The Glorious Goofy Gilbank Gang!: Christmas 2011

Here we are, all dressed up, just before attending the 3:30pm Christmas Eve Service at our church (there were 4 different times to choose from!).

The dog and bird (left side in the back) even made it in the picture ;0) They really are a part of our family. They both received gifts from Justin and Ashleigh this year and it was really cute watching them pick stuff out.

Gingerbread Puzzles:

Before the Christmas Eve Service, we finally got to decorating our Gingerbread Puzzles. I think we made them on Thursday.

Here is Justin's. As you can see, I burned the puzzles, but we wanted to decorate them anyways.

Here is Ashleigh's. I love her colourful butterfly. I don't think she'll taste the burnt taste with all of this icing!

Here is mine. I'm quite proud of myself!

Stockings:

Chris attached a piece of wood to the train table so this year we could hang up our stockings. Last year they lay on the coffee table and years before, they hung on the fish tank stand. We gave the fish away, so had to think of something new:

Do you see the card board train tracks? Ashleigh cut all of that card board out by herself and I only helped with the hot glue. She put them together and made them for Chris as a "welcome home" gift. It was his idea to place them here and I think that's really special and meaningful.

Ashleigh bought Shelby her very own stocking ;0) She just used on of our red and white ones all of these years, with her name card attached, like everyone else.

Apparently, the bird needed a stocking too. Unlike the dog, he has never had one before and we've had him 3 years ;0) Ashleigh thought of this and found this little white stocking in her things (I think her teacher gave it to her or something). This was all last minute, so I didn't get a chance to make a proper name card for him. The closest thing I had was one I made when we first got the bird and he pecked at so much, only half of his name (Luigi) shows. We didn't actually get him anything for the stocking, just toys and a new perch for his cage. I suppose we could have put some spray millet in there, but oh well. I think the little plastic bird that the kids made is cute. ;0)

Justin, aka "Train Brain" just had to put up a stocking for his Engine. He even drew a picture of switching tracks to place inside. The little sign says, "N Scale CN Train".

Chris works for C.P. Rail and the Engine is C.N. Justin purchased the engine last year, before Chris got hired by C.P. Rail. He chose "C.N." because it is the one that goes by Grandma's house ;0)

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