Well as you can see our tree is still standing Christmas morning, although it has had a ruff time of it with the cats. We had a fun Christmas morning.
Daniel got a lego set with a shark and boat
Makayla got some new books
Cameron got a crystal making kit
The kids and I gave Lindsay a pillow case with our picture on it and we wrote "love notes" on the back. So he can still sleep with us at night.
Daniel had a Grinch day at school. They ate green rice crispy treats and drank green juice as they watched the animated Grince stole Christmas. He made this mask and came walking out of the school with it on. Then he said he was going to take our Christmas tree. He had a pretty fun day.
I love how well we paired up each cat with a kid. Mynee loves to play with Daniel and she doesn't mind that he is ruff with her. Mo loves Makayla because he likes to be cuddled and Makayla cuddlies with him a lot. Then Minnie is the quiet one who doesn't like too much cuddling but she loves to climb the tree, just like Cameron. They are going to be great comfort to us this next year. I am so glad we got three and that they loves us and know which kid is theirs. 
Tonight we watched Makayla perform with her school band. She did such a wonderful job and the christmas music was really fun too.
Then we came home to the cats all the way to the top this time they even knocked the angel completely off so I think I might be taking the tree down before Christmas gets here.
Last year Makayla and Daniel had their picture taken for the newspaper I thought but it ended up bring for a poster instead. We saw it on the school wall the other night. She is reading to Daniel isn't that neat?
Cameron had his Christmas chorus program. They sang lots of fun Christmas songs.
This is flat Daddy. He is our replacement while Lindsay is gone this next year. Not that he could be replaced but as you can see the kitties like sitting on his lap. Daniel reads to him at night and I keep doing a double take when I see him out of the corner of my eye.
This is Minnie again. This time I took the picture of the top of our tree so you could see how high she climbs. She sat there for a long time too. And now Mynee, Daniel's cat climbs up too.
"I am just hiding from Daniel!"
Well Minnie will not stay out of the tree. She climbs all the way to the top. What are we going to do? I probably shouldn't have put a tree up this year but I thought they need to learn now so that hopefully next year they are better, but I don't know if that is a good plan either.
This year Daniel got a lego board game. They built the ship and each player moves closer to the end of the plank before he has to plung into the water with man eating sharks. They played until each of them had won one round. We then when to the movie thearte to watch 
One of our Christmas traditions is to give each kid a new Christmas ornament that has something to do with the past year. Daniel got a tractor because he wants to be a Tennessee farmer when he grows up. Cameron got Charlie Brown reading a book on a bean bag. Because this is the first year Cameron has wanted to read a good book in his spare time. And Makayla got a minature flute because she has played the flute for almost a year now. This year while Lindsay was working on getting the lights to work on the tree Makayla and I played Christmas song duets with the piano and flute it was really fun to share music together.
We are by ourselves this Thanksgiving. So we bought a small turkey and we aren't going so over board on all the food because it is just us that has to eat all all of it. So we are keeping it small. This picture is of the kids with their soldier ragdolls. We put Lindsay's picture in them. They will be well worn over the next little bit I think. Also we have Max (the dog) who will be turning 4 this Christmas and these are our 3 cats. They have gotten really big.
Heritage Middle school put on Annie Jr. Makayla was on the stage crew. They spent alot of time after school the last two months. She looks happy spite the hard work. She had a lot of fun and made new friends.
We went Trick or Treating with Cameron's friend Ryan and Makayla's friend, Cassandra. They live in the same neighborhood with a sidewalk so we went up there.
Cameron earned his Bear patch last night at the pack meeting. He has done a lot of work to earn it too. Thanks to his Uncle Jed for taking him to day camp this summer in Utah. And his Uncle Rue who helped him complete his Law enforcement achivement. And Grandma & Grandpa Millard for taking him to Yellowstone where he picked up trash and made Grandma a little nervous about it. And for Nana & Papa having a family reunion. And Grandma & Grandpa Buck who helped him by sharing family stories of the past. It does take a village to raise a good no GREAT kid.
We discovered this beautiful nature park in Fairview, TN. So we enjoyed feeding geese, even a trumpeter swan. The walking trail was just gorgeous.
