More Holiday Happenings

So as promised, here are more pictures from our 2008 Christmas holiday celebration!

Each year on Christmas Eve, we head to Joshua's parents' house for their Christmas celebration. One of the traditions we always do is take family pictures in front of the Christmas tree. Joshua's grandparents, Bob & Marge Boren, came down from Minnesota to visit, so of course all the grandchildren & great grandchildren had to take a picture. Raelee was the one child who didn't want to cooperate--of course, it would be my child and I couldn't help but laugh!

Daniel treated everyone to some music from his preschool Christmas program. Here he is singing "Welcome to our story, set a long time ago...".

It wouldn't be Christmas if Santa didn't make an appearance!! Santa brought presents for all the kids. Our 7-year-old niece Meagan was convinced that this was the true Santa because he brought her some Hannah Montana make-up. Pop-Pop (Joshua's dad) even had a present and had to sit on Santa's lap.

Daniel and Raelee both received plenty of presents. Daniel's attached to anything with wheels--trains, cars, airplanes, tractors, you name it. He is really fascinated with Speed Racer lately, so here he shows off some Speed Racer Hot Wheels cars. Raelee is a girlie girl. One of her presents was a My Little Pony. Knowing that we'll be spoiled with presents on Christmas Eve, we take only one present for each other to Joshua's parents house to open in addition to all the presents we'll get from his family. That way, we can save the rest of our presents to each other for Christmas Day.

Spreading out the special reindeer food outside...cookies & milk for Santa. We can't forget our Christmas Eve guests!

Raelee received a tea set from Santa Claus. She really got into the whole concept of Christmas presents. It was so tickling to see her enthusiasm.

On Christmas Day, we found presents from Santa under the tree! Daniel had been asking for a police car from Santa for a few months. Actually, he said he wanted "everything." I got him to narrow it down to a police car.

Raelee and Daniel got matching Christmas pajamas from their grandparents, as you can see in this picture. They both just had to help sort through all the pictures. Before we knew it, they were both underneath the Christmas tree trying to locate presents!

My Grandma Heinrich, who visited from Michigan, crocheted hats & scarves for the kids. Daniel put on his hat & scarf immediately after opening his present. It was too cute to pass up for a picture opportunity.

We made photo books for the great grandparents. Daniel and Raelee helped their Great Grandma Heinrich open her photo book and they also helped her look at each page. This was a present she truly treasured.

My Aunt Sandy (my mother's sister) made photo collages for Christmas this year. She sent us one of her collages. It was such a surprise to receive this gift, and I was so touched that I cried. Our collage included pictures from my grandparents' wedding, my parents' wedding, my mom as a baby, and many other pictures that I had never seen before. What a wonderful treasure for our family!

Later in the day, we went back to Joshua's parents' house to spend Christmas Day with them. In years' past, we tried to put the focus on the Savior by reading out of Luke II; however, we just couldn't drum up enough interest and participation. Whenever we tried, people would have their own conversations or not pay attention, and it just didn't work out. So last year, we began the tradition of having the grandkids re-enact the Nativity out of Luke II. This really captivates everyone's attention. Joshua's Aunt Bette and Uncle Bill, along with their daughter Celeste, drive up from Newport, NC for Christmas day. Celeste reads from Luke II of the Bible. Daniel dresses as Joseph, Meagan (our 7-year-old niece) as Mary, Raelee (her first year to be able to participate) as an angel, and Ashley (our 4-year-old niece) as a shepherd. I love seeing the kids dress up and re-enact the story of Christ's birth. They take their roles so seriously and do such a fantastic job.

Joshua's Uncle Bill is a whiz with the piano. In fact, pianos are his livelihood. He tunes pianos and plays at weddings, etc. Bill entertained us by playing several Christmas songs and hymns--I couldn't believe he was able to tickle the keys without the use of sheet music. It was so relaxing and so spiritual hearing the piano music and everyone singing along.

A couple days after Christmas, we took the kids and Grandma Heinrich to the coast for a couple activities. We first went to the NC State Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores on Bogue Banks. This is a view of Bogue Sound, which is the water that runs between Bogue Banks and the North Carolina coast. You can't actually see Bogue Sound in this picture because it is blanketed in fog. The Aquarium has done a really good job of maintaining the natural marshes along this part of Bogue Banks. There are all types of animal life in the marsh--fiddler crabs, terrapin (a type of turtle), cranes, birds & fish.

There's a snake house at the Aquarium. This was one of Daniel's favorite places. He remembered the snake house from when we last visited the aquarium a year and a half ago, hard to believe since he was 3-years-old the last time we went!

The Aquarium had several statues inside the building, including this alligator. There are probably a hundred swamps in North Carolina, including the county we live in, which was very surprising for me to learn. Fortunately, we live on top of a ridge, so the swamps aren't close to our house. There are alligators in some of the swamps, but I've never seen any. Then again, I haven't spent much time in any swamps...I just drive by them along the road!

The Aquarium has a lot of hands- on activities, including a skate & stingray tank as well as a horseshoe crab & coneshell snail tank. The skates will swim along the side of the tank, and you can reach your hands in and "pet" their backs. I was the only one brave enough to pet the skates, and I was able to do it 3 times! The horseshoe crabs were really fascinating for Daniel. He didn't want to touch them, but he sure didn't want to leave their tank either.

We listened in on a class about sea stars, urchins, and sea cucumbers at the Aquarium. This worker demonstrated how a sea star will spit out its stomach in order to digest its prey. It was kind of grotesque but very fascinating at the same time.

One last picture at the Aquarium...Raelee didn't want anything to do with this hermit crab, but Daniel sure didn't mind getting his picture taken.

