Christmas Blurrrrr

As always, Christmas was quite a wonderful blurr. Above, enjoying the children's Christmas Eve service with some of the family...

Our Littles love to listen to choir music.

Then home for Tamales and good conversation. But bedtime arrives early on Christmas Eve so we can appreciate the next day... 

"SANTA CAME!"

After a two hour power outage and four hours of opening presents came the cooking...

Commence to start!!(Father of the Bride II reference)!

 Many thanks to those who pitched in! Above, The Carver and G'ma plus a new holiday meal favorite: Pioneer Woman Smashed Potatoes. Mmmmmmm.

 

A few family pictures before we dined...

Above, our friend Ashley. Sandra Ruth is in the house but sleeping because she worked triple all-nighters ;)

 

Such a wonderful family.

Pre-Christmas Happenings!!

I have been quite busy this year, thus my lack of blogging :( TRYING to get a grip on life... Enjoy!

Ashley's annual Pajama Breakfast!

 Celebrating Caden's 1/2 birthday at preschool :)

Right before Christmas, I received an opportunity through Ashley to be on ABC's The Chew (daily cooking/talk show)! So a few of us flew to NYC for the weekend to experience our "15 Minutes of Fame!"

We stayed in Times Square and visited many fun touristy places like the Rockafeller Center Tree and FAO Schwarz. Above we are in the M&M store which has two floor levels of M&Ms!

On the set of The Chew... While Ashley sat at the tasting table and sampled the yummy foods, Lindy and I sat right behind her and enjoyed meeting the hosts! We were excited to be in the front row. Hilariously, we all won microwaves!!

What a great getaway but I missed the fam' so much ;)

Cousin Lauren came to visit right before Christmas and we took her to see Santa Claus! I sure hope that we have been good this year...

That's The Way We Do It On The Polar Express!!

 Last weekend we braved the drive to Palestine, TX to board The Polar Express with some of our best little buddies, The Kessners! Yes, we planned for the kiddos to have matching jammies ;) Aren't they precious?!

 Seriously, the cutest Elves and Santas seen anywhere!

This was so funny because, we could not get anyone to be still! Below, climbing the fence, literally!

All aboard!!

 "Mommy, can I have hot chocolate?

 "Mommy, can I have hot chocolate, now?"

First, The conductor came and punched the tickets. Then we were off to The North Pole! During our trip the waitors sang and danced with us!

 "This is what I have been waiting for!" While Caden was excited to reach The North Pole and meet Santa , Charli Kate was satisfied once she received her hot chocolate.

 The 'first gift of Christmas!'

Great time for all! So glad that we all survived and had such an enjoyable time!!

Now, for the drive home... ;)



 We decorated our tree after eating yummy fajitas and reindeer cookies!

 Happy Family :)

Thanks And Giving

We were blessed with a big group this year, ofcourse Mimi, Granddaddy, G'ma and Sandra Ruth joined the fun. Also, Lane and Samantha flew in from Denver! So on Thanksgiving Day we tried to participate in all the traditional hoopla...

watched the parades, cooked in and out of the kitchen all day, watched and discussed football at length, ate a late lunch until we were stuffed, ate pie, and headed out to the Black Friday unknown. November has been a bit of a chaotic month for us. Mommy has had a couple of medical procedures and Charlotte was diagnosed with Mono and a touch of pneumonia. So I was lucky to get through Thanksgiving with only a minor grease debacle on our kitchen rugs.

Unfortunately, I was very ill prepared and didn't take a single picture of the day :(

And yes, we have much to be thankful for. But for this year I am most thankful for our health and the ability to pay for insurance!!

 Getting ready to head out to the Aggie Game... but first let's put up a few Christmas decorations!

 Silly Uncle Lane and Aunt Samantha!

Love these guys and miss you already!!