Christmas Morning in Pecos

We spent Christmas with both my family and Chris' this year. We left for Pecos on Wednesday and stayed through Christmas morning before heading to Carlsbad for a couple of days with Chris' family.

Santa brought Clara the bike she asked for and he brought Robert his first train.

This dinosaur was Clara's gift to Robert. She wanted to give him a dinosaur and I found this kit online and she got to build it with Daddy. He loves it.

Brody was trying to go for a ride in Robert's Little People bus. He couldn't quite figure out how it was supposed to work.

I think Bryce liked his gift.

And Grayson kept checking out other people's stuff looking for the perfect gift for herself.

Dinosaurs galore for Wyatt.

I caught four of them being relatively still and in close proximity to one another and jumped at the chance to get a picture. This was the only one I managed to get.

Stay tuned for more Christmas posts.

Christmas Eve

We just hung out at the house on Thursday. The kids did little Christmas crafts and played games most of the day while the grown ups finished some last minute Christmas preparations. That night Myrt Myrt, Joe and Mason came over for a birthday dinner for Linsey.

The next day we headed over to Myrt Myrt's house for all of the Christmas Eve festivities. I took a few family pics for Tim and Linsey.

Robert took a good long nap in his daddy's lap.

The older kids played on the trampoline for most of the afternoon.

This picture is blurry, but it's awesome nonetheless. The kids enjoyed catapulting Brody into the air and he just loved it.

After a wonderful Christmas feast, we waited for the sun to go down so the real fun could begin. Being the youngest, Robert was first up to bat at the reindeer pinata. He had pretty good form for a rookie.

As the kids were finishing picking up their candy, Santa came in from the alley with his big sack of toys to greet them all. Santa's been working out or something. He was quite buff. He had gifts for all of the kids and then posed for one last photo with all of the little ones before heading out.

This year was really small. None of my cousins with kids came. Seven kids running every which way still makes for a busy Christmas Eve, but it was nothing compared to most years. We missed everyone that wasn't able to come this year! And don't fret; the Christmas hats and antlers are packed away nice and safe, ready for your next visit.

More Holiday Festivities

Like most families I'm sure, this past week was our busy holiday week. We were supposed to go with our life group to listen to Christmas music on Sunday but it was very cold and windy and I just didn't want the kids out in it after just getting over their ear infections. So we skipped out on that one. On Tuesday evening, we had Big Robert and his family over to build gingerbread houses. Daddy made Clara her very own graham cracker house to decorate all by herself, which she loved.

That way, she didn't mess up our gingerbread house :) I do a good enough job of that myself.

Then on Thursday night we had two activities scheduled for the same time, so Clara had to choose which to attend. She had her school Christmas program and her dance recital and she chose to dance. Her class danced to Jingle Bell Rock and they all did very well. She was the girl furthest from us though, so we didn't get good pictures of the actual dance. I love her dance studio. The Christmas show includes only 6 songs and is done in about 30 minutes. That is much appreciated when you're wrangling a one year old the entire time.

Friday was her Christmas party at school. Since she doesn't attend on Fridays, I had to take her up there. Her teacher decided to do their book gift exchange earlier in the morning because it's so crazy during their lunchtime party, so I took Clara up at 10:30 to do the exchange. She got a Tangled book with a read along cd. It only took about 15 minutes and then we had to leave and come back up at 12:00 for the party since she's not supposed to be up there on her non-school days. Oy. I didn't want to drive all the way home just to have to turn right back around, so we hung out at a nearby Wal-Mart for an hour.

I have a major dislike of Wal-Mart in general, but Wal-Mart the week before Christmas is just plain awful. It really brings out the worst in me. I was ready to hit someone just dealing with drivers in the parking lot. Can you really not be bothered to park two spots further down from the obviously perfect spot which you are wasting my time along with the 5 cars behind me to get? I guess I shouldn't complain since I got a really great spot only two spots down from the perfect spot.

Her class dined on Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets, grapes and cheese and then had cupcakes and cookies for dessert. Clara received a stocking from her teacher which included this cute ornament with her handprint.

That's the Jingle Bell Rock

Wow, that's a bad video. I'm guessing only Grandma and Bia will truly appreciate this one. Clara is on the back row, furthest on the right. Sorry it's so bad; Robert really wanted more raisins and I was trying my hardest to pluck them from the little box while holding him and the camera. I didn't do a very good job obviously.

