Merry Christmas!

5:15 am...Seriously?!!!
I tried to bribe them with cash to go back to bed, but to no avail...

5:30 am

Ready to rush into the front room to see what Santa brought (and yes, Jake had to change into a Star Wars shirt before going to check out the goods, crazy kid!)

Happy Kids!!!





And even a little something for "Baby Boston"!

OTHER FUN SHOTS

It was so great to see everyone interested in seeing each other open their gifts and giving sponaneous hugs and high fives to each other.

















PLAYING GAMES!

We love games and got some good ones this year, including the classic Hungry Hungry Hippo, Twister Hopscotch, Star Wars Monopoly and Star Wars Galaxy, a Pokemon game, University of Texas UNO, Operation!

CHRISTMAS BREAKFAST - complete with Aunt Rachel's fabulous Christmas Tree Bread. Yum!


The rest of the morning was spent playing games, cooking and napping (ok, I might have been the only one who napped!), and then it was off to Grammy and Grandaddy's for another adventure and Christmas Dinner. I forgot the camera but we had a fabulous Christmas dinner with all the fixin's, followed up by more gifts. We finished off the fun evening by playing JINGO (holiday bingo) and eating lots of yummy desserts. Then Michael, Trev & Hayley got to stay the night and hang out with Aunt Rachel. So fun!

I heard from a certain 6 year old that it was definitely,

"THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!!"

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve we have a simple meal of potato soup served in homemade bread soup bowls, followed by our Nativity Program. This year Don's parents and sister Rachel were able to be here to celebrate with us. We had fun with singing Christmas Carols, as well as being accompanied on the piano by Hayley, Trevor & Michael at times, and listening to Don read the Nativity story out of the scriptures. It is always a special evening.



After our program ends, we usually have a great dessert. This year we had Boston Cream Pie to celebrate our 2008 Boston Family Reunion, and the 12th day of Christmas present we had opened earlier that day from Grammy, our awesome Boston Family Reunion Scrapbook. Of course, we had to bring out a few other goodies to eat as well :)




Once we finished the Christmas Eve party, it was time for pj's and getting ready for Santa and bed. Of course we had to leave Santa cookies and eggnog, plus carrots for the reindeer!



Then it was off to bed, although I heard giggles until late in the night as the excitement of Christmas infected us all. Sometime earlier in the evening the kids had set up camp to all sleep together in Michael & Trevor's room, and they had a lot of fun together. The conspiring, excited giggles are some of the best sounds of Christmas - I love it!

Candy Houses

The first day of Winter Break we went to our friends house and made Candy Gingerbread(Graham Cracker) Houses. It was so fun and yummy to eat!

Michael's Winter Camp Site

Trevor's Candy House

Hayley's Candy House


Jake's Candy Bear House, complete with snowman and tree!

White Chocolate Popcorn

Are you dreaming of a white Christmas? Here is one of our favorite white chocolate recipes that we like to share at the holidays (originally passed to us by my SIL Cynthia - thanks!).

ENJOY!!

White Chocolate Popcorn

1 bag microwave popcorn, any flavor

4 (2-oz) cubes white almond bark coating

Add’l Toppings (opt…see below)

Pop 1 bag of microwave popcorn. Empty into bowl. Separate uncooked kernels from popcorn. Melt 4 cubes of white chocolate bark in microwave (about 2 minutes). Stir until melted completely. Pour chocolate over popcorn, stirring until completely covered. Spread popcorn on waxed paper. Sprinkle or drizzle additional toppings on popcorn if desired. Cool completely.

Decorative Toppings:
Different colored sprinkles for holidays (red for Valentine’s, green for St. Patrick’s, etc.) Another alternative is to melt 1 block of milk chocolate and drizzle onto white chocolate covered popcorn. You can also stir in m&m’s before pouring onto waxed paper to cool.

