Favorite Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas. I love our family traditions that surround this special time of year. Here's a glimpse of a few of them...

1. Each year we have a cookie decorating contest between the adults. We usually have have many shapes to choose from, but this year we were limited to just trees. The kids have enjoyed decorating their own cookies too. When we all get together to celebrate, everyone votes for the top three cookies, then we announce the winners. It is a great time (even if I did place third this year!).

I don't know why this photo is sideways...but the winning cookie is the bottom middle.

2. My mom hides clues all over the house for the kids to find their final present (she did this for my brother and I for a long time, now it's been passed on to the grandkids). They love running around the house to find the next clue. 3. We recently started the tradition of each bringing a $5 gift when we all get together (my aunt, uncle and cousins, my grandparents etc). Its been fun to see what we come up with for $5 and what gets 'stolen' the most. Mark's gift of a 6 pack of orange crush, orange tick tacs and orange stride gum was quite desired. My starbucks gift card was popular and I left with a subway gift card that I'm excited to use.

4. My grandma and grandpa have been giving the great grandkids a bag of goodies similar to what my grandparents received when they were kids. It includes an apple, an orange, a piece of candy and a small toy. It's amazing to see how much 'Christmas giving' has changed in three generations, for better or worse.

5. We always end our family celebration with a bingo game. My grandma has a small oatmeal container for each person and you can select one when you win (one prize per person). Inside one there is always a toilet paper roll with a $5 bill, some with very old half and silver dollars, and some with chocolate and nuts.

6. At the Raikes' family Christmas Poppy always reads the Christmas story to the kids before we open gifts. As the kids have gotten older, it has gone more smoothly (better attention spans!).

We had a great time celebrating Jesus' birthday with both sides of our family. I love being with all of them this time of year. Here are a few more photos of our fun...

Paige Davis Anyone?

Yes, that's right. Paige Davis from Trading Spaces was in Upland, IN today. Our church's new youth pastor and his wife won a room makeover from Kodak and Trading Spaces (an online thing) worth $5,000. Hilde was the designer and my friend Beth, an interior designer herself, got to help out with some elements.

At one point Hilde called Beth for a favor. How amazing is that? Everyone was very personable.

Don't count Upland out -we've got some action going on! You never know what you might find.

Wouldn't you love to win a room makeover? Once I was convinced I was going to win a backyard makeover from Meijer. Sent the photos in and an entry form. Needless to say, we've been hauling our own dirt and mulch ever since. Oh well, maybe next time.

Here's the room...


Paige is on the left (yes that's her back...I was trying to be inconspicuous) and Hilde on the right...


Paige and a friend's granddaughter...


Me, Hilde, Beth and Traci...

Mark's Photos

It seems Mark has taken more pictures lately than I have. I wanted to post some of the things Mark likes to capture. Photos 1-4...

1. He always busts out the camera when dear are in our yard, especially a 6 point buck-a rare sight.

2. Conner reading a book to Millie.

3. He had a little photo shoot with Millie while she was next to him on the couch. This was one of the pictures.

4. The three kids looking out the window...note Hayden's hat.

It's all about the candy

Halloween for the Raikes kids is all about the candy. They love trick or treating and coming home and digging through all of their stash. This year Conner requested to hid some of the candy from his dad. I said relented and said you need to share, but you can get a baggie with five things in it that only you can eat-he thought that was a pretty good idea.

We have one house we always hit on our street where the homeowner passes out full sized candy bars. The boys picked a laffy taffy and Millie picked a Baby Ruth...does anyone like those?

Here are a few photos...Conner was an army general, Hayden was Darth Vader and Millie was an Ohio State cheerleader.

Celebrating Birthdays

I had a simple 'play dough' party for Millie's 3rd birthday. Five sweet friends came over and had a great time playing play dough, eating cake and ice cream and playing with her new presents.

Then we headed to Columbus to celebrate many birthdays...Hayden, Millie, me, Nikalena, Steve and Hobie. The kids always have a great time and besides Millie cutting Hobie's hair when being watched by the dads, the weekend went very smoothly. Instead of a cake for me, Mark's mom treated me to one of my very favorites, a granny smith apple covered in carmel, drizzled in chocolate and rolled in white and brown chocolate chips. YUM!!!

Harvest Party

A dear friend hosted a Harvest party for the kids. They had a great time with apple bobbing, sack races, balloon popping on the trampoline, delicious food and more. Thanks Dez!

Cousins

Celebrating the kids birthdays with my family, we got a couple of fun pictures of the kids...

Hayden's Birthday

Hayden has been asking for 62 days 'how long till my birthday?' That's a lifetime to a 5 and 5/6th year old.

So it arrived. He was able to celebrate on his birthday with his class and a trip with our family to Fazoli's (his request). Then, a few days later, he had his hunting themed birthday party.

Here are some pictures from his class...




He invited several friends to his birthday party. He was excited about a hunting theme (anything involving a weapon is a plus for him).

We started the party at a picture post (which Mark thought was totally unnecessary). Here are the kids in their camouflage gear with various weapons-Hayden got to told Mark's real bow.

They went on a hunting hike through the woods like real hunters may have to do. After that they practiced using a duck call and went out in the field searching for 'ducks'...decoys my brother let us borrow.

Then we moved on to bow hunting practice. Thank you Noah for letting us borrow your bow & arrows.

From there the kids had shooting practice, using a nerf gun to hit targets from the 'tree stand.'

Of course the hungry hunters had to move indoors for a food...cake and ice cream. I went with a camouflage cake, an interesting adventure getting the colors and camo look.






Mark win big awards for his role in this party. He jumped right in and went with it. The theme was actually his idea. He dressed from head to toe in camo and led the kids through the whole party. Hayden really looks up to Mark and it was great watching Mark celebrate this way with him. The kids had a great time-thanks Mark.

Thanks for stopping by Sam. He got sick the day of the party, but came by to bring Hayden his gifts and wish him a happy birthday.

Tiny, Tiny Turtle

Have you ever seen something so small and cute? We were at the lake this past weekend and Millie says, "a turtle, a turtle". Well, I wasn't too confident about her observation. Sure enough, there was a baby turtle in the water. It was no bigger than an acorn. Observe...


Then, I saw another...and another...





We ended the weekend with a family game of kickball. Aaahh the memories.