Christmas Day Ambush

Christmas is all about the memories.  Making good memories and then reminiscing about them for years to come.

This year, we decided to make some memories.

We decided to ambush our friends.

With Nerf Guns.

On Christmas morning.

We planned it for weeks.

Several weeks ago, our friends, the Jones Family, told us about how they like to have family nerf wars on Christmas.  So David came up with the idea that we should ambush them.  At first, I said, no way.  Christmas is a family day, and it seemed horribly intrusive to go over to someone's house unannounced or uninvited.  So I decided to ask my friend Christy what she thought about it.  She told me that YES, we definitely should do it.  She promised she wouldn't tell the rest of her family.

And so the planning began.  We all got each other nerf guns for Christmas.   After we opened presents and had our traditional strawberry waffles for breakfast, we got dressed in camouflage gear. 

 We looked pretty awesome.  We were ready.  Our next door neighbor saw us as we were loading the car.  She looked at us like we were crazy.  We probably are.

 Here is our arsenal:

William insisted his new Captain America shield must come along.

I texted my friend and asked her, "Is now a good time to come?"  She gave us the go-ahead and told us to park on the street so we wouldn't be seen.  As we drove, David outlined our plan of attack on the way.  The kids responded with a "Yes Sir!"  Mostly we laughed and laughed.  The kids said, "Mom, I can't believe you are actually letting us do this."

We arrived, and Sarah helped William get ready.  Sarah insisted on bare feet.

I was ready for action. 

They saw us coming through their front window.  Evidently, they were gearing up for their own nerf wars, because it didn't take them long to counter our attack. 

They had nerf bows and arrows and even some flying monkey slingshots.  Keep in mind this is a family with five girls, and no boys. 

Ben had no mercy.

 David and Brooklynn dueled with the swords. 

 We love the Jones!  Merry Christmas to our good friends. 

Here is a link to a video that the Jones made for us.  I can't figure out how to actually include the video, but you might be able to make the link work.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9224011/HarpJo%20Battle%20of%202012%20-%20720p.mov

Christmas Miscellaneous

 

A few other Christmas happenings...

The Nutcracker

I got to take Rachel and Kate to the Nutcracker.  Here we are, dressed and ready to go.

Rachel and Kate outside the theater

and Kate happy to pose inside the theater as well.  The show was great and it was fun to see Kate's little friend dancing in the performance.  Rachel's violin teacher played in the pit as well.

Christmas Cards
We started a new way to display Christmas cards this year.  We have them going all around the molding and it is so great to be reminded of our amazing family and friends as we go in and out of the house. 

Elementary School Christmas Program
I watched Kate and Ben perform in the school's cute Christmas program.  Yes, they were both very under-dressed for the occasion.  We were in Israel last Christmas, so we didn't go, and I didn't realize that all the kids dressed up in this school.  So, yes, I am one of THOSE moms that let their kids go to school in not-so-nice clothes for their school Christmas program. 

 Kate loves performing and was happy to be front and center.

 She even sang in this trio in front of the whole school and wasn't even nervous. 

After her class sang and sat back down on the gym floor, I watched as all kids huddled around Kate.  She is such a good friend, and others are often drawn to her. 

The only reason Ben tolerated being in the performance was the knowledge that this was his last elementary school performance.   Honestly, he hated every minute of it.  He barely opened his mouth when he sang--unfortunately he was also front and center.  That is what happens when you have short children. 

Christmas Preparations
We had lots of present wrapping

and baking going on around here.  David made 5 batches of his famous fudge.  We gave lots of it away, but ate lots too.  Here Sarah is making cookies for a cookie exchange she did with some of her friends. 

It was a very full Christmas season, but I love the things we do that bring us together and remind us of the joy this season brings. 

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning came early, although not as early as some years.  Sarah is always the one that wakes up first and gets everyone else up.  After our late night, William wasn't quite sure he wanted to get up that early, but once he was reminded what day it was, it didn't take him long to get excited.  The kids always wait on the stairs until the lights are turned on, camera found, etc. 

Then they are off to see what Santa brought them.

 Then it was time to open presents. 

Ben was super excited about the Throne of Fire book that Kate gave him, although his face doesn't quite look like it in this picture.  Kate got such a big hug afterward, she almost tipped over.

 William's new Captain America shield has not left his side since he opened it.  Being Captain America is serious business. 

While we were opening presents, it started to snow.  It was a wet snow that didn't stick, but it was still magical to look out the window and see the big flakes falling.  All of the kids had to run outside for a minute to experience it.

Steve and Jennifer sent us matching Jerusalem shirts.  They brought back so many memories of our Christmas there last year. 

After we finished opening presents, we set the table with our traditional placemats we had made the day before.  We ate strawberry waffles for breakfast. 

It was a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2012

Christmas Eve was wonderful.  All day long we were busy with baking, wrapping presents, taking dinner to a family, and delivering last minute treats.  Since the kids had school all the way until Friday, it was really the first day that felt like vacation.  We were so busy that we didn't start our evening activities until rather late.

We started with the traditional nativity play.  Kate was a beautiful Mary and William took his job as Joseph very serious.  Some older kids had come into his nursery class on Sunday and acted out the nativity story, so he knew just what to do. 

Sarah was decked out as a wise man.  She insisted she was wise man enough to be all three, but Rachel found her some companions. 

 Ben squeezed in a very small Marie the cat costume to be a sheep. 

 I was the shepherd.  Let's just pretend this photo isn't blurry. 

 Rachel was our beautiful angel. 

 David read the story and did a stint as the donkey and inn keeper.   It was a lovely nativity play.

 There was a rather unorthodox portion of the play where Joseph was riding the sheep.  I loved it.

We paused throughout the play to sing carols.  The kids were really enjoying the singing this year and we sang and sang late into the night.  They kept insisting that we sing all the verses and kept adding more songs.  "We have to sing O Holy Night and What Child is This?" "We didn't sing Angels We Have Heard on High yet."  It was so fun.  And with the older girls doing great at harmonies, we actually sounded pretty good this year. 

Then I encouraged them all to perform some Christmas songs on their various instruments.  Kate played two of her many Christmas songs that she has learned on the piano.  Ben played a song on the cello that he figured out himself. 

 Sarah and Rachel played some violin and flute duets. 

 We read the traditional Christmas card book, and then the kids each opened a present. 

Inside were matching pajama pants that I had been sewing for the past month.  It was a big project for me, since I am not much of a seamstress, but I found that I really enjoyed it.  I even managed to keep it a secret, which was tricky.  I only had a little bit of time during the day while the kids were at school to work on them.  I finished them the morning of the 23rd. 

 They stuck the pajama pants right on and we took a few pictures. 

We finished off the evening with lots of yummy treats,

and headed upstairs to bed.  It was very late, so the little ones were asleep about when their heads hit the pillow.  It was truly a great night. 

I was so grateful to be surrounded by my wonderful family.  I couldn't ask for anything more.