Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The month of December in pictures!

Well, to quote Robert Burns,

 "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,"

I had the best intentions to update our blog and here I am many weeks later, finally able to get to it! Life has been busy and I simply just have not had the energy for much other than the "need to do".  It has been just about three months since we landed in Portugal.  For me it seems to have gone by fairly quickly.  We are not quite "settled" yet and don't have that "I'm at home" feeling yet but we know that just takes time.  

This post will be mainly pictures of our month of December.  So here goes!
 Judah on a tire swing at a park in a nearby town.
 Another shot of them at the park.
 Sea Lion show at the zoo in Lisbon.
 Dolphin show at the zoo.  Elijah actually got to pet a dolphin!  I was a nervous wreck pretty much the entire time as that tank is super deep and the kids were right next to the water!!!
Making our salt dough for our Jesse Tree advent activity.
 Kneading away.  :)
 Cutting the pictures that would go on the ornaments.
 Rolling the dough and cutting out the ornaments.
Painting the ornaments! 
 Our Christmas tree.  :)
Elijah and Judah's class.  Here they were lined up ready to sing us some songs.  :) 
 The boys' class and teacher, Dulce.
 Desserts for the party.  Can you tell which ones I made?  ;)  The sugar cookies of course!
 Shot of the party.  This is the classroom where they have class, obviously rearranged for the party.
Judah enjoying a roll. 
 Outside their school.
Elijah at the top of the rope ladder.
 
 In a tree.  :)
In a nearby town, Obidos, at the Christmas festival. 
By a tree decorated with painted shoes, with Kinley and Miah. 
Fun "long beards" decorated this little store. 
 The kiddos admiring a nativity scene down below.
 Gorgeousness.  Just one of the many little paths around the castle.
Just pretty. 
 Fun knight planters.
 Judah found a fun path up and around some stone stairs.
Waiting for our tickets to get into the Christmas Village. 
A fun carousel ride! 
Again. 
View of the main part of the castle. 
 Christmas village with castle in background.
Ice skating! 
The boys had a blast! 
 First time seeing these little seal type things for small kids. What a great idea.
 Castle view at night.
 Again.
A section of the Christmas Village where they had food vendors. 
Jump house fun! 


 Fun toadstools!
 The best picture ever!
 Our elf son.  :)
 Luke and Scott tried to take as many pictures with all the different characters they could.  
Cotton candy! 
 Another castle view.
Snow! 
Well, it was fake snow but that didn't stop them from enjoying it! 
In one of the shops they were displaying a Christmas cake decorating exhibition of sorts! So fun!  There were lots of beautiful entries and skillfully created cakes!  I don't know what the rules were so I'm not sure if these were all edible (I think not as we saw some styrofoam on some) or what but they were still really cool!






Our boxes came in!!!! 
 I have mixing bowls!!!  Oh, the joy!  :)
 Our Christmas morning reading.
 Tearing into a present Christmas morning.
 Loved what he got!  A magnetic dry erase board just his size.
Elijah excited about the present his Pop, Grandma, Aunt Ty and us split to get the boys: a Wii! 
Started playing right away! 
 A Christmas morning visit from "Santa" and his helper elf.  ;)
 We had Christmas dinner at the Robinson's house and one of the guests brought a homemade Pecan Pie!!!  It was delicious!!!
 Christmas day family pic.
Can't do family pics with out some silliness thrown in! 

Well, there ya have our month of December!  Despite not feeling at home or quite settled yet, God has been faithful to provide some fun in the midst of all the crazy.  

Our house is coming along slowly.  I will post pics of it as soon as there are some worth posting!  :)  I am thankful though for what we have and know that my desire to have a cozy home we can invite people to will come to fruition all in God's timing. 

Hope to post sooner next time!!!
Blessings, 
Janice :)