And the Winner Is....

As most of you know, we sent out a Christmas Card Coloring Contest this year. All of you should have received this in your mailbox:

We were super excited with the results!  You guys did a great job! Take a look at all your hard work! (click on the images for a larger view)

Anthony Rose: Love the "Happy Holiday" colors!

Missy Farris: Very Vibrant! Love our rosy cheeks!

Bessie Hardison: Great animal accuracy!

Betty Woodlee: Extra Points for no red and green sweater!

Christy Pike: Best use of markers!

Justin Hardison: Great life like colors all around!

Leah Rose: Nice outlines and realistic clothes!

Tracy Farris: Best Lil Caesar. We love the pink bellied Rosie Dog and the snow capped "Happy Holidays"

Isaac Chandler (Age 6): Our First Entry. Points for creativity: blond Angie and "tan" Ryan!

Sophie Pike (Age 6): Never knew we wanted a purple tree!

Jadelynn Herman (Age 9): CHILD'S CATEGORY WINNER! Bonus points for remembering the banjo on Ryan's stocking!

Casey Sitz: ADULT CATEGORY HONORABLE MENTION! Realistic colors all around. Stayed inside the lines! 

And the winner of the ADULT CATEGORY IS......


(DRUM ROLL......)

MINDY YARBERRY! Most creative card: glasses for Lil Caesar, Smokies cap for Motorboat, a bone for Rosie, snowflakes on Angie's stocking, banjos on Ryan's, and the best move of all... a present under the tree for herself!

Congratulations, Mindy! We will have your hand-knit ornament for you the next time we see you!

Thanks to everyone who participated! You are all winners! We hope you enjoyed our card and we already have big plans for next year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tree=Decorated!

As promised, we decorated our tree tonight, and here are the highlights.

Here's Angie and her "little sister" Jadelynn getting ready to put a couple of homemade ornaments on the tree.

Ryan was in charge of unwrapping ornaments and handing them out to be put on the tree.

Here's a new ornament we added this year.

Halfway through the trimming the tree we were graced by a visit from Angie's mom. Jadelynn was very happy to see her.

Here's a cool handmade ornament.

I don't know if you know this or not, but trimming a Christmas tree is very hard work, luckily Angie made cookies!

Here's Angie hanging one way up high.

And here's Motorboat checking things out down low.

And here's a video of one of the best ornaments ever.

Finally, the tree is done!

Christmas Tree!

Today we went to Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm to get our Christmas tree. We picked out this nice 8 foot Frasier Fir.

 Luckily, we know the owner of the farm and he was nice enough to give our tree a nice fresh cut...

...before Ryan loaded it into the car.

We also bought a really nice wreath. We raced home to put the wreath up before the sun went down.
Here's Ryan out on the roof hanging the wreath.

It turned out looking pretty good!

With the wreath up, we got to work putting the lights on the tree. Angie has a very specific way that she likes to the put the lights on, so Ryan just stood back and watched her do her thing.

She may be particular, but you can't argue with the results!

Tomorrow we'll get around to decorating it. But I can tell already its going to be an awesome looking tree.