Almost ready for Christmas

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Welcome back to the blog. 

...Back to where we left off...

 While I was occupied with some preparation for spending Christmas at the farm, my girls occupied themselves in various ways around the house.

They hauled a good number of books out of their room and arranged them in stacks at the end of the hallway, and then made a nice bed for their dollies with the living room cushions, and played for a good hour or more in their little set up. :o)

 But thankfully, the "live doll" (Philip) wins their attention anytime he is awake and accessible. :o)

He likes to frolic on his back during his awake times.

 He was about 6 weeks old in these shots.

 I wanted to get some shots of him in his cute outfit Great Granny Cote sent him.

 He sat up really well in the corner of the couch... he has a strong back. The girls had stronger necks and legs at his age, but he's just strong in a different way. :o)

 Baby faces...

 ...can't get enough of them.

 When Lorrie and Amy were here in November, they left a little stack of Christmas gifts, and I thought it would be fun to do a gift-opening with them over the internet before we left for Christmas at the farm. The girls were all into it... and the family mercifully even watched Hope tediously finish her supper before we got going with gifts. :o)

 Presents!

 They each got new water bottles from Angie - camel back ones, just like hers. Boy - did that gift generate smiles!!!

 Joy the cute, stood there and sang a few carols for them. Her melody skills are amazing. Can't say the same for diction. :o)

 ...Everyone cheered for her.

 The next day it was time to pack up the suitcases.

But I let them have their fun playing with them before packing them up with their clothes. :o) A family from church gave us these little suitcases their girls used when they were younger. They wouldn't hold up on an airplane, but for this trip they were perfect!

 As always happens, the evening hours the day before are long... but it helped for us to have the girls distracted at the sinks while we got some things done.

It blesses me that they want to help, and to see them having fun with it.
For a few brief moments, we considered being crazy and just putting them in the van rather than in bed and doing the 7 hour drive at night, but .... we decided instead to leave after Philip's nighttime nursing, and that worked well for everyone... except that I only got three hours of sleep. Oh well! :o) I only drove about 30 minutes of the drive... the rest of the time I spent mostly in the middle seat in the van, keeping the kids happy while Josh drove. :o)
Stay tuned for Christmas pictures!