Category Archives: Christmas

Keep on Christmasing

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Today was day three in Christmas celebrations, and my big cook day. I made the full turkey dinner with stuffing, rolls (2 kinds), broccoli, green beans, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Oh, and gravy. It was delish and well received.

I would post some pictures, but I’m seriously too lazy tired to go find the camera. I’ll need to find it though so it can charge for tomorrow’s festivities.

Tomorrow, we head to my mom’s house for the final leg of Christmas. We’ll be missing one of the sibs, which is a little sad, but I don’t think it will lessen the cousin noise too much. It will be another great family day.

Sharing the season with family is important in the House of Hills, and we’re so blessed to have so much family with whom to share it. We love you one and all.

Christmas Eve in Pictures

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We had a fabulous and busy Christmas Eve day spending the whole day together as a family – my favorite part of Christmas.

Cupcakes for Jesus

Cookies for Santa

Shoe Fly Pie for Uncle Trett

Pumpkin Dip for Uncle Bill

Maggie Lou Who Helper

AMAZING dinner hosted by these two fabulous people.

Christmas Carnival – Maggie Style

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Maggie informed us this afternoon that we were going to have a Christmas Carnival tonight. She then proceeded to plan it, give us directions, organize prizes, and pretty much orchestrate the whole evening.

First order of business was to create some lists. That girl loves to create some lists. I have NO IDEA where she gets that from (says the mommy with MUCH sarcasm). The first list was a list of games we were going to play.

Games for Carnival Night

Translation from 7 year old writing in a hurry: Pin the tail on the reindeer, Throw the ornaments, Reindeer rhymes, and Name that tune.

Then came the list of prizes. This list was  a little trickier because they had to already be in the house. So, the prizes were: 5 kisses from everyone else in the family, sweet treat of your choice, choose a Christmas book to read before bed, and get to open the first present on Christmas morning. She then cut up the list of prizes, folded them and put them in my hat.

Hat with prize choices

She drew a prize and assigned it to the next game on the list. So, we went into the carnival knowing what prize we were playing for. I thought that was pretty smart myself.

The first game was pin the tail on the reindeer. Maggie had drawn a reindeer and then cut out paper tails. She found the glue dots, and prepared a tail for each one of us. Maggie won this one, with Mommy coming in a close second. Daddy put his on the doorknob – pretty sure that was on purpose. Maggie gave each of us five kisses.

Maggie pinning her tail on the reindeer.

The next game was the ornament toss. I was “in charge” of this one so I go to set the rules. I forgot to mention that you had to stay behind a certain point to throw the balls (ornaments) into the bowls. So some little cutie got them “all” in. She won. And, she got the sweet treat of her choice (2 mini-donuts) after dinner.

Ornament Toss

We moved on to reindeer rhymes. This is apparently something they did in school last week. I’m not sure where the rhyming was supposed to come in, but Maggie read us a clue she had written about a Christmasy thing. It was a good clue. The answer was sled. Mommy won this one and got to pick the Christmas book for bedtime. We read “Merry Christmas, Strega Nona” – one of my favorites.

Reading Reindeer Rhymes

Finally, we played a round of Name that Tune with Christmas songs. Daddy was “in charge” of this one since he is the master of the iPod, and his was already hooked up to the stereo. Since he was DJing, Maggie and I were guessing. She barely won, but she did. That means she gets to open the first present on Christmas morning.

DJ Daddy Dave for Name That Tune

After our Christmas Carnival, she turned on “The Grinch” and announced it was Grinch and hot cocoa night. She had been planning that part of the evening for several weeks. We can’t cuddle and be snuggley on the couch on Christmas Eve because we are with family, and she wanted a snuggle and movie night. So, she decided sometime this month that Christmas Eve Eve was going to be Grinch and hot cocoa night.

Hot Cocoa and Marshmallows - Yum

She planned and executed the whole Christmas Carnival with very little guidance from us. It was a fun family evening, and one I know I’ll never forget. I have a feeling it may become a tradition.

What traditions are you engaging in tonight?

Linked to Tip Junkies Christmas Show and Tell.

Top Ten Tuesday: Christmas Letter 09

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My Christmas card went out today – before Christmas!! I know, I know, I’m amazing. Really amazing for me. How did I do it you say? Well, I didn’t write a letter this year. It’s the first year in over a decade that I haven’t written a Christmas letter to include with the card (which is now a picture card and not really even a card).

