An idea takes shape

Max was looking for something to keep all his loose change in, so I suggested that we had a jar he could use. He looked at it and thought, he could make a piggy bank out of it. Then Kaci jumped in and wanted one, then Kole not wanting to be left out wanted one too. Last, but not least, Kali decided it was a great idea as well.

So, they took 4 canning jars and spray painted them. Tonight Boyd will cut the slit in the top for the change to go in.

Another Christmas!

Today was a very warm day for December. We had some really bad storms come through that took out the power around 12:30 pm today. While we were waiting for the power to come back on, we were just sitting around. Then I hear Kaci yell, "Grandma!", then at that very moment, the power came back on!

My mom surprised the kids and came to visit today instead of Sunday. She prefers driving in daylight fog and rain to snow and ice. When she arrived, it was pouring down rain, but it was over 50 degrees Farenheit. The kids were squealing with delight! I tried to get some pictures, but they were so fast. I am not sure any turned out or not. Our TV took a crap a couple weeks ago and we were surprised with a new TV for Christmas! Thanks Pat and Patty!!!!!

Mom brought us the Chinese Checkers game with the real stone marbles that she purchased 10 years ago. It is gorgeous and being kept out of the kids hands! For the rest of the day we had to pickup and clean up. I would love to take down the tree either tomorrow or Monday. I bet Boyd will want to leave it up until after New Year's day.

Pizza and sledding

After all the presents were unwrapped and played with, the kids went out to sled in the driveway. It is really icy and they had a lot of fun!

When it started getting late, we made our own Pizzas for dinner. The kids had a blast! The variety of what who wanted was really fun to see!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

We started celebrating last night on Christmas Eve with Junk Food and Christmas Movies! We watched the Musical version of "A Christmas Carol", "It's a Wonderful Life", and "Miracle on 34th Street" . We drank Welch's sparkling grape juice and brought up funny stories from past Christmases. At one point I was the only one watching the movies! LOL

We got the kids in bed by 10:30 so Santa could visit! At about 7 this morning the kids started trying to wake us up. It did no good, we finally arose around 8 and the kids, minus Max who was still sleeping) started sorting the presents right away. After the gifts were sorted, the kids went wild trying to get Max up. They pulled all the covers off of him and were yelling and then Kali went and got an ice cube! Well, Max was up before she could get in there to put it down his shirt! LOL

Boyd came last and then we had to make sure the pets were fed, more anticipation, then get coffee.. LOL It was driving them batty waiting for us to say dig in! And they did!

Then, of course it was time to try out all the new stuff!

Ice, concert, and cookies

We had ice this week. About a 1/4 inch on everything. We were very lucky, most of it melted off the power lines the next day. But now it is all frozen in the driveway and the yard and some of the less traveled streets in town.

These are pictures in front of our house

This weekend we had a basketball game to attend on Friday night. A basketball game on Saturday morning and Volleyball practice on Saturday morning. After these we came home and ate then Max and I left for the Holiday pops concert that Max was participating in with the Sangamon Valley Youth Orchestra and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra.

Max is sitting at in the first picture. The full symphony in the second and their was a special guest! Santa Claus!!!

After the concert, we drove home and Kali has a friend spending the night. They were all going to help bake cookies. Maybe they should have instead of what they were doing while I was baking, and I did not do well at all!

The Brigadeiro is the only thing that turned out! ha ha ha

In the pan is the Brigadeiro cooling. The little chocolate balls are on the wax paper.

Her is what most of my helpers were doing.. Watching Wall-E the movie. ha ha ha

Kaci was off listening to music in another room

This is Abigail, Kali, Max and Kole

Tonight it is supposed to get down to 5 degrees Farenheit. Tomorrow we are only going to have a high of 7 degrees Farenheit. I sure hope there is no wind!!! Just a breeze will send us to below zero temps!

A new experience for Kali

Scuba Diving! One of her friends had a party that included a limo ride and scuba class. I was told that she took to it with no problem at all. In fact she really liked it!

Junior High/High school band and choir concert

Thursday night Kali participated in the Junior High/High school band and choir concert. At one point she played in an ensemble of 2 clarinets and 3 saxophones. It was very good!
All the choirs and bands sounded so good! I took these with my cellphone since my camera batteries were dead.

One sports picture is in

Max in his basketball uniform

See Snow globe kids at the bottom

I globed the kids for Christmas!
See the bottom of the blog

More pics that I was able to scan in.

Here are the kids individual shots. They all look so good!

Another picture

This was one of the really good pictures that we had taken. I will try to scan in some of the pics we had done in a little book. They all turned out so well.