Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Hooks family!  We hope your family had a wonderful and joyful Christmas!

We wrapped up our Christmas Eve by letting the girls open a gift.  Inside a big gift bag were new pajamas and sleeping bags!  The girls were very excited to put these to good use right away.  Super cute!

 By 6:30, they were begging to go to bed.  They understand the faster they get to sleep, the faster Christmas comes.  On Christmas Eve, we let the girls sleep in our room; they love this.  They both watched movies and curled up into their new sleeping bags.

 Before they could go to sleep, we had to put out carrots and water for the reindeer.

 And of course, there's cookies and milk for Santa.

 One quick family picture, and it was off to bed!

 During the night, the stockings got stuffed and everyone went to sleep.  Lily actually wasn't feeling great, so she woke up a few times during the night.  She finally crawled into our bed about 7AM.  Mia slept until about 7:30.  Then everyone was awake and ready to see what was waiting for them!

 Lily was absolutely thrilled that Santa left her a full-size keyboard!  She loves playing the piano, and since she has moved into octaves higher and lower than what's on her regular keyboard, it was time for an upgrade.  She immediately started playing lovely Christmas music for us.  She was also happy to receive a "Who Was Amadeus Mozart?" kid's biography. 

 Mia was pretty excited to see a Robots, Robots, Everywhere book and an awesome new two-wheel scooter!  When she rides, she says she is "scootering around."  She was a tad disappointed Santa didn't bring her a "miniature real car" but she is enjoying this scooter a lot.

 So I took a different approach to pictures on Christmas this year; I didn't take nearly as many pictures.  I really just wanted to be present with my family instead of constantly trying to catch a great picture.  So, here's just a few from the wonderful, laid-back morning.

Both girls have loved their new bathrobes.  They wear them all the time, not just when they get out of the bath!

 Both girls received new Adventure Bibles.  Mia couldn't wait to dive in.

 Lily was pumped about new Perler beads.  She received more beads, an idea book and several size boards.  She was so excited to start making new designs.  How awesome is this whale!

 Mia was thrilled to receive Sofia's Royal Prep Academy.  Ryan put it together right away for her, and she's been having lots of fun with it, all the characters and the neat little accessories.

 In the early afternoon, we headed over to Mom and Dad's house to celebrate with them and Wayne's family.  We had our traditional brunch menu and then moved into the living room.  Lily and Mia did a great job singing "Away In The Manger" for everyone.

 We opened lots of presents, and then most of us played a fun game called "Left, Right, Center."  Then Wayne and Dad took the kids outside to take turns on Zac's new go-cart which they loved.  Before we left for the evening, we snapped this picture of Mom and Dad with their grandkids.

 The day after Christmas we headed up to Tennessee.  We stopped for lunch in Chattanooga with the Sepulveda family which was a lot of fun.  We made it to Granny's house and had a little bit of time before the whole family got together.  We went over to Johnny Wayne and Nancy's house to celebrate.  We had a good BBQ dinner and enjoyed listening to the girls sing.  After opening presents, we were able to take a few minutes before everyone needed to get to bed; it had been an exhausting day!  I was glad to get this picture of Granny and the girls.

 Here's a picture of all the ladies in the family.

What a great way to wrap up our Christmas celebration!  Our season was filled with lots of family time celebrating the birth of our Savior.  We took a different approach this year to try to keep things a little more low-key, and it paid off.  We simply had a wonderful time.  What a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Countdown 2014

I love our annual Christmas countdown.  We decided to scale back this year to reduce our stress levels and simply have fun.  You know what?  It's been the best countdown yet.  We have all enjoyed it.  So, here's a rundown of what we've done to spend time together as a family as we count down to Jesus' birthday.

Day 1 - The girls made these cute little ornaments for their Christmas tree.

 Day 2 - Ryan took the girls on a Daddy-Daughters Date to Chuck E Cheese while I had an evening out with some friends.

 Day 3 - I took the girls roller skating while Ryan had a meeting at the church.  They absolutely love this!  Lily has actually gotten really at skating recently, and Mia has improved tremendously.  By the end of our evening, she had stopped using the skate helper and was going on her own.

 Day 4 - Our family went to Botanical Gardens for their Night of Lights.  It was beautiful!  It was the perfect evening for being outside, and the lights were fantastic.  We also had a lot of fun buying s'more packs and roasting the marshmallows over the fire pit.

 Day 5 - We made pinecone bird feeders to hang in our backyard.  The birds (and squirrels) enjoyed these.

 Day 6 - We painted.  I helped the girls make handprint camels to represent the wise men (though we only had room for 2 per canvas instead of 3).  They then made other paintings on a new canvas.  Lily made a nativity scene while Mia painted a rose bush.

 Day 7 - We had 3D creations for the girls to make.  Usually they love these, but for some reason, these were incredibly difficult.  They wouldn't stay in place, we couldn't locate all the pieces, the glue wasn't working...it just wasn't happening.  This actually left both of them quite frustrated, so we stopped before any of them were completed.  These went straight into the trash can!

 Day 8 - The girls made these little bead designs.  Unfortunately, they weren't real Perler beads; they were a knock-off brand.  This provided a very valuable lesson to the girls that just because something is cheaper, it doesn't mean it's better.  Several of the beads wouldn't melt and they fell apart pretty easily; we've never had that issue with Perler beads.

 Day 9 - We all enjoyed the ACCA Christmas program.  Both girls had solo parts which was really cool.  Mia had a one-line solo in one of her class songs (Angels Watching Over Me), and Lily played a piano solo of Angels We Have Heard On High.  They both did a fantastic job.  We were glad that Grandpops, Grandma Jan and Papa were able to join us too.

