The Cherub Choir (ages 3-6) sang three songs in the youth choir Joy Gift program at church. Jake is in a red sweater, third from left on the front row (directly to the right of the small boy who is sitting on the steps). He did really well. I can't believe he is old enough to be singing in a childrens program!
Mari watched the performance with James, my parents, his parents and myself from the balcony.
Once a year this angel sits ontop of our Nativity scene (I decided to use a toy nativity scene until the kids are older this way they can play with it). The rest of the time this angel doubles as "Nana". She is married to a Papoo little person and takes care of the little people babies. She even drives a "Nana car" which is what Jakes calls the yellow one (and has since he started talking). Below she can be seen at her day job "playing with Jake and Mari". This is actually our second "Nana Angel" as Jake insisted on taking Nana and Papoo to Scotland and a little boy on the plane ride home took Nana home with him. By the time we figured it out, it was too late and Jake was heart broken. Luckily there is Ebay and I was able to order a brand new unopened Nana Angel online.
Jake and Mari with their Mama and Daddy.
Nana shows up at our house.
I have started mailing out our Christmas cards with a little help from Jake. As you can see above he is carefully placing Christmas stickers on the envelopes. I will not post the Christmas card picture nor the outakes here until after all of the ones I have posted have a chance to be delivered, but look for them later this month.
James and Mari join my parents and Jake on board the train from the parking area to the marina.
Jake and Mari get presents from Mr and Mrs Claus at the Midway Marina.
A cold Mari!
Sunset over the Tombigbee Waterway from the end of the dock at the Midway Marina in Fulton (the town where my parents live).
Above are some of the boats decorated for the open house.
Mari has strep throat and sinus congestion. I will blog about our fun trip to the doctor later. I am working on updating my blog but right now it is difficult to even take a shower as she wants/needs held constantly.
Friday night we kicked off our personal family Christmas Holiday Season by selecting and trimming our tree. Friday was my final day of my classes for the semester (although I had to drive down Monday for my students final exam) and so we were really in a celebratory mood. Jake and I baked Christmas cookies, which you can see Mari eating above. Below Jake is partaking in his "Christmas chocolate" which is what he calls opening his advent calendar (it has a different shaped chocolate for every night).
We got a short tree this year. I put it on a table behind our couch as it was the only strategy I could figure out to keep it safe from Mari. We did something similar when Jake was the same age. As you can see Mari would rather eat ornaments than put them on the tree (I bought a bunch of safe shatterproof plastic balls which are the ones you see her with--so don't worry she wasn't in any danger). Jake enjoyed putting the ornaments on, but I later had to "redecorate" it as he put them all in one place.
Thanksgiving with the Carr family. From left to right: Emily Carr (James's first cousin) is holding Cayson Hunt (James's first cousin Kris's youngest son born in April), in the middle is Hadyn Hunt (Kris's oldest son) and then Jake and Mari of course!
We had Thanksgiving with my parents the next day.
