Christmas Parade in the Village

Helping kick off the Holiday Spirit, the City of Arroyo Grande hosts their Christmas Parade the weekend after Thanksgiving through the Village.
It's a cute, quaint, home-town parade full of Boys Scouts, Girl Scouts, Parading poodles, fire trucks, candy canes and christmas carols galore! Afterwards, our church, Harvest Bible Fellowship (which is located in the heart of the village) hosts the Live Nativity on the lawn in front of our church. This year, because the street remained close, we drew our largest crowd! It's always fun to watch the kids of our church put on a performance! ( several years our own Bubba was in there!...for some reason I couldn't get him to play Joseph again this year....hmmm...wonder why??)

My precious babies.....well...plus one extra!..but she's like a daughter to us!

Mistletoe for sale!

Fundraising for their Washington DC trip in the Spring, the 8th/9th Graders of Coastal Christian school made packets of Mistletoe and set out to sell them at KMart during the Black Friday rush!
They also hit those getting into the Holiday spirit at the Village Christmas Parade in Arroyo Grande!
Here's to some Holiday kissin!

Deck the Halls...

"It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

Taking advantage of some extra time off, we set out the get the house fully decorated right after Thanksgiving so we could enjoy it for awhile! This was followed by the beginning of the christmas movie nights....tonights showing: National Lampoons Christmas Vacation!


We enlisted the newest helper in putting up the lights!

Always wanting to race to see who can get their branch done faster!
(ok..you can only appreciate that if you have a fake tree!)

The "perfect" branch

I'll just sit here and look pretty...k?

Alas! The star!

Santa's fearless helpers!!

The Sentimental Tree

For the past 6 years, we've put up our large Christmas tree (fake of course) in our den. We've adorned it with lights, ribbon and beautiful ornaments. A picture straight from Martha Stewart magazine! The first few years we had "the big tree", we would set up a smaller tree (fake of course!) elsewhere in the house (usually upstairs in the game room) and put the "sentimental" ornaments on it. That tradition somehow got lost in the bustle of the season, and soon the kids were putting up tiny trees (fake of course!) in their rooms with their "special ornaments"

Feeling a bit nostalgic I guess, this year I decided it was time to bring "The Sentimental Tree" back. It got set up right in the living room downstairs where we could see it everyday. The kids decorated it with their "special ornaments". It beats the Martha Stewart tree anyday!

Christmas 1995....Hard to believe they were ever that small!

Bubba today....putting his ornaments on

Nessa's very special Gingerbread man....Handmade by her!

And of course...the latest addition to the collection...

Our very own Mariner of the Seas (our cruise ship) ornament!

Black Friday 2009

Armed with a beanie, scarf...blankey...pillow...hot cocoa....cereal...a book...and a chair (thanks mom!) Nessa set out just before 10 pm on Thanksgiving to be one of those crazies that stands in line all night at Best Buy hoping for one of the few $197.00 laptops!
Sometime just before 4 am, they handed out the lucky tickets....well...lucky for some people...but not our beloved Nessa...she just missed the mark. Now she can say she did it! (ps..Mom and Dad were all snuggled in their warm bed...smart ones we are!!)

It's ok sweetie...maybe Santa will bring you one....if you are good!!

Am I seriously doing this??

Yup...I'm set!

Soccer 2009

Soccer season is officially behind us. The AG AYSO Boys U-14 Team Mustangs had a great season. They had some awesome wins....some terrible losses....but over all it was a great season and they took 3rd place in the Finals! Bubba came out every game and gave it his all! (Even with only 2 hrs of sleep for one game!...ya...sleepovers!)

Cruise Pictures are posted!!!

Check out our Spiller Family Cruising Blog (click the underlined title or the link in the right margin) and make your way to the online album!
Enjoy!!!

All Aboard!!!