Christmas 2015

This Christmas season went by so fast.  As I look at these photos, I can't believe that Christmas has already come and gone.  Our kids are getting more involved with things and that just makes our lives busier.  Still, I tried to be intentional about making the most of this holiday season as well as keeping us mindful of what Christmas is all about.  We did our Advent tree again this year.  The kids looked forward to eating their chocolate each day and finding out what our special activity was.  Sometimes they were as simple as drink hot chocolate or read a Christmas book.  Sometimes they included things we would be doing anyway like participating in a Christmas program or attending a Christmas party.  Some of the activities were to watch movies that I wanted to be sure we'd watch: 'A Charlie Brown Christmas', 'Rudolph', 'A Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol' and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'.  As I look back on this season, I don't feel that we missed anything and don't really have any regrets.  I guess I always just feel a little sad about how fast it all goes.  If Christmas could just be at the end of January, that would be fantastic.

Even though it went by fast, we had a wonderful Christmas.  Here are some of the highlights.






In our denomination, it is a tradition to sing 'Morning Star' during our Christmas Eve candlelight service.  Bella was chosen as the soloist this year and we think she did a wonderful job. I was sitting right in the front and from my angle, the music stand was blocking her quite a bit.  She is holding a candle in her hand and everyone in the church had one as well.


Another church friend got some photos and video from the balcony in back.  I can't wait to get those. The candlelight service is so beautiful and he really captured some neat photos, especially of Bella and Andy standing side by side for the last song as each held their candle high.

After the service, we took some family photos.


The whole Kilps crew was together for Christmas this year.




Later that evening. . . our tree all ready for Christmas morning.


Christmas morning!

Andy and I woke up probably around 7ish and waited in bed for one of our kids to come get us.  Closer to 8am, we heard a pitter-patter of little feet.  Curtis ran into our bed.  We asked if he'd looked at the tree yet.  Nope.  Off he goes, quiet footsteps on his way to the living room, loud and quick thumps on his return.  There were presents under the tree!  We told him to get Bella and Graydon up so that we could get this morning started.  He just wanted to snuggle in bed a little while longer.  Shortly after, we hear Bella start to get up.  She heads to the living room and checks things out.  We were prepping ourselves for her arrival into our room only to see her go back into her room and back into bed!  Clearly these kids don't know how to do Christmas morning!  It didn't take too much longer for Graydon to wake up and then were could finally get Christmas morning started!


Before opening any presents, we lit our last Advent candle and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Jesus (and Gaga!)




All of the stockings included snacks, Pokemon cards, and new underwear. :)


Bella opened the first gift.


They each took turns.


















Here's the rundown on what everyone got:
Bella: a toy drone, knitting kit, cowgirl boots
Graydon: disc golf set, remote control truck, wood building set
Curtis: Lego set, remote control truck, Ninja Turtles dream light


They also bought gifts for each other at school.


They wasted no time in getting their new toys out to play.


This is the gingerbread house that the kids made.  All I did was help assemble it.  The rest was all them.


Tim and Laura hosted our Christmas dinner at their house.  Here are the birthday girls. (Gaga: Dec. 25th and Laura, Dec. 24th).


The next morning, we headed north for a Wisconsin Christmas with the Benettis!




This green hat was one of Graydon's birthday presents.  He's already worn it quite a bit.










And we had another Christmas birthday to celebrate.  Jodi's birthday is Dec. 26th.


We went out to eat a couple of times and drove around and looked at Christmas lights.

We played Clue.


And cards, of course.

Nora. :)


We got snowed in on Monday.  Nothing better than sitting in front of a fire on a snow day.


And we celebrated Graydon's birthday.


Tuesday morning came and it was time to head back to Indiana.  December 29th and we were already home from the holiday.  Usually we spend a few days visiting each side of the family and get back home on Sunday evening, just in time to go back to school the next day.  Things were just different this year.  That's probably one reason why the holiday felt so fast.  But I must say, it's nice to have a few days of down time before getting back into the daily grind.  

We celebrated Graydon's birthday yesterday.  Photos from that to come.

Happy New Year!!!