Grown-up Lunch

Yesterday my best friend, Shannon, and I got to go out to lunch together-just the two of us! That rarely ever happens. Usually we have our children with us, or we get together at one of our houses with our families. But since we are both out of school for Christmas vacation as are our husbands, we got to act like grown-ups!

Mom/Daughter Outing

It was so cold, the camera was shaking in my

hands!

Caitlin earned a Monaco movie gift card plus a Free Kids Meal at Red Robin Restaurant for doing all her lessons for Breakout (her Sunday night Bible Study) this semester. Since her two best friends, Sarah and Madelyn, earned gift cards also, the moms planned a Mom/Daughter Outing so that they could use them together. We all met at the movie theater after church today to see The Tale of Despereaux. (We have not quite finished reading the book, however Madelyn is already done with it.) It was a great movie. Afterwards we walked down Bridge Street to Barnes & Noble to do a little browsing and shopping. Boy, was it cold! You can never have enough layers on when it's 35 degrees! Then it was time to eat. Or maybe we were just ready to get out of the cold. Either way we had such a fantastic time today with our friends.

New Phone Books

Okay...we just got our new phone books delivered. The first thing wrong is that we're supposed to only be listed under "Hollingsworth, J" with no street address so that no unwanted parents or students can find us. The second thing wrong is...OUR NAME IS MISSPELLED!!!!!!!!!!!!! And there's not a thing they can do to fix it. Oh, well. I guess there are worse things than a rainy Saturday before Christmas when you find out even the phone company doesn't even know who you really are!

Harrison's Party

Look at my cool new toys!

Ashlyn drew Harrison's name for the gift exchange.

Ashlyn, Riley Beth, Harrison, Ms. Rita, Dayton, & Jacob

We got to decorate our own cookies!

Harrison had his Christmas party at his babysitter's house, Ms. Rita, on Friday. I asked him on Friday morning as we were driving there if he was excited about his party, and he said, "I don't want to go to a party. I want to go to Ms. Rita's!" He absolutely loves Ms. Rita, but he does not like sharing her at all! He is usually the first one there and gets cuddle time with her which he says is his favorite thing. He had fun with his friends at the party, and he even got a new Magna Doodle and football.

Polar Express Pajama Day

Just wanted to share a picture of my fantastic first-graders on our fun Polar Express Pajama Day that we had on Friday.

Engagement Day

On this day 16 years ago, my beloved husband, Randy, asked me to be his wife. I will always remember the way he asked me. It wasn't done with flowers, candy, or in an expensive restaurant, but it was done from the heart. I love you, Randy!

Christmas Cookies

Caitlin and Harrison have been asking me for weeks, "When are we going to make Christmas cookies?!" So yesterday I pulled out all of the supplies, and I let them loose in the kitchen. Actually neither one of my children like to be dirty for very long, so as soon as they got a little flour on them they were running to the sink to wash their hands! They did a great job making little stockings, Christmas trees, angels, bells, and candy canes. The hardest part for Harrison was waiting for the cookies to cool off to decorate. He kept asking, "Are my cookies dry yet?" The green icing didn't turn out to be as dark as I wanted it to be, but the kids used it anyway and loved eating it. Of course the best part was eating the decorated cookies. Daddy tried to eat them all! He ate one of Harrison's cookies, and then asked who was going to get the cute reindeer Harrison had decorated. Harrison answered, "Not you!" Funny boy! After we finished, we made mini homemade pizzas and cheesy bread and then had Family Movie Night. It was a fun Saturday night!