Christmas 2009 - Better late than never right?!

Olivia and Jack must have been very good this year because Santa was very kind to them!

Olivia's loot

She was thrilled with her Barbie Townhouse from Santa, and why wouldn't she be? I have had almost as much fun playing with it as she has!

Jack's stash

The first thing he went for was the bucket of farm animals. That Santa is SO smart!

Santa must have known that our kids would not only love their own gifts, but each others just as much!

We could hardly tear Jack away from Barbie's pad much to Olivia's dismay!

Even Sophie (who hasn't had the best of years) got some goodies, her favorite being this bone! She carried it around everywhere like we might steal it from her!

With the Longhorns in the National Championship this year there was no shortage of appropriately themed gifts. Most importantly Denny's ticket to the actual game! A big thank you to Bumpa and Gigi!!!!!!!

Ryan all snuggled in his new UT snuggie!

And Bumpa with his new tee!

Look kids, a deer!

Checking out the wagon.

Another item to fight over. Who gets to sit in the wagon. Thankfully it comfortably accomodates two! Or two and a very small puppy!

I have lived in Texas ALL of my life and I have to say this is the first white Christmas I have ever had here! It was awesome! After we had completed breakfast and all gift opening it was back outside for fun in the white stuff. And this time Jack got to participate!

Marshmallow man

Olivia was dying to build a snowman and she and Denny did just that!

Complete with a weed (from a neighbor's yard of course) for hair, vanilla wafers for eyes, a carrot for a nose (some traditions you just can't break), and some sort of chocolate covered cherries for the mouth (which Sophie discovered after the snow had melted and they beautifully reappeared on our carpet!).

Poor Mr. Snowman did not last long.
Must pause for photo op with Sophie Sparkles!

Time to completely demolish what took so long to build!

And the day ended with a wagon ride for Jack around the block! He does not look happy here but Bumpa assured me he loved it!

We hope everyone had a joyful and memorable Christmas!

Christmas Eve

To say that we were all excited about a white Christmas Eve would be an understatement! When I found out that snow was on the way I immediately told Olivia who was ecstatic! As soon as there was enough on the ground she and Denny headed out to play!

They started with a race to get warm!

Then moved on to a snowball fight!

That evening we went to our church's Christmas Eve service and then to dinner. It was our second time to have both children with us during an hour long service. And the 2nd time went about as well as the first! Needless to say Denny spent more than half of the service in the foyer with Jack! He is infamous for dropping "all done's" and "uh-oh's" in the middle of the quiet part of the service, like prayers or the sermon!

Our handsome bubby all dolled up!

And our beautiful girl equally glamorous!

Bumpa, Gigi, Nicole and Uncle Ryan

Uncle Alex showing Olivia how to hold her candle.

Jack does not like to be contained.

So, crawling the aisle of chairs he went!

Sadly this is the only picture I have from dinner at Jin-beh. Jack eating a banana a la chopstick and wincing at the large flame on the grill!

After dinner we very slowly headed home, the roads were pretty bad! Once we got there we let the kids open one gift... pajamas of course!

An attempt at a family photo, we'll try again next year!

And an attempt at a picture of both kids, better than the one above at least!

Olivia looking at Santa's radar with Ryan and Nicole!

And possibly the best part of the evening...

What Christmas Eve would be complete without a streaker???

He went through the quad... to the gymnasium!

I was in such a hurry to get the kids down I missed out on taking pictures of them together in their pj's AND putting out the milk and cookies for Santa! Boo! Denny had to spread the reindeer food since it was like 30 below zero, but don't worry, it was there!

Hopefully in my next post I will finally have Christmas all wrapped up with a pretty little bow on it!

Christmas with my side of the family

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated in a big way. We had Christmas at Lala's (my aunt Shar's) on Saturday and then Christmas at Mimi's on Sunday! It was a busy but fun weekend!

At Lala's we enjoyed a delicious, traditional Christmas meal (minus the mashed potatoes I left at home!) and had a great time hanging out with Lala, Uncle Frankie, Nana, Bradley, Allison and Madison!

Olivia's talking twins, just what we needed more motor-mouths around the house! ;)

After opening gifts there was a wrapping paper fight that broke out and Olivia and Uncle Frankie were gunning for one another! He has a great way of bringing Olivia out of her shell!

Jack got some really cool tools! Thank goodness, some toys that aren't pink!

Bradley and Jack - not sure where his pants were...

All of the grandkids and great-grandkids

At Mimi's we again enjoyed a wonderful meal and had lots of fun hanging out with Mimi, Ed, Mel, Liz, Peyton, Laurel, Gray and Presley! I don't think we'd seen this group in quite some time and it was fun to catch up and let the kids play together!

Jack really enjoyed the mashed potatoes!

Rock Star Uncle Ed

Olivia and Presley playing barbies! I really wish I would have gotten a picture of the naked Ken with the awesome mullet!

Olivia and Laurel

Somehow I managed to get zero pictures of the boys. They are smart they were probably hiding from the camera!

More Christmas with Friends

Olivia's last day of school before winter break had to be so much fun! We started the afternoon off with her "Winter" party (gotta love the public education system) where they made snowflakes, picture frames, marshmallow snowmen, and played bingo. After the party they were allowed to leave early for the day, yea!

And later that evening we went to dinner at Chili's (both girl's favorite), with Kennedy for the girl's gift exchange. Julie and I had bought them matching pj's but they of course did not know that. When we wrapped Kennedy's gift Olivia was very excited to give her the pajamas, but she also really wanted a pair for herself. And Kennedy had felt the same way. So when they opened their gifts it was precious! They were both so excited to have the pajamas they had each so wanted for themselves and now they could be twins! Rest assured the pajamas have already been put to use at a sleepover (which will be a future post!).

They are the sweetest of friends!

That night kicked off a weekend of Christmas for us, so stay stuned!!!!