Continental Kids Christmas!

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is here. I never remember feeling like these two holidays we SO close together until recent years. As soon as we got back from Louisiana it was time for our Continental Kids Christmas party (co-op)! What a fun time we had! Here's everyone all dressed up for the party (a BIG shout out to my friend Sunny who dressed us for the night since I didn't have nice holiday clothes for some of my crew). Don't we look smashing?!

Madison

Carson

Ally

Colson

Wilson

Ty

Piper

All of my kids have the bestest buddies ever in this group.

Lucy and Josie loving on their daddy.

The silliest boys ever - Carson and Mitchell.

The whole crew. I love these kids like crazy!

My friend Rachel was party planner extraordinaire! She had crafts from different continents set up and fun treats on the table. After our AMAZING comfort foods pot luck dinner we sand carols and then she had a playlist of Christmas music from around the world for the kids to dance to. And let me tell you, for a group of homeschool kids these guys really love to boogie!! (I will say that most of them do dance like they are homeschooled but bless their hearts - so do I)

I really love how the big kids love to include the little ones - none of these four sets of kids are siblings - just sweet friends...

Eliza and Katie Beth..

Ally and Lydia...

J.C. and Daniel...

Clara and Pip...

Madison and Abigail (Abigail is actually quite the ballerina)...

Blurry but sweet - Ginger and Emma...

Every time I look at this picture I love these sweet girls more! It's nutso how much I love them... Hannah, Annabelle, Ally, Clara and Lily.

Maddy and Mitchell - brother and sister - being funny...

The parents got in on the action too. Daddy and his "sweets."

Clara and her daddy (besides being great at cutting a rug with his daughters, John graciously served all the kids at the food table. SO thoughtful!)

Two of my great loves...

My baby love...

The coolest part of the night was this... During our party planning we decided to fore go hiring live musicians and instead encourage our kids to raise money for Water is Life. This is an AMAZING missions organization that brings clean water to people who do not have it. They make these water straws that people can wear around their neck and use in any water. Like, they can stick it in gross dirty pond water and get clean water in their mouths. It is amazing. The kids were given the task to save their change and do jobs to try and raise money to buy water straws. We collected just over $700 that night!! The kids are so excited about what they did. the organization is going to allow the kids to decorate all the straws they are able to pay for before sending them to Africa. You can check out what these water straws are at http://www.waterislife.com/ It really is amazing. How can we tell people that Jesus is the living water when they have no water at all? All of our families have decided to keep raising money for this wonderful missions origination.When Madison and Carson overheard me say that we were not going to hire a musician so that we could give to Water is Life they thought that maybe they could work on a song to sing for the group. They are so precious. They closed out the night by leading in Jesus Messiah. By the end everyone had joined in singing with them and some of the children even stood to their feet and raised their hands in worship. It was absolutely beautiful. The true meaning of Christmas.

Here's a video - pay no attention to the cute toddler that starts getting into things behind the singers or her handsome daddy that comes to get her. :)

(trying to get videos to post - they are not working - check back later)