gifts, gifts, gifts

A good friend of mine, Shena and I made a barter this year. I said that I would start 2 Star Wars robes, in exchange for the top part of a sweater. Thankfully she agreed and so, she started the top part of this sweater for our Josh. She does beautiful work btw. I wanted it to look like the Weasley sweater, that Mrs. Weasley makes her children each year for Christmas, from the from Harry Potter books (have I mentioned that I am a big Potter fan???). I ran out of time to put the "J" in it for Josh and eventually Jacob. That will be done shortly. I also knitted him an owl to match. He named him James, for James Potter.
Jacob opened his presents from the chair. Once we got out of the van and in the house, Jacob was miserable. His head was pounding and his tummy hurt. He had been coughing pretty bad the night before and this morning. He was also running a bit of a fever. However, once the ibuprofen kicked in, he was all smiles. He didn't move out of this chair, even to open his gifts.
Another gift were these embroidered towels. All of us got them. Here they are showing them off to the camera.

Christmas PJ's

This year for Christmas, I made each of our children a new pair of pajamas. I love making pj's for them. I love the way that they look in them. We draw names on my side of the family and so if aunt Ashley draws your name, you get a new pair of pj's for Christmas. Here we are posing in our new pj's. Libby's pj's have dresses on them. Jacob's pj's are Star Wars all the way. Erin's pj's have a bunch of different gals on them. Penny has cowboys and girls with Indians, tee pees etc. on her's. Joshua's have spiders and webs on them. Clyde even bought me some pj bottoms for Christmas...see even Clyde keeps the tradition.

Santa brought this spinning, light up toy for Penny this morning. She loved it! It kept her occupied for hours today on our ride home from Washington D.C.

yummy rolls

Tonight we got a surprise package from an awesome family. In the package were her famous rolls. You can see that Penny wasted no time digging into the bag. Here she is licking her lips after a yummy bite.
Here Penny is enjoying the rolls.

Bednar pen-pal

I so meant to post this one earlier. This is Maylee and Ricky, Clyde's brother and sister with David Bednar and his wife (the gal in red; I'm not sure who the other gal is on the far right). Maylee and Ricky went to a conference held in Charlotte. After the meeting, they were able to meet Pres. Bednar and others. Maylee whispered to Sister Bednar that Ricky had joined her and a bit of what was going on in his life. So, Pres. Bednar pulled Ricky aside and they chatted for a while. Pres. Bednar wanted to keep in touch with Ricky and the things happening in his life. Ricky has an Apostle pen-pal...way cool!

Mary Jo's

YIPPEE!! Today, I finished all of my Christmas sewing. I cannot begin to express my happiness!! I have been collecting things all year, to make for Christmas. That's right, all... year...long...!! I spent the year waiting for sales @ Jo-ann's, clipping coupons, & digging through remnant racks, to find all the necessary items, needed to make this Christmas special for those on our list. And so, it's over. Now it's all the fun stuff, decorating cookies and passing out all the goodies that were made. On to wrapping it all!! I gave my Janome a hug, as I packed her away for a nap! :)

Saturday, Clyde surprised me with a trip to a cool fabric shop in Gastonia, called Mary Jo's. (Once Maylee reads that we were in Gastonia and didn't call, I'm sure a gasket will blow... please pray for our safety. This is not a joke!!) Anyway, it is Jo-ann's on steroids! There is everything that you can imagine sewing wise times 1000. I was a bit overwhelmed! Clyde drove the kids around, while I browsed the shop. What a cool husband Clyde is!! There were bolts upon bolts of fabric...every team, ACC that is, upholstry fabric, linen, corduroy in every wale imaginable. They had a wall of rick rack, a wall!! Then another wall of buttons. As well as every notion ever. As I walked through the shop, I came to the realization that the next time I go, that I needed to have an idea of what I was looking for, because it was a bit overwhelming. I bought some pretty corduroy, 3 shades of rick rack, some funky green fabric, thread to match, and some interfacing for my embroideries. I am excited to go back. I forsee a girls day out in the very near future!!

Christmas party

the angel choir...& our angel Libby
Mary, Mary...Erin
Josh the Shepherd, though he looks like a Ninja Warrior
Jacob the lamb.

Friday night was the Christmas party @ church. We had teetered on whether or not we wanted to go for over a week. Clyde had his work party that same night and so we were planning on attending that. We had asked my Mom if the kids could play @ their house, while we went to the SWRMS staff party. The plan was to drop the kids off @ Mom and Dad's house. Then we got a phone call from Christi, the director of the children's nativity, and she said that Erin had been chosen to be Mary. Erin had wanted to be Mary for a while, as every other girl does, but Erin had wanted it most sincerely. Anyway, that meant that our plans had to change. Mom said that she would drive here, so that after the nativity part of the night, Clyde and I could take off to the the other party, and that she would bring the children back to our house. So, again, we were ready for this party. Then Thursday, Mom called to say that my baby brother, Ty, had gotten the rotavirus and that plans needed to change. We spent awhile trying to figure out another way to make it to the work party. We came to the conclusion that the work party wasn't an option. We loved seeing our children up on the stage. They were beautiful! On the drive home, Erin said that her, "wish had come true!" That comment made the night spectacular!!

flowers and Christmas lights

I went outside and noticed that our tree, in our back yard is blooming. It is December and the tree is blooming. We have had some oddly warm weather this week, which is to blame for the nasty cold that I have right now. Isn't this amazing, to have beautiful pink blooms in the middle of December?? When will it get cold and feel like December already??!!