It's Christmas Time!

The best gift this year was having Annie home for Christmas happy and healthy! 

Ready to open presents!

Molly got her kitty!

Justin made recycled crayons for the kids from old broken crayons they no longer use.  He took them to his lab at work, crushed them with a mortar and pestle, packed the crayon crumbs into test tubes, and melted them in the oven.  Only problem was that the binding wax separated out from the color making the new swirly crayons rather brittle.  But leave it to Justin to be so creative!  The new crayons are small, but still look really awesome and are fun to use.

My absolute favorite Christmas present this year is this 3D tic-tac-toe game.  My grandma had this game at her house, and I would play it with her often when I visited her as a little girl.  When my grandma passed away almost 9 years ago, I was thrilled to inherit it because of its high sentimental value.  However, sadly enough, a few months ago, Lexie tripped and fell on this game completely breaking it.  I was heartbroken, and saved every little piece of crushed plastic determined to super glue it all back together somehow.  However, my ever talented and thoughtful husband restored it for my Christmas present.  He bought a sheet of new plexiglas and cut out the three squares and drilled the 9 holes in each square.  (The posts are the original posts and weren't damaged when Lexie fell on it.)  Having him fix this so beautifully for me brought a little tear to my eye!  It looks wonderful, and you'd never know that it had been re-made!  Thank you, Justin!  I love you!