Christmas

And today is Christmas. We've had a great lazy day. Here are a few things I want to remember about today and yesterday.  We didn't have any company for Christmas Eve dinner this year so we tried to make it as fun as we could. Mer and Max spent the day making Pinterest inspired presents for everyone. We told the kids they were going to have to spend their own money on presents for each other and Max and Mer came up with the coolest ideas.  Jack and Luke helped me find fun ideas for setting the table.  We chose to make these santa cups and candy cane place markers,

We had fun acting out the nativity story. These pictures show a calm crew but they were all having a hard time keeping a straight face.

Doug doubled as Donkey and narrator.

We sang our traditional Christmas Carols around the piano. I love this part of Christmas.


Jack set out cookies for Santa and added these special pictures for him and Mrs. Claus


And then it was Christmas morning. The green streamers didn't quite do the job to keep the kids out of the living room.

And then it was time for presents. I'll just let these next pictures speak for themselves.

All in all it was just a great day. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas as well!!

December

Here are a few highlights from December, just things I don't want to forget. Like the time we went fishing early in the morning at Sebastian Inlet and Luke got bit in the neck by a Snapper

Max caught the fish and Doug held it up to Luke's neck to pretend to make it kiss him, well he bit him instead. You can see the bite marks to prove it.  Doug felt so bad.

Doug also caught a fish and almost caught a Pelican before he could take it off the line.  The pelican swallowed it and Doug pulled it out. The Pelican wouldn't leave him alone. Finally when he did and Doug took it off the line he tried to throw it to the Pelican but by then it had lost interest. Fun times.

We decorated for Christmas and had the mess put away promptly the next day for a couple of showings to sell our house.

We received a special package in the mail full of fun surprises from Africa sent by YaYa and Pa from their African Safari trip.  Luke was home sick that day and got right to work on his Rhino.

They also sent a beautiful Nativity set for us to decorate with. Thank you YaYa and Pa!!

We spent the month doing a little something everyday to celebrate and get ready for Christmas. Here is Luke's Christmas cookie as proof that we made them this year. 

We made lots of Christmas pictures.

For FHE one night we held a Markos Family Christmas party which included a few minute to win it type party games and the annual cutting of snowflakes to hang over our dining table. This was a really fun night that we will have to do again next year.

Luke's class performed at Barnes and Noble.

He was very proud of this Grinch that he colored and assembled in honor of Grinch day.

The leaves on our Maple tree decided to drop this week. Jack discovered an easier way to make piles to jump in than just using a plain old rake. He had big piles in no time using the leaf blower.

As you can see they've had a ton of fun with it all.

Last weekend we made Christmas skirt for Mer. She was so excited about it. She twirled and twirled and gushed about it. 

 More details to come on the sewing blog soon. Of course we had to find some special shoes to go with it.  This girl and her high high heels! I think they are a little crazy but I can't fight her about every bit of modesty/propriety, so I let the crazy shoe choices slide.

We went to a local Assisted living home this week with our friends the Knoblocks to carol to the 3 residents who live there.  It turned out that they each had a couple of family members there with them and it ended up being a fun singalong with everyone. They just kept requesting more songs. We also took them each an angel ornament. It turned out to be a really nice night.

More to come...!

November

We have been busy around here, as usual I guess. The Holiday busy-ness has been compounded by our continued efforts to sell our house and me being pregnant. But we are trucking right along. Here are the highlights of our November.

First of all the weather has finally cooled off and the kids have been having a ton of fun playing outside. Max has been playing basketball nonstop in the driveway. He's getting really good.  Sadly the leagues here only play games on Sunday right now or he would be playing on a team.

We had a nice thanksgiving with our friends the Samuels.  We took a few pies that the kids helped me make afterschool on Wednesday. Our "Pie Day" was interrupted by school this year. Bummer!

On Thanksgiving morning the family played a little flag football to work up an appetite. Nice block Mer.

The boys sat on Santa's lap on a random day in Home Depot.  These two are so excited for Christmas, despite the fact that we keep telling them that they aren't getting presents this year, just a new house with a pool and a new baby.

Mer's showing off her piano skills here at the Gibson's pie tasting party. She has recently been playing the piano non-stop.  She will find piano music on line for a song she likes on the radio and just learns it.  She also is picking up the guitar a little.

Max had a turkey trot at school where he could race if he paid $1.  He ended up winning 1st place in his round and won a Turkey!! Which we cooked a few days after Thanksgiving. Luke learned that the real thanksgiving involved 3 days of feasting, so it was perfect.

We also did a family home evening on the Iron Rod. Which was a big hit with lots of tasty tempations.

Doug decided he wasn't going to shave for the entire month of November along with a bunch of other guys he works with in honor of "Movember".  We had fun seeing how much gray hair he had.

He had fun shaving it off into various mustaches.

And finally I spent a bunch of hours sewing up 26 of these little monsters for the school Holday Gift shop. 

And that was our November. December is up next!