Christmas Happenings

For Christmas we went to my parent's place. On Christmas Eve we went to downtown Albany. There is a place where they are building a carousal. People have agreed to sponsor an animal to be carved to be put on the carousal. They have stated specific things they want featured on the animal that are special to them. Each animal costs between $5000 - $10,000 depending on its place on the carousal.

These animals are completed and available for kids to ride on. They amount of work that went into them is amazing. They are beautifully carved and elaborately painted. There are amazing little details on each animal.

One of our favorites was the giraffe. The drawing of the frog in the background was an amazing carving as well. The person who sponsored the frog grew up in the depression so the bloomers on the frog were made out of a flour sack. She loved frogs, and fireflies so the frog is holding a jar of fireflies. On the ribbon the there are little tadpoles that represent each of the woman's children. There are other elaborate details on each animal.

The below carousal is what the idea originated from. It was originally the base of a person's Christmas tree.

The real carousal will look like this one. There will be 52 animals, each hand carved. The motor is being refurnished, and an entire new building will be built to house the carousal. They are projecting it will take 10 years to complete and they are already 6 years into the project.

When you visit you can see volunteers who are carving the figures.

Isn't it amazing to think that when we return in 4 years to ride on the completed carousal baby Huck will be 5 years old!

Towards the end the little ones had lost interest. Aren't they cute. Can't you just see Little Miss stomping her foot and yelling, "Mom!"

I think this is the only picture of me with my sweet boys during the entire trip.

On Christmas Eve night we dressed the kids up and did the nativity. I bet you didn't know there was a pink poodle (aka sheep) in the original nativity. Apparently baby Huck wasn't too keen about his part in the play.

For several weeks leading up to Christmas Midge wrote a play for the family to perform the nativity. The play was amazing. She had a part for each member of the family and she really thought about the age and what the person was capable of. She even wrote directions into the play of where people should be and what they should do in addition to what they say.

The whole crew.

Christmas Eve night we had the kids get dressed in their Christmas PJs from grandma and grandpa.

On Christmas morning the kids were moving so fast it was a flurry of activity.

Despite all the toys baby Huck got all he really wanted was to chew on the plastic straps of one of the toys.

For Christmas we made marshmallow guns for everyone.

Then we went outside and had a war.

This was the marshmallow crew. They guarded the ammo, rather they ate the ammo. The safe zone was on the front porch. Notice the flying marshmallow in the middle of the photo, the porch was relatively safe.

A lot of Midge's gifts were art supplies (she is turning into an amazing artist). She set up an entire art studio in the sun room and spent the entire day creating mini masterpieces.

It was a wonderful Christmas for everyone.