So This Is Christmas-Part 4

hWe returned from East Texas after the holidays and prepared for our next Christmas celebration. However, we had to try out some of our new toys first.

Santa brought Grant a 'big boy' swing, an upgrade from his baby swing that hangs on an oak tree in our front yard. It was raining, but we got it up and tested it out before the real downpour hit. He is so excited he can hop on that swing, on his belly, and twirl and swing without us.

Aunt Erica got him a Cars 2 scooter.

We already had a helmet, of course I was excited it matched!

My brother and his son, Fletcher, came in so we could have our Christmas. We missed Winonah, Greg's wife, who unfortunatley had to stay behind and work. These 3 kids were so much fun...and hectic. So much in fact that I didn't get many pictures taken.

I yelled "Group HUG!" and this is the shot we got!

Grant and Fletcher got matching race tracks from MiMi and PawPaw. They light up, glow in the dark, and the track can be changed up quickly.

One afternoon, we all went to the park to feed the ducks. The best part was seeing my sister get 'goosed' by a goose. Of course, that didn't make it on film.

This picture was taken right before he landed in the dirt...

then Fletcher landed in the dirt...

then this little lady started screaming and thats when you knew it was time to go home!

Later that evening, Fletcher came over for a 'sleep over'. Fletcher and Grant got matching scooters from Aunt Laura so we had to test them out.

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Things got a little wobbly at times, but they did a good job!At one point we decided to take the dogs for a walk and let the boys go a little farther on their scooters. Grant got tired of the scooter and wanted to walk Honey, our dog. I couldn't help but laugh because it looked like we helmeted our child to walk the dog!

The boys then drove the Jeep until the battery ran down just as the sun set. They went on a treasure hunt using my placemats as maps and then enjoyed a showing of "Happy Feet" from the bunk bed. Eventually, I had to tell those boys to stop giggling like girls go to bed.

The Adventures of Our Elf, Chris

This is the second year that our elf, Christopher (Chris) Pop-in-kins made his appearance. This time, Chris was more adventurous. However, not as adventurous as some of his elf friends, as a hear.

The first night, he was caught reading with Corduroy. I did not get to take a picture of everywhere Chris went, he was a busy elf!

The note that Chris is holding in this picture is from an accident that occured. Grant was admiring Chris holding Baby Jesus and tried to move Baby Jesus. He, in turn, ended up touching Chris. I quickly said, "Oh NO! You touched him!". Grant said, "No I didn't!" I said, "Are you sure?" He said, "I did not touch him!".

Later that day, randomly, Grant came up to me and said, "Mommy, I touched Chris." Ah, a conscience! So we talked to Chris and explained that it was an accident. The note Chris is holding said that he talked to Santa and told him it was only an accident and that if Grant did it again, he'd really get sick. There were no more 'accidents' after that.

The last day, Chris apparently was having a going away party with cow, lamp chop, pinky and the mole and left us a note.

So This Is Christmas - Part 2

This last week at school, things were off kilter just because our students were so ready for the break, as were we. Then we had a day without internet, and later that day we were without electricity. Rounding up 24 freshman in a pitch dark room for anything over 2 minutes is not my idea of fun.

Grant had his Christmas party at school and was quite worn out by the end of it all. He fell asleep not too long after we got home.

Friday, we had a half day at school and were supposed to wear our 'tacky sweaters'. I convinced Daniel to wear this, and it was a hit!

(Speaking of a hit) Later that night, Daniel and I were on the way to a Christmas dinner/party with some friends and we came across someone stopped in the road (and we were in the middle of no where). It was some of our friends on the way to the party and they had hit this monster of a bobcat.

We had to call out our party hosts to put it out of its misery. That made for an interesting topic of conversation at dinner!

It seems like its been awhile since we have earned our 'family badges' but I found out that was just because we got ahead this fall.

We earned the "Preserve Family Memories" badge by creating gifts for Christmas using pictures from this past year. Sorry...can't show you those! But they, of course, turned out really cute!

Saturday, we earned our "Start a New Tradition" badge (which looks nothing like the other badges, but whatever).

Grant and I made homemade Christmas cookies to give to others. Technically, this is not a new tradition to us, but I like this one so I wasn't going to make up a new one!

