Christmas Highlights

The week before Christmas was super intense in terms of our building project. It was even greater upheaval than it had been and I was not feeling very excited about Christmas. Anna decided that one way or the other we HAD to have a Christmas tree. So she sat down and made one. It is just absolutely perfect for us this year. When I brought the presents downstairs on the 23rd, Anna set up the tree and arranged the presents around it. Probably one of my favorite memories from this year.

 

Aliza gave everyone (including herself) their favorite Pokemon in plushie form.

Amanda helped us surprise Aliza. You have to know that Aliza HATES shoe shopping in any form so when she unwrapped the paper to find a Vans box, she was not impressed and questioned her mother's judgment in gift giving.

That quickly changed when she opened up the box to see hand painted Animal Crossing Vans.

And then she put everything together and realized at Thanksgiving Joel was asking her questions to help Amanda know what characters to put on the shoes.

They are just perfect. Aliza was thrilled. She has figured out her presents the last couple of years so it was extra fun to completely surprise her this year.

Isaiah wanted one thing for Christmas. Roller skates. He read a story in his reader about friends roller skating and since then that is what he's wanted. More on that later!

Anna wanted toys for Christmas. I'm so happy when she wants to be a little girl...that tween side comes through plenty!

There was a time when it was an ordeal to get a picture of the Sheats cousins. Not anymore!

It's so fun to watch these kids grow up. They can go from playing hide and seek to sitting together talking.

After I completely cleaned up our Christmas mess, because SEC would be working, we spent a couple days with Jeremy's family.

Amanda completely surprised me with this sign that she designed and painted for me.  If I cried over things like this, I would have cried. It is going to look great in our house and it is so very ME. After 13 years of blogging, I can claim the blog name as my own mantra.

Back to Isaiah's roller skates...he was finally willing to try them out.   Jeremy is so great teaching the kids to do new things. He put all the pads on Isaiah and told him to fall to learn that they really will protect him. After a while Isaiah was starting to get the hang of it on the carpet in Grandma and Grandpa's garage.

There was plenty of falling!

Anna got acrylics and Amanda showed her how to paint with them. Anna has been so excited about painting!

Good family time and treasured memories. Even with everything else swirling, I left Christmas with a full heart.