Christmas Travels

We opened some gifts from Mandy's family on Friday, December 19th.





The next morning, we left to have Christmas Day with Dana's family in Virginia. We had a grand time, all of our kids rediscovered stairs and got a kick out of figuring out different ways to come down them---baby Z included!

Dana took the kids out often for four wheeler rides and hikes through the woods.

For most of our time there, the weather was chilly. Perfect weather for Santa to come!!! The kids got a lot of great things, but the one thing that all the children liked was the gift given to their cousin. Christmas morning, A (the Virginia cousin) woke up to cute little sounds and discovered a puppy under his tree. A PUPPY!!!

WOW!

They named her Shiloh. And when MG saw her, she was so happy and at the same time she just couldn't believe it. Later she told G-G (Dana's mom), "I can't believe A got a puppy! He is so lucky! My parents won't let us have a puppy or kitten or hamster or ANYTHING!! But A's parents got him one!"

"Welllll," G-G clarified, "his parents didn't get it for him...Santa did!"

"WHAT?!!?" MG asked with excitement. "Santa!!??!! You mean to say that you can ASK SANTA for a puppy?!!? hmmm..." and she thought for a few seconds. "Yes! Now I know what to ask for next year!"

E's Santa Letter

E composed a letter to Santa, having me write it down as he spoke it. Here it is:

His composition made me want to laugh "so bad." Really.
Really, really, really, really.

"Where did you see a snow globe like that?"I asked him.

"Nowhere...I just made that cool thing up!!" E replied.

"Wow!! That's really somethin'! I'm not sure if there is such a thing, though, buddy!"

"Ahhh...but Santa can make it if he wants to, you know!"

groaaaaaaaannnnnn........

And the electronic abominable snowman?

uuuh-huh! Yup!!! Made up!

At least that was ALL he wanted...maybe...

Talk about a wish list!

The One That Never Made It

We are horrible at sending out Christmas cards! Did you notice a card missing from your mail box this year? I think that it was ours!! I am very sorry. Even though you did not receive a card we still think about all of you and wish you a very happy holiday season...a thankful Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas and a wonderfully Happy New Year. Here is the card we were hoping to get out to all of you...the one that never made it:

We love you all!~~D, M, M-G, E, D-D, and Z

Christmas Decorations

It is now after Christmas (Dec 31, to be exact) and I have not yet taken the decorations down. I almost hate to do so. It feels like we just got them all up! And though it took me a while to get it all out, we did not do a lot of elaborate stuff...esp. outside. Here are some pictures of our home with its decorations:

An Apology

Hello, friends. The last post I had up I recommended another blog that I thought was funny. But just a day or two ago, I went back to see what new things were on and was disgusted. If you saw those same posts, I apologize. Since that time, you may now notice, the post leading you to this blog was deleted off of my page. Again, I apologize to any of you who went to check it out and quite possibly ran into the same "humor" I did a few days ago.

I am so very, very sorry.

Smartness

D-D has blond hair. Kinda like mine when I was little. Very golden...except hers has curls where mine was very straight. Anyway...

Yesterday I said, "D-D, did you know that today is Nene's birthday?" (btw, Happy Birthday mom!)

"Yeth," she said. "I did!!"

"How do you know?" I asked

"Cuz I jess dew!"

"Wow!!! You are so smart, D-D!!!" I exclaimed.

"Hmmmmmm..." she thought. She actually did think this. It was written all over her face. Then she said, "Noooo, nnnnnope! Daddy ees the smwart one. Not me."

"You're smart D-D!...and you will get as smart as daddy, maybe even smarter if you will listen to and not argue with what we are trying to teach you and..."

"Mwommy?...." she says to stop my flow of moralizing and preaching to give me her take on the situation...as well as her point to end the conversation...

"I'd jess wather be cute!" she tells me.

I can just see how she will be if she continues on this route of thinking. Is she already getting blond...and will she just get blonder? :) Or has she really figured out in her little brain that being cute is better than being smart? So now I am wondering if there is a good way to tell her and that little 4 yo brain of hers that to be cute AND smart is the best way to go...I mean, have you seen me lately???

giggle, giggle. ha. ha. ha.

The smart one and the cute one.

Fun Christmas Singing

Here is a site to go to on YouTube where an A Capella group is singing a fun medley of songs. I hope you will be able to listen to it and enjoy it as much as I do. It makes me smile every time:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8&feature=related

The Santa Train----Woooh--woooooh!!

Chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo-chug-a-chug-a---woooooh! Woooh! This past Sunday (December 14) Santa parked his reindeer behind a neighbor's house, hitched a ride with a train engineer and rode to our neighborhood gazebo, setting up by sitting down in a nice chair and hearing the wishes of the children in our neck of the woods. All of our own four children sat in Santa's lap and even Dana and I got to have a little picture time with the jolly man!

Z would not sit with St. Nick at first, but once we gave the little guy a cookie, he did not care whose lap he sat in! After getting Z's picture, I reached down to rescue Santa from Z and any slobbery crumbs that could fall from the cookie onto S.C's nice red lap. Instead of just getting a hold of the baby, I also somehow managed to get a hold of Santa's beard!!!! grrooooan---how embarrassing! Fortunately no one was hurt! :-D Maybe I was subconsiously trying to get D-D's latest Christmas wish?!!!

I posted things a little differently this time. The pictures will come after this latest post...so just scroll down (or click on the highlighted words that follow) to see some pictures of our fun afternoon/evening with the neighbors, the engineer and Kris Kringle.

The Santa Watch...and Wait

Here are the kids looking for Santa to arrive. I know that the picture of him as he first gets to the gazebo is a little blurry, but it was so much fun that I had to share it! The train played fun Christmas songs like Rudolph and Up On The Housetop and Santa is Coming To Town and many, many others. While it was playing these songs and transporting S.C to his chair, I was outside jumping up and down and getting excited with the kids who were riding on the train at the moment and those passing me to get to the place of honor...and hey!!! I was seeing Santa!!! What is not to get excited about?!!? Even though MG was nowhere near me, do you know what she told me?

"Mom." she said, "I saw you down there when the train came by...don't do that anymore! It's embarrassing!"

oh. dear. But you know what else? Too bad for her, 'cause I'm gonna keep being fun and silly! I think she'll just have to get over being embarrassed! :)

What Would You Like For Christmas?