Stuff from the boat from Manila arrived

2nd post of the day-This was mid-December!  Our things from Manila finally arrived!  I spent most of this day running back and forth because it was the kids last day of school before Christmas vacation and I was helping with Christmas parties-Greg was at the house with the movers-and I brought lunch back for all of them.


Den-we had a Christmas tree but all the ornaments to put on it were somewhere in these boxes!

 Looking into the dining room from the kitchen

 The playroom

 Greg's office at home

 the dining room-we were happy to see our things, especially our bed but I had just gotten all the other boxes emptied! and we were about to leave for Christmas!  Craziness!

Christmas Activities

3rd post of the day-Christmas fun things!  We went for a carriage ride one weekend while Greg was out of town!

The carriage ride and huge tree are near a Barnes and Noble so we ,of course, had to go in and do a little reading!

Ryan and Ashley had a school wide Polar Express day where they all got to wear their pjs!!!   Such fun!

Ryan's class Christmas party!

They had to draw certain things without looking-hilarious results!

tossing marshmallows into someone's mouth!

a great fun game for 4th graders!  We won't talk about how many were eaten off the floor-even though we adults had told them not to!

Ashley's class party!

I helped the kids make ornaments with their pictures on them!

Ashley and her sweet teacher!!

Another fun Christmas activity that we did was a living nativity in Greenville!  we saw a sheep

and a camel

and goats!

The shops in Bethlehem! Roman soldiers. 

  Mary, Joseph, the angel and baby Jesus at the end!  Very cool re-enactment of the REAL story of Christmas!

The sweater was Greg's when he was a little boy!  It's hard to see in the picture but the reindeer on the right has a red nose to make him into Rudolph (courtesy of Grammy for the sweater's original wearer!)

other shared holiday sweaters!

I had always wanted to see the Grove Park Inn Gingerbread houses so the kids and I made a road trip one day when during Christmas break!

The decorations at the hotel were gorgeous and the gingerbread was amazing!

Alvin and the Chipmunks!  My favorite Christmastime singers (Greg can't stand to listen to them!)

One of our favorites of them all-from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe!

One weekend while Greg was home, he put shelves in in our new garage-they are pretty strong shelves!

We saw the holiday lights at Roper Mountain and enjoyed seeing Santa and making crazy faces!