1st grade christmas

all of our first grade classes did a christmas program for the whole school, with a special performance for our families, too.

it was a story about gingerbread houses, and we got to sing a lot of songs.

i'm not as crazy about performing as my brother is, but i did like showing off the gingerbread house that i made....

...and posing with my grammy (my mom's mom) ...

... and, of course, my friend lydia!

we also got to have a class christmas party at school, which was SOOO much fun. we didn't have to do any school work that day. me and my friend hudson are pretty cool, don't you think?

our teacher, mrs. bayless, bought us all beanie babies for christmas!

we got to play fun games, like musical chairs (which i won!)...

and one of my favorite games - freeze dance!

i love to boogie. check out my moves!

~wyatt

a star is born

i got to have one of the leads in our christmas musical at church - i played ashton in "miracle on main street" and everyone said i was a natural actor.

the part i played was a kid who was trying to help get a christmas show to be allowed to be performed in the town square.
and we pulled it off! it was a lot of fun, and i can't wait to try out for more plays in the future.
~kellen

still more disney

we were in disney world for 7 days, so of course there are lots and lots of pictures we could post from that trip. but we decided to share just our favorite highlights. in mgm, i got to ride the rock-n-roller coaster for the first time, and i totally loved it! we rode it four times, and now i'm a big aerosmith fan. i even got aerosmith rock-n-roller coaster drumsticks which you can see in the picture below.

in the animal kingdom, we loved the kilimanjaro safari. we got to see lots of animals up close and they were really active because it wasn't too hot. check out all the gators!
ok, those are actually crocodiles, but they're still really cool. there were tons of them! we also saw lots of other wildlife, including giraffes, lions, gorillas, and, some adorable little elephants with their mommies.
and, we celebrated ONE more birthday. gavin turned 3 on december 8th, and we celebrated his birthday at the play-n-dine restaurant with all the playhouse disney characters.
we even got to see a live version of high school musical, and kellen, devin, riley and me got to get up at the end and dance with all the cast. we had so much fun!
we love going to disney with our family, and we can't wait until the next time we get to go back - and take our little sister!

~wyatt

more disney

we had a great time in disneyworld. we went with our mamaw, papaw, aunt ali, uncle eric, gavin and nolen, aunt sara, uncle warren, devin, riley and cope, and our "aunt" katie and "uncle" chris. we all had tshirts with different disney characters on the front that we liked or that represented our personalities. we had our names and "gifford family gathering 2007" on the back - and everywhere we went people stopped us to talk about our shirts. it was funny!

mamaw and papaw had a blast with all their grandchildren.

we got to see everyone's favorite characters - woody is gavin's favorite.
we got to celebrate riley's 6th birthday on december 4th - by eating inside the castle in the magic kingdom with all the princesses.
and of course, riley got a special birthday dessert!
that night we went to a special event calls mickey's very merry christmas party in the magic kingdom. we got to have all the hot chocolate and cookies we could stomach, and see a night time christmas parade. it even snowed all night on main street.
even santa came to mickey's parade!

the party was from 7 to midnight, and we stayed the entire time!! dad was clearly partying hard in a pair of our christmas mickey gloves.

there were hardly any lines for anything, so we got to ride all our favorite rides again without waiting. wyatt crashed out before the night was over, though.

mom took a picture of the clock when we FINALLY got back to our hotel room - it was quite a long day!

we'll be posting some more pictures from our trip next...

~kellen

wyatt's birthday - in disney!

i'm one lucky kid - i got to spend my 7th birthday in disneyworld!! we were there for a week starting on december 1st - my birthday.

we started out that morning having breakfast at chef mickey's - at 7:20! it was very early, since i'm not much of a morning person.
but it was worth getting up that early for a birthday hug from mickey.

and, of course, a birthday cupcake - for breakfast!!!
then we went to magic kingdom, and as soon as we walked in the gates - i couldn't believe it! my favorite band, the jonas brothers, was recording a song for the disney christmas parade, and we got to see them perform. that was a great birthday surprise.
we had another star sighting, too. we got to meet kelly rippa - she was in the park for the day because she was one of the hosts for the christmas parade they taped that day.
i got to wear a button that said it was my birthday, and, of course, a giant hat with light-up birthday candles, so EVERYONE was sure to know it was my special day. we were so lucky, we were even randomly chosen to get something called "dream passes" where we got to fast pass every ride all day long - and didn't have to wait in line for anything!
we had dinner with the characters at liberty tree tavern, and, of course, i got another cupcake dessert. what a way to spend your birthday!
~wyatt

day after thanksgiving

we have a tradition in our house: on the day after thanksgiving we always get up really early and go shopping. my mom and her dad have been going every year for as long as i can remember, and i started going along when i was 5. (wyatt isn't a morning person, and doesn't like to go when we do. usually he and dad come and meet us later in the morning). this year, me and mom and pepaw left our house at 5:50 to go to the mall (you can almost see the time on the clock in the picture). we bought a few things, but the shopping part is not really why we go - it's just a tradition!

you'd think i'd be too tired to do anything else that day, but we went down to market square that afternoon to the tree lighting ceremony. our uncle eric and aunt ali came too, and brought gavin and nolen with them. gavin had fun playing with us in krutch park.
there was a fireworks ceremony and the lights came on everywhere downtown - there were SOOO many. it was really neat.
we also made candles that smell really good.
i put a bunch of different scents in mine - my favorite was cookie dough.

we got to hear a few christmas stories...

and make christmas cookies with mrs. claus!

it was a really fun evening, and the perfect way to end a really big day!

~kellen

Thanksgiving (finally)

we went to our mamaw and papaw's (daddy's mom and dad's) house for thanksgiving. we had a lot of fun, and there were a LOT of people there. our grammy and pepaw (mommy's mom and dad) were there, and so were mamaw and papaw camper, mamaw ball, uncle john and aunt gina, uncle ronnie and aunt billie, uncle eric and aunt ali, and a bunch of daddy's cousins. we had a full house!

there were tables full of people in the kitchen!

mamaw camper (daddy's dad's mom) and mamaw ball (daddy's mom's mom) couldn't even fit in the kitchen. they ate in one of the family rooms on tv trays!!

it was just the kind of big family holiday that thanksgiving should be!

~wyatt