Christmas Fun Before Christmas

The girls and I got to walk around down town Lodi while the guys finished watching the new Chronicles of Narnia movie... We got to see Santa! He was parked in front of the Antiquarium... a newish store with way too many cute things inside. So many that its hard to focus in on anything!

Here's a peek inside. Francesca enjoyed the many Christmas tree displays.

Saying hello to the annual Santa Bear in front of the RockyMountain Chocolate Factory.

Vincent strung up some lights on the tree house.

And the Christmas tree! The boys brought the tree in and set it up in the stand.

Vincent did the lights. It was great! All I got to do was the fun part, ornaments.

Fresca had fun digging into the boxes of decorations.

Here's a new ornament I bought on etsy.com. It was made by my friend Sharon.

Veronica's been enjoying the lights this first Christmas for her.

A surprise visit from Santa at our home!

Christmas Dokie

What's a Christmas Dokie?

Well here are the kids making some Christmas dokies!






Here's the gingerbread man version of a Christmas dokie. Wear do I get dokie from? Francesca of course! She pronounces cookie "dokie". :)

A Parade and Snow

We had a busy weekend! Saturday we headed to Ripon for the Almond Blossom Festival Parade to support Father Peter of St. Patrick's parish. We walked along the impressive float with a model of the mission style church. The altar servers with Father Peter were in the front, dressed in their outfits, carrying beautiful crucifixes, lanterns, and incense. That part was a sight to see! Later that night the boys had a sleepover at Gramma's and Fresca, Jason and I went to a bon voyage party.

Christmas Photos

Ho Ho Ho!

What a gentle sweet Santa, don't you think?

Finally I'm posting our Christmas photos... there's not much. With baby number 4 on the way, I haven't been up to doing any more than I HAVE to do lately!

Modeling some weird stocking stuffers from Old St. Nick.

Here are some pre-Christmas photos of decorating the tree...

... and making Grandparent gifts.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you Jesus for being born in this world and saving us now and forever!

Winter Wonderland

Here are some pics from our side trip to the snow on the way to Reno last week. It was freezing, hence the snow, but we had a fun time. It was a quick romp in the powder at a gas station parking lot. There was another family taking advantage of the easy access as well. The pic with the red arrow is one of the snow blower shooting snow to the side. We thought it was really cool. The sun was beginning to set and made for a beautiful setting. The sky was afire with a bright glow.