Merry Christmas, Jack!

Duck Dynasty is our favorite tv show, So that explains today's blog title and this shirt.

Shek and his NFL Bed set.

Honey gave everyone one of these cute packs of Holiday Dough!

Karlie and her discoball dress!

Jolie opens one of her Cinderella themed gifts.

Christmas started early here for our bunch. Shek set his alarm clock in the room that Gam and Pop were sleeping in, I do believe he did that on purpose....,So our crew was up before daylight, which is highly unusual for our bunch...it must be Christmas. 

So in the words of Si of Duck Dynasty...Merry Christmas, Jack!

Christmas Eve Traditions

The anticipation of Christmas Eve should be bottled and spritzed on each day. Each year, our family has a few traditions that happen each year, this year I changed up some of our eats.  The Oldest didn't like that I left off the meatballs, but I think we all survived without them.

We always go to Christmas Eve Service. This year, my "boys" ran an errand to get Zach's phone fixed. What was supposed to take an hour took over three and caused them to totally miss church. BUT the rest of us went. Jolie was excited about the singing and the candle, but fell asleep on Pop before church was over.

The whole church was full and looked awesome with all of the candles shining all over the church.

We only have Cokes at Christmas. And the kids love drinking them from the old fashioned bottles.

We always make a redvelvet cake for Jesus' birthday cake. Red symbolic of the blood shed for our sins, the white frosting symbolizing that HE makes us white as snow.

 Kids always know that they get one gift to open on Eve night. AND it's always PJs.  Karlie always has a good reaction to her gifts. 

 Shek giggles over Shark pjs.

 Jolie's pjs had 2 sets on the hanger. Her pjs were princess themed.

Zach was shocked that we found some Duck Dynasty pjs for him. 

 Jolie and Shek pose in their new pjs.

 Karlie has taught this girl how to pose. 

  My girls pose in their pjs.

 Shek and Pop

 Zach and Karlie pose with Honey and Samantha

     

 Singing Christmas Carols around the piano

Honey joins in on the singing...

 We will be waking up bright and early and opening presents, and then eating a Christmas Day Breakfast.

Merry Christmas from the Berry House to yours...
Praying your Christmas will be
 Happy, Happy, Happy!

Baking up a little Christmas Cheer

Christmas Holidays are finally here, and I've been promising the kiddos we would bake and decorate some goodies. I called Gam and Honey so we could all be in on the fun.

I noticed some of the goodies my bloggy friends had been making and decided we would add those to our Christmas goodie baking day.

We decided to make  Ellie's Caramels from Ni Hao Y'all

 Caramels are one of our family favorites. AND the recipe looked easy and delicious. 

 And it really was!!! 

This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Next was Sarah's Buckeyes. I have enjoyed them in the past, but never made them myself. Thanks Sarah for the recipe. These were a hit with the family too.

Next we got out the tea cake recipe that's been used in our family for a very long time. This recipe belonged to former Governor of LA and our family started using this recipe years ago. 

 Here we are mixing it all up.

 When Jolie found out we were baking today, she hugged my legs and squealed with delight, "Thanks Momma!" She loves play dough so playing in the real thing that's actually edible was right up her alley. 

 Karlie brings all of the cookie sheets to the table.

 Cookie cutters

 Gam and Jolie pat the dough.

 Decorating with Sprinkles

 Honey joined in. She says, a baking pan is not any good until it looks like mine here. LOL

 I couldn't find an apron and Gam had flour on her from her head to her toe. See those AdvoCare boxes in the corner? We will be wrapping gifts in those soon. 

 Everyone had fun baking up some Christmas memories today. I loved trying new recipes, along with the old family favorites too. After all of the sweet eats, I'll be ready for a Challenge, join me?

Christmas Program

This past weekend was THE weekend for Christmas programs. Shek and Karlie were in the HOME of FINE arts program on Friday. Karlie performed with the sign language group, and Shek sang with the Acts I Choir. On Friday, I only had my phone to take photos. BUT I did have my real camera charged and ready for the church program on Sunday Night. Here's a few photos of the program of Shek and Jolie a few of their friends, and even the grinch. IT was a great upbeat program. Always love it.

