Bethlehem in the Backyard

Mollie Grace has been talking about doing a performance of the Christmas story for weeks.  She got Ben, Cole, Silas, and Annie to take part in the performance.  Cole played all the angel parts, Ben was Joseph and a shepherd, Silas was a donkey and a sheep, Annie was a fuzzy pink lamb, and Mollie Grace was, of course, Mary.

 The angel speaking to Joseph in a dream.  Cole read his parts from the Bible.  Ben ad libbed.

 Journeying to Bethlehem.

 Cow Baby playing the part of baby Jesus.

A shepherd watches his flock by night.

Annie refused to be in the cast picture.

Friends

Friday Mollie Grace and Annie had friends come over to play.  Lucy Kate and Emmaline are sisters that are the same ages as Mollie Grace and Annie.  They are in our CC group and live in our neighborhood.  They made Christmas cookies and played dress up.

Santa

On Wednesday morning we visited with Santa at Bass Pro Shop in the Pyramid.  Last week in Sunday school we were talking about baby Moses.  I asked who knows where the Pyramids are?  It was my child (Mollie Grace) that responded, "In Memphis!"

 Mollie Grace brought a page from the American Girl catalog so that Santa knew exactly which doll she wants.  He brought the wrong doll a couple of years ago and she hasn't forgotten.

 Ben was very specific about which bike he wanted -- green and silver, 20 inch, Huffy.

 This is when Ben told him that the bike he wanted was at Wal-Mart.  (Notice that Santa has an iphone in the candy cane bowl.  All three of them noticed this.)

 Annie wants a Cinderella bike.

 A final hug for Santa before we left.

Riding the escalator at Dillards just for fun.  We didn't need anything upstairs.

Gifts

Yesterday I took Ben and Mollie Grace shopping individually so that they could by gifts for their siblings.  They wrapped the gifts themselves and put them under the tree.  This afternoon they went shopping with John for gifts for me.

Nutcracker

Waiting for the Nutcracker to start at the Orpheum.  Do you see Ben's completely bored face?  That is exactly what he thought of the whole performance but sometimes you have to make sacrifices for your sisters.  Last Friday, we attended a performance of A Christmas Carol at Theatre Memphis, which was enjoyed by all.

Sad Face

Ben took this picture of Annie with an incredibly sad face.  After we were finished with supper, I told Ben he could eat Annie's roll because she hadn't eaten it. He thought her face was photo worthy.

Totally fake since he took this smiling picture two seconds later.

Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we put up our Christmas tree.  I horrified the entire family by doing something new and adding ribbon and large red balls our tree. 

Ben with this year's special ornament -- a Dallas Cowboys Santa.

Mollie Grace chose Kion from The Lion Guard (on DisneyJr)

Annie with her 'Punzel ornament.

Second take.

John put our family ornament for 2016 on the tree.

Mollie Grace got to put the star on top of the tree.

There are twelve strings of lights on our tree -- five green, two red, and five white.

MawMaw

Mama came to visit for a few days before Thanksgiving.  We had a fun day at the zoo.  Ben, Mollie Grace and I ice skated while Mama took Annie to the playground.  Mollie Grace was very determined to ice skate without the help of a chair this year.  The weather was very nice and there were tons of animals out.

CC Thanksgiving Program

I just uploaded pics from my camera and realized that I've missed several things from November.

 These pics are from our CC Thanksgiving program.  This is my class (missing one).  All the kids sang the Timeline song from Creation to Jesus the Messiah, the Presidents song, and Ben was one of several kids who gave a 2-minute presentation about the planets.  He told why Pluto is no longer a planet.

 This is Mollie's class.  My camera never takes good pictures in that room.

A quick pic of a couple of Indians as we were leaving.

Soccer pics

Mollie Grace's soccer team may not have been the most winning team, but I doubt any other team took cuter pictures.