Christmas.....Simmons' Style!

We made it through another hectic Christmas season!! Now that it's over we can relax and take some time to reflect on the last month. We had some kind of commitment most every night in December...mostly fun stuff, but it wore us out. We were shopping up until the very last moment.....Santa had to finish up some stocking stuffers at the only gas station he could find open on Xmas Eve!! He also didn't get his usual homemade cookies to nibble on while distributing gifts. He had some yummy gas station cookies though!

We started the Christmas festivities on Sunday evening with the whole Simmons gang. The kids enjoyed meeting their new cousin Aiden. Ava seemed the most into the baby. Sadie didn't like the competition, but started getting used to him, even offering him some of her dinner.
Here are the kids with some of their favorite gifts!

On Christmas Eve, the kids participated in all 3 church services in a children's nativity scene. Pastor Betsey reads the Christmas story and the kids act out an unrehearsed version. The first service Sadie and Ava didn't quite make it and I had to take them out, but after a bite to eat, they were feeling up to it. Here are Ella and Ava with their friends.

Marshall still enjoyed being in the Nativity.....I don't know how many more years he will be a willing participant!!

For lack of other costumes in her size, Sadie was a pesky bee! I'm sure there were bees buzzing around the manger! At one point she attacked the baby Jesus. She kind of stole the show as she wandered across the stage during a solo, through the spotlight, to find Matt. One of the cutest bees I've ever seen!

On Christmas morning Ella was the first one up and stormed through the house yelling for us all to get up. We had a great time as a family. It was fun to watch the kids as they gave the gifts that they had picked out for each other. It even started to snow a little which added to the excitement!

After we finished up....we packed up and headed to Salem to finish Xmas day with Muv and Gramps! A long drive with snow off and on. Our visit included one of the kids' favorite Salem activities...the carousel! It was Sadie's first time riding and she loved it!

That's about it! We're home now enjoying some peace and quiet and trying to put off finding homes for all of the new stuff the kids now have!

Decorating Day

We finally got around to doing some decorating around here! We might not finish.....but at least we did something to make it look like Christmas is on it's way!

The kids were excited to open the bin of crazy Christmas hats that we receive from Muv each year. As always, they insisted that we all wear them while decorating! After 10 years of crazy hats, we have quite the selection!

Ella and Ava really enjoyed finding their ornaments and selecting the perfect spot to place them...although they all kind of ended up on one side of the tree. I had to rearrange later!

Sadie contributed by removing most of the ornaments from the lower half of the tree, making it a much longer process than anticipated!

We had a fun night! The kids are officially on Christmas vacation and counting down the days until Santa's arrival. Now that we finally have our stockings hung, he might stop by.....if he can get some alone time to shop!

We Finally Got Our Tree!!

Yesterday we had an adventure to the tree farm. We usually go the day after Thanksgiving, but time seemed to escape us this year! The farm we usually go to was out of trees so we tried a new place we found on the Internet. After driving for miles on bumpy back roads, we saw a sign that said U-cut, U-dig. Matt and I looked at each other just hoping that didn't mean you have to dig the stump out of the ground after you cut your tree. It didn't. Apparently there are people that like to dig their tree out of the ground and plant it. Who has time for that???
Anyway, the farm turned out to be pretty cool. There were 40 acres of trees and we just drove around until we spotted an area we liked. There was also Christmas music blasting throughout the whole farm. The kids thought it was coming from underground. Here are some pictures from our day!

I had to capture this sweet brother-sister moment. Unfortunately these moments are few and far between lately!

Here's our tree.....and Ava using the saw for the first time. It's kind of a right-of-passage!

After the tree was "safely" tied to the top of the car, we sat around the fire and had hot cocoa to warm up. It was nice since we couldn't feel our fingers even with mittens on!! The kids had a fun time getting the tree....now we just have to find a moment to decorate it! I feel like we're finally starting to get ready for Christmas!

Gymnastics!

Today Ella had her first gymnastics team performance as a member of the mini-stars! They did an exhibition at the Seattle Center House. Ella did great and also enjoyed watching the older girls do their stuff. It was pretty amazing what some of the girls can do!


Pre-show stretching....Ella is pretty proud of her splits! She's been practicing a lot!

The Mini-Stars!!

Strike a pose!

Here's a shot of all the teams. Ella is the second one from the right on the bottom row. It seems she's found something she's passionate about! She learns something new almost every time she's at the gym. It's sure fun to watch. While we were watching Ella, Marshall was at his first basketball game of the season. They won 26-4, Marshall scored 12 points! Bummed about missing it, but not too much because he has a game every weekend for the next few months!!!

Christmas Musical

After MANY rehearsals this fall, the Christmas musical has officially come and gone! The girls were quite tired, but ended up having a great time and we are proud of both of them. Ella was an angel in the nativity scene (although we didn't get a good picture of her to share) and Ava sang in the choir. Lots of people approached us afterward and told us that watching Ava was a highlight of the show!! She's kind of a ham!

Here they are getting ready to go!

Getting ready backstage......Ella's favorite part was definitely getting her makeup done.

Ava front and center in the choir!

The girls are ready for a break.....but it was a fun experience. They still haven't decided if they want to be in the spring musical...we'll see!

First Winter Snow!!

Today was a crazy, busy Saturday!!! We left the house early this morning for a 3 hour dress rehearsal for the Christmas musical the girls are in, off to a birthday party, then 2 basketball games for Marshall. I was definitely wiped out, but in the midst of the chaos we had our first winter snow! We arrived home to find a couple inches so the kids bundled up and headed straight outside.

Sadie wanted to get in on the action, but didn't know what to think once she was outside. She lasted long enough to touch and taste the snow, then was ready to go get warm again!

You can always count on Ava to be the first to make a snow angel!!

I don't know how long the snow is supposed to stay around....but I hope they get to play in the daylight!