TALICEE'S JOURNEY

CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES

The kids were out of school on Friday, so Tyler, Talicee, the twins and I headed out to see Santa Claus. It was still pretty icy when we left. I let Tyler drive and he did a little bit of sliding. When we arrived at the mall, it was not busy. Most of the stores where open. We headed right to Santa. He was walking up right when we arrived. Since the pictures are so expensive, I had Tyler go to the upper deck and take pictures, as good as he could, from there. The twins did ok for a while, but then wanted nothing to do with him. So we rode the train. They really enjoyed this. We had lunch and bought our very last gift. When we left, the mall was getting very crowded. Glad we went early.

Saturday was a big day for us. Miss Talicee had her Christmas dance recital. Boy was it crowded. I guess all of the Grinches came out. There were so many grumpy people that we left right after her performance. We had a party to attend at our friend's house. It was so nice to just relax and enjoy the friends that we have.

Sunday was another big day. We started the morning off by getting pictures of all of the kids. With school and work schedules, it is hard to get everyone together. Everyone cooperated and it was quick and painless. Miss Talicee was singing in her preschool choir. Last year it was snowed out. She did a great job. I did think that she was going to hit the little girl next to her in the head when she was doing her motions to the song. But she didn't. I could actually hear her sing this time. We took pictures after church. The boys either had to work or had to do something for Awana's, so it was just Miss Talicee. Guess they are getting to big for pictures.

Randy and I took Talicee to see the festival of trees. She really enjoyed this. She loved looking at all of the differently decorated trees. There were a couple that just took your breath away. We headed home for a very short nap. We then went back to church for Christmas caroling and a hay ride. Lets just say, it is not very warm here right now. It was a very cold ride. We came back and enjoyed some warm hot chocolate. It was pizza night in Awana's. So we were not lacking on any food. It is our last meeting until the new year. We exchanged gifts with our friends and wished our friends a very Merry Christmas.

Lets just say by the time we got home, all of the kids we in bed less than 15 minutes after getting home. Randy and I actually sat down and watched a movie on the Hallmark channel. It was a big weekend.

Today, I gave the twins their Christmas present. They got pillow pets. They love to pull the pillows off of the couch, so this was a great gift for them. They have been laying on them all morning. This is a 4 day week for me. We leave on Thursday for my parents and sister's house for our first Christmas. I could use some relaxation. I enjoy the holidays, but they are a lot of work. Enjoy the many pictures I have taken in 4 days. I had to empty my card because it was almost full. There are alot of pictures, so grab you a cup of hot tea and sit back and watch the Life of the Landes'.