The Hanson Crew

Here is the pretty green Ashlyn picked for her room downstairs. We are going to paint an accent wall tonight and then move her furniture down tomorrow...more pics of the final room soon.

So this week we will be making some big bedroom changes we are excited about :)  We moved most of our school room stuff out to our sunroom this past month.  And we have weeded out a lot of toys that were downstairs in our school room/play room.  Today, we are prepping the room to be painted for Ashlyn's new bedroom suite.  She is very excited!  We are building her a bathroom that will be only for her room (no boys allowed) and moving her downstairs.  Her new room may be as big as our master!  She is starting to babysit occasionally for some date nights and gaining a little more responsibility around our house.  I know she will love the quiet new area she will be getting.  And I love having a new decorating project too!  We are getting her beach theme, but painting the room a different color and buying some new bedding.  When visitors come stay with us, they will use your bedroom suite and she will sleep in Joshua's new bedroom upstairs on a blow up mattress (her old room). Josh

We pray you all had a Merry Christmas!  Our plans changed a little when we woke up on Christmas morning with some kind of cold in a few eyes.  We weren't sure if it was pink eye, so we warned Grandma Sue and the rest of the family over there.  They agreed with us that we should stay home instead of Christmas dinner at Sue's.  So we enjoyed just our crew for the 3rd year in a row (the others were in the Philippines the last 2 years together).  It was great!  We slept in, opened presents, made a big breakfast brunch and played all day in our pjs.  We hope to celebrate with John's family tomorrow for John's birthday and Christmas the day before Grandma Sue and Grandpa Gary leave for AZ.  They are retired and moving there for a few months each winter.  I'll post pics of Christmas Eve with Grandma Peggy and Christmas morning soon...

A matinee movie! Today the 3 boys and I saw the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. Ashlyn and John saw the new Sherlock Holmes. We hope to try it again next year too. It's great when your kids are old enough to enjoy things like going to the movies! We go so rarely that this may be a tradition they look forward to and love! Hoping next year there is a movie that everyone wants to see...worked out great this year though.

May the celebration of Christ's birth bring you love and hope this Christmas!  With Love from our crew.

Ashlyn and I made some fun Christmas banners for gifts this year. She made one for Grandma Sue and Mrs. White. I made one for our fireplace and 2 for a couple of good friends who share the same name.  A special thanks to Andrea for giving us the idea from her hand painted banners she sold at our holiday open house in Nov.  We used scrapbook paper instead of painting the background and only painted the letters.  We also chose "Rejoice" to help with less letters (she made "Joy to the World" and "Merry Christmas" banners). Here is how one turned out...

Best Evers 1 stick of butter or margarine 1 package of graham crackers 1 bag of chocolate chips (or half butterscotch chips/half choc chips) 1 cup of nuts (we use walnuts) 1 cup coconut 1 can sweetened condensed milk Warm butter in pan and mix in crushed crackers.  Press that mixture in a 13x9 jellyroll pan for the crust. Layer chips, coconut, nuts, and drape milk over the top. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Cut into small squares when cool. Soda Cracker Toffee 1 package soda crackers 1 cup butter 1 cup brown sugar 2 cups of chocolate chips 1 cup of finely chopped walnuts Preheat oven to 350. Line a jelly roll pan with foil and grease with butter. Line pan with soda crackers. Bring 1 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar to a boil on stove, stirring constantly for 3 minutes until thick. Pour over crackers and spread around.  Bake 5 minutes and remove. Sprinkle with ch. chips and nuts. Cool in fridge, peel off foil and break apart.

We started last week with our Soda Cracker Toffee and finally got to some Best Evers today.  We hope to get to our Almond Bark Pretzels tomorrow or Thursday. Our little cook, Joshua, has made a list of items we hope to have done by Christmas.  I'll keep you posted...

Caleb was invited to see the Nutcracker in KC's new Kaufman Performing Arts Center this weekend with his good friend Charlie.  He had a great time!  His family took him for most of the day.  They played at his house, went to the ballet, and then to a very nice dinner.  We are very thankful for the friends and families we have gotten to know at FCA. What a great experience for him.

Faith Christian Academy enjoyed their annual Christmas Program this past Monday night and all 3 kids participated. I think it was one of our favorite programs. Grandma Peggy, Grandma Sue, and Grandpa Gary all came to watch them perform. Here are a few pictures from the night...

Got around to updating our family website today so I can email out our Christmas postcards soon.  I am still working on our Christmas letter though.  After January, I am excited to replace the "our Christmas Letter" button with a new button, "Hanson Crew Design".  I am working on that site too right now.  That is my new small business where I will be offering web site design and hosting, blog designs, marketing projects, and graphic design work at a great price.  Stay tuned...

We bought a used Christmas tree this year off Craigslist for $50. It's NINE feet tall! Which is much taller than I thought. When Ashlyn and I went to buy it, the tree was right around the corner from my in-laws house, which was kinda funny. The owner knows Sue and Gary and was a Maids customer of ours. Here it is all decorated for Christmas... It takes up a lot of room in our family room... But the fireplace is still my favorite part of the room...

I took some pictures today for Sue's Christmas card at our lake. This one was my favorite one of everyone even though the sun was behind them...notice we are letting Jonathan's hair grow out and it is in the awkward stage between short and long so he is wearing his new $1 hat from Dollar Tree. Ashlyn keeps saying she thinks he should not have worn it because it stands out...they are all growing too fast!

So today is December 1st. We are about 80% done with Christmas shopping, which is very exciting for me. We have received our Christmas postcards to mail out and I have begun working on the re-design of our family website and Christmas letter. We were able to start watching favorite Christmas movies yesterday and are talking about out baking goals. I was thinking this morning about Christmas and how important some family traditions are this month. We don't have a lot of them, but can see how the few we have are really exciting for our kids. Ashlyn got out the hot cocoa and played Christmas Worship CDs while we decorated our tree this year without being asked. We started our tradition of our Chocolate Advent Calendars this morning and plan to put out our felt advent calendar tonight. We started talking about our Christmas schedule this year since it will be different than the last 2 years without Carol, Chris, Rylee, and Sue for Christmas. We plan to spend Christmas Eve with G