Christmas 2012 - Nichols

We had our family Christmas not long after Greg got home from work on Monday. The kids were so much fun to buy for this year! They had their lists, let me tell ya. That, combined with online shopping, makes things a breeze!

I tried to go with the three-gift rule this year.  It ended up that I divided their gifts up into three boxes. Technically they did receive more than three gifts, but it made things lots less complicated to wrap three boxes for each of them.

This year, we placed each of their gifts in front of them, then we began with Allison and had them each take one and go around the room opening the first one and so on.  That gave us all the opportunity to see what the others were getting and slowed things down a bit. 



 

She's still such a little girl at heart!  Her smiles
and giggles are priceless.

Kait was giddy with excitement.  So much fun.

Even the big guys couldn't contain themselves.

Happy!

The Loving Family Dream Dollhouse was the gift of choice this year!

And Rapunzel is ready for her wedding.  :-)

 

After we had our little family Christmas, it was off to my parents to spend the night.  Adam and Valerie were there, and we played games and had a fun evening. 

Another special person was able to join us this year! 
So glad Mama Yount could make the trip. 

While we waited on my brother's family to arrive on Christmas morning, we took random pictures.  It's a great way to distract impatient children. :-)

 



Annie and Kait

 



Allie and Aubrey

Prayer before presents

 

Two of my kids asked for new Bibles with
their names imprinted on the front.

Uh oh...nothing is safe...she has a camera!

Cute and crazy...they loved their fleece blankets!



Check out the Disney nightgowns! 

Lots of coffee, lots of snacks.  :-)

This pic makes me laugh.

Lovin' on their great-grandma

Eric and Meg

Mom and Dad...love them so much!

Adam and Valerie

So pretty.  :-)

Our 16th Christmas!

Since we weren't home Christmas Eve night, the stockings
had to opened Christmas night.  After all, when does Santa come?

Oh yeah...whipped topping in the stocking. 
He asked for a can of cheese too, but...nah...lol.

 

And the festivities continue!

Christmas Fun

The 2012 Christmas season has been a wonderful time for our family.  If only we could pause life right here for a few extra days...

The goal early on was to incorporate each of our favorite things into daily activities.  We've caroled, watched Christmas movies, shopped, worshiped, been in plays, baked, played games, looked at Christmas lights, visited with family, and even had one snow day! 

Here are some pics from our day trip to Ft. Wayne last Saturday.  We began our festivities with a steak dinner at Logan's...yum!

This girl could eat steak for every meal.

He likes it, too.  :-)

Ryan usually opts for fried foods -
notice the lack of veggies on his plate.

Cutie pie.

After dinner, we shopped for awhile.  For the last few years, Habitat for Humanity and Ft. Wayne's Christian radio station have sponsored a Christmas village display in the old Marshall Field's department store.  They have 11 large displays, lots of lights, and beautiful Christmas music playing in the background.  I have posted pics from each display.  You can enlarge them for more detail.  They were so beautiful!

This was Habitat for Humanity's display.  It wasn't nearly as
intricate, but definitely showcased what they do!

After we were maxed out at the mall and a few other stores, we grabbed a frosty at Wendy's and headed to Franke Park for the Fantasy of Lights display.  It was super busy, but traffic moved well and we enjoyed all of the different displays.  Here are a couple of them:

We had all gotten our second wind, and went back to the mall for awhile! Alli's feet were killing her by the time the night was finished, so she was given a lift by her big bro.  :-)

Sunday afternoon several from our church caroled at three nursing homes, one assisted living facility, and then for one of our ladies who hasn't been out for awhile.  As usual, caroling was graced with fun, laughter, and (of course) snacks.  This year, though, I think many of us were touched beyond what we had been in awhile.  One of the men we caroled to was an Iraq veteran who acquired a disease while at war.  I can't describe to you what the disease has done to him physically and probably mentally, but it was both heart-wrenching and heart-warming to see him smile and hear his mom say that our songs had quieted him for the first time that day. 

Kaitlynn and Evan were also able to go caroling with their class last Thursday.  They visited a couple of nursing homes, and Miller's Textiles (where Greg works).  They received lots of compliments...their class has an amazing amount of talent.  :-)

(photo compliments of Miller's Facebook)