Christmas with Papa and Nana

Brad's parents were able to come Monday and Tuesday so we could celebrate Christmas with them and they could be here for Elijah's first birthday as well. Here are a few pictures from our visit together.

Trip to the mall to get ice cream and ride the train

Attending the Christmas chapel at Riley's school. The kindergarten played Little Drummer Boy for us. They had a field trip afterward to sing for the nursing home residents down the street.

Opening gifts! The kids LOVED their cameras from Papa and Nana. I have 2 budding photographers on my hands :).

Holiday Shop

Last Saturday, we held the first annual Holiday Shop at Brad's inner city clinic! A friend of ours, Matt, worked with Brad and I to develop an idea that Matt participated in when he lived in Detroit. We got our church involved and collected new toys and clothing for children 10 and under. These donations were used to set up a Christmas shop at the clinic where we majorly discounted the items to make them super affordable to these low to no income families. All the procedes from the shop are then used to start an emergency fund for patients of the clinic. We also gave out packets to everyone who came with a couple of our pastor's parenting sermons from a recent sermon series called TransParent, an Andy Stanley book, and information about our church and some of our programs like Celebrate Recovery which were very well received! We had 20-25 families come and raised $430! We have a lot of ideas now for how to make it even better for next year. Here are a few photos:

The Halls are Decked!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

On Friday we went on our annual Christmas tree hunt! We bundled everyone up because it was very cold out, but at least it was sunny and bright. We took the wagon ride out to the trees and picked out the perfect tree :). The kids were so excited and Elijah was such a trooper in the cold!

This year we remembered to measure after we got one a liiitttle too big last year ;)...

This is it!

The kids and I went in the warm house to defrost a bit while Brad started cutting.

The kids were so excited to get their new ornaments this year. I found a great website that personalized them for free! Riley got his pirate ship...

Naomi got a Dora and Boots one...that has been by far her favorite thing this year

and Elijah got a Tubby one that even looks like him! He definitely loves water and now that it's too cold to swim he really looks forward to his daily (sometimes more than daily) baths!

I got a new ornament set myself - it's the first time in 10 Christmases I've had a set for my tree! It's a beautiful silver/frosted white/crystal set that I LOVE!

Let the countdown begin to Elijah's birthday and then Christmas!! It's definitely the most wonderful time of the year!!!