave alot of handmade gifts this year...and my brother shares some of my blood! He made this incredible closet for Hannah and Lauren's American Girl stuff. So special. Love it, Steve! This will be around for generations to come.

Every year at Christmas my Dad would always wait until all the gifts were opened and surprise someone with something really big. He just loved surprises and Christmas was always so much fun for him. We want to remember and honor him every year and so this year I got butterfly wind chimes for everyone. I put a comforting poem with it and want everyone to remember him when we see it swaying beautifully in the wind. As usual, he was very missed.

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Gifts for eachother-- from Claire's of course (girly girl dreamy store!)

L gave Daddy a sleepy mask w/ a monkey saying "do not disturb"
(yes- he actually does wear these... shhhh!)

An Easy Bake...! This is all that little L wanted!!

The "spy girls" in our family loooved the spy gifts they got!

THE MOST INCREDIBLE CHRISTMAS GIFT!

Love makes miracles happen! Steve and Heather surprised us on Christmas Eve with news that they will be expanding our family with a BABY in August 2009!!

They drove in with Heather's folks on Wednesday and we went to a very special candlelight service at church. We all came back to our place for a Christmas Eve dinner....and what do you know....a CELEBRATION of not only Christ's birthday but welcoming a new Whiting too! (They were even surprised it happened so quickly!) To tell us they had a small gift for my Mom to open before we ate. Oooooh, we had tears of happiness and joy of the circle of life continuing. We couldn't possibly be more excited!

What can I say? GOD IS SO GOOD and His timing is always PERFECT!

December dancers-

The "sugar glow" from the last day of school before Christmas break!
(the teddy's are from the teachers-- wow?!)
Lauren got to take the classroom bunny home for the holiday's- Snowflake has joined us for a couple weeks...

Hannah doing a hip-hop dance for the parents-- all slidin' and sassy!

Lauren at the "Fairy Dust" table after the pixie-dust filled camp day...

Holidays hustle & bustle happenings...

Okay--- you gotta love this from Lauren (to Mommy and Dabby)...

Let's PAR-TEY!....
~~I did an Open House Party here with 5 other creative women. I opened the doors to a holiday night of "stop and shop" for handcrafted jewelry, art, monogrammed items, handmade hairbows, pretty handmade floral arrangements, and Uppercase Living designs. We all had a ton of fun and plan on continuing to do Open Houses... one scheduled for January already!
~~Josh and I hosted the 5th annual Christmas Party (that's always a blast!) with our dear friends. Missed you Bryans and Mainords!
~~I got to know (and met!) some of the ladies in our neighborhood at a cookie exchange. Nothing like packin' on the holiday pounds a little early too!
~~Our family enjoyed a delightful Christmas party night with our church group friends families.
~~We ate great Mexican at Vila Montez with Josh's ETOX co-workers one night.
~~School Christmas parties are always sugared-up fun (and craziness)..and we were so proud watching Lauren in her little classroom Christmas play.

Other doings and happenings...
~~I started working every Thursday at a pottery place here in town-- it's been fun.
~~The girls, Nana and myself made ornaments, suckers, peanut butter pine cones (for our furry flying friends!) and I did an Advent calendar for the girls. Every day after school they peaked under the number. I wanted to emphasis this year the importance of giving (and getting). So I put things like "Write or draw a soldier a picture and send it", "Give your teacher a holiday hug today" and stuff like "Let's drive and look at Christmas lights tonight" or "Let's rent any Christmas movie you want tonight"...
The girls loved it (and it was cheap and easy to do!)
~~Lauren went to a "Fairy Day Camp" at Dance-n-Drill a bit ago. They fluttered around dancing, did scavenger huts, some sweet art and painted themselves up all glittery. I know it was a fairy fun time for her...