I loved the 3 Grinches who came out and played Blue Man style.

This is Shek's percussion teacher dressed as Grinch.

 There's Jolie standing between Mary and Joseph. That Joseph is in my SS class. 

 The Preschoolers are always a treat to watch and hear sing.

There she is  looking sweet in her glittery festive dress.

 She actually looked my way.

 Shek's group...he's on the top in the argyle sweater.

 Another photo of his group.

 He's a part of the percussion group, and from where we were sitting, I could see his backside really well. LoL

Here they are singing with Mark Hall. Shek is standing directly behind the director. 

It was an awesome program. Great drama, singing, media, kiddies, grownies ...everyone did a great job praising the Lord.

Jolie meets Mr. C!

Jolie announced that she wanted to go see Santa Claus. She was pretty set on us making that happen. We have not been to see Santa in a very long time in this house. Even though he's on our tree, and we have a dancing santa, and we watch the occasional Santa movie, we don't really 'do' the Santa thing around here. BUT since she kept talking about it, and I am pretty sure noticed a few photos of the older kids with Santa over the years. She wanted to go. So yesterday, I dressed her in her festive dress, she applied lipstick and off we went. We loaded up to see Santa at the closest mall. I was hoping for a pretty Santa, you know one with a real beard.

When we arrived, Santa was on break. LOL...but was due back right then, in fact he was pushing 10 mins. late. SO this ole momma stood right there in line before the masses arrived. Soon, There he was the red suited fellow himself. I took Jolie, and sat her in his lap. She didn't cry but she would not look at him nor smile. SO santa said we'd do a family photo. Shek and Karlie would not participate, so it was just Karl and me, and Jolie. She finally warmed up to him before it was over, and even hugged him goodbye.

Jolie meets Santa!

As we walked out of Santa's Mall Village, Karl paid for our package and the lady handed us our photos. I showed Jolie and she drooped her jaw and gasped, "OHHHHHHHHHH". She has been very proud of her photos, and fell asleep on the way home looking at them.

I am glad she had fun meeting Mr. C. I've told her that he represents the Spirit of Giving at Christmas time.

Good Christmas Reads

Do we not look totally charming and unposed here?

I have lots of Children's picture books. Having been a preschool teacher and Sunday School teacher for a few years, a momma for 20 and a homeschooling momma too, I have quite the collection of kids' books. Of course, Christmas being my favorite, I have a lot of Christmas choices.

The other day, Shek and I had packed up my book tote with all of our Christmas books to take to Sunday School. I grabbed that packed bag and told Jolie to pick out one or two to read before bedtime. I knew which one was her favorite last year, and I wondered if it would still be her pick this year, and it was.

Jolie's favorite is Mary Did You Know? Since it's a song, we sing it when we read it. 

Here she is singing her favorite book...Don't you love her makeup? She applied it herself!

  When I started to read, the big kids piled in the bed too asking for their favorites. I was touched to see my seventeen year old girl grab her childhood favorite and then my 11 year old grab his. I told Karl he should take our photo, but I rethought that because I really did not want a blog post with a photo of us in our pjs, or should I say me in my pjs. 

Family favs:

Shek's pick is Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant

Karlie's Pick is The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg

Jolie's pick is Mary did you Know by Mark Lowry

Mom's pick is Piper's Night before Christmas  by Mark Lowry(it rhymes)...but mom really likes them all.

So last night, we "posed" with our favorites. Some of our  favorites are pictured above. I don't know which is Zach's favorite. I am sure he has one, because he is all about those family traditions we do each year.

Shek loves Silver Packages. He loved trains as a little boy, maybe that's why this is his favorite.

Shek insisted that I post this photo. It really sums up how interested they were in posing for my blog post photos. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Reading y'all!