Did I Mention?

"Frosty Old St. Nick"

I'm being serenaded right now.

"Frosty the snowman was a jolly old St. Nick.

and he gave a home to the children's soul

that made them so ha-ppy."

Clara's Nutcracker Birthday Party

And you thought Clara's birthday celebrations were over. Nope. We had one last item on the agenda for Saturday morning. As much fun as the ballet and the zoo are, there's just something about celebrating with your friends, so I couldn't let her birthday pass without a small party. And small it was.

We had only invited four friends and their siblings, so when Friday rolled around and we were down to two families, I debated whether or not to cancel it. In the end I decided to go ahead with it. It would have been a shame to have to cancel both of their parties this year.

Travis and Justin showed up and the kids were playing in the playroom while we waited for our neighbors to come. The party started at 10:00, so when it got to be 10:30 and they weren't there yet, I told Clara that we needed to go ahead and cut the cake. She was soooo upset and started crying saying she wanted all of her friends there. Bless her heart; I felt so bad for her. Just then, the doorbell rang and it was our neighbors! So she perked up a little.

Her party was nutcracker themed. I hung snowflakes from the ceiling and bright, shiny ornaments from the light fixture over the table. I made the cake and little meringues with sprinkles. I was going to do more sprinkly kinds of treats, but I'm glad I didn't since there were so few people there. Her guests got a nutcracker Christmas ornament to take home with them.

The cake was strawberry flavored. It was just a run of the mill mix and I snacked on pieces that I had to cut off when I was cutting him out and decorating him. I thought it tasted fine, but as I looked around at the kids, no one was eating the cake. No biggie; I wasn't offended or anything, it was just weird. Clara LOVES cake and even she was just picking at it. I guess I need to kick it up a notch next year and actually learn how to make a real cake. Ha!

Little brothers are such a pain.

This was the best photo out of about 10. I think it's the only one with Robert's face and fingers out of everyone's noses. That's not sad.

In the end, her little party was fine. She enjoyed herself and had fun with her friends. As hard as it is to see your child upset, I know these little disappointments are part of life and something she has to learn to deal with because unfortunately, she has many more ahead of her.

And this concludes our 5th birthday extravaganza.

Family Christmas Ornaments

Several years ago I started buying one Christmas ornament each year. When the kids came along, I began buying one for each of them and one for the family. My favorite part of decorating each year is opening up boxes and unwrapping each of the special ornaments from their packaging. I finally have enough that I don't even bother with glass balls or bows or anything else that detracts from the ornaments.

Along with the ones I've bought are ones that were given to us by friends through the years. Dan and Linda get the kids one each year and my mom has gotten them some as well. I hope to give the kids theirs when they're grown to add to their own family Christmas trees. Some years I don't find any that really speak to me, but this year I found the perfect ones.

I had ordered this one online before we went to the ballet. Had I known they would have merchandise for sale at the show, I would've waited and gotten her one there. Oh well, I do think this was is prettier than the ones they had there.

And I got Robert a snowman with a Christmas tree because he loves snowmen. We have a snowman yard decoration that he just loves. He points, smiles and says his version of snowman. (I can't even write it phonetically, so I won't even try.) He also loves the tree and toddles over to it saying "tih tih tee!" So this ornament was perfect.

And when I saw this one, I knew it was the one for our family ornament this year. It says "grrr-eat friend." I don't think I ever blogged about it, but Dingle died back in October. Although she still wasn't in pain, she wasn't walking at all and so Jason went ahead and had her put to sleep. (And then brought her home on a bread tray to bury in the backyard, but that's another story for another post.) We are so grateful to have such an amazing friend who would do this for our family. I thought remembering Dingle with her very own ornament would be nice this year. Of course Chris saw it and said, "You bought a dead dog ornament?" Men.

That was fun. I may have to go back and document Christmases past.

Celebrating Five!!

The celebration started yesterday when I joined Clara for lunch in her classroom. I brought cupcakes to share with her class as well as a big Cinderella balloon. Of course the cupcakes were a big hit as was the balloon. One of the boys asked, "Who's the blue girl?" And then, "Who's her boyfriend?" (Cinderella and Prince Charming) He must not have any sisters. Her classmates were so sweet and each wished her a happy birthday several times.

