Joyful Christmas Memories

We started out our Christmas vacation with a trip to Spokane and Pullman to visit our eastern daughters.  Lela planned a fun outing to the Best Christmas Pageant Ever…a story I read to my 4th graders every year.   It was great to see it performed! 

A festive looking Kerrigan family…Papa had fun picking out a Christmas dress for Megan!

Lela and I had lots of fun decorating Megan’s bedroom, with an idea Lela got from some baby store…and some cool vinal rub ons…did you know you can make these with a cricket???  Molly did!

Molly and Eric made rubber-band guns for all the neices and nephews…biggest hit of the day!!!

This is what Mima did for her grandkids…saw the idea in a toy magazine and reproduced it…the kids each got a couple puppets to play with.  They will have fun with it, I hope!  A skill to be developed!

Gabe played the guitar as we sang Christmas carols…and he, Steve and Molly did an awesome job of “Mary Did You Know”.

The Meiers kids sang a Christmas medley for us that they had performed for the Spanish church in our area.

Then the Smith boys did a cute version of We Three Kings!  Made the day special…remembering when our kids use to perform for us each Christmas morning!

Christmas morning was very quiet with just Steve and I…we practiced with our new joby tripod that Jodi and Chad gave us…worked great!

On Christmas Day, we had the Meiers back for dinner…they did a little scripted pageant of the Bethleham story.  Essie was the cow with the one liner “Moooo” …and Joel did a great job of playing baby Jesus!

Remember when the best Christmas gift ever was a lollipop?  Essie is in heaven!

Trivia question for non-family members:  This is our yearly traditional  Christmas movie…  What is it?   …thanks for reading all the way to the end!

Christmas Ambiance!

We splurged!  After all these years of cutting $5-$10 Douglas fir Christmas trees, we sprung for a $20 noble!  It smells so wonderful, and is much more tree looking.  Here is our house all lit up!

Even more cozy is the Christmas music playing while grandkids are reading and playing by the fire…oh yeah!

Little Joely Poley, cute as a bug!

Mommy can make me smile

And finally for those “few” doggie lovers.  If you hear a kissing sound … it is not under the mistletoe … it comes from this stuffed heart that a student gave me for Valentine Day a couple years ago.  Zeke finds the kissing noise when he bites it quite exciting

We are Thankful for our WHOLE Family!

It was a rainy day…but here we all are

THE FEAST!

 The stuffing of Megan…POP goes the button!   

 

 The Christmas Tree search!

 

Birthday, birthday!

Not everyone made it to the party…Jodi was sick, so we didn’t get to celebrate our birthdays together.  We did, however, obscond with her boys so my party would be more fun

Autumn Surprise :-)

The mailman brought a fun birthday surprise from my sister today…Thanks!  It smells yummy too!

 

Random Pics…

Some little creatures came to visit us for Kari and Grandpa’s birthday…I know it is late, but I am just figuring out how to do my pictures on Steve’s laptop as it is the only one that gets internet reception now   If you saw Jodi’s blog, you saw Elijah with his face paint on too

 

and isn’t this the cutest little lion you ever did see???

We have some very creative grandkiddos…here they are on display

You really DID need to see this   Steve pulled his muscle trying to keep up with all those K-8th graders in P.E. 

 

We had a visit from some famous characters this week…can you see Wyatt Erp, Daniel Boone, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Harriet Tubman (with light skin:-), Betsy Ross, Babe Ruth, Christopher Columbus, Orville Wright, Benedict Arnold, Annie Oakly, Lucas (of Star War fame), Thomas Edison, Pocahontas, Laura Ingalls Wilder. They did a great job on their first oral report!

Rainy Day Fun!

The Smith boys came over for a rainy week-end while their parents enjoyed some R & R in Arizona…OK, Jodi did…it was a working vacation for Chad.  We attempted some “batik” from their history book…but ended up with crayon / paint wash.  We also spent a day at the pumpkin patch…but I will have to figure out how to get the pics off my phone as I forgot my camera…Sheesh!

 Lela, Megan, Molly and I had a fun trip up to the Harmons for a week end of crafting fun.  We missed Kari and Joel due to swine flu…sorry!  It was a rainy, cozy week-end with Christmas music playing in the background, all sorts of yummy foods cooked and cleaned up by Darrell, lots of creative paper crafts with unending supplies, and of course lots of good chat time!

 Here is a sample of some of my creations (not original).  Shirley has this awesome machine that cuts out intricate patterns for boxes, ornaments and most any design you can think of on a computer template!  No end to the possibilities there!

 …and little Megan keeping us all entertained!

 …and of course, here is the hostess with the mostest… Thanks Squirrelly!

Man Cave Finished ;-)

Steve now has his own private man-cave…complete with refinished desk found in a friend’s barn, a lap top for writing his upcoming book   And his mom’s lovingly made quilt near by…for those cold dark days when you need some toasty comfort!

He also built some book shelves into the closet that never had doors.  He loaded it up with all his reference books for teaching Bible, cults, apologetics, etc.  Now for those long wintery days!

Finally, he decorated the walls with Viet Nam War memoribalia (sp?) , pictures from his kids, Bible pictures, etc. 

The Beach in October!

We decided to try a fall trip to the coast…it was a beautiful week-end.  Our little tent trailer kept us snug as a bug.

We ended up camping near a family with twin boys in my class at school.  They were pulling in loads of crab, and kindly shared some with us

My first try at crab cakes…they were very good!

We went on miles of wonderful bike rides…the trails are empty and pretty.  Ft. Stevens is the place if you enjoy a good “easy” bike ride.

 Then of course…the best part…the beach and the ….

GORGEOUS sunsets!

Amazing!

For his “amazing animal” report…Max brought in a 30 foot long anaconda…stuffed of course.  Still amazing to think of something that large slithering around this earth