Christmas Catch-Up

As a matter of fact, we did celebrate Christmas! Not that you would know it by my lack of blogging. I have a good excuse, trust me. That post will come later.

The Beans had lots of special family and friend time for Christmas this year. Addison is finally at the age where decorating has some appeal. She had a blast helping Nana decorate her tree. I think she was also pretty excited that she was allowed to climb the step ladder all by herself.

Avery had no idea what was going on but was really good at removing ornaments from the tree and bringing them to me (or whoever was closest). She did look very cute in her Christmas dresses though.

 Aunt Martha came for a visit around Christmas time and was showing Avery some of the pretty ornaments. 

Addison's dance teacher, Miss Shelley, gave the girls little ballerina ornaments. She was very proud of hers and thought it deserved a more prominent place than the tree so she hung it on a light switch next to the tree. The bear survived several long drops to the floor with only minor injuries and a little super glue. 

 
Our annual Bean Team life group Christmas party was held at the Self's house this year. Required for entry was a tacky sweater and FOOD. If you had food and no sweater, entry was still permitted. The sweaters were a little lacking this year. I think you need to start looking now if you want one because they are hard to find around Christmas! The kids had a blast. They currently outnumber adults 20:16 I think... and they are all under 6. AAaaaaaaaaaaah! It is crazy but fun. I though letting them decorate cookies would be a fun idea. Not sure who gave my daughter the blue food coloring. :)  I think it was me. Oops. Next time make icing and add two drops of blue food coloring for the right shade. Luckily she didn't get any of Jenna's pretty white dress.

 This year was the first year we took Addison to the Nutcracker Ballet. It was my first time to see it too. It was amazing! Nana scored us some sweet seats at the Bass Hall. It will be a new family tradition. Loved it!

A few pics from Christmas Eve at Uncle Zed and Tia's house. We did a $1 gift exchange. Everyone brought 4 $1 gifts and we drew numbers every hour for a gift. It was fun and the gifts were actually pretty good! Maybe something to do with Life group next year?

The girls making cookies for Santa. I don't know where I was but I remember Jake telling me the he let Avery help make cookies. He gave her a ball of dough (who gives a 1 year old cookie dough?) thinking she'd play with it or something. About 1/2 a second later he looked over and she had stuffed the whole thing in her mouth. Addison wasn't any better about keeping her fingers out of the chocolate. These girls love their sweets.

Santa enjoyed his cookies and milk very much. He ate all 3!

Christmas Day was great. The girls are still too young to wake themselves up early so we were up at the usual time of 7am. Addison knew exactly what to do whereas Avery needed some guidance. They both got lots of really fun things to play with and wear. Mommy also got some things off her Amazon wish list that she had conveniently listed.

 Just so you know, we made a big deal about it being Jesus' birthday too. Each day in December we read a verse from the bible and got a chocolate from the advent calendar. Addison is starting to grasp who Jesus is and learning lots about what Christmas is really about. We hope that he was honored in all that we did this Christmas because He is the reason we are who we are and have what we have. Thank you!