Christmas Eve!

Here are the highlights from Christmas Eve!

Me and the boy, heading up the hill to go sledding! Now that's the way to start Christmas Eve!

This is the first year Caeley went down all by herself. And as usual, she went all out! She went super fast from the top of the hill!

Then it was time to decorate Christmas cookies that the kids had thrown in the oven before going out.

This is my favorite! The special "Christmas Amoeba" cookie!

Here are some for the "classic" crowd!

Then it was time for dinner at The Westchester Country Club! Caeley took the opportunity to show off her new Christmas dress!

Elijah and Uncle Brian

Momma's little man!

4 generations of beautiful ladies!

A family shot at dinner.

Afterwards, I went to meet my mom and sisters at church. Connie and Wendy were all business as altar servers! It was nice to see my side of the family so close to Christmas. Then I came back to New Milford for a nice midnight service with my beautiful wife. Thanks to all who made it a special day. Merry Christmas to everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas with the Sullivans!

We had a very exciting and historic day this Tuesday. All the Sullivan cousins and all of the Sullivan immediate family in one room! Here are some of the highlights. Make sure you scroll to the very end for the 1st annual "Don't Laugh" contest!

WOW!! Look at these grown up girls!!

For some unknown reason, all the kids descended on me at once! It was a conspiracy!

Liliana and Lucas came home to find all these people in their house. Liliana wasn't sure if she was down with this or not!

"No, seriously! I'm your cousin and you're related to all these strange people!"

The one shot we HAD to have. All the cousins!!!

Aunt Connie chillin' with Elijah

Anyone want some pizza?

At Christmas time, she will now be known as "Nana Claus!"

Silvia and Grandpa enjoying the festivities!

Elijah patiently waits to tear into his presents!

The second shot I really wanted. The original Sullivan clan, all together and happy to be so! Merry Christmas! Let's do this again next year!

AND FINALLY!!! THE 1ST ANNUAL "DON'T LAUGH CONTEST"

A visit from Kim!!

Our good friend and very talented singer/songwriter Kim Davidson came to see us tonight for dinner! She drove 3 hours down and 3 hours back to Boston just to hang with us! Thanks for an awesome night Kim!!! When are you coming back to Nashville???

Giving Back

As stated in an earlier post, we have been trying to instill in our kids the sense of giving rather than always trying to get at Christmas. We were invited by our good new friends, the Smiths, to go with them to an assisted living facility to hand out candy canes and bags of scented candles to the residents. Here are some of the highlights!

Loading up at the car!

Elijah inventorying the candy canes

This is the ringleader! Her name is Jill Smith and she is a mighty woman of God. Her whole family is a great inspiration to us in our own christian walk.

Here comes the rest of the crew! There were a number of families participating.

The kids interacting with the residents

Elijah hugging on one of the kind ladies!

Caeley deep in conversation with one of the residents

I love this picture. Little ones enjoying the gift of giving to others! Thanks to the Smiths for inviting us on this great adventure and learning experience for our kids!

Charlie Brown Ice Extravaganza!!!

There was a great ice sculpture show near the Grand Ol' Opry this month. Christie got free tickets for us through work. It was AMAZING!!! Check it out! Everything you see is made out of 2 million tons of ice!!!

Yes all ice!

The big attraction was the huge slides made out of solid ice!!!

Caeley was fearless!

This was the face she had on every time she got to the bottom. She is quickly on her way back to the top again!!

As you can see from Elijah's frozen red Rudolph nose, it was FREEZING!!!!

This was my favorite. As we were walking out of the exhibit, there was this beautifully elegant nativity scene all in ice. Thanks to Vanderbilt for the free tickets and an amazing night!

Setting up the tree!!!

About a week ago, we put up our Christmas decorations and, of course, the tree! Here's a look!

Our new bay window was perfect for a Christmas tree, so that's where we put it!

The kids decorating while I try to hypnotize the tree. "you are getting VERY sleepy!"

Santa Boo!

This is the first year Elijah really could get into decorating the tree, and he did really well!

After the tree, Caeley and Elijah started working on their lists for Santa

While we started working on lists of what we wanted to get, we also started thinking about what we could do as a family to give! We came up with a few ideas (but that is yet another blog post!)

One of the things the kids thought of was to make pictures for the two kids we are sponsoring through World Vision. The kids we sponsor are exactly the same ages to the day of our kids and the same gender. Elijah was writing to Carlos from Honduras, and Caeley to Rafiku in India.

Caeley asked me to write down this note on the other side of the picture. It reads: "Rafiku, I'm Caeley. You don't know me and I'm four years old. Rafiku I love you!! Merry Christmas, Caeley" Now THAT is what Christmas is all about!