TheLinharts

This was the first year we have done this...maybe ever...and it was really nice. We spent a nice quiet
Christmas at home just the 5 of us.

Monday and Tuesday were all about playing games, relaxing, and making tons and TONS of Christmas cookies!

Having fun...

Caleb did a little texting...

We are on a Monopoly kick now, too, and we finished 3 games! Caleb, Dan, and I play, and Ellie is the banker (and switches teams, depending on who is winning). William just makes things interesting by moving the pieces and grabbing the cards and money when we are not looking :)

My little chef made a birthday cake for Jesus-

And Caleb wanted to send a note to God....

We also got to celebrate another important birthday! Aunt Kelsey!! So glad we got to spend some time with her on her actual birthday!

(she was such a good sport with all the Where's Waldo requests from the kids)

We went to church on Christmas eve- we decided to go to the Olathe Campus this year, and it was so beautiful! The kids got to hold a candle this year and sing Silent Night with the rest of us. There are no pictures of this, because it required every bit of our attention to keep the church from catching on fire. We had a near miss with the lady's hair in the chair in front of us, and my hair nearly went up in flames at the end....whew! We all survived, and the kids said the candles were their favorite part. After the service, we were getting ready to leave and Ellie pulled on Dan's coat and said, "Can I go give that boy a hug?". We had no idea what she was talking about, and she asked again, then ran up to the stage. Patrick, our worship pastor, was on stage talking to a few other people, and she walked right up to him (a little shy) and gave him a big hug. Then she ran back down to us and we headed to the car. Later, we asked her if she knew who Patrick was, and she said no. When we asked her why she wanted to hug him, she said she really liked how he was singing and playing the guitar. Hah! Who knew, at age 4, we would discover she has a thing for musicians!

We did a little Christmas Eve toasting (or "CHEERS!" we we call it)-

We started a new tradition this year and let the kids open a special present on Christmas Eve- new jammies and the makings for a fun family night- popcorn, hot chocolate, etc...

We finished up with our last candle of Advent, and headed to bed-

I recently had all of our home videos (from our old CDR video cam) made into CD's, and we've been watching them in the evenings. The kids LOVE to see themselves as babies, and I cry every. single. time!

Christmas morning the kids were SO excited to go down and open gifts. The presents were not labeled, but at the bottom of their stocking, Santa left a little piece of wrapping paper that matched their presents:

We spent the rest of the day just playing and enjoying our new gifts, and each other's company :) Turns out I'm pretty good at making balloon animals. Maybe I should dress up like a clown and hire myself out....parties anyone? haha

And this book was definitely a hit- we are now all well-versed in superheroes and villains, their weapons of choice and weaknesses.

And my favorite present! Caleb had been working on this "secret present" for weeks!!!

We enjoyed the snow...

It was all fun and games until someone gets a snowball in the face...

Our little man, Caleb, is doing great in kindergarten and is reading and writing more and more these days. We always look forward to reading his monthly journals he writes in at school. Here are some excerpts from his December journal....

(this weekend I stayed home with Grandma).

(I got to go to my Grandma's house and ?? and eat turkey and ham and watch TV)

(Here is my homework.)

(we like to play websites.)

(I got the gingerbread man with two eyes and a candycane with buttons and frosting.)

Personal favorite: (The KU rocks and the best.)

(I got to eat chocolate chex for breakfast)

(The box is a Christmas decoration.)

(I want a pair of slippler stompeez.)

AHAHAHA- (I need a beef stick.)

We got to see SO many family members over the holidays- it was awesome!

We saw my dad around Thanksgiving-

It was fun to see Aunt Jan, Uncle Don, Kim, and Dustin, too!

(the love of Caleb's life- football!)

(fist bump with Uncle John).

We spent the weekend after Christmas with my family in Wichita- such a treat! The weather was pretty nice and we were able to make several family "outings".

Uncle Tom busted out the Lego stash- it was a big hit!

Watched some football with Uncle Ryan.

Chef John

They really liked their presents! Ellie got a million cute little beads,

And William loved his new "Spiderman Shoes". I think we wore them for 48 hours straight....no joke.

We enjoyed seeing Great Grandma Dixie, too.

Last weekend, our Christmas marathon we ended with a bang- Lots of fun with the Linharts!! It's always such a treat to spend time there, too. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins, and Fred and Sally made it so special for the kids (and us). We are so blessed to have such loving, supportive, fun, and wonderful family on all sides!!

Sweet little nephew!