The Blessings of Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. What a blessing the days of the Christmas have been. At times it was rush, rush, rush, but still all in all every moment was joyful and filled with family.

On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a wonderful service at church and then spent a few hours with Dave and Carol Anderson and Dean and Renee Anderson and their families. Will entertained everyone most of the evening and was so cute when he made everyone stop and sing Happy Birthday To Jesus!

Christmas morning, we were up early - about 7am and presents were openned. Santa brought that fire truck for Will(see picture below) and all of us got much more that we needed. The Wii game was a big hit and wasn't too hard to hook up! After presents, we went to Grandma and Granddaddy Wine's house for breakfast and MORE presents. It was a busy, but fun filled morning. That evening was a quiet one at the Wine home, we just relaxed and enjoy being together, and checking out all of our new things.

On Friday, Dec. 26th, my family all came to our house for the evening. Always lot's of noise and running(wonder who that would be), but also lot's of fun and family time. It is at moments like that, when my sister and I are together with our families, that I truly wish my parents could be here to see all these beautiful little children and to see Stephanie, Michelle and Beth now that they are grown. My mom would hate the mess, but I know she would love having her family all together! As I said, all in all, this Christmas season has been a joyful one and we hope that each of you have had a time with family and friends and a very Happy Holiday.

Now on to the New Year and Scott's birthday - 41st to be exact! We wish each of you a very blessed New Year.

The Wine Family

Stocking Stuffers

It's My Fire Truck!!

Emma, almost lost in all the wrapping paper!

Remote Controlled Cars - What a Hit!

Much needed relaxation after all the fun!

Trains and Things

Saturday, we decided to go see the train villages that are set up in a permanent location by the Augusta County Train Association. The displays are located in Waynesboro, and are open to the public the last Saturday of each month, but at Christmas time, they are open every weekend in December. Will discovered the store, last year right after Christmas, and we have promised him a trip to see the trains ever since. Well, we finally remembered and off we went. What a photo op I thought! Ha! was I wrong!!! Like one man in the store said, "it's like his head is on a swivel!" Trains were on both sides and the ends, Will didn't know which way to look! We spent about an hour in there and he was ready to go back again today. It is great entertainment for kids, old and young, and it is free, so what more could you ask for.

Later in the evening, we decided to do something a little more quiet - we baked molasses cookies, from Grandma Harshbarger's(Susan's mom) recipe. Will loved rolling the cookie dough in the sugar! It is hard to believe that Christmas is just four days away! Will hopes you all are "being good listeners" so that Santa will come and see you.

Check out Thomas, and here comes James

So many trains - so little time

Molasses Cookies - anyone?

The Wine Elves

Each year, Office Max offers the "Elf Yourself" activity on their website. It is so funny, that this year
I couldn't resist turning the five of us into elves. We hope that you enjoy our performance and that this little bit
of Christmas cheer brings a smile to your face. Follow the link below to see the five Wine Elves:
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/rvvKalYEKWW6BuR1
Hope you enjoy this.

Seeing Santa

Yesterday, we finally found the time to go and see Santa. Unfortunately we arrived at the mall around 1:30pm only to find that Santa doesn't get there until 5:00pm on Fridays. I guess it is a long trip in from the North Pole! We went back at 5pm and there was Santa, along with a very long line, but we waited patiently and Will was finally able to sit on Santa's lap. Just as he has been telling everyone for about a week now, he told Santa he wants a fire truck. This is the child that would never list anything he wanted Santa to bring him, up until a week ago. Then suddenly, a fire truck has become it!!! Well, we have it from a reliable source, that Santa hadn't planned on bringing Will a fire truck - guess Santa has more shopping to do!!!
For all those who might be interested, Will learned from Santa that his favorite type of milk is chocolate and he is particularly fond of Oreos and Sugar cookies. You might want to keep that in mind for Christmas Eve.
After seeing Santa, we hit the local mall toy store, that is going out of business. It was total chaos, but had some really great bargains. We did some shopping for Will's next birthday and finished up Christmas shopping. We also met cousins Stephanie, Rob and Emma there, and after we had all spent as much money as we could, we headed to dinner. It was a fun evening and we enjoyed spending time with the Lane family. They live so close, yet we don't see them often enough. The same is true for my sister and brother-in-law, we very rarely see them. I guess Christmas reminds us that family is most important, and hopefully, we can continue to make these little get togethers yearly traditions. Peace and joy to you and your families this year. We hope that each of you takes the time to make those priceless memories with family.

Santa and Will, looking happy together

"MORE decorations, Please"

Over the course of the last two weeks, Will has daily instructed us that "we need more decorations!" Today, he asked Scott if he could go up on the roof to put some decorations up there!!! We told him that it might not be a good idea this year. This week we have enjoyed Will's Preschool Christmas Program - Will's class were snowmen. For three and four year olds, this group of kids do an amazing job. I truly believe it is the patience and love with which the teachers and helpers guide the children.

Last night we went to the Anderson home, to get a lesson in making peanut butter balls from Carol. Carol and Will are always cooking up something we they are together, so I thought she would be the perfect person to give us a peanut butter ball lesson. We now have at least a 100 chocolate covered morsels of goodness in our frig. I am sure they won't last long however, with Scott sneaking into them every chance he gets!

