We had our Christmas celebration at Grandma and Grandpa's house on December 22nd so we could head to Canada and surprise Rogene's family on Christmas eve.
First we had Christmas dinner. Yum!
It is our tradition to have "crackers" at Christmas dinner.
And we all have to wear the paper hat that comes inside the cracker during dinner. We had 100% participation this year!
Then we opened presents, but not before we made the kids pose for a picture!
Kiara got an ipod!
Braden got blue lights to put under his car.
Tessa got High School Musical Sing It! for the Wii
and a Barbie Island Princess doll!
Tim got a lap top from mom and dad Santa!
Emma got a TMX Elmo (not pictured) and a Barbie Loves Elmo.
And Elmo books!
Rogene got a potty humor shirt at the free Christmas celebration. Luckily Tim stole it.
See the pile of free Christmas gifts? Don't take the blue on on the right, it has the yellow star in it!
The yellow star.
Tessa passed out the gifts she picked out, bought (at the dollar store) and wrapped herself. Here is the list of what each person on her Christmas list received. (I used all my restraint this year to not influence her what to buy for each person. It's more fun that way.) In the picture you can see she picked out pink wrapping paper for the girls, and silver for the boys.
Grandma - plastic hair rollers (because she has curly hair)
Grandpa - ?????
Tim - Car polish (because he takes good care of his car)
Pam - Hair brush (because she has long hair)
Darryl - Key chain/flashlight (because he has a lot of keys)
Braden - Plush football (because he likes to play sports)
Kiara - Lip gloss set (because she is pretty and likes make up)
Emma - Sparkly wand (because she likes wands)
Rogene - Retractable USB cable (because he likes computers)
Me - A hand mirror (because the one she bought me last year for Christmas broke)
Later, after the gifts were all opened, Tessa and Emma sang together and fought over the microphone that came with the High School Musical Sing It! Wii game.
A good time was had by all!
Guess what showed up in our Free Christmas celebration? The Yellow Star! We haven't see it since it stowed away in an M-n-M's bag on the Larson's mission trip to Ecuador this summer. Grandma has it now… wonder where it will show up next.
Remember how I told you that 25 people from my church including my sister and her family are on a mission trip to build a church in Ecuador?
My sister called me today from Ecuador!
They are done building the church (at least as much as they can possibly do). After attending church tomorrow, they will head to Quito for a few days of sight seeing before they head home on Tuesday.
They are giving away as much as they can to the people of Ecuador. The need there is so great and we have been blessed with so much. They are leaving tools, medical supplies and even clothing there. If I heard my sister right on the phone they are wearing their flip flops so they can give their shoes away.
Apparently it is very hot there.
My 14 year old niece Kiara already says she wants to go on another mission trip.
Keep praying for Team Ecuador!
(I wonder if the Yellow Star had a good time in Ecuador?)
Meet the Yellow Star.
My family has a fun game we've been playing for the last several years. For lack of a better name I'll call it "Get Rid of the Yellow Star Game".
I wrote about it last December here.
The yellow star is a Christmas tree ornament that was given to my mom. She thought it was ugly and tried to pawn it off on my sister or me. Neither of us wanted it. Someone (my mom?) decided to just go ahead and hang it on someone else's Christmas tree and run. When the tree was being put away later that year, someone (me?) found it and snuck it back onto her tree. Thus began the traditional "Get rid of the yellow star game." Sometimes the yellow star shows up on your Christmas tree. Sometimes the yellow star shows up in the middle of the year… maybe you find it on your desk at work. Maybe you hang it from your sister's rear view mirror of her car to surprise her. Maybe your mom and dad pretend to come visit you and really are outside hanging the yellow star from your porch light (they call you later and tell you to go look on your porch). Maybe you add it to the pile of gifts for "Free Christmas" and the lucky person who opens it has to take it home. The only rule about the yellow star is that you must get rid of it without being caught… if you are caught trying to "give" it to someone else, you have to take that thing right back home with you. The yellow star has been MIA for over a year now… otherwise I would include a picture of it. Sister, cough up the star already!
(I'd like to clarify that the only reason my mom thought the star was ugly was because it is yellow, and she doesn't like yellow. It is not actually an ugly star. My grandmother made it and I'd like to thank her for giving us a very great gift, since it is a treasured item in our family now.)
Apparently my sister finally found the yellow star because it showed up at church on my husband's music stand last Saturday.
She made a list of new rules for the star, and they are as follows.
- Once the star is given to you, it must remain in your possession for 24 hours.
- Try to be unique when you pass the star on.
- Try not to lose it like we (my sister's family) did.
- Keep a log of where the star has travelled/is travelling. (Which I will do on this blog in the future.)
- Quick turn around time is preferred over hoarding the star for months on end. (This rule was my idea.)
- The star stays in the family.
So, that is the history of the Yellow Star game.
My sister left for Ecuador on a mission trip this morning. I asked her if I could pack some small care packages for the long airplane ride, and add some snacks.
Check it out…
Hiding the yellow star…
My sister called my mom from an airport this morning, and she had already found the yellow star.
Can't wait to see where the yellow star shows up next!
***Because we have no log of where the star has been previously, I'm going to list the places that I remember here, and will add more if anybody remembers places I've forgotten.
- Mom's Christmas Tree
- Staci's Christmas Tree
- Pam's Christmas Tree
- Review mirror of Pam's car
- Staci's porch light
- The front desk at Staci's work called and said a package was delivered for her (the star was inside.)
- Free Christmas (inside a gift)
- Rogene's music stand at church
- Pam's m-n-m bag (in her airplane care package) on the way to the mission trip in Ecuador.
