Christmas Decorating!

Ack! Christmas is just around the corner and I still have lots of gift shopping to do. At least we got all our Christmas decorations up around here. The kids really enjoyed decorating this year. We had a blast putting up our Christmas Village...



...and decorating our tree! We have a big Tree Decorating Party every year. Complete with Christmas music blasting, plates of goodies, and lots of ornaments. We are also required to wear a special Christmas hat (elf, Santa, angel, snowman, reindeer or Santa headband).

For our treats this year, we had Reese's peanut butter cups, Christmas M&M's, hot cocoa Chex Mix, cheese squares, candy cane Oreo's, Eggnog and sparkling grape juice! Ashley kept saying it was the "best day ever" and loved the party. Zack wasn't feeling very well, but was doing a lot better, so we set up his little foldout couch next to the treats in case he wanted to lay down. He perked up though and really enjoyed himself. Natalie mostly plopped herself next to the treats, but then started understanding the ornament hanging. It was hard to get her to be careful with the ornaments, but she did pretty good. She is even (mostly) leaving them alone on the tree now!

I just realized I meant to take more pictures, but didn't :( However, Josh set up his camera so we could enjoy watching our tree decorating party again later. It is pretty funny to see because it is in hyperspeed...



The kids of course love this video and have already watched it many times!

Neighborhood Christmas Party

We finally saw Santa! He came to our neighborhood Christmas party. Although the line was long (not like the shorter advertised line in the newsletter), we still had a good time listening to a story from Mrs. Claus:

eating cookies, hot chocolate, and Natalie checking out all the people:

coloring a special letter to Santa:

and finally seeing the big man himself! We finally had a year where no one was scared! Natalie even happily climbed on his lap to see and talk with Santa.

Thanksgiving at Reveille Inn, College Station

We went down to College Station for Thanksgiving to be with Josh's family. His mom manages a bed and breakfast there, The Reveille Inn. Because it was Thanksgiving, there were no guests, so we were able to stay at the Inn.

The grandkids love their Grandpa! Sadly, Andy was leaving the next day to Singapore to board a research vessel for Texas A & M. He'll be gone for at least the next several weeks, possibly months. The kids really enjoyed their Thanksgiving with him. We already miss you Grandpa!

We deep-fried the turkey this year. It was a little bit funny to watch the boys at work getting the turkey appropriately in the fryer, but it tasted very good!

Ashley and her cousin Naomi had the greatest time together, as always. Naomi made a special cooking creation just for Ashley and they played with it till it broke.

Zack had the best time with his Uncle Hank and Uncle Parker. After playing a rousing game of Hide and Seek, they went to kitchen for a snack of cereal with whipped cream on top. Yummy! Zack was loving it...
He also loved storytime with Uncle Hank.

After a while, he attracted a bigger following:

Thanks for your time, Hank! Zack REALLY enjoyed bonding with his uncle.

The saddest thing about our vacation--Josh was REALLY sick. He got strep A and was in bed, moaning tossing and turning the entire vacation. We ended up taking him to a Urgent Care center for a shot of Penicillin. By the time we left for home, he could at least get out of bed. Poor guy...

The giggles

Caught this cute picture as the kids were having a fun time giggling and cuddling!