{December} Picture Post

This is the card we sent out this year...

One Sunday during church service, Naomi wrote down a bunch of Bible words.  Can you decipher her spelling?

love, joy, Jesus, God, sinned, pharaohs, Romans, marriage, sinned, glory, care, nice, gentle, …

The Ladie's Class had a Christmas Lunch at the Palace Hotel...

 Michele and I sporting the gifts from our crackers...

Out shopping, I spied an actual Piper.

We shipped off gifts to Bangkok, the States, and Bolivia this year.

While walking the kids to school one morning, we noticed how beautiful the frost was on the hood of someone's car.

The kids received an anonymous gift...

Gideon took to wearing the moustache out and about… cracking me up!

Piper's favourite spot is on the back of the couch.

Naomi requested her hair be done like this one morning.

 It happened to be the day JR and I kidnapped Naomi and her friend, Nicole, and took them to McDonalds for lunch.

Betty Hepburn's little Christmas tree was left in the loft for us, so we put it up in the kids' room.

The Mothers&Toddlers group at church asked JR and me to come help out with their Christmas party.

I stayed in the car one afternoon when JR picked up the kids and got snowballs thrown at me.

I had multiple concerts with my Haddo Choir.  Here is the main house where we performed in the chapel.  Photos inside are not allowed...

 but I was left alone and snapped this. ;)

One day, after being told to clean her room, Naomi left us a note letting us know...

I didn't bring a camera to the kids' Christmas program because we aren't usually allowed to use them.  But I did snap some shots with my phone.

 NAOMI ACTUALLY PARTICIPATED THIS YEAR!!! I was so proud!

The Monday Night Bible Club had an outing to Burger King and "Frozen".  JR and I got to be chaperones.

We got a package from Annie and Tanja...

We went carol-singing to 2 different homes here in Peterhead...

Naomi had a school Christmas party whose wardrobe prompted a big discussion and practice in negotiating.  This was the compromise...

There was a church-wide Christmas party that we attended and enjoyed...

(G took this ^ photo)

 (JR is holding a balloon up to his face… but I had to include this photo.  It cracks me up!)

Tired puppy...

The last day of school, Robert came to spend the night.  (Nicole was supposed to come over too, but she was ill.)

JR was in Aberdeen with the youth group, but the extra kid meant that I had a lot of time on my own… which I used to paint!

The next day, N joined me for craft time.

 Gideon got a haircut...

 …and I painted this.

22 December… the kids made a Gingerbread House 

The first annual Christmas Eve EVE tradition!

 Pajamas for all (which we stayed in for 3 straight days)

 and a Christmas LEGO set...

We also had a family sleep-over in the living room to the lights of the Christmas Tree.  We worked (all 4 of us) on this set.  5 hours later… we had it completed!

Actual Christmas Eve, JR went out in the afternoon to snap shots of the windy weather.

Christmas Eve night we opened the gifts from our generous church family.

Piper watched from her spot...

Christmas day was taken in shifts between web-cam calls with Bangkok,Thailand and Seattle, Washington, USA.

In between we opened gifts from each other...

27 December, my parents (Dan and Cindee Stockstill) flew in!

We had another Christmas with them.

28 December:  I turned 34.

29 December:  we enjoyed time with our church family

 30 December:  we played in the house and had a fabulous, fun, Christmas dinner

31 December:  Well… I've been blogging most of the morning… but we have fun plans tonight for stopping by a few different parties before heading to the Watchnight Service at church.

Happy New Year!

(thus concludes my blogging for 2013)

~Daisha