Going Green at Christmas

Since moving to Texas, I've started a new hobby...garage sales! And the best part of it is going with my fun friends Christi and Eva. We meet up in the McDonald's parking lot before dawn, grab a coffee and start the hunt. So one October morning the thought occurred to me that I better be looking out for Christmas gifts for my kiddos. And the Lord enabled me to find TONS of age appropriate gifts for the kids, some of which were new! I had more fun...
So this year, the Haileys went "green" and bought used toys for Christmas, all but one thing for Hannah that I couldn't pass up at Walmart. I'm very proud of my $4 Thomas the Tank engine tent and my new in the box for $6 Mermaid in a wedding dress, used puzzles with all the pieces, dress up attire, books, lacing boards, countless trucks and animal figures, etc. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to get away with used toys but I'm so thankful we could do it this year! The kids never knew the difference!
And a thousand thanks to Meredith for watching the kids one night while Ben was in Dallas so that I could wrap all of it! ( I guess if I were really really going green, I would have used recycled newspaper to wrap everything but there's a cut off point to everything)

My sweet little Hannah

Laughing at the Donkey's Hehaw greeting

I enjoyed my daughter today so much. After school today, she said, "Where are we going, Momma? Are we going somewhere fun? Who are we gonna see?"

I know I'm an extrovert and Ben is definitely so to the nth degree, but wow, did Hannah ever get the extrovert gene. So, we took some of the wooden ornaments I bought today to the Children's Museum where Hannah made an instant new friend and invited her to help paint the ornaments. We made Reindeer Food tonight (Sugary Trail Mix colored green) and she helped me with some Christmas cards. We read books and tucked her into bed a little too late but she wanted to pray and she did so a little tearfully because I know she was tired and also missed her grandmothers. It was just too precious, I had to write it down....

"Dear God, Thank you for all my grandmothers. GaGa and Nana and Mawmaw. I love them and I love you God and my favorite part of the Christmas stroy is the little baby Jesus and I love you God. Amen"

MS here we come!!!

Hannah's Christmas Ballet recital

with Miss Katy

Unexpected Joy

We woke up this morning about 7 and just happened to look outside AND SAW SNOW!!! In College Station, TX of all places! I got Hannah up quickly and she of course was awed and then begging to go outside so i gave her a christmas present early...frog boots! We rubberbanded plastic grocery bags over her pitifully thin cloth gloves and off she went to play while I got Nathan bundled up.
This is what we call snow, be it MS or TX.
And we were very proud of our first snow man of the day....of course i was assuming that would be the only one as well... but i was wrong!!
Then...
It REALLY SNOWED!!! We were ankle deep tonight so I guess that's several inches for whoever's counting.

Ta-Da!
Why not EAT the snowman?
That's one proud little girl.
THE one horse open sleigh--we sleighed down the street, singing to all the neighbors, while we checked out a huge snow monkey that someone made. Really cool. Wish i could have gotten that picture.
"Momma! Look! I have a beard just like santa claus!! (giggles)"

Some shots from the RUF Christmas party

Some recent favorites

Getting ready for Christmas

Our new christmas tree....we left our old one that was missing so many limbs in MS.


Hannah wanted to go to the store after the tree was decorated because she thought the tree didn't have enough "jewelry" on it. So thankfully, somebody in China decided to manufacture plastic "shatterproof" balls for decoration. We found them at walmart and Nathan's broken ball count is up to 8 I believe. But at least they didn't shatter... :)
We've since made a platform for the tree to stand on and a tree skirt. I guess i need to get pics of those, huh...hmmm.