After the Aquarium, we drove to the far end of Bogue Banks to tour Fort Macon. The fort was built from 1826-1834 and was garrisoned several times over the next 100+ years. It was last used during World War II and then turned into a state park. The fort is actually pentagon-shaped and has a moat around it. Daniel had a blast going through the tunnels and chambers. He seemed determined to give me a heart attack by climbing up and down every set of stairs, no matter how high or how low the stairs went. He definitely has no fear of heights and didn't hesitate to go to the edge of any drop-off, like in this picture above.

This is a picture of Joshua's Aunt Cindy and Uncle Tom, more family who visited from Minnesota (both we and my in-laws had some full households for Christmas!). Cindy & Tom, along with Joshua's parents, his sister Angela, and our niece Ashley, met us at Fort Macon. This picture was taken at the top of the fort where one of the cannons used to sit, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The top of the fort, on top of the roof, was grass. The cannons sat up there, but only a few remain now.

A view of the Atlantic Ocean from the top of Fort Macon.

My Grandma Heinrich finally stands next to the Atlantic Ocean for the first time! It was a little too chilly to dip her toes in the ocean water, though.

We got to the beach at Fort Macon just as the sun was setting. What a beautiful site!! It was really neat because in one direction the sun was setting on the Atlanitc...in the opposite direction, the fog was rolling in. Very magical and a nice way to end the activities of the day.

Holiday Happenings

I guess that with all the holidays out of the way, I can get back to blogging and updating everyone on everything that's been going on. We cut back on a lot of activities this year, but it still seemed like it was "go, go, go" for the entire holiday season from Thanksgiving to New Year's. I was very pleased at how well I paced myself to get things done--from putting up the decorations, to working on Christmas cards, making homemade gifts, wrapping presents, and so forth. I usually get very stressed out, but that didn't happen this year. We were able to focus on the Savior as well, and had some activities to help us. For Family Home Evening one night, we wrote letters to Baby Jesus and told Him the gifts we were going to give him for 2009. Kind of like setting goals or New Year's resolutions, except it was for the Savior and not for ourselves.

So, without further ado, here are pictures of the activities we did for the 2008 holiday season (I apologize for the huge number of pictures!):

Downtown Goldsboro had an official Christmas lighting party just before Thanksgiving. So we went and partook of lots of free activities. We first stood in line to see Santa Claus. The Grinch made an appearance and surprised all of us! Our niece Meagan hid behind me because she is rather afraid of the Grinch. Daniel sat on Santa's lap but Raelee refused to get near him. She still got a candy cane from Santa and decided to start eating it when I wasn't looking (hence the colored drool on the outside of her mouth in the picture above). The kids made food for Santa's reindeer (made from oatmeal & a special glitter to help the reindeer fly). We had hot chocolate and listened to carolers. They had free horse-drawn trolley rides, but the line was very long. And since the trolley rides would continue each Tuesday evening until Christmas, we decided to come back another day to do that.

We took a family picture to include in our annual Christmas card. Little did I know how difficult it would be to get everyone to keep their eyes open, hold still & smile at the same time!

We went to Meadow, NC, to see the Meadow Lights. This has become an annual tradition for us. There's a farm outside of Meadow (a town that you will certainly miss if you blink!). The have put up all sorts of lights in one of the fields and it has become quite a production. For $2 a person, you can ride a train throughout the field of lights. They also have a small store that sells homemade and old-fashioned candies and chocolates. You can buy hot chocolate and visit Santa as well. We always ride the train, and this year we took the kids into the store and bought a couple bags of home-made gum drops. The kids loved it. Our friends, Ginny & Rob White and their kids went with us.



I had never heard of the Christmas parade in Goldsboro until Daniel's preschool sent home a flyer indicating that the preschool kids could sign up to be on a float in the parade. I was so excited that Daniel could participate in a parade, so of course I had to sign him up! The theme of the parade was "Charlie Brown Christmas" so the kids put on Snoopy ears and wore Santa hats. Here's Daniel on the float with his cousins Meagan & Ashley. Raelee got a band stix & a stuffed doggie from Aaron's rental company. One of the employees handed them to her while we were walking to find a spot on the parade route. This was the first parade for the kids, and I felt very nostalgic remembering my days in junior high and high school. I was in the band and played the clarinet, and I was in the rifle corps my sophomore, junior & senior years of high school, so I thoroughly enjoyed the parade this year.



Daniel's preschool had a Christmas program. The theme was Fairyland Nativity. The Kindergarteners dressed up as fairy tale characters (The Big Bad Wolf, Jack & the Beanstalk, etc.) and these fairy tale characters re-enacted the Nativity from Luke II. Daniel's preschool class was dressed as the sheperds. I wasn't sitting in a very good spot, unfortunately, and the little girl in front of him was a sheep with a very big head-dress that kept covering Daniel's face each time I tried to take a picture. But I was so proud of him and Daniel sang so well!

The next event was Daniel's preschool class Christmas party. I decided to take a 1/2 day vacation from work so I could attend. There was sliced fruit, sandwiches, Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, and pretzels. Daniel sat by his cousin Ashley and ate to his heart's content. I got a picture of his "stocking"--I thought it looked so cute!

My Grandma Heinrich flew out here to visit us for a week. It was so good to see her. Raelee met her for the first time. Daniel was about 16 months old when he last saw her. I was so pleased that both kids bonded quickly with their Great Grandma. We went to the free horse-drawn trolley rides in downtown Goldsboro. It was very cold that evening. The line was much smaller than when we went to the downtown Christmas lighting party, and we didn't mind the cold weather.

That's pretty much everything that occurred prior to Christmas Eve. I'm worn out trying to get this post done. Ever since I upgraded Internet Explorer, I can only upload one picture at a time to Blogger, so it takes a long time. I'll do another post later to show pictures of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and everything that occurred post-Christmas. Later, gator!