Grant did really well until rolling out the dough. I kept catching him throwing more and more flour on it....the table...the flour...his clothes....me...etc.

The cookies turned out so cute, and he did great decorating them. However, we sampled one and they tasted like flour. Yep, the flour invaded the taste. Yikes! So, my lovely neighbors, if you happen to read this, we thought of you but we didn't want to give you icky cookies. So now Grant and Daniel are finishing them off...they don't seem to mind.

So This Is Christmas

We are a few weeks in to December and a few things have made its presence: 20 degree temperatures, the roaring fire in our fireplace, Christmas carols and our elf, Christopher, from the North Pole (which you will hear more about in another post).

Every year, Grant and I have made a gingerbread house from a kit, but this year I was lucky enough to come across a gingerbread train. I liked it much better! We decorated while Daddy took an evening nap.

On a Saturday morning, we had Breakfast with Santa at our church. They always do a great job of putting this together. I was excited my sister and her family got to join us.

Here is Grant and I mixing some food for Santa's reindeer.
He also made an ornament for me and this reindeer hat for him. Vivian enjoyed the food and getting to see Santa as well!
Here is Grant talking to Santa about his wish list of robot dinosaurs and a newly added pogo stick (I'll have to talk to Santa about age restrictions on that one!)

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came, and what was I thankful for? Besides the obvious, a week off! We started our vacation by making a late night trip to visit Daniel's family. Daniel's Dad had to referee a football game nearby, so we had to wait until after dark to go. To keep Grant and I alert, we did all sorts of things out of the ordinary. He chose to break out the stroller and walk his baby penguin around the neighborhood. I loved the look on my neighbor's face when she caught me pushing Grant out in it at that time of the night.

Here, we caught up on some needed rest and ate until our heart's content. We visited with family and watched Grant play and entertain the crowd.

Grant and his Aunt Erica built a fort for a showing of "Finding Nemo"

Upon our return home, we got all sorts of things accomplished like backed up cleaning duties, laundry, and movie watching. Grant was a good help. I found him reading in bed one night, so cute.

My Mom and I went Christmas shopping one day and hit the pre-Black Friday sales. I found the weirdest things while we were out.

Like this Hilary Clinton nutcracker and this Bill Clinton corkscrew. Real classy!

And for the nostalgic ones, a Farrah Fawcett Barbie doll in her classic red swimsuit pose.

I came home with things MUCH better, and cheaper than this!

Wednesday we prepped for Thanksgiving. I made cream cheese lemon bars (a recipe from Pinterest) and Daniel tried his hand at coconut meringue pie again. We tried a few years ago, a couple of times and meringue just never worked. This time was a great success! Good for us, bad on my waistline...so good! I can report that the lemon bars were only OK. 'Regular' lemon bars are better.


Thursday was Thanksgiving Day. We woke up and Grant actually didn't care to watch the parades. He joined me in watching Beauty and the Beast which happened to be playing on the Disney Channel. I spent the majority of the morning singing the entire score of the movie.

We went to MiMi and PawPaw's house for Thanksgiving and my sister and her family joined us. Grant wanted to say the prayer, and I thought I filmed it. However, this is the only thing that came out: A picture of him scratching his nose and Vivian in the background looking shocked. Oh well, it was a great prayer of Thanksgiving.

We spent the majority of the day with the family and then went home just in time to watch the Texas vs. Texas A&M game...the LAST one. I seriously haven't watched an entire football game this season, Cowboy, UT, whoever...but this one I felt I must pay attention to. I was so glad I did! Watching this last 2 minutes got my pulse up and some loud cheers. I was glad to see TX pull out the win, but also happy for A&M that they didn't get stomped on during the last game of the rivalry. Great way to go out.

This weekend we decorated our home for Christmas, wrapped presents, and ate more pie and had Pinterest recipe attempts. Here is Daniel putting out the lights outside as the temperature began to drop drastically. I always hated decorating the for holidays wearing summer clothes!



I also tried to get some pictures of Grant for our Christmas card. He was NOT happy about it. I even tried bribing him with ice cream. I came away with 1 usable picture and he got 'bamilla' ice cream.

He acts as though its painful...

...then he just turns on his attitude!