Christmas (Part Five): Wrap Up

We haven't been good about it over the last year, but one of the things we like to do at Christmas and birthdays is to take a picture of the kids with their gifts - we think it will be fun for them to be able to look back and remember special gifts they received each year.  It also highlights how blessed they are to have such generous family members and friends!

Christmas (Part Four): Stockings!

One of our Christmas traditions at Bob and Ma's house is that everyone gets to open a stocking stuffed full of goodies.  We all bring something for each other's stockings, Ma assembles them, and we open them on Christmas morning.  This year we weren't all able to be together until Christmas day, so we did stockings the day after.  It's always fun to see the excitement on the kids' faces!













After we opened our stockings, Aunt Carol and her family and Ashlee had to leave to return to their homes.  We visited Great  Grandmommy & Great Granddaddy in Fort Worth and took them to lunch at Dutch's (so yummy!).  That evening we played more with the kids' new toys.  Will had an especially good time with his jungle bath toys.  In this photo, the monkeys are falling out of the trees into the alligators' mouths.  Quite the imagination!


The next morning Claire found out what it was like to type on a typewriter...


...and the kids each got to pick out an ornament that had been made by their great-great grandmother.


We had a terrific visit!

Christmas (Part Three): Christmas Day in Arlington

We had an uneventful drive to Arlington, and we had dinner, visited with family, and opened more presents at Bob & Ma's house.

One of Will's favorite gifts - his knight costume.  He also got a pirate costume - he loves to dress up.


One of Claire's favorites - a Disney Princess Cupcake game.  We've made lots of cupcakes!

Christmas Eve (Part Two) and Christmas Morning

After the Christmas Eve service, we all went over to my parents' house for dinner and to open presents with them and Aunt Nancy, Uncle Kerbow, and Jonathan.  Claire and Will were really excited about all of their gifts!  Here are a few photos from our celebration:








The next morning we let them open the gifts they picked out for each other (Claire got Will an Imaginext Monsters Inc van, and Will got Claire a Barbie hair styling set - they were both really excited!):


One present each from Mommy and Daddy (monogrammed aprons):


And their gifts from Grandmommy and Granddaddy Martin - scooters!  They were a big hit.
The big reveal


Practicing around the house


We played for a little while, and then loaded up the van and headed to Arlington for our next Christmas event.

Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve Live Nativity #2.  Last year, we had "Donkey vs. Poinsettia."  This year?  We were afraid we were going to have "Donkey vs. Donkey."

To recap, our church has a family friendly Christmas Eve service.  There are costumes available for the kids to participate in a live nativity scene.  We sing Christmas hymns, and then our pastor begins reading the Christmas story from Luke, stopping at various points for the children to come on stage at the times appropriate for their costume.

Claire and Will chose the same costumes as last year - angel for Claire, and a donkey for Will.  The donkeys, sheep, and cows went on stage fairly early, so they ended up in the back.  We were sitting several rows from the stage, and shortly after Will got up there, we saw him stand up with a big frown on his face.  It looked like he was chastising some of the other kids who were using their masks to pretend sword fight. This was not surprising - he gets very concerned when other kids aren't doing what they're supposed to do and has a hard time just letting the adults take care of it!  There was no way to tell him to let it go without making a bigger scene.  Then, we saw him arguing with a bigger kid over something.  It wasn't ever clear what caused their disagreement, and fortunately, it never escalated.  We were afraid we were going to have to pull him off stage - for the second year in a row!  Ugh.

Unfortunately neither kid was interested in posing for a picture afterwards - they were ready for dinner and presents at Nana and Granddaddy's house.  Maybe next year!

The live nativity - and this was only about halfway through.  Lots of kids in our church!


In this one, you can see Will talking with the older kid on the back left.  Again, never was really clear about what was going on there!


The Disgruntled Donkey


Lesson learned in 2012:  Two year olds are too young to participate in the live nativity.
Lesson learned in 2013:  Sit closer to the front and have Will pick a costume that puts him closer to the front of the stage.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Our weeks towards the end of the year were full of activities that helped prepare us for Christmas and celebrate the season.  Advent calendars, a Jesse tree, Christmas crafts...we stayed busy, but we tried to also keep our family's focus on Christ.

Donating shoeboxes to Operation Christmas Child filled for a 2-4 year old boy and a 5-9 year old girl.  We included information sheets for the recipients, and Claire was able to fill out one herself this year!  We chose to track our boxes and found out that they went to kids in Columbia.

Decorating our tree while Daddy was on a mission trip to Reynosa

Enjoying yummy treats - lots of baking and hot chocolate!  We took some of the snickerdoodles, chocolate pretzel cookies, and browned butter crispies to the fire station and got to check out the fire trucks while we were there.

MOPS playdate at Clay Casa.  Most of the kids painted ornaments or cookie plates; Will chose a "spider tarantula".  :)

Painting ornaments

Having fun at Bass Pro Shop

Polar Express day at Claire's school - they got to wear their pajamas that day, and also for their party on the last day of the semester

Will brought home lots of Christmas art projects from school - these were two of my favorites.

Christmas 2012 Part 3: Christmas at Home

The last of the Christmas posts!

