The day after Christmas

The gang sure knows how to have fun. Santa brought many terrific items. Some needed and some just because they are fun. On the day after Christmas the gang settled down to business and dug into the gifts. You could see Thomas making bouncy balls and locking stuff up in his laser protected secret code safe. Julia was seen feeding her new baby Ally and strolling her around the house. Matthew was busy hiding out in his tent and riding around the house on his super speedy bike. Henry just tried to get everyone else's items, but he did like riding on his little just his size fire truck. Macie had a friend over and they did spa treatments. I love watching my group of people enjoying their gifts. We only had a couple of items to take back, but the store didn't have the correct sizes. Oh, well the girls will just have to grow into them.
It was a great Christmas filled with many magical moments and love was felt by all. Grandma and Pa came over to watch the unwrapping and then Tom's brother came by to see us. It was great to see him. We had dinner at Grandma and Pa's along with Auntie, Uncle and the cousins.

A Reindeer

So, this morning started out very early. Julia is an afternoon Kindergartner and because today is the last of school before Christmas break the teachers had all kinders come at the A.M. time. This meant we had to have her at school at 7:50a.m. She was excited because she got to wake up early. Matthew has to be at school at 8 and the others have to be at school at 8:25. You can see how our logistical nightmare was. I took Matthew, Thomas and Macie to school then went onto Julia's school. Tom had already dropped Julia off and I was needed there at 8:30 for the K-3sing-a-long. Julia was so cute in her reindeer hat. Her class sang and led the audience in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. She shined with her beautiful smile and great voice. My heart grew more today and Henry just sat there and watched. He let out a little howl every now and then.
Here are some shots of the cute Reindeer:

A Santa Play and A Recorder Show

As school is winding down for the Christmas break there are many activities the kids get to participate in. Last week we had Macie's recital and today we had Thomas' Play and recorder show. I love being their mother and watching them shine. My heart always grows big (kind of like the grinch :) ) when I'm watching my children do terrific things, even if it is unloading the dishwasher without being asked. Anyway, today was another heart growing moment. Thomas was an elf in the play and did an amazing job on the recorder. He, too, is playing his mother's old recorder. His teacher is terrific and is teaching the children recorder because she thinks it is important to learn to read music. Yea for her. Tomorrow I get to go to Julia's school and participate in a K-3 grade sing-a-long. Julia has signed to me that she is scared of me coming and watching. She's probalby worried about my heart growing too big and embarrassing her. Or maybe she is afraid to be in front of a lot of people.
Here are a few shots of our recorder playing elf.

A violin Recital

Last night we went to Macie's first violin recital. She was a bundle of nerves waiting for the performance. When the violinists came in (4th grade violins) I was so proud of her. She was all smiles and very happy to be there. She is playing the same violin that I played when I was a girl oh so many years ago. They played 3 tunes and then we listened to the 5th and 6th grade bands. If you want to still play the violin in 5th and 6th grade you can. Macie showed some interest last night in sticking with the violin next year. Thomas of course is coming unglued with excitement about playing the violin next year. Grandma and Pa joined us for the recital and they were very impressed with our little violinist.
Today is my Dad's (Pa) birthday and the gang called him this morning to wish him a Happy Birthday. We will celebrate here at the Hay House on Sat. with dinner.

Christmas decorating

Now that the tree is up I still had to finish putting out all my treasured Christmas items. As I took each one out of the storage bins I lovingly decided not to do it to the beautiful item. I just couldn't put my beloved items out for my little people to find and give scary love to. I came up with the plan to just put out things that could be place on the tv stand, piano, buffet, or on the mantle. The gang still has the magic of Christmas and my treasured Christmas decorations are safe for another year.
Macie has a violin recital tomorrow night and Pa and Gram are coming to watch. I get to go to my bunco groups annual Christmas ornament exchange. I look forward to this during the year. It is such a nice night.
I accomplished so much yesterday. I organized all the presents and even wrapped some. Matthew insisted that some of the gifts under the tree were for him. Sadly none are his. He will be getting a few gifts soon enough.
Thomas gets to be in a Christmas play at school and will be an elf.
The Holidays are in full swing and the gang is so excited about all the traditions and fun that goes on around here. Tonight we see Santa. Macie's list is full and ready to go.

We have a tree

The whole family at the annual christmas tree get.

As you can see we took our annual trip to the tree lot. In a few years past we have gone to a tree farm and cut down our own tree, but this year with my bum leg we were unable to climb the hill and cut our own tree. The tree getting extravaganza was on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I did manage to get up at 3:00 a.m. and get to my mom's by 3:45 a.m. to get to Wal-mart by 4:00. My sister and I were in line for the great deals. It has been years since I have been able to go to Black Friday shopping. We then picked up my mom by 6:30 and were off to Target and then back to Wal-mart and on to Costco. We were done by 11:00. I then had to take the van in to be looked at. It turned out to be nothing very big and then we were off to tree hunting. The tree we picked was the 3rd one we looked at. It is a noble fur and very pretty. We decorated it last night. The gang loved the magic of it all. Tom and I decided that this year we would only decorate with the gang's ornaments. We have way too many and some are fragile. As you can imagine we wouldn't want fragile on our tree with Henry and Matthew around.
This year we got ourselves a gate for the living-room so that the littles could stay away from the tree and the fire. So far so good.

The Hay Gang tree dcorated by the gang. :)