I went to write the letter and realized that between Twitter, Facebook, and this here blog, I’d pretty much written everything. Seriously, what more was I going to say? Now, there are those few people who are on the Christmas card list that aren’t my Facebook friends (yet) and who might not read the blog (yet). So, how would they know what’s going on? (I’m sure they REALLY want to know.) This puzzled me for about a minute. Then I thought, well, I’ll just include a slip of paper with the web address to the blog, our twitter handles, and our emails. After all, that’s all anyone needs anymore. Didn’t even think about putting our actual mailing address or phone numbers on there. Hmmm… actually didn’t even think of that until I’m typing this. Guess that tells us where communication is going.

SO, in case you’re coming to the blog for the first time because you got our Christmas card, or because you heard about how awesome the Hills are (just kidding there), here is what would have gone in the Christmas letter in no particular order…

1. Maggie continues to be the most amazing child ever. Well, I’m kinda partial, but even other people think she’s pretty cool. She is in the 2nd grade at a new school this year (we were rezoned) and loving it. Her teacher, Mrs. Johnson, rocks and is becoming a good friend. We would REALLY have gotten along well if we had ever taught together.

First Day of School 8/4/09

2. Maggie played soccer this fall with Cherokee Impact and LOVED IT! She is already looking forward to the spring season. We saw SO MUCH improvement over the fall season in her skills. It’s amazing to watch your child be an athlete – especially when you have no athletic ability. She gets it all from her Daddy (played keeper for years) and her Uncle Bill (played defense since he could walk). We can’t wait ’till practice starts in February (brrrrr).

Mags playing keeper. Fall 09

3. Maggie has become quite the reader and we’re struggling to keep her in books. Seriously, she can read one or two a day when the mood strikes her. She also likes to be read to. Daddy is reading Kingdom Keepers with her, and I’m reading Harry Potter 6 with her. Yes we’re all the way to six. We just started reading them together last Christmas. (To read about her introduction into the world of Harry Potter, go here. Hey this blog letter thing is cool. I can refer people back to actual events. Neat.)

Mags reading. June 09

4. We put our house on the market. What! We’re moving?!! Well, we might move. Depends on if the house sells, which right now is not going so good. The goal is to get to Cumming – closer to both our jobs and many of our church friends. While there has been very little traffic, we’re not getting anxious (or trying not to) trusting that when God wants us to move, we’ll move.

Anybody want a house in Woodstock?

5. We SERIOUSLY DECLUTTERED the house this fall in preparation for putting it on the market. And I mean seriously. We got rid of rooms of furniture, boxes and boxes of books, over eight bookshelves, and the majority of the “little things” that didn’t hold sentimental value. It is amazing how freeing this process is. Difficult, but freeing.

6. David and I continue to love our jobs and are so thankful that we both get to work in places where what we do has a direct impact on people for Christ. We are both in our dream jobs, and never a day goes by that we don’t say a thank you for it.

7. We also continue to lead a Couples Small Group and are VERY thankful for that opportunity as well. As marriages as old as ours (11 years this year) are starting to crumble, we have become even more committed to being in community and continuing to work on ours. This fall, our group split into guys and gals in order to do some intense marriage work on being a better husband/wife. The guys read “Choosing to Cheat” by Andy Stanley and the gals read “For Women Only” by Shaunti Feldhahn. We highly recommend both books. They’ll make you think.

8. My friend, Katie, had a rough fall in her battle for cancer. There was a pretty rough week there in the beginning of September. That same week David’s dad, Richard, had to have heart surgery so David was out of town and hanging out with his family. It was one of the hardest weeks we’ve been through – ever. We thank everyone who prayed for us, served us, and loved on us that week and the weeks following. Brings tears to my eyes now even thinking about it. Thank you.

My BFF, Katie, and me - November 09

9. We had several trips to the beach this year. Twice we went to Edisto Island, SC to be with David’s dad and step-mom with the cousins on that side. Then, we went to Long Boat Key, FL for the annual Family Fest with my side of the family for Thanksgiving week. Another great time.

Mags and Miller cousins at Edisto

The girl cousins. Couldn't get one with all the boys.

10. We took our annual trip to Disney World this year the week after Thanksgiving. We always love to see the parks all lit up for Christmas. We had a wonderful time, and Maggie tried several new rides – including the tea cups at Magic Kingdom, which she had previously refused to even consider. We were proud of how many times she put her fears aside to try something new.

Mags LOVING the tea cups.

May the joy of Christmas fill your heart and your home!

There you have it. Our Christmas Letter Top Ten. It’s a pretty fun list. Can’t wait to see what the new year brings.

If you want to see more awesome Top Ten lists, head on over to Ohamanda.com. She’s always got cool stuff going on over there.