12 25 More Christmas Day - Joel's Treasure Hunt

The friend who brought each of the kids a gift,
brought this for Kendra.

Perfect for her!

I think she wears a different one every day, and sometimes more than one.
She loves the colors and the weight of the rocks.

Yeah
that's her "Oh My I LOVE THIS"
face.

One of their favorite Dora episodes!

Now they can watch it on purpose!

instead of waiting until it happens to show up on TV,
which we don't get any longer.

Kendra's Tie Dye shirt.
First time she had seen it.

The mystery box.

Oh my, they had waited and waited for it.

Wish it hadn't blurred
they were SO EXCITED!

They can't wait to try it out,
but we are waiting until the company all goes home
so we can pull out everything carefully.

Joel has now realized that he hasn't
a clue what in the box.

But this is cool!
A book about BUGS!!!

And then all that was left was a single piece of paper
and Kendra handed it to him.

I think it said "Socks"

WAIT!!!

Kendra remembered that she had one more gift,
her old lap harp
for Joel.

OH MY!

That is a HUGE mess!

Found a clue in the socks ...

Finding a clue in the Videos.

That clue from the Wreaths says,
Mom's Kindle.

Now THAT is clever Kendra!

eventually, a clue said "Garden"


She was giving her brother
the same fun she had at his age ..
http://knittedbygodsplan.blogspot.com/2011/12/memory-monday-christmas-treasure-hunt.html

Bike wasn't well hid.
But he couldn't see it around the dead washer.

It was about 38 outside.

What a bewildered face.

And then he saw it!

Can you see how excited he is?

12 25 Christmas Day Set 3

Vannan loved her new Tie Dye shirt.

She hadn't seen it yet,
even though she helped process the whole lot of it.

Checking out the BIG box of Crayons.

Does it really say 120?

He LOVED his new washrag!

Joel made this necklace for LaRue.

Grub 2 put a note in the pile for Joel.

Obviously

She is very happy with something!

It's a miniature American Girl doll

Elizabeth.

She wanted this one from the first time she saw it.
Really, she originally wanted the big one,
but is so happy to have the little one at least.

And this one fits better on her display shelf. 

I found an extra Hemp bag from years ago,
all the others were used for Christmas that year.

But one was left.

So I made it into his OWN library  bag.

A whole STACK of science type books,
and a few drawing ones as well.

Thank You Paper Back Swap!

Vannan handed out chocolate.

And hugged her new doll some more.

My candle from Tim.

Kendra's wash cloth.

She hadn't seen hers either.

LaRue got one too.

12 25 -- CHRISTMAS DAY!

Christmas fell on Sunday this year.

We aren't much of ones for rushing awake,
piling into the livingroom,
and throwing paper all over the place in a present unwrapping
greedy frenzy.

The first thing we do is get dressed.




Joel walked up to me looking like this.

Something was wrong ....
Kendra investigated and discovered -
he hadn't buttoned his shirt AT ALL.

In future pictures, he'll be put together properly.

LaRue came out like this.
All upset.

She had gotten woken up and dressed.
NOT on her "to do" list for that day.

After church,
we fed these two a quick snack
to hold them over until we got to the turkey dinner.

They snuggled on the couch and munched, sang, and chatted.

Tim had a sermon to prep for,
so we rushed right into presents.

Not much of this was actually FROM us.

A good chunk was dropped off by a lady and 2 kids - they handed it to Vannan.
Another friend brought each of the kids a gift.
And then somebody dropped off two HUGE bags of gifts at my sister's church.
AND
my cousin sent the blue package
and the envelope on top.

The grey canisters are NOT Christmas.
One holds the Train set that use to be Vannan's.
and the other our 6 sets of wooden blocks.

And if you look over to the right, the egg carton looking things ...

a lady in our church brought those to us,
and Joel and LaRue think they are giant Legos
and make castles nearly every day with them.

Getting ready to open all of our packages!

She LOVED this one.
Especially the magna doodle.
She takes it in the car and to church.

A tea pot pin cushion thing.
Just her style.

LaRue was a very busy little girl making gifts.

See Kendra's herbs behind Tim.

Her FIRST tea set.
She LOVES the disappearing tea.

Yarn ... for a knitting machine.
How many people know that Kendra HAS one?

Not many.

Now she can keep trying to figure out how to make it work.

And if somebody does know how to work one of these machines,
she would LOVE some instructions for casting on.

All of the books tell how to get patterns - she can't
find a single one that tells her how to "cast on" to the machine.

Crayons .... and animals!

She carries them around in a basket.

She's hoping for the Zebra Pillow Pet.

OH WOW .... how many people know this kid was a
HUGE POOH fan back in the day
or that Tigger was her favorite?

Before the days of Clifford,
but she still loves Tigger.

She has a huge Pooh collection in her closet.