On the 12th day of Christmas break...

This should be the official last day of the Christmas break thing, but I'm so thankful that it's not the real end to Christmas break.

I wanted to end the the 12 days of Christmas break fun with a bang.  So we went to see a movie that I had been looking forward to for quite a while.

We Bought a Zoo...

Oh my goodness...what a great movie.  Even the kids enjoyed it...although I would not categorize this as a kid's movie.  It's a heavy subject matter, but one that my kids are acquainted with.  Grief and the loss of a parent is so hard,  I was a little worried in the first few minutes that this movie might not be a wise choice for my kids.  But they both loved it.  I would definitely recommend it.  There is a bit of language though, and it is not really a movie little kids would enjoy.  Just my opinion thought.  Great movie.

After the movie, we used our restaurant.com gift certificate to get all this Chinese food....

We got $35 worth of food for about $10.  An excellent score!

It was definitely a great way to end our 12 days of Christmas break tradition!

On the 11th day of Christmas break....

I slept till 10am.  I should confess.  I've slept till 10am several times this break.  This does not bode well for next Tuesday when I head back to work and the kids head back to school.

Oh well.  It's been wonderful to not set an alarm.

The kids are still at the grandparents, so I got up and decided to watch more 24.  Of course.  What else would I do with all my FREE time?  Certainly not clean!

Oh, I kid.  I did end up taking down all the Christmasness AND I rearranged the living room.  All in between episodes.

The kids came home and Grace sprinted off to have dinner with some friends, so Caleb and I hit the mall for a bit until it was time to pick her up.

Not a very exciting day, but I'm finding that it's good to have a few "chill" days mixed in with all the activity.

Here's Caleb with his gargantuan gumball from the machine at the mall...it's the little things that make us happy.

On the tenth day of Christmas break...

My dad and stepmom asked to spend some time with the kids this Christmas break.

They went fishing, had a picnic, made cookies, watched movies, and my son shot his first squirrel.

Yes, he did.

And we have proof.

While they were gone on Tuesday, I took a little time to take care of things I'd been putting off (oil change) and do a teeny tiny bit of after Christmas shopping with gift card money.  That's the best kind.
Sadly, this is the only picture I have.  I snagged these "slippers" at old navy for $6...75% off.  I've worn them constantly and I've decided that if they have hard soles (and these do), they qualify as "real" shoes.  So I'm wearing them everywhere.

I came home and had some leftover taco soup and watched multiple episodes of 24 (it's a Christmas break tradition) and did a little Pinteresty project.  I'm excited about my project and I'm hoping to succeed and write a post about it.  I'll admit it's not really a little project. It's pretty big for me, and I have a  tendency to botch the big projects...but hopefully this one will turn out good.

Day Nine: Christmas break...

The day after Christmas...

At our house this day means...

Pajamas.
Leftovers.
No bedtimes.
No TV restrictions.

So basically we've been lazy bums all day, and I. LOVE. it.

I've watched multiple episodes of this...

Wrote the last 6 or 7 posts that you have read....

And generally lazied the day away.

It was another good day.

On the 8th day of Christmas break...

It's Christmas!

I'm gonna let the pictures do the talking...it was a great day!

After opening presents, we headed to have Christmas with my mom's family.

Mom, Mema, and sweet little Kinley...the newest addition to our family.

Uncle Richard and Aunt Kasey....

Nana and Kinley....

Grace's scarf and my belt crocheted by my Nana!

Nana and Grace in her scarf...

Our new family tradition of Bingo!

And last but not least...Christmas tuna for our cats!

And Grace's new default position...

On the 7th day of Christmas break...

Christmas EVE!!

We spent the morning CLEANING, CLEANING, CLEANING!  This was the first year we had ever had anyone over.  My brother and sister in law and kids came over for lunch of taco soup, games, and presents!

Here are a few highlights of the afternoon:


The Halloween afro wig got some mileage!

After they left, we got ready to head to our church's Christmas eve service.  This was my favorite evening of the Christmas activities.  Such a sweet and sacred spirit...

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking...

After the service, we took our candles home and continued the worship.

We finished up our sweet evening piled together on the couch watching The Nativity Story for the first time.  

Easily my favorite evening....