Christmas Eve and Day

A lovely Christmas Eve candlelight service at Centerpoint.

Back at my Mom's for our traditional Christmas Eve snack supper, Drew Preston shows off his smolder.

Tucker and Ellie love each other.

A little silly. (see my new hair? i love it!)The whole gang. At the back: my brother Johnny, my Daddy, my Mom, Craig, my Uncle Tommy (all the way from Orlando). In front: my sister-in-love Monique (holding John Clark), Ellie, me, Tucker, Sullivan and Drew Preston.

Cutest Christmas candy cane/angel ever!! He is just yummy.

We held our own little pick up pageant the day after Christmas. Ellie was Mary, Sully and Tucker read the story, Drew Preston played piano, Sully played guitar, Tucker played violin and we all sang.From a Matthew West song, "Merry Day after Christmas, Happy rest of the year, Even tho Christmas is over, the Light of the World is still here!"

Gingerbread Houses

For at least 8 years now (we think I was expecting Ellie when we did the first one) the Burton and the Clement kids get together to make gingerbread houses. It's a fun tradition of laughter, snacking (mostly the kids sneaking gingerbread toppings) and houses that continue to get more creative and fun. They never look perfect. I think Sharon and I learned early on to just let our kids be kids and have a good time. It could get pretty hectic in the early years with all the little ones dipping into the icing and toppings at the same time! Now they're halfway grown and it's a little less chaotic. Not that less licking happens, they're just not so wild.

I was getting my hair cut right after our party, so Sharon took a "last" photo of my long hair.

Christmastime

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
We decided to put our Christmas letter on a post this year. I can put lots more pictures on this way. :)

This year Tucker was asked to be a part of one of the dances in The King's Courts presentation of "The Coming King", which is a fancy way of saying he got to have a lot of fun rehearsing and presenting with friends! He was Gabriel and the girls were the heavenly host. They danced to "Glory to God" by Todd Agnew. It was so fun to watch!Ellie danced to "When Love Was Born" by Mark Shultz and also to "Give Him My Heart".

Icing sugar cookies. A yummy yearly tradition.Licking is allowed and always fun. (Don't tell my Mom!!!)

We love working puzzles. This Peanuts puzzle is also an almost-every-year tradition.

The following are pictures of my Nativity Sets. A friend once told me she knew someone who bought a Nativity in each place she travelled. Since we tend to roam around a lot, I decided I liked this idea. Some of these were given to us, but most we have collected over the years. Ellie has fun setting them up all over the house. This first one is actually very tiny. I found it in a church gift shop in Sicily, Italy.Found in Prattville!

A friend brought us this one from Africa, he was on a mission trip.

This is one of the first. Sully was 2 and Tucker was 1 when we made the little stable and went on a stick hunt to find the sticks for the stable. Wouldn't trade this one for anything.

Sully's early artwork.

Tucker did this in 2010.Ellie did this this year.

We made these to go along with our Advent Books, Jotham's Journey, Bartholomew's Passage and Tabitha's Travels. We get a new piece out every nite during Advent.

Craig and got this one for our anniversary several years ago. I love Willow Tree but don't like they they don't have faces. So I added faces. :)

North Carolina this summer. (Blowing Rock)

Hallmark!

Hawaii.

Mexico mission trip.

Rome, Italy

One of my favorites. Found this knitted Nativity in the St. George Chapel at Windsor Castle in England. The camels are from Egypt.

Three wise men from Peru.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Craig and Tucker brought me this one from their mission trip to Ecuador.

All 3 boys made these in 2002. Ooo I love these.

A friend brought this from a mission trip to Peru.

The gift shop at the Shakespeare Festival.

Sorrento, Italy. There were hundreds of figures. You picked out which ones you wanted and paid for them individually. These are VERY tiny.

Dalonega, Georgia

Hallmark!

I love lists. I'm the kind of person who has lists all over the house on all kinds of paper: notebooks, the backs of envelopes, magnetic lists on the fridge, computer print outs, etc. I love a new notebook. I make lists and check them off. Then I add things that were not on the list just for the pleasure of checking them off. I know. Nutty. But I'm not the only one who does this!


I thought I would make some Christmas lists of what our family does/likes at Christmastime.

Music:

This year we have loved Toby Mac's new Christmas CD. I especially like Mary's Boy Child with Jamie Grace.


Reliant K Let it Snow, Baby, Let in Reindeer


Any Amy Grant Christmas CD


Any Michael W. Smith Christmas CD


Any Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CD


Francesca Battistelli's "You're Here" (really, really good)


anything Drew Preston or Ellie plays on the piano


anything Sully plays on the guitar


anything Tucker plays on the violin

Movies: (traditions and some of our favorite lines)

It's a Wonderful Life
Robyn "To my big brother George, the richest man in town" always makes me cry.
Craig "No man is a failure who has friends"
Tucker "This is a very int'resting situation!"

Ellie "I wish I had a million dollars, Hot Dog!"

Elf

Robyn "My finger has a heartbeat!"
Drew Preston "You must be a south pole elf"

Ellie "Congratulations! You did it" (the world's best cup of coffee)

Ellie "He's an angry elf"
Sully THE BURP

Tucker "We elves try to stick to the 4 main food group: candy, candy corn, candy canes and syrup"

Sully "Did you HEAR that?"
Jim Carrey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Drew Preston "Hey, is your generator running? It is? Well, you better go catch it!"

Sully "Are you two still living?"

Tucker "Nice girl. Baaaad judge of character.