For the first time since we were married, we were at home for Christmas Day.  We are so used to having a big, busy Christmas that I wasn't sure how we would spend the entire day, but it ended up being lovely.

My mom & dad spent Christmas Eve at our house, so Christmas morning we woke up, made coffee, got a small breakfast, and began our festivities with Robert reading the Christmas story from the Bible.  One of our kids was very into it, and other clearly was ready to get on to opening some presents.


The kids opened their stockings from Nana & Granddaddy, and then the unwrapping commenced.


Nana & Granddaddy with their Wilderness Lodge mugs that we bought at Disney




Another surprise gift from our trip - Cinderella's castle playset


Claire was so excited to get her Doctor Mommy Doll!  This was the one thing she mentioned every time she talked about her Christmas list.


After all of the presents were unwrapped, we spent the rest of the morning playing and getting together a yummy chili lunch.  The kids played so happily and so well together!  They loved all their gifts, but the things that got the most of their attention were the castle, Will's new set of blocks, the doctor doll, a new set of animal figures, and Will's new Hess helicopter.



Claire took such good care of her doll - it will give ask you if it has a fever, needs medicine, etc.  Claire was giving her a lot of attention, and then she came to me and said "Mommy, I've done everything she asked, but she just won't go to sleep!"  So we just turned her off - at least there is an easy solution to get a doll to sleep.  ;)

The kids took great naps and stayed in their pjs all day.  That evening we had a little birthday party for Jesus with cupcakes and candles.  It was a fun way to end a special Christmas.

Christmas 2012 Part 2: Donkey vs. Poinsettia

We drove back to San Antonio and made it home in time for the Christmas Eve service at our church.  This was the first year we've been in town for it, so we were excited to go.  Our church's service is fairly laid back and involves the children.  They had costumes available for the kids who wanted to participate in the live nativity.  Will picked out a donkey costume, and while Claire didn't want to wear a full costume, she did want an angel halo.

The Donkey


We sang Christmas songs, and then Pastor Kirk began reading the Christmas story.  The children designated to be Mary & Joseph came up, and then as Kirk got to different parts of the story, the kids wearing the appropriate costumes (shepherd, lamb, donkey, cow, wise man, angel, etc.) were invited to come up.  Before Will went on stage, he was "helping" Kirk narrate the story.  Loudly.  "The WISE MEN, Mommy - they came!"  "The BRIGHT and MORNING STAR, Mommy."  Fortunately we were sitting near the back and mostly surrounded by people we knew, so they just laughed.

Then it was time for Will to go up.  He wasn't 100% sure about being on stage, so I stayed close by, but he was okay with being up there.


Claire went up shortly afterwards with the angels, and they were sitting quietly, until...Will accidentally hit the poinsettia in front of him with his mask.  A few dead leaves fell off, and he found that interesting.  So he hit it again.  More leaves fell off.  He started hitting it repeatedly, and it fell over.  Claire was looking at me with this "Mommy!  What do I do?" expression, and I was frantically gesturing at him to stop.  Someone on the front row jumped up and righted the poinsettia for him, but he just thought that meant to go at it again.  I was turning red and sweating, trying to figure out what to do, when our pastor noticed Will, laughed, and said something like "In case you were wondering if donkeys eat poinsettias, they do!"  He wasn't actually eating it, but close enough.  Glad that Kirk found it entertaining!  Will finally stopped beating up the poinsettia with his mask, looked around, and realized that so many kids had come up during the story that he didn't have a clear exit off the stage.  He got up on his knees, yelled "MOMMY!!!", and I took that as my cue to snatch him off the stage and head to our seats.  We made it through the rest of the service without further incidents.

Claire giving me the "What do I do?" look, and Will behind the demolished poinsettia.  Yes, I took photos.  :)


The lesson learned:  2 years old is too young to participate in the live nativity.  Maybe next year will go more smoothly...

Although slightly embarrassing, it was a Christmas Eve service we will never forget!

Christmas 2012 Part 1: DFW

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Our holiday started with a trip to Arlington the weekend before Christmas day.  We usually spend Christmas at Ma & Bob's house, but it worked out better this year for everyone to get together the Sunday before.  We drove up on Friday and went to visit Great Grandmommy & Great Granddaddy in Fort Worth on Saturday.  Carol, Jeremy & Grace went over, too, and the cousins had fun playing and being silly, as always.

That night the kids were revved up & really excited to open presents the next day.  It took several tries, but we finally got a photo of all 3 of them smiling for the camera.

Most of the pictures looked like this:

Grace loves to pose for photos.  Our two goofballs...not so much.  :)

Our Christmas celebration started out with stockings, which are always fun to open.  You never know what treats you will find, although you are almost always guaranteed something emblazoned with Obama/Biden from Mike & Lizzie, particularly in an election year!

We all enjoyed our traditional Christmas breakfast (I always have at least 2 helpings of breakfast casserole) before opening the presents.  Claire & Will loved helping Ma pass out the gifts and were thrilled with everything they received.  We have such a generous family!

Grace & Ma

After lunch & naps, we were able to spend some good family time together, playing games and picking lots and lots of pecans up in the yard.