I felt a little bad leaving her teacher with a room full of sugared up kids right before naptime and a floor full of cupcake crumbs. I tried to get out of there as quickly as possible so she could regain control. They all loooove Robert and had a hard time letting us leave. And Clara would not stop with the hugging.

I took this picture when we got home since I didn't get any with the balloon at school. It's Cinderella in her carriage. I love the one sock up, one sock down look that's all the rage in preschool.

Chris stopped by the store on the way home from work and got a string of snowflake Christmas lights. He hung them up in her window so that she would be surprised when she went upstairs to get ready for bed. When she saw them she exclaimed, "I love them!" And she got to open one present early. Bia got her several outfits, so she got to pick one to wear on her birthday.

I went into Clara's room this morning as she was just starting to wake up. I told her "Happy Birthday!" and she just pulled her covers up over her head. From under her covers she says, "Every time someone says 'birthday' I can't stop smiling!"

Chris took the day off since he has some vacation days to burn and we got bundled up nice and warm. It was pretty chilly when we left the house but the weather report said it would warm up to 65 so we didn't dress too warmly. Yeah, it never got above 53 and it was cloudy and breezy. We were quite cold all day.

We started the day out with a stop at the donut shop for a pink sprinkled donut and then headed downtown for Clara's birthday surprise. We were going to ride a city bus since she's been wanting to ride a bus lately, but it seemed quite complicated to us so we rode the train instead and she was just as happy with that. We just parked at the park and ride and rode it up to the zoo.

She loved it and other than almost getting separated as we were getting off, it was fun. Man, those doors don't wait for no one! In fact, there was a couple that didn't make it off in time at their stop. She had some obvious health problems and was really slow and almost fell several times trying to get to the door. Then when the train took off again, she almost fell because she was standing at that point.

We enjoyed a special treat today because the zoo is opening a new section this weekend called the African Forest and today was one of the preview days available only to zoo members. Here's a sneak peek for you.

This is the chimp exhibit which is the highlight of the African Forest. The zoo has been without chimps for some time now I believe so they're new to the zoo. The exhibit was quite large with indoor and outdoor viewing areas and even some of those binocular machine things for long distance viewing. You'll notice one thing is missing from this picture though. Yep, no chimps. They were too cold I guess and we only caught a glimpse of them.

Clara didn't want to go near the rhino until we wheeled her baby brother over and he started touching them. I love positive peer pressure.

This guy was chowing down on a plant outside of the exhibit. The new giraffe exhibit is much improved over their old one. You're able to get really close to them now and although it wasn't available today, you will be able to purchase food to feed them by hand. There's a cafe right next to the exhibit and the outdoor tables are just feet away from the exhibit so you can watch while you eat.

The highlight of the zoo was the carousel ride. When she walked up to pay, there were two older gentlemen working there. She told them it was her birthday and one of them said, "Me too! And my identical twin brother." There was no one else in line, so we talked a little bit. He asked her name and then made a big fuss over her before we got on. Then before starting the ride, he got on the loudspeaker and went on and on about a special girl who was turning 5 today and then said "Happy Birthday Clara!" It was soooo sweet of him to do that and she was just beaming. I wish I had known he was going to do it because I would love to have gotten it on video. When she got off, she went and gave him a big hug. She's riding a manatee I believe. She would've ridden the giraffe but it doesn't move up and down, so the animal next to the giraffe must be the next best thing.

After the zoo, we went to ride the train through the park. The train station is right next to the zoo. We were cold and tired by this point, so we had decided we would get off early at the stop that was right next to our metrorail stop so that we wouldn't have to walk the 1/2 mile or so back. We asked two employees if the train would stop there and were told yes. Well, he never so much as slowed down through all three stops, so we still got to walk all the way back in the cold. We were all ready to get to the car and get all warmed up. Here's my favorite picture from the day. This was while waiting for the park train.

Robert slept the whole ride home and I was able to get him down once we got home too. He took a loooong nap and woke around 5:30. Chris went and got some balloons and cupcakes and dropped them off at the chinese food place near our house that is Clara's favorite restaurant and we surprised her with dinner there. I was so sad that Jenny, the owner, wasn't there. Clara loves her and Jenny is always giving Clara handfuls of fortune cookies and candy. Our waitress brought out the cupcakes and had the whole restaurant sing Happy Birthday.

Clara got to open her presents when we got home and ended up going to bed a little late with all of the birthday excitement, but I'm sure she's drifted off into dreamland by now. And what wonderful dreams she'll have.