Tonight we completed the trees - the real one is finally up and all twinkly with lights of every color! This tree features the ornaments that each child has received over the years and the ones that they have made! It is my favorite tree! As Ashley says "It looks amazing".
We also added a working train around the fake tree - Will was so excited about this train - you would have thought it we bought it for him. I must admit - it was a purchase for me - I have always wanted a train running around my Christmas tree. I just hope the cats don't decide to take a ride on it!!

Christmas is quickly approaching and the excitement is growing. Hopefully we will remember each day to take a moment and remember the reason we celebrate - the gift of our savior and Lord!

One last question for you: How many chimneys does your house have? This has been a real concern for Will over the last week - he wants to make sure everyone has at least one chimney in their house - so that Santa can come see them!

Making Mommy feel bad!

Today Will and I went to church to help serve lunch to 21 adults with special needs. Our Sunday School class invites this group to come and join us for a special lunch, each year at Christmas. It is a true blessing to serve them a delicious meal and just enjoy getting to know them. After lunch, Santa made an appearance and as he entered the room, several of the ladies from our class asked me if Will would be upset not getting a gift from Santa. Well, I said "No, he'll be fine", after all I had explained the party to him and believed that I had prepared him well! I was right, he did great, he even helped a few of the party attendees open their gifts and explore them.

About an hour later, we dropped a few items off at my office. I asked Will to tell a few of my co-workers about the party we had helped with(I was a very proud mommy, as Will had really worked hard helping make everything special). I then asked him to tell them who had come to see everyone at the party and he responded, rather sadly "Santa came, but he didn't bring me a present!" Talk about a guilt trip!!!!!! I felt terrible, especially since Will had really been a great helper all day! I guess it was a bit much for a four year to sit through a room full of people getting gifts and not get one too. Hopefully Will believed me when I quickly said, "oh but Santa will bring your presents in 2 weeks!" Chalk this one up - always have a gift on hand when Santa is around!!!

It's Beginning to look alot like Christmas

As I said in my Thanksgiving Day post, we are looking forward to all the fun of Christmas preparations. So, on Saturday evening, Ashley and Will "built" the Christmas Tree, Scott added the lights and the Ashley and Will placed all the ornaments on the tree. My favorite part - I got to just watch and take pictures! This is the "fake" tree, one of two trees, and soon the "real" tree will go up and all the kids ornaments will be added. Will continues to want to bake those cookies for Santa (coming soon) and to get out all the other decorations! Hopefully all of that will get done in time for Santa to come down the chimney.

The cats' favorite hang out during the Christmas Season!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends. We hope you all had a wonderful Turkey Day. It is at this time of year that I realize, even more profoundly, how blessed I am and how blessed Scott and I are to have all that we do and to have found each other.

Today, I spent most of the day in the recliner, I was blessed with a stomach bug today - maybe God's way of trying to keep me from eating so much!!! So Scott, Will and the girls got to enjoy Grandma Jean's cooking without me. Although she did send me a bowl of mashed potatoes!

Last Saturday evening, all of my sister's grandkids were here - whew the number is growing!!! So we spent a great afternoon and evening at the Blackwell home - chaos in motion!!! Five kids, 4 dogs and 7 rowdy adults(we missed you Brian, Beth and Bernie!). It was nice to see everyone just before the Holiday and of course, Will and his best pal Nate, always have great fun(notice I have no pictures of the two of them together - they never stay still long enough!)

On Wednesday, Will celebrated Thanksgiving a bit early, as his preschool class had their annual Thanksgiving Day feast! Daddy went so he could take some pictures. He was amazed at how well the children sat at the tables and how well most of them ate.

Here are some pictures of the feast. Will's class made the pumpkin pie for the feast, so we had to have a picture of that!

Now as Thanksgiving comes to a close, we are looking forward to getting out Christmas decorations, visiting with Santa, shopping, putting up the trees and baking. All the hustle and bustle that comes with the celebration of our dear Savior's birth. We promise to take a few minutes as often as we can to keep you posted on all of our Christmas happenings.

Let's Catch Up

Halloween with Tigger and Pooh!

Go Hornets!

The first Preschool Program!

Fall Fishing at Claytor Lake - I caught it all by myself!

So this is my classroom?

Anxiously waiting for school to start

Breakfast before 1st day of School

Just thought you would like to see some recent photos. Since this is the first week of our official blog site, I decided to play catch up. Here are some photos of a few activities in September and October. We have been very busy with the last couple of months with school starting, soccer, and cheerleading. Not to mention church activities and off course Halloween. It has been a very busy Fall, but we have had lot's of fun. Enjoy the pictures.

A New adventure

I have so enjoyed the blogs set up by my neices that I decided it was time for me
to do the same! What a great way to share with family and friends(especially those living far away) the happenings of our family. Our lives are busy and as a family we are involved in many things. Here we will share with you all the happenings of our day to day family life. You, hopefully will enjoy hearing about these events and feel like you are a part of them.