December Memory Verse

Brooke's memory is truly amazing to me. Whether she's working on her bible verses for school or telling me about a meal she ate when she was three years old, she never ceases to amaze me with her brain power. She is my go-to girl when I need to remember a detail of something that happened in the past.

This month's memory verse has been quite entertaining since it tells of the Christmas story which has been everywhere in December. Every time we heard it (on Christian radio, church service, Christmas songs, Charlie Brown Christmas on tv) there was Brooke mouthing along to every word, with the occasional eye roll as if to say "here we go again!"

Here is a video of her December school memory verse, Luke 2:6-14.

Disney Decorations

One thing I really wanted to do this Christmas was make it out to Disney to see some Christmas decorations. They really know how to go all out and there's so much that you can see without spending a dime. So I loaded up the girls and our first stop was the chocolate carousel at the Beach Club Resort.
It was quite impressive and very tasty looking. Here's a description of all the ingredients used to make it.
As soon as we got there, Brooke found a space where she could sit and sketch. Love my little artist!

While Brooke was drawling, Ali and I tried to find the hidden Mickeys disguised in the carousel.

One of our favorite things to do at the parks is pin trading. Except for a little money spent up front to buy some starter pins, it is a fun free activity that the girls have really liked. You can walk up to just about any Disney cast member and ask to trade a pin with them. You never know what you're going to find!

After we left the Beach Club we drove to the Polynesian where they had some cute gingerbread houses on display and we did some more pin trading!

Then we took the monorail over to the Grand Floridian to see their beautiful Christmas decorations. Their tree is huge!

We looked like little elves in front of it. It's so big (but not real)!

The main attraction at the grand Floridian is the huge gingerbread house! It is also made out of real gingerbread and they even operate a little gift shop inside of it.

Riding the monorail back to our car..

Our last stop was to the Disney shopping village. We were hoping to see Santa Goofy, but there was a very loooooooong line for him. I decided to take the girls up near the front of the line so they could catch a glimpse of Goofy and decide if they wanted to wait in line or not. But Goofy wasn't there. He was actually on his way back out to the line as we stood there. He came right by Ali, gave her a high five and then got to his line and went to work. Luckily for me, that was satisfying enough for Ali and she didn't feel like she needed to wait in line anymore. So we walked around for a bit and the girls played with the Lego's at the Lego store and mommy splurged and bought some overpriced popcorn for us to share.

Beautiful weather and minimal whining is a good day in my book!

A New Christmas Tradition?

Early in the Christmas season I was starting to get annoyed at the way the kids were bickering so much. There was a lot of sibling rivalry and they were purposefully antagonizing each other on a regular basis. Add to that their growing Christmas lists and a serious case of the "gimmies" and I knew it was time for an intervention. I was flipping through Family Fun magazine and decided to try out an idea they had on giving and serving during Christmastime. So here's what we did..

We made a list of about 25 good deeds that the girls could complete one on any given day. We had things like clean your sister's room, give as many compliments as you can, hold the door open for people, pray for someone in need, donate some of your money to the needy, and call someone and sing them a Christmas carol. We wrote them on strips of paper and each of the girls got a jar to put them in.

Then they each got to decorate their jar with ribbon and bells.

Each morning they would pick a deed from their jar and complete it sometime during the day. The girls were so excited about this. Especially early on, they couldn't wait to go pick out their deed and get to work on it. After they completed the good deed, they signed their name to the back and placed the paper in a special gift box. And then on Christmas day they presented all their completed deeds to Baby Jesus in our nativity as his birthday gift. I love what this did for our family. It got the girls (and me) refocused on the most important gift of Christmas, Jesus. And reminded them that there can be more joy in giving and serving. I hope we can continue this as a tradition through the next few years.

Fogle Christmas 2010

On Christmas Day we spent the afternoon at Mom and Dad's. We stuffed ourselves with "light appetizers" for hours which ended up feeling like eating two Christmas dinners. We opened gifts, played Ali's Pretty Princess Game and even fired off a BB gun in the back yard (You'll shoot your eye out!!). Sadly, Jeff and Laura were not with us, but we got to talk to them on the phone.

The Shelley kids and DeMoor kids are ready to rip into some presents!

Leann got an American Girl Doll

Brooke got a Rapunzel toy from the Shelleys

The present opening is always so chaotic, but so much fun too!

Ali shows Daddy her new Scribble a Song from the Shelleys. This was the gift she asked Santa for over and over! It plays music when you color on it.

I love my family!

The Shelleys

Most of the fam..

Mom and Dad.. aren't they cute!?

Christmas Morning 2010

Ali, Sarah, Michael, and Brooke line up for the dash to the presents on Christmas morning!

Brooke's big gift this year was an aquarium for a new bearded dragon!

Ali is very much into Barbies right now and got two water toys for playing with her Barbies in the tub.

Our little equestrian and her horse for Barbie.

Ali gave mommy a horseshoe necklace that I wanted.

Brooke got mommy and new keychain!

Ali plays Santa!

Having fun with her new water toys in the tub!

Christmas Eve Night

After all the Christmas Eve festivities quieted down, it was time to think about getting ready for bed. But not before our special Santa preparations. We took the kids outside so they could sprinkle reindeer food on the grass. When we got outside the moon was glowing and there was a trail of smoke across the sky that looked like Santa's tracks across the horizon.

Then it was time to get cookies ready for our jolly late-night visitor.

And the kids were excited about finally getting to put baby Jesus in the manger in our nativity scene.

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

Christmas Eve with the DeMoors

Tyler and Tanner are ready to get this party started! Aren't they so adorable in their Christmas PJ's? I love having babies around at Christmas!

Let the present opening begin! Brooke and Ali tear into the first of their gifts.

Some of their favorites: "Tangled" toys, Webkinz, Barbies, video games, pajamas, magic tricks, Tag books, and more!

Sweet Ali

Grandma got the girls this fun disc swing (just like the one they played on in Georgia).

I love the chaos of Christmas Eve. Babies crying, presents opening, kids laughing, paper tearing, people talking.. it's always over way too soon.

The girls bought gifts for each other and exchanged them on Christmas eve. Ali picked out this special doll for Brooke.

And Brooke bought a butterfly necklace and nutcracker ornament for Ali. They both loved their gifts and were so sweet to watch.

We got Carson a sleeping bag with flashlight so he can go camping like a big boy with his daddy! It looks like he's ready to go!

Christmas Celebrations

In addition to the regular Christmas festivities, we were also celebrating a few special milestones. First, we wanted to recognize Grandpa Schmitz in a special way since this would be his 100th Christmas. Steve had a special ornament made for him.

And Carson and Ali hung it on the tree for Grandpa.

Then all the grandkids decorated Grandpa like a Christmas tree including lights, garland, and ornaments!


I hope he felt special for the recognition we gave him. We would later realize that this was Grandpa Schmitz's last Christmas. He passed away in January, 2011.

Another special celebration we had was Uncle Larry's 65th birthday. We played a fun game that Steve and I made up called "Jesus, John or Larry". We had a bunch of trivia questions where you had to guess whose birth year we were referring to with a particular historical event.. Jesus, John or Larry?? Whenever you got a question right, you won a Larry Buck. Steve and I stayed up late one night making these on the computer. We had way too much fun with this project. I can't post pics of the Larry Bucks in the post because I'm just not that savvy, but we had his face on a dollar bill in a few varieties, each photo-shopped to resemble the description. There was Hairy Larry, Scary Larry, Fairy Larry, Mary Larry, and Dairy Larry. They were a hit and Uncle Larry loved them! Happy Birthday Uncle Larry!