As there were so many girls, to keep the ceremony at a decent length, they had the girls say the GS promise in two's. Kaydence and Luci happened to do theirs together.
Incidentally, Kaydence's mom brought her to me for Xmas pics. Here's one of my favorites of her!
Sonja, my niece, is also in Luci's troop. Here she gives her promise. The girls love having each other in the same troop and are guaranteed at least one hour every week of playtime together without their moms present!
In just one month of meetings, the girls earned the middle patch and 2 petal patches! Luci is so proud! (Incidentally, Drew's troop is NOT in this area, so was not part of this ceremony.)
Monty, my little man! As cute as ever!
A couple days before Xmas, we headed over to Julie's house to exchange gifts. Ben opened his envelope and was very happy with his gift! I got TWO hugs and many thanks!
Drew examines a locking diary!
Oooo! A Nintendo DS game!!
And another! Hmmmm....good thing they already knew they were getting DS's!
Hannah got an I-Tunes gift card and this Fur Real kitty. This kitty sat under our tree for 2-3 weeks until we could do our exchange. Every time I turned the Xmas tree lights on or off, it would meow! I was glad to finally give it to her! Ha ha!
Hannah's dog, Ruby! She loves me!
Every year on Xmas eve, we go to Dean's parent's house to open gifts and have dinner. As we were getting the car loaded, I noticed this set of hearts in the driveway made earlier by my mom's car as she was leaving.
During dinner, Drew complained of an earache, so I decided to go home to get some Motrin for her. While there, I let the dogs outside and shortly afterwards, I discovred that our dog, Janie had been hit by a car at the end of our driveway. She had an obvious broken front leg and a kind passerby who stopped, helped me carry her into the house. A call to Dean brought him home and we brought her to the vet. There was no saving her leg and the only option was amputation. Unfortunately, Janie was coming up on 13 years old and she was already arthritic in her hips. An amputation would have been a serious degradation of her quality of life and in the end, the only humane option was euthanasia. It was a huge loss to our family. She was not just a dog, she was a member of our family as are all our animals, and she will be sadly missed. So needless to say, Dean and I missed the kids opening their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa while we were at the vet's office. When we finally made it back, this was the only picture I could take. Drew, Luci, Sonja and Max enjoy SEVERAL very LOUD games of Hungry, Hungry Hippos! They had a ball!
After Grandma and Grandpa's, we went home where the girls excitedly stated that they were going straight to bed so Santa would be sure to come! But before they ran upstairs, they left Santa a little refreshment!
In the morning, I was surprised to hear movement downstairs. I knew it wasn't the girls, so I got up follwed shortly by Dean. The girls were still sleeping at 7:30 as we made our way downstairs. My dad was up and my mom had already arrived. I called my brother to let him know we were up. Finally, after 8 rolled around and the girls were STILL not up, my mom made enough noise to get them going. They spent a little time with their stockings that Santa had left on their beds for them, but were soon making their way downstairs!
Santa was kind enough to get the girls all the Webkinz they asked for! They both got a fish and a dragon and Drew got a Wolf and Luci got a unicorn. (The night before, Uncle Dan and Aunt Tina also got them both some Pandas and G&G got Drew a Chihuahua) They were in Webkinz heaven!
Even the dogs love getting in on the present opening action! Janie loved this, too and we couldn't help but to think of her as the other three ripped open their toys!
Wow! MORE DS games! Meema got them 5 more!
Look what else Meema got them! $100 each to save for our upcoming trip to DisneyWorld next December! The girls are REALLY looking forward to it as are we! Dan, Tina, Sonja and Max are coming with us!
Just what I've always wanted! A red Nintendo DS!
My ballet obsessed ballerinas were thrilled to open REAL pointe shoes!
Now, of course they are still too young to be wearing them, and they are also several sizes too big for them, but they just couldn't resist trying them on and standing on their toes!
They were bought strictly for decoration and we'll be hanging them on their wall soon!
Papa's little seamheads! (Learned that term playing Trivial Pursuit!) He just loves that the girls are Yankees fans along with him!
Once everything had been ripped open, the girls broke open the DS's and we lost them for the rest of the day!
But hey, the girls weren't the ONLY ones who got all the toys...here's what Santa brought ME this year!! It's a Sony Touch Edition e-reader! (Simply put, it's a digital book. But you can carry up to 350 books in this thing!) This came in the mail the week before Xmas, and as I knew what it was, I opened it, hooked it up to my computer and downloaded some books into it. I had every intention of wrapping it up and sticking it under the tree, but the reading bug bit me and I just couldn't put it down! I have just finished my fourth Jane Austen book and look forward to cracking open #5 later tonight! Whatdayaknow...I AM spoiled! :-) Lucky me!
Santa was pretty good to Dean as well! I'm not sure what the thing is called, but it's a tool made by Dremel with all the blades and accessories that go with it. He also got a FatMax 25 foot tape measure. (Because SOMEONE was using his old one at the radial arm saw table and it accidentally got a little too close to the blade! Not sure who did it.......hee hee!) MOVING ON...Luci got a cupcake maker from Grandma and Grandpa and was eager to try it out.
Drew made one, too!
I helped the girls and got to taste their wares...and let me tell you...YUCK! Why can't they just use real ingredients anymore??? The look on Luci's face says it all!
Xmas night, we had Grandma and Grandpa, Dan, Tina and the kids, and my brother over for a yummy ham dinner. It was a nice end to my favorite holiday! So now, it's over. Other than the 3 small villages (the big one was dismantled to make room for dinner guests) my house has been completely de-xmas-ized(Dean's word), including the outdoor lights! I'm hoping I can put my e book down long enough to put the other villages away tomorrow!
Today's quotes:
Men are respectable only as they respect. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Integrity is what we do, what we say and what we say we do. ~Don Galer
I know right from wrong and I have the intelligence and self-control to keep from doing wrong. Consequently, my integrity and self-respect remain intact. Is it truly too much to expect as much from others, especially those in your circle of trust? ~Me
OK...so I'm seriously considering sending the Fur Real Kitty back to the Green residence!!! HEE HEE HEE!!! How did you stand it all that time???? The Kitty says she misses the Greens soooo much and it's just not the same at the Smith house!!! :)
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