Let the birthdays begin...

 My two-digit boy, Gideon, who turned 10 years old today!  This is right after a haircut and shower and he put on his new shirt he got for Christmas! 

 My two 10-year olds.  They will be 10 together until Rebekah's birthday on Tuesday!

 We copied a dessert some friends made recently called a trifle.  Mmmmmm! is all I can say.  We put chocolate cake on the bottom, chocolate pudding next, cool whip, then heath bar bits and M&M's and another layer of it all and then drizzled chocolate on top!  No ice cream necessary!

 Can't wait to see what Grandma Reta and Grandpa Sam got!

 Legos!!!  Yeah!!! Love them!!!

 Brothers in their matching shirts fooling around!  I love that my boys still like to go around with the same shirts.  We were in Fargo today. They like their button down shirts. 

 How tall are you now!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

 The girls made krumkake and rosettes today!  Mmmm.  Rebekah chose cinnamon and sugar to coat the rosettes and they are "melt in your mouth" good!

 The different treats we are bringing to Christmas Eve dinner with family tonight!

The kids are ready and willing to open presents anytime!  I bought only 2 or 3 of the presents under the tree.  Most of them are the children buying for each other and for others! 

Buttered crackers please...

I am running out of meal ideas so made up a lentil soup for supper.  I do believe buttered crackers are in order.  We used to eat a soup starter soup when I was a teenager and always had buttered crackers.  Loved it!    Grandpa Sam is shopping right now with 3 of my kids and he's the one who I learned to eat crackers like this. 

The kids are looking forward to Christmas and all the warm feelings that the anticipation brings.  We have a full week of activities and look forward to spending some time with family.  

Kevin's on his way home to "lick" the floor he says.  Sometimes after working in a particularly messy or dirty house he comes home and kisses the floor but tonight he said he'd actually lick it.  I reminded him we have a dog who walks around now.  He said that didn't matter.  It must be quite a house! 

O Christmas Tree...

I was really just checking to see if I could add a picture.  It's hard for me to post on here unless I post a picture with it.  We got the tree up and decorated a little early.  We put it up the weekend of Thanksgiving due to Bekah's prodding.  We didn't have enough lights as most people find is a problem so a week later we got  that problem solved and then we have so many ornaments how to choose.  The kids only  put about 10 of their ornaments on, some did a few more and Kevin and I put a few of ours.  Since the kids have so many ornaments we don't even put our ornaments on the tree. 

The kids' excitement for Christmas is building as they purchase presents for the name they drew back in October.  They do a nice job of picking out something just right for that person.  We are finishing up a game night here.  We've got an old turn table out and are listening to Christmas music on record albums this year.