 Day 10 - David and Jan stayed an extra day to celebrate an early Christmas with our family.  What a treat!  We surprised the girls by keeping them out of school for the day, and then we met up at Phipps Plaza.  We ate an early lunch at Johnny Rocket's, and then we all thoroughly enjoyed the awesome theatre while watching Big Hero 6.  Afterwards, we came back to our house to exchange gifts, and hang out.  We wrapped everything up by enjoying dinner at Canoe.  What a fun couple of days!

 Day 11 - The girls put together Frozen puzzles.

 Day 12 - We headed to Birmingham to celebrate Christmas with Bama and family!  It was great to have us all together.  We all had a great dinner at Firebirds and then headed over to Josh and Amy's house to exchange gifts.  Bama was very excited to have her three granddaughters together! 

 Day 13 - We drove home from Birmingham, and the girls actually spent the night at Granna and Papa's house because Ryan and I had a Christmas party to go to.  They surprised the girls by inviting Molly over too.

 Day 14 - We enjoyed a special dessert after Lily's piano recital: ice cream at Cami Cakes - yum!

 Day 15 - Christmas mad libs!

 Day 16 - The girls used some of their own money for charitable purposes.  Mia is sending money to purchase vegetable seeds to help needy families while Lily is choosing to help buy Bibles in others languages.  Ryan and I are very proud of their choices. 

 Day 17 - The girls colored their own puzzles and then let their sister put them together.

 Day 18 - The girls made gingerbread / candy cane necklaces.

Day 19 - To celebrate the last day of school, we all went to watch Annie at the movie theater.

 Day 20 - We met the Henderson family at The Georgian Club for breakfast with Santa.  Even though breakfast itself wasn't that great, we always have a blast with our friends.

 Day 21 - Meme's Christmas party.  We always enjoy this evening with our family at Jodi's house.

 Day 22 - A lovely girly lunch with Granna at The Swan Coach House.

 Day 23 - We made lemon sugar cookies to take on Christmas Eve to our local firefighters.

 Day 24 - We delivered the cookies to our firefighters, and Mia made a sweet card for them.

That's the end of our countdown.  Here comes Christmas!

Tis the Season!

I love the Christmas season.  Thanksgiving is probably my favorite day of the year, and after that, I let the Christmas fun begin.  One of the first things we'll do each year is put up our Christmas tree.  This tree makes me so happy.  It is filled with ornaments from our travels.  That's always the souvenir we get when we go somewhere.  We keep a journal where we write down each ornament and where it's from.  It's so fun to pull these out each year and relive some great memories!  This was the first time our whole tree is made up only of travel ornaments.  Here's a picture of our tree this year and a picture of each new ornament.  They represent: Grove Park Inn (our anniversary trip), my China trip in May, Legoland in Orlando, St. Thomas, St. Martaan, Chicago (Shedd Aquarium), Burj Kalifa (Ryan's trip to North Africa that detoured through UAE) and my China trip in October.  So many great memories!

This was something new I bought to hang on our wall this year, and I love it.

 The girls' Little People nativity scene.  Love how they have everyone bunched in to look at and adore baby Jesus.

The girls' wish lists.  Notice they both asked for a dog; not going to happen.

 We surprised the girls by hanging multi-color lights around some of their bedroom windows.  They have loved having these!  Here's the one around Mia's double window.

 Lighting up one of Lily's single windows.

 Let the Christmas fun begin!

Girls Hobbies and Family Pictures

I love how uniquely made each of our girls are.  They are both so kind, smart, funny, loving and generous but they also have many personality differences.  Here's just a little peak into that.

Mia's favorite thing to do is play soccer.  We signed her up for a winter indoor instructional league, and she's loving it!

 Lily prefers to spend her time playing the piano.  She has been taking lessons for a little over a year now, and she has really developed this talent.  I truly love listening to her play!  We rarely have to ask her to practice; she will go to her keyboard multiple times throughout the day and play.  This is her playing at her recital.  Mrs. Pinto organizes the recital to be at a local home for Alzheimer's patients.  They love to see the children come and hear their Christmas music.  Lily played "Angels We Have Heard On High," "Away In A Manager" and "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and she did an excellent job.

 Both girls thoroughly enjoy going to school.  ACCA has been such a blessing to our family!  Mia adores Mrs. Keesee and being with her friends.  Lily will say her favorite subjects are cursive writing and astronomy; she's fascinated by the solar system.  Lily also loves math.  She goes up to 3rd grade math each day where they have been working on their multiplication tables.  We were all so excited when she passed her 12 tables!

 I took the girls to the eye doctor yesterday for their annual check-up.  Lily had been complaining that her eyes hurt when she read (since she loves to read, this was a problem).  Neither of us were surprised when the doctor said she could use glasses.  She was so excited!  This is a picture of the ones she picked out; they have blue metal frames, and she looks beautiful in them.  They are being made now and will be ready next week for pick up.  She can't wait for school to start back so she can show all her friends!  Mia was very upset that her eyes are healthy and not in need of glasses; she was so sad!  I assured her that in a couple of years, she too will need glasses like everyone in our family.  Thankfully, one of the doctor's assistants had an old pair without lenses available.  She cleaned them, put new nose pads on and let Mia have them.  She was thrilled!

Love these girlies!

We were so glad to get our family pictures back from Allison Mauer.  She always does a great job!  We actually went several weeks ago, and the girls had the most adorable coordinating outfits.  When we got there, it was 19 degrees.  We still did the shoot but Allison told me the pictures came back and the girls looked so miserable.  She asked if we could re-shoot which I greatly appreciated.  Even though these outfits weren't as cute as what I originally planned, the girls are happy and adorable!  We are so thankful for Allison and her great photography skills!

I love my family!