White Christmas
Robyn "What do you dream about when you eat liverwurst?" "You dream about liverwurst!" Ellie ~ The Sister Song
Craig "If a guy ever tries to save you from a falling wall, spit in his eye."

Sully "I must have left the tickets in my girdle" "I don't have any money" "What did you do with that, leave it in your snood?"

Tucker "You do like me don't you?" "Yes, but I feel the same way about my cocker spaniel!"
The Nativity Story
Robyn "He came for all mankind"

Ellie ~ When the angel comes to Mary
Charlie Brown's Christmas
Robyn "I've been kissed by a dog! Get hot water! Get disinfectant!"
Ellie "Charlie Brown is a blockhead. But he DID get a nice tree"

Craig "Doesn't anyone know what Christmas is all about"

Tucker ~ when Charlie Brown goes to Lucy for psychiatric help

Sully "What is it you want?" "Real estate"

Rudolph (When my boys were little I used to turn the sound down during the Abominable Snowman since I used to be so scared of it when I was young. They got tickled at him and called him the Big White Monkey, so that's what he always is to us. :)

Frosty
Robyn "I must get that hat back! Think nasty, think nasty!" (I know, what a line! But one of my boys used to say it in such a funny voice that it brings back sweet memories.)

A Christmas Story
Robyn "He looks like a pink nightmare."
Drew Preston "Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie!"
Craig "No! No! I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action 200 shot range model air rifle!"

Ellie "I can't put my arms down!"

Tucker "It's, it's, it's smiling at me!"

Ellie "You'll shoot your eye out kid!"
Any Veggie Tale Christmas story

One Magic Christmas

The Nutcracker

New movies:

Christmas with a Capitol C- If you get the chance, watch this! It's really well done and has an amazing message. Basically, people of a small town realize they are making an idol out of their fight for the right to display their Nativity Scene and start to share Jesus instead.

The 12 Dates of Christmas- chick flick, predictable, but well done and clean (2 naughty words). It was really good at midnight one night when I was sizzlin' on caffeine from a girls nite at Starbucks. :)
The Heart of Christmas- sad, but really sweet~ true story.

I've been so much more relaxed this Christmas. Our pastor did a series on "Christmas Unplugged" (go to http://www.centeringlives.com/ to download messages) and, even tho almost everything we do during the season focuses on Jesus (we've never done Santa Claus or that Elf thing) there were still opportunities for me to be ok with saying no to some activities or extra work. All the things I said no to were really wonderful things, but I felt so much better resting when we needed to. The kids have had a great time. Lots of friends over, fun movies watched, an amazing Christmas program participated in (see pictures) and hardly any school in Dec. :) We like to start school in the summer when it's too hot to be out anyway and take lots of time off in December. The joys of homeschooling!!
We didn't get to do our Pick-Up Pageant this year due to torrential rain and swampy front yard. I'm sad, but there's always next year and I'm learning that traditions don't need to be idols, either
I'm going to let the kids dictate some of their fun happenings of the year:
Sullivan

In September we went on the coolest fishing trip. We went to White Water Arkansas with some guys from our church and some guys from a church in Texas. We stayed in a trailer near the river. Every morning before breakfast we would go out in the boat, fish for an hour and a half and then come in to eat. It was a REALLY good breakfast. Then we would go fish for another hour an a half, come in, rest and then go back out again. We all caught rainbow trout.

Tucker~

This past November I took on a challenge to write 50,000 words in a month with an average of 1700 per day. It's called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I completed it in 24 days. It was a lot of fun and it took a lot of hours. My novel doesn't have a name yet, but it is Christian Fantasy.(note from Mom: Tucker worked SO hard on this. We were really proud of him but we missed him, he was always typing! At the end of the month, Drew Preston said, "I finally have my brother back!")

Drew Preston

I like Disney World because there are lots of roller coasters. And I like that there are 4 parks and all of them have roller coasters except Epcot, it has Test Track that is similar to a roller coaster but it doesn't have any rails. I love roller coasters because it makes most people nauseated but it doesn't make me nauseated. I especially like Rockin' Roller Coaster because it shoots you from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2 seconds. And you go upside down 3 times. It's cool being in the back because you can watch the front twisting while you're not and then you are twisting while the front's not. (note: Mom is getting nauseated just typing this.)

Ellie

I have a new cousin. His name is John Clark. He can smile a lot. I love to give him bottles. He makes happy noises when he drinks it. He was born in August. He has blue eyes and a little bit of hair. Whenever he cries we ut his pop pop in his mouth and he stops crying. I love him. The end

Backing Up a Little....

After studying about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii, Drew Preston and Ellie built their own volcanoes and set them off.

Drew Preston's new accessory.
We have a lemon tree and on it's first year it produced 2 lemons! We watched them grow all summer. We hated to pick them, make lemonade and drink all our hard work in one gulp so we took the advice of a friend, thanks Sharon!, and stuck them full of cloves. That was before Thanksgiving and now, in the middle of Dec. we are still enjoying them!

Can you see the front of Ellie's dress? I made her dress and she embroidered the pumpkin for the front. :)

A word about my toaster.......

I've had it since I was a little girl, my parents let us have it in the "early married" days. I was just thinking that I needed to get a more modern, hip toaster but then I realized... it's vintage!! And I love vintage!!! So I'm keeping it. :)
When my brother and I were little, living in New York state, we used to rake our leaves into leaf houses. I taught mine to do it. It's so much fun! They have spent hours playing, raking, creating, etc.

Mudge likes it, too.