A Christmas Review

We had a great time on Christmas and I wanted to share with everyone a little glimpse into our day. The girls woke up around 7:15am. Mike and I wanted to start our morning remembering the reason why we were making a big deal of the day so we did our final scripture reading and candle lighting of our Advent wreath. The girls were so good. They were excited about reading the Bible and praying before we went downstairs to see what Santa had left. Not once did we here a "are we done yet? Can we go yet?" . I was so proud of them. I can't wait to do the Advent wreath again next year, it was a real learning experience for us.

Morgan's wish list this year contained one item, the Wii. So, Mike convinced me we should get the girls this for Christmas. I am not sure who the gift was really for HAHA.
We had some technically difficulty getting our Wii in color, but Mike has since fixed that. After the Wii was set up, Nicole promptly whipped Mike at tennis. Must have been all of that practice against Ian.

Rachel was opening only her gifts this year and really understood more what protocol was for gift opening. She had a blast.

Grandma Kelbert bought Papa a Wii for Christmas. So we had to teach Papa the games. I think he enjoyed the bowling.
Every year Christmas Eve rolls around, and I wish I had holiday PJ's for the kids. I finally remembered with enough time to buy them this year and I love how the pictures turned out with the PJ's on.

Rare picture of Mike with a hat on, unless it is the day after he has fallen out of a tree and split his head open. This was a gift from his sister.

Ken's girlfriend, Christina is a trooper. She is loved by all of the kids and takes a beating when she is around. They love to jump, climb and be around her.



Ken and Drew man and Jacob.

The Kelbert/Nugent grand kids. This one took some work and bribery from Grandma. I didn't think my mom had it in her, but this was the statement made before the picture-"Grandma will get a picture of the five of you, or we won't open gifts".

Way to show your true colors Rae.



My mom made all of the girls aprons this year. Mine is great. I love the colors.



Kids table for dinner. Chris and Jen made dinner this year, giving mom a break. Thanks you guys.

We had a great day celebrating the birth and life of Jesus with family and friends.

Happy New Year to all.

A very pleasant surprise-in the mail

A couple of hours ago, the mail lady brought us some packages from my grandfather that lives in Indiana. When I opened them up, I was very excited to see a few things marked "Kelly". This is my mom's dad and he has been known to hold onto "things" for a long time. He also has an extensive antique collection and restores old race cars. The package that caught my eye was the one marked, "to Kelly, from my childhood". Now my grandfather will be 82yrs. old on Jan. 1st. In the package was four books dated back as early as 1929, in great condition. The Night Before Christmas is marked $0.29 and still has some fuzz on Santa's hat.

I am so grateful that Grandpa thought of me. The girls have already read them with mom right near pleading, "please be careful". Mike and I flipped through the ABC book and found quill for the letter Q, something Q would not be represented by today and W had a covered wagon next to it. Just great stuff.

It is hard to see from this photo, but the ABC book has an inscription that says, "To Freddie, from Mary Yvonne, Jan. 1 1930". My grandfather's name is Frederick. Well I just wanted to share my joy with you all. And I know some of you out there love antiques so I thought I would share. I think I can add this to a list of my favorite things this Christmas. My first favorite thing, as is every year, Emmanuel-God is with us. Have a great day.

Piano recital picture mix

This is the video from Morgan's piano recital yesterday. She did just great. She was the first one to get on stage and did not appear nervous at all. The recital was really amazing. It is so exciting to see these little ones and not so little ones play the piano with such great talent. I was encouraged to keep up on our practicing and hopefully the lessons for a long time to come. The recital was at Varner Hall at Oakland University (my Alma mater). I will post still pics in the next blog. But I know some of you are waiting to see this-GG and Don. Wish you all could have been there. One of the favorite parts of the video is how Morgan can't reach the floor and constantly swings her feet. Enjoy. I didn't realize that every time I would zoom in it would skip the audio.

Morgan's 1st grade musical

Last night was Morgan's debut in her 1st grade musical "The Elf Impersonator". This was a cute musical about a "different" elf Elfis(yes a play on Elvis). Morgan was elf #4 and had about 6 lines. She had been practicing on her recces time at school for about 4 weeks. It was a very fun night for us all. I did make my family go an hour early to get good seats. We were the first one's to arrive and had front row seats. I am glad we did, I don't think I would have seen much of Morgan otherwise. She was on the floor unless she was saying one of her lines. Morgan was just beaming and very proud of herself. The following blog post has a video of her play. Sorry about the quality. It was very dark in the auditorium, hence the red eye and dark video. I hope you enjoy the post. Morgan has a very big week. She will also have her first piano recital on Saturday. One more thing, in the video, look for the shortest (and cutest) elf. That one is Morgan.

The Elf Impersonator

Getting in the Christmas state of mind

Yesterday was the day. After the big family Thanksgiving get together and a busy week at work, I could put it off no longer. Rachel and I decorated the house yesterday and we had a blast. We promised the big girls before they left for school that we would leave the big tree for later that night.

Rachel was "surprisingly" helpful. We made it through the day with only one broken ornament and all trees standing.

It is freeing to know that we can put ornaments on the tree this year and they may stay in place and not get rearranged or taken and hidden. It is sad at times to look at Rachel and see a little girl, not a baby, but putting up the decorations felt like a step forward. Be on the lookout for a post that will prove my excitement wrong. Rachel is only THREE.

Mike was our star man, light man and distributor of the "right" ornaments to put on the tree. We smiled at the homemade ones the girls had done, and remembered friends and family that had given us ornaments as gifts. A successful start to the holiday all in all.

"O The Weather Outside..."

"O the weather outside is frightful, but in Mexico it's so delightful"

ANYONE WANT TO GO????

The Nugent/Tepper Thanksgiving 2008

What I did on my Mexican vacation-by Nicole, Morgan and RaeRae

Here are a few pictures of what the girls' vacation looked like. I think they really enjoyed themselves and were just plain exhausted after each day. Morgan liked to start her day with a cup of hot chocolate. Rachel did too, but after many mornings of spills, we had to discouraged that.

Morgan and Nicole loved to go to Kids Club. They would have stayed all day every day if we would have allowed it. These are two of thier favorite staff members.

Nicole loved the pool and continued her quest for the perfect stroke.

Outdoor fun by the pool.

Kids Club put on a Disney show for the resort one night. Nicole is starring in the role of a mouse in Tarzan and in Cinderella.

Nicole met a really good friend from the UK. Her name was Alex. We had to meet up with her every morning at the same spot by the pool.

Bad picture of Nicole as a fish in Little Mermaid.

Morgan got to paint the man one night in the plaza.

Rachel took her swing at the pinata. Nicole was later to rip it right open.

Face painting night. My three butterflies.