The Jones Journal: Merry Christmas

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone out there in Blog land! I hope you have had a wonderful holiday and are ready to take on the New Year! Here are a few quick pics. It seems as though the girls' school break was longer than usual this year, but I don't know that it was. They had 9 days off before Christmas day, so in the days leading up to the big day we made lots of craft projects and homemade goodies for our neighbors.

Here is Erin working on a Christmas card for someone.

We dried clementines in the oven and then strung them on this pretty ribbon for the birds. I'm not sure how much the birds are enjoying the, but they make the trees look pretty.

And homemade birdseed ornaments for outside.

We also made pumpkin dog treats for Bo's friends in the neighborhood. Here are all the bundles wrapped up and ready to go. On Christmas Eve the girls and I walked around the neighborhood delivering our packages. It was a really fun way to pass the afternoon and gave us a chance to wish our neighbors a Merry Christmas. Roger was at home trying to put together a Barbie house while the girls weren't around to see him!

After our stroll around the neighborhood we got ready for church. I love walking to Christmas Eve services -- the sun is still up when we head out but by the time we head home, it is dark and everyone's Christmas lights are on. Plus our beautiful church is especially pretty decorated for the holidays, and it just wouldn't feel like Christmas if I wasn't there for Silent Night -- the entire congregations kneels in the dark, lit only by candlelight and sings that beautiful song. Love it! Once we got home we had dinner and put out the treats for Santa and the Elves.

Notice the tiny "donuts" for the elves? I put some Cheerios in a baggie and shook some with powdered sugar and others with cinnamon -- they turned out so cute!