December Catch Up

We started out our Christmas festivities with Josh's work's annual Christmas party. This year was a big one because their CEO is retiring. The parties are always fun because we get to dress up and go out just us.

The next big event (although there were little events in between) was the annual LL Bean party put on by some friends. They had an ugly sweater contest of sorts. I borrowed my parents' clothes. My mom has so many cheesy Christmas sweaters. I actually won in the woman's division. I was decked out in a turtle neck, sweater vest, bell earrings, lights necklace, and even Santa socks. If you can, you should look at the clothes close up. They're great! Josh took this picture of me to remind me to never dress like this. (Sorry, Mom!) Oh, and I got a hair cut and color!

Because we do so much as an immediate family on Christmas Eve, we celebrated Christmas Eve with my grandma the night of the 20th. These are a couple of pictures of that night. Notice my mom behind Lena wearing that very same sweater vest. Haha!

Gosh, look at those cheeks! You'd think I was producing pure cream!

My grandma gave us a portable washing machine in a bucket for our food storage. Asher found some other uses for it.

Josh was ecstatic to be there! Just kidding, he was REALLY tired!

Then, a few days before Christmas Asher and I put a gingerbread house together from a kit I had previously purchased. It started ok...

But soon we started having problems. I knew Asher wouldn't be patient enough to let the icing dry so we forged on. I kept trying to put everything back in place, but I failed as you can see.

Yeah, by this point just about everything was sliding off. I gave up! But Asher and I had fun together. That's what counts!
The next few pictures are to show how much Asher was eating. There are at least 5 other than these pictures with his fingers in the frosting/candy.

Next are the Christmas Eve/Christmas Day pictures at my parents'.

And that's the end of the Christmas pictures. :o) We recorded everything on Christmas day so we don't have any pictures at either of our parents' houses. Hopefully we can pull some still images from the video footage.

My dad turned 50 on the 27th, which was a Sunday, so the night before (the day after Christmas) was the celebration. My mom, sisters, and I planned a surprise party for him. He was actually surprised which is amazing because he usually catches on to everything.
Below is my dad talking to his mom and an old high school friend. If you can see the picture close up, his button says, "I'm 50 I only look 35" Hehe! They both really do look good for their age.

Because my dad doesn't really like gifts or parties, we decided to throw a service party for him. He had the opportunity to travel to Africa last Feb. to a village that his employer (also Josh's employer) sponsors. Ever since then he has been very involved in raising money for the children in the Yehu Village in Mombasa, Kenya. Anyway, we put together school kits for those children. We also gave him a framed picture of him with a bunch of the kids. And Josh put together a DVD of all the pictures my dad took on his trip. And then we took donations to help my dad help the village. With a 50% match from my dad's work, we were able to gain $900. It was an awesome present for him! Below is him holding the picture and speaking a little about the village. It turned out to be a great night!

And I made a cake for the occasion, of course. Gotta throw that one in there! :o)

These two are just to show my cute kids!

Yes, Asher is in Lena's bouncy chair. I probably shouldn't let him, but he looks so comfortable. His mouth is like that because we were listening to Miles Davis and he was trying to sound like a trumpet.