I hope everyone is having a safe Christmas out there. This was the first time in two years we didn’t drive back to Texas for Christmas. Having visited twice in the last year, we were tired of making the long 16 hour drive and it’s just too expensive for five plane tickets.

The morning started out with Abby coming into our room to inform us that Santa had come and given them gifts. Abby received a Lite Bright Cube. She was very happy and was amazed that Santa had written “To: Abby; From: Santa” and had drawn a picture of himself on side of the cube. Emily received a toy train set, which she just loves controlling the train and rearranging the tracks. Finally, Isabelle received a little car she can ride around on and a grocery cart with fake bread and fruit to push around.

Most of the afternoon was spent cooking for our Christmas dinner. We invited our neighbor Jane and her two sons, Lucas and Connor, over for dinner. Jennifer cooked a spiral ham, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Jane brought over some corn, carrots, and a desert cake. We had dinner and then the kids ran around and had fun.

It’s hard to believe I have a daughter who is six years old, but it happened today. It was also a long day. With Abby’s Sunday School class, we boxed up Thanksgiving dinners for the Greater Orlando Food Bank. It was mass chaos as around 100 kids kindergarten through fourth grade walked in a line with boxes and put canned goods, stuffing, and other non-perishable food into card board boxes. They were taped up and will be sent to the food bank for distribution to the needy.

After Sunday school we headed into church where Abby sang in a kindergarten and first grade choir. Her group blew away the second through fourth graders, who you could barely hear. Abby’s group knew their song well and you could actually understand what they were singing as opposed to the other group. Sorry, older group, but the younger kids out sang you.

After Church we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for a birthday lunch for Abby. Abby went for the French Toast and bacon, while Emily went for the grilled cheese which was bigger than her head. I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but we didn’t think of taking the camera into the restaurant.

Finally, we celebrated Abby’s birthday at All Fired Up, a pottery painting place in Winter Park. Abby invited some of her friends from school. Abby painted a mermaid statue and Emily painted a hippo. Emily’s statue started out multi-color, but ended up gray as she kept adding multiple colors one right on top of the other. It will be interesting to see what color it comes out as once it’s gone through the oven. Abby had fun with all of her friends as we had cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday.

She opened up her presents when she got home and Nana and Poppy gave her a digital camera. This last picture is one Abby took of Isabelle with her new camera.

The girls came up to work today for some trick-or-treating. On Halloween Tiburon allows everyone’s kids to come up and go from desk to desk and get candy. We traveled around the floor I work on and Madden’s floor and took away a truck load of candy. “The Three Princesses” we very cute running from cubicle to cubicle. Well, it was more like Abby and Emily running and Isabelle bringing up the rear.

After work we headed home for some trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Since we had such a haul at my work, Jennifer only took the girls to a few houses while I stayed at home and handed out candy. After they were done, Abby and Emily were excited to help me pass out the candy. There wasn’t a very big turn out in our neighborhood. We only had about a dozen people come to the door for candy.