Christmas Party at Our House

 Getting ready!

 We re-arranged the furniture a little

 Here is one of my sous chefs!

 A pinterest idea that actually worked out like they said-though my toothpicks were a little short.

She took her job seriously!

 Another of my sous chefs-Ms. Dali!  She always makes pancit, a Philippine noodle dish that went over so well last year that someone who had been invited to the party asked Greg if she was making it again.  I told Dali that they wouldn't have been asking that if I had been the one making the pancit!  She also makes us lumpia-basically the Philippine version of egg rolls, wrap your ingredients and then fry them.  They are delicious too!  I should have gotten a picture of the 100+ that she wrapped all precisely and the same!  They were ALL eaten!

 2 more Grinch Kabob makers join us!

 Some of the food sitting out.  I made lemon cream cake-a copycat of Olive Garden's recipe and thought it tasted almost as good!

 Then I have to make every year, by request of a different co-worker of Greg's-Death by Chocolate Brownie Cake-so rich, delicious, and chocolate-y!

 I put Cranberry Lemonade punch in this server borrowed from a friend-recipe also from pinterest and another success.  It was really easy-equal parts:  cranberry juice, lemonade, and sprite or ginger ale.

 Above is Greg visiting with Noel and Howard in the crazy hat!

 We had a great time snacking, visiting,

 and playing wii!

 Here is Ashley reading a book to Ms. Cham, Greg's admin-who does all kinds of things above and beyond the scope of her job to make life here easier for our family!

 I forgot until everyone was gone that I wanted a picture of us together so we set the camera up on the tripod.

Boys Christmas Program

3rd post of the day-The program that the boys were in for Christmas was called Christmas in Reverse and started with the manger and then someone said "ok it's all done now" and then someone else said "no" and they went back to Adam and Eve and went through several Bible stories and then ended at the manger again!  It was a great program!

Below is the opening act in all their sequins!

 Ryan is in the middle, slightly left of the below picture.  The 3rd and 4th graders all wore red t-shirts and 5th graders wore green ones.  All the choir kids had white hoodies and the 5th graders had ears on theirs because they were the sheep!

 Ryan looks very serious when he sings!

 Below are Adam and Eve-she is one of Scott's classmates and her mom's name really is Eve!

 I thought the tree was really neat!

 Here is the ark!

 Above is Scott singing!

 Finally I got one of Ryan smiling near the end!

 One Sunday when we actually were not running late to church!

December Craziness

 I visited Ryan's class to read!  3rd graders are really good at crazy faces aren't they?

 This is the poster for Ashley's Christmas production

 I found this teeny lizard on our computer desk one night-Greg says that he can stay if he will do receipts for us!

 Ashley and Ryan were making Christmas cards to go with their shoebox gifts that we are doing through a local church-like Operation Christmas Child but local.

 All 3 kids helped wrap books for the school's storybook donation drive for a nearby public school.  Ashley really likes to wrap presents.  I may hire her out next year at Christmas if you are willing to live with slightly lumpy, bumpy packages!

 Here are some of the children's purchases for the 3 teenage girls we filled boxes for.

 Ashley is wearing a new school t-shirt, we realized later that she had put it on backwards!

 You can't cook without your apron, chef's hat, and hello kitty socks (handed down from cousin Katie)

 Coloring during a break from cooking

 I don't need a food processor, Ashley likes making crumbs out of anything!

 She went to a little friend's birthday party and the friend's older sister and her friends did games and face painting for the little girls.  I thought it was a really good butterfly to have been painted by a 4th grader!

 Ashley's letter to Santa requesting something pink for Christmas.  I think she is covered!

 A neighbor up the street whose boys attend our same school had a Christmas open house that we attended briefly last Saturday, between taekwondo and scout events of the weekend.  Ashley is showing a new little friend how to hang ornaments.

 Ryan and Ashley decorating and eating cookies!

 They had "snow" in the house!

 Santa visited!

 My friend in her Mrs. Claus dress and their 3 boys were in elf costumes!  SO cute

 Ryan was happy to see Santa!

 Ashley saying goodbye to her new friend!

Kids had their pictures made with Santa at the party!