These are the days

December has been a blur. We've had lots of basketball games for Michael and Trevor, a school band concert for Michael, language Winter performances for Trevor & Hayley, Christmas caroling to a nursing home for Michael and the church youth, Christmas caroling in the neighborhood for the Cub Scouts and families for Trevor, doctors appointments, birthday parties, Don in Germany for part of the time, teaching Jake's preschool, plus the normal daily activities like gymnastics, piano, homework, etc. Add to it all, getting ready for Christmas and making special treats for friends, neighbors and teachers, and we are having a blast!


Here are a few shots of the school activities...




















SCHOOL PARTIES...Holiday Bingo, Decorating Cookies, Limbo and more!


















We have had a lot of fun memories made but it is also nice that school is now out for 2 weeks and things will slow down as we enjoy this special time of year with each other!

Grandparents Day

Grandparents Day was held in conjunction with the Book Fair at the elementary school last week. So one day Hayley and Trevor had some special visitors come and visit them at lunch. It is so fun to have grandparents close by! Thanks for the great lunch & fun books Grammy & Grandaddy!

Let it Snow!

We actually got some snow flurries tonight!

Trevor doing the tongue test as it began to fall...

Playing outside as the snow starts to stick on the trampoline...



It was so fun for everyone. I know we are REALLY not dressed for the occasion, but in our defense, it was 79 degrees yesterday!! My favorite is the 1 baseball batting glove Trevor puts on (still not putting on long pants of course!)



Jake cutting the snow with a sword??? I'm not really sure what the kid was doing. But give him a break, it was his first real encounter with snow in his backyard!



Most of my pictures didn't turn out unfortunately, but listen & you can hear the kids reaction to the snow - funny stuff!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

We had fun Monday night decorating our Christmas Tree. Everyone has their favorite ornaments to hang. I love hearing the kids exclaim, "Oh, remember this one - I love this one!". It was also fun to hang the special ornaments we have collected from different places we have visited, this year adding a new Mayflower ornament from our trip to Boston this summer.



We also got a fashion show during the festivities...

Did you know, apparently, the new thing this season is to hang the glass bulbs on your ears? It is sooo stylish, don'tcha think?!

It's not too late to add them to your Christmas list :)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Last night we had a Christmas Party at the church, complete with a visit from the jolly man in red himself. Jake was super excited to see him...until it was time to actually go and see him! I didn't get a picture of him screaming, but it was pretty funny. As soon as Santa had visited with all the kids and had left the room, Jake ran and jumped in Santa's chair and was all smiles as he asked me what I wanted for Christmas!



Last year was the first year Hayley would even approach Santa without screaming, but this year, it was no problem.



Trevor waited the the line had died down completely for his little chat with Santa. I am still not sure what they talked about...maybe new shoes?!!



I didn't get a shot of Michael at the party but he had been asked to be one of Santa's special "bouncer" helpers, to make sure Santa didn't get trampled as he came into the room. I guess the elves were busy :)

Scoresheets and Scoreboards

This week-end Michael kept busy. His basketball team played in a tournament Friday and Saturday. Friday night Michael had his first start of the season.



Saturday morning Michael missed his team's first game because he was busy doing a little different type of scoring. As part of a program offered to some students by Duke, he took the SAT's at the local high school, right along side the 11th and 12th graders. After the test was over, he rushed over to his basketball tournament and joined the 2nd game in progress. One of his teammates asked him if the test was hard, and his coach turned around and said, "Boy, of course it was hard, it's the SAT's!"

Grammy's Tree

Sunday afternoon we went to Don's parents for the annual tradition of decorating their Christmas tree. Grammy is one brave woman with lots of beautiful, breakable ornaments that she trusts these wild ones to decorate with. It is always a fun time and everyone has their favorites they love to hang on the tree.



Now if we can just figure out a time when everyone is home to set our tree up!

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a great Thanksgiving in Dallas where all the Bowman clan gathered together for the first time in years. It was fun to see old cousins reunite and meet our newest addition, Issac. We had a blast eating fabulous food, playing, hiking, jumping, dancing, staying up late talking and we were even able to hit up Six Flags late Friday afternoon and check out their Holiday in the Park. It all went by way too fast and before we knew it, we were home and now it's December!!