Merry Christmas from The Frahers

Still woefully behind on blogging but having lots of Christmas fun!  I'm sad to think there is less than a week left.  Despite nearly 4 weeks of tree and lights and music and food and drink... it's just not enough.  I'm not ready for it to end.  So in case I don't make it back here soon, I leave you with a wish for the Merriest Christmas and a few phrases from my all time favorite songs.

Joy to the world!  The Lord has come!

Oh come.  Let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

Gingerbread House!

Continuing the holiday festivities, we let the kids decorate their first Gingerbread House this week.  Great use for leftover random Halloween candy.  And Pat got behind the camera so I could make a rare appearance in our family photos!

Fletcher started sampling the goods first thing.

They got the hang of it right away.

Not bad for first timers!  

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Immediately upon our return home from a wonderful Thanksgiving week with Pat's family in Gulf Shores, we set to preparing for the next big holiday (my favorite), Christmas!

The tree went up and the lights went on.  Not, without a minor catastrophe of an entire string going bad 75% of the way through.  What would holiday decorating be without a little stress.  And the kids successfully helped decorate, with only one sad casualty of the day.  Sydney's first Christmas ornament from Disney (bought it when she was there at only 6 weeks old) bit the dust.  Sniff.

She seems to think this little horn actually works.

We have a new house guest this Christmas season.  Santa sent his Elf Odie to visit us this past weekend to keep an eye on things around here.  The naming process with 3 year olds is interesting.  Our elf came VERY close to being "Spiderman."  Thankfully a dozen recent viewings of The Princess and the Frog featuring the delightful Mama Odie saved him.  It was close.  No self respecting elf could live with the name Spiderman.

He's been helping with my holiday baking.

Here's my other, er-uh, helper.  That WAS a plate full of cookies in front of him.

More about the cookies later.  But here's a quick peek at yummy peppermint oreos.  New recipe for me this year.

Yep, Odie sure has been handy.  He recently was the deliverer of a special note from Santa, reminding our sometimes naughty girl about the true spirit of Christmas.

I wasn't sure if she'd get into it yet this year or not but pretty much every morning we go hunt Odie down.  It's very upsetting if I happen to spot him first.  Then she looks at me, narrows her eyes, and demands "Did you touch him?" for fear all his magical powers will disappear.

Yes, I do believe this Christmas is going to be A LOT of fun!

Football and Fishing!

Thanksgiving - Part II

Not only have we been given so many things to be thankful for this whole year, the week of Thanksgiving in Gulf Shores produced some of the most spectacular weather ever!  

Which lent itself to our sub-theme for the week:  Football and Fishing.  Or anything that can be accomplished outside!

That pretty much sums it up.  If we weren't watching football, we were playing it.  And if we weren't on the dock fishing, we were in the boat.  And the kids were right in the middle of the action this year.

Fletcher preferred to do the driving.  And became quite upset when he wasn't allowed to touch every button a dozen times.

This little one starting talking about fishing a week before vacation.  Not quite sure where it all came from but she starting requesting to fish at Papa's.  And was concerned that she didn't have a fishing pole.  Daddy was more than happy to show his little girl the ropes.  And she was a natural.

 Then there was football, with some soccer and kick ball mixed in.  No fear.  Sydney was in 100%.  And didn't want anyone to forget there was a girl on the field.

Man (and boy) down!

And a lesson for all of us parents out there trying to capture moments with our kids.  I snapped a few of Sydney playing around with the soccer ball (in her tutu of course).  I was so aggravated... the camera setting was off just a bit and they were blurred.  

But I didn't delete them (never delete directly from your camera).  Came home, downloaded and got a better look.  A little editing and I think I may have actually captured something quite special.