Happy Birthday Jesus

What a great day celebrating the greatest gift we could ever wish for, Jesus.  We spent the day celebrating his birth and the love of family and friends.  We are blessed beyond measure.

Merry Christmas !!

Santa brought the boys bows, look out hogs here come the Ford Boys

Santa brought Laine an iPod Touch and signed Laine's letter 

Uhh Ohh !! 

Laine and Dad setting up the new iPod

Laine showing Papa how it works

Smokin' Ribs and Chicken for Christmas dinner

So grown up

Jump Rope Queen

Christmas Dinner

Garrett doing what Garrett does :)

Happy Birthday Jesus cake

Christmas Eve

We had a nice quiet Christmas Eve, home together.  We went to church to celebrate the birth of Jesus and spend time with our church family.  We are truly blessed.

Merry Christmas Walker

Walker has a broken wrist for Christmas.  At the cast party for 'Joseph' after the Sunday performance, Walker was playing tackle football and ended up with a trip to the ER.  We had been at the party all of ten minutes.  He will be in a cast for at least 4 weeks and is feeling much better.  On the up side he gets out of chores for Christmas break.  Hope he can still open presents... one handed ;)

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

The kids did great in the latest WACo performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Walker played one of the eleven brothers, Judah.  Laine danced her heart out in the ensemble.  Both Kirk and Robby played Joseph.  It was a great show.  More pictures will be on the website later this week.
www.warrenactingcompany.org

Polar Express

Today Laine got to wear her PJs to school.  She was so excited.  They read and then watched the Polar Express and discussed the differences between the book and the movie.  She packed her slippers in her backpack so she could change once she was in the classroom.  She wanted to be extra comfy :)  What a great way to start Christmas vacation.

I Don't Think We are in Florida Any More ????

Our Bountiful Harvest
About 35 oranges from our one and only tree
Hope they were ready :)

We are Ready Old Man Winter Bring it On, well as ready as we'll ever be.  Didn't we move to Florida, the sunshine, warm weather state a few years back???  Snow would not even surprise us at this point.  Brrrr!!

Picked Clean

Special Little Trees

Laine and her special pink tree for her room

The boys Bronco tree which adds some unique
Christmas cheer to the kids TV room

Christmas Cookies with Grandma

After our Disney adventure ran into the very early hours of Monday morning, a day off from school was warranted.  So the kids (and the grown-ups) slept in a bit and spent Monday baking and decorating Christmas cookies with Grandma and Dave.  Mom and Dad spent the day working, but we were great taste testers :)

Disney's Very Merry Christmas Party

Beautiful Poinsettia Trees

Laine had to take Daddy on Thunder Mountain Railroad

The boys talked Laine into Splash Mountain, She loved it but they all got a little wet 

Free Hot Chocolate and Cookies on every corner

We watched the late parade and it got pretty cold

Brrrrr!!

We celebrated Christmas Disney style at the Very Merry Christmas Party.  It got a little cold but we drank plenty of hot chocolate to keep us warm.  We had a great time making new memories with Grandma Sally and Dave and of course the Mouse :)

Florida Christmas Tree

When we moved to Florida almost 5 years ago we inherited a 9 foot artificial Christmas tree.  This was putting to bed a long standing Ford family tradition of hiking far and wide in search of the light shining from above on the PERFECT tree.  We thought,  "where in Florida are we going to be able to cut a Christmas tree?" 

 Last year we gave up on the artificial tree and set out this Christmas to find our first Florida Christmas tree.  Local growers raise Sand Pines for Christmas trees so we headed out to look for the "shining light".  The local "Christmas Tree Forrest" took us on a great hay ride out in the forest and dropped us off to find "the one".  After walking back and forth, near and far we found the perfect tree and reinstated our family tradition.