Christmas Part I

We started Christmas weekend off with a bang - attending dear friend's of ours Gingerbread Party!  What a wonderful and neat family tradition!  The Browns are dear friends of ours - we seem to be immersed in many different circles - church, work (Kitty is on the YW's Junior Board), and school (our children are in school together).  It's always so wonderful to have friends to journey alongside life with - we consider these friends great company for the wild ride!

We've missed this great party the past two years because we've been out of town, but this year we were in town and we're so glad we got to go!  The boys grandfather, Boss, lovingly builds a gingerbread house - and y'all this isn't your typical "gingerbread house" - this is wonderfully themed masterpiece! - and the boys have friends over to destruct it right before Christmas.  Super fun.

After a super fun Gingerbread party we headed to David's parents house for Christmas Part I.  We had a great meal and couldn't wait any longer to open presents, so we did - and it was super fun!  I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Here we are trying to get a picture of all three girls - not happening:

 

I love the next picture because Caroline is squealing with delight at their gift from Pop and Gran - I just wish I could have gotten her face:

Cousin Carrigon on her power wheel

After opening gifts we headed outside to test drive the Jeep - the girls were joined by their cousins Jackson and Jake:

We had a wonderful time at Pop and Gran's - thank you so much for all the fun toys!  Next up is Christmas at our house - we were home for Christmas this year and it was AMAZING!  Hope you all had wonderful Christmas' as well!

Merry Christmas!

I am the light of the world.  

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

John 8:12

 

Merry Christmas!
David, Megann, Catherine Ellis (3) and Caroline (1)

Rushton Christmas Program

Catherine Ellis had her first on-stage performance this past week at her school's annual Christmas program - it was fabulous!  Caroline, Daddy and I were all there to cheer her on and she did a wonderful job - she's a true entertainer, y'all (not hard to believe, I know!).

I videoed every song (so if you're not family, you'll probably want to cruise on by the videos) and took lots of pictures so our families could feel like they were there.  Here is her set-list:

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

Little Gray Donkey

Light the Candle - A Hanukkah song

Ring a Ling Ling (I have not idea what the "official" name of this song is!)

Jingle Bells 

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Feliz Navidad

 Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer:

Little Gray Donkey:

Light the Candle:

Ring a Ling a Ling:

 


Jingle Bells:

We Wish You a Merry Christmas:

They were practicing being future conductors here!

Feliz Navidad:

 (a little friend needed to exit to use the restroom half way through this LONG song - so that's what all the commotion is at the end - sorry my laughter is about all you hear in this one!)

 Loving her sombrero!  

 Can you believe they all wore these sombreros the entire song?

And last but not least, Santa made an appearance - the only Cain child excited about him was Caroline - although she hid behind her sisters sombrero!

What a great way to get into the Christmas spirit!

A day in the life...

.. of an overachieving Mama!  If you follow me on Instagram my theme this month as been how to do it ALL.  It seems like December is always the month that can make or break me.  I want so badly to be deeply involved in everything my children do, work full-time and do my job well, support my husband and family as a wife and mother and keep up with my friends and their lives.  But, man it's a tough gig!  I have so many friends that juggle things much better than I do - they are my inspiration.  So every once in a while I decide that I too can pull up my bootstraps and give ole "overachieving" a run for it's money.  Thank you Pinterest for being the wind beneath my wings!

Catherine Ellis's class had a sign-up for parents to come during the holidays and do something fun with the class.  I, being the new kid of the block that I am, decided to sign up and do a wonderful little craft I'd seen on Pinterest.  You know, really show these 3 year olds what a rock star I am.  I bought all my supplies, printed instructions and showed up promptly at 9:00 a.m. for "Reindeer crafting with Ms. Cain" (read: no one was nearly as impressed with me as I was with myself!).

So here's the sweet little reindeer we were attempting to make:

And here we are as we're getting started - dipping marsh mellows into steaming hot chocolate - anybody have any guesses to what that might make? Hint: a hot mess that does not even begin to resemble a reindeer. 

 

This is Dylan's - his was perfect from the start!  I was SO

proud of myself for how hard I was rocking this project!

 Then Clark's happened - he was next and well, let's just say his reindeer is the one on the left and his downfall started early .... he lost his nose, he slid down the stick and his poor antlers wouldn't stand up either

 Up close of reindeer #2 - my smugness didn't last long

 Bless his heart 

 We had a good run with Reindeer #3 - that would be CE's - naturally

she's a tad overachieving herself  

Since Catherine Ellis's reindeer was so fab she decided to be my photographer for my kick-off campaign of Pinterest Mom of the Year - I'm glad she was there to document it:

 Sweet Dylan

 Miss Ebony and Clark reconstructing parts for a new reindeer

 Jeremiah admiring my handy work?  Probably not ...

 Me in the background; John Michael working hard on his reindeer

 CE loves close shots (that's sweet Anne Carter in the middle)

 Clark was in good spirits despite his first reindeer mishap

  Jeremiah cheesing it up for Cat Cat - 

she's got a future in photography I think!

 Miss Erika's table hard at work

 Let me just say these are round two for Miss Erika's table ...

her first round couldn't take the heat

 The final product - I'm not gonna lie y'all - I'm BEAMING at this point.

  I have schooled this reindeer craft.  So I promptly took a picture and posted it on Instagram AND Facebook - I wanted everyone to know what just went down.

CE is in shock herself - she can't believe how crafty her non-crafty mother can be!  

Seriously - we had a blast.  I loved getting to spend two hours with Catherine Ellis's class and do something out of the norm for me.  While I appreciate Pinterest and it's ability to spark overachieving daily - I think I'll stick to plain ole boring me.  It's fun to whip out the "I can do it ALL" card from time to time, but believe me, its much harder work to pretend like I'm Super Woman/Mama than it is to be the flawed woman/mama that I am meant to be (my talents will just shine through in other ways).  Thank goodness for unconditional love.  May the force be with all you rock star Mamas!