*CHRISTMAS*

Christmas morning the girls always come into our bed and lay with us until its time to wake up. Once it's time, we head down the stairs to check the stockings before heading to the tree to open presents. Afterwards, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Hauk's house for lunch.

*NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS*

Every Christmas Eve we start the day at grandma Marilyn's and then we go home and get ready for church. After church we ate at Jess and Jim's in Martin City. Then we went home and the girls got in their new pjs that grandma Norma made for them. We didn't make cookies this year, but Aunt Rachel made truffles for us, so we set those out. Maren's Girl Scouts made reindeer food, so the girls sprinkled that on the lawn and headed to bed. They always sleep in Maren's room on Christmas Eve and this year they decided to read for a little bit before turning off the lights.

*BREAKFAST WITH SANTA*

Breakfast with Santa at T-Rex!




Santa swimming with the fish.

*OUR CHRISTMAS CARD*

This year I ordered the second one and I realized that they only had yellow text to choose from.  I ended up reordering the top ones also.

*ALEXA'S CHOIR PERFORMANCE AT MACY'S*

Alexa performed at Macy's during lunchtime. She was so excited to sing and to go back to the party they through for them afterwards.

*ALEXA'S SCHOOL CHOIR PERFORMANCE*

I got to watch Alexa's school performance today. The 5th and 6th grade band, strings and choirs performed for the entire school. Alexa said she was nervous beforehand, but was fine after they got started.

*MAREN'S STUDENT COUNCIL PERFORMANCE*

Maren performed at a nursing home with student council. The funny part was that they never rehearsed and Maren only knew a couple of songs. When they got there they were handed the book of music to read, which being a first grader made that hard. The girls just stood in the back and giggled the whole time.

*SANTA VISIT*

The girls went and saw Santa today at Crown Center, the same place we go every year. Michael and Aunt Angie met us there. Maren said she wanted Orbee's ( little gel balls) and Alexa said she wanted a Mario Bros Chess Set.

*MAREN'S STITCHES*

I received a phone call at work again from Jay saying that he was going to Children's Mercy South and that Maren had another accident. She fell going up the stairs and hurt her chin. Once I got there, Maren was sitting calmly holding her chin until they called our name to go in. The doctor said she would need stitches and put ointment on her sore to numb it. While we waited a nurse came in and showed Maren exactly what was going to happen, the string that they were going to use and the syringe that was going to clean her wound. They even let her use a DVD player to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks Shipped Wreck while we waited. Once, her chin was numb the nurse flushed her booboo and the doctor stitched her up. Jay told her he would give her $20 if she sat completely still through it all, so she sat on her hands the whole time and earned her $20!

*HALLOWEEN*

Every year the village down the street has tricker treating and then the neighborhood kids all meet at the fountain to get their picture taken. A few of the Alexa's friends met up after the picture to go with us. At the end of the night the girls all sat around and traded their candy.




My woodland fairy.




My little owl.