Christmas Memories 2009

Every Christmas morning we get our kids up and they have a scavenger hunt with a series of clues...the clues lead them to which stocking is theirs..

See, I wrap their gifts in different Christmas paper and the stockings are filled, but they do not know which stocking is theirs. Mark and I have been doing this since Marissa was 8....she is now 13.....

This year, the hunt was a little different. They are in birth order given a clue, which led them to a second clue...which led them to a card. The card contained a piece of their wrapping paper, but it also contained a 3rd clue. The last clue they all needed to find their gift from Mark and I.

So here is Lauren...she is wanting to find her favorite smell...which is coffee....

Hannah found hers...she had to find the ice skating pond...her clue said "we all have a name" this pond makes music and the girls have given each ice skater on the pond a name from our family....it is cute...

Mark loves this part of Christmas morning. This was his idea..and he needs to come up with harder and harder clues each year.

Morgan's clue said... blank, blank on the wall... - So she had to think From the Snow White movie-

She did find it, but she needed help....

Marissa's clues ended up being to easy, and we thought they would be hard,but we still had fun....

Me and my gang....she went right to my phone....it is a ringtone for my friend Wendy.

the final clue was - now I lay me down to sleep.....and they needed to go to their pillows to find 2 cards that had letters on them. Each of them got 2 letters and they needed to make a word to find the gift hiding in the house for them....

IT IS IN THE B A S E M E N T

SO off they go....

Here it is...you can see later what was in the box,.....


We made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we opened up our stocking gifts...

This is gift from Kimmie, Hannah's godmother...it is an ipod dock for her room....thanks kimmie...look for an email from Hannah later...

Each of the girls gave gifts to each other...Hannah made some of hers to her sisters.

Here is Hannah's gift to Lauren my Ladybug.....

Hannah's gift to Morgan was a sun, her nickname is SUNSHINE!

Hannah's gift to Marissa was music ....she made a music sheets with notes that says, "Make music for Jesus"

Lauren made her gifts for her sisters as well...she made them each a bag ....aren't they cool.

Hannah got an Angel from Morgan since her Nickname is Angel.... and Lauren got a Webkinz caterpillar....

Marissa loves Foundation Angels by Karen Hahn. She ended up with two of them because one of them came broken. We glued her hands back together and she looks ok

We had bought the first angel online, and we got our money back....

So we got this one too...

And Hannah got Lauren the movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks"

Marissa got her sisters a village that makes music and a train circles around the town...it is a beautiful gift....and they love it!

Here is the village.....

Now for the big gift from Momma and Daddy......they one they found in the basement...

Early this year, Grandma Stangl passed away. Mark had a blanket made by her for him from when he was a little boy...we asked a friend from church who quilts to make 4 smaller lap quilts for the girls...we were so excited to give this to them...

THEY LOVED THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we sleep on the floor for family night, this was Mark's special blanket and shortly after Grandma died, we put it away and had the plan for the blankets. So for the past few months the girls kept asking where is your blanket dad?

Grandma's gift lives on....and I have the most wonderful husband in the world. I love that he is sentimental and caring. He cares and thinks of the coolest things. What an awesome way to remember Grandma.

Christmas was wonderful...we relaxed and in the evening we went over to some friends house for nachos and games.

Thank you Jesus for all you do for this family!