More Christmas!

More about our Christmas this year!

*Christmas season seemed to start this year with my family going to Salado, TX, the weekend of my dad and Thomas' birthday. I loved seeing the cute town all decorated for Christmas and going in and out of cute shops (or at least trying with our active boy!). That really got me in the Christmas spirit.

*A week ago Monday, my mom, sister, and I got together at my parents' house and baked all night long. It was SO much fun to have girl talk, be silly, and bake all of our favorite Christmas treats!

*I already blogged about the North Pole Express, but that was one of my favorite things we did this Christmas! While we were there, we also toured the neat Christmas lights at Frisco's city hall, sled down an ice hill in an intertube (I was the only adult who did this), spent the night at my brother's house in Frisco, ate at my all-time favorite breakfast restaurant, The Original Pancake House, the next morning, and did a little shopping before heading back home.

*Saturday night, everyone came over to our house to eat and watch the Cowboys. Some of us worked on a Christmas puzzle, which I always love doing!

*Sunday, we had our Christmas service at church and sang a lot of Christmas Carols. We then ate Sunday lunch at Elizabeth and Bryon's house. That night, everyone came back over to our house to watch Christmas movies.

*Monday was lunch at our favorite hamburger place, last minute shopping with Elizabeth, hanging out, Mexican food at my parents', watching A Christmas Carol while drinking eggnog, and then off to bed for Santa!

*Christmas morning was so much fun with our little James! It started at our house, seeing what all Santa had brought! He came out in Josh's arms, wiggled down, crouched down, and then ran to all of his toys, going from toy to toy playing. It was so much fun to see him so excited on Christmas morning! We then went over to my parents and had more Christmas fun! Christmas morning is my absolute favorite time of the year. We got started on our egg casserole, got to hear all about what Santa had brought the kids, and then opened all of our presents from one another. James had never been as wild as he was on Christmas day. He was moving non-stop the entire day, excited, and talking about his gifts.

*Last night, Josh and I took down everything Christmas and I redecorated! We couldn't take it anymore, as much as James was in to everything! It feels so good, too!

That's about it! Here are some of my favorite pictures from Christmas! I hope everyone's Christmas was wonderful!

James in his chair that Santa brought over to Nana and Deedah's house!

Merry Christmas!

Thanks to Kimberly P. for taking these pictures for us!

The best Santa picture we could get! Owell! :)

North Pole Express

This has been a wonderful Christmas season! I have several experiences to share from the last few weeks.

*We tried to take Santa pictures at the mall, and James was petrified of "Ho Ho". We walked up to Santa, and James starting clinging to Josh's arm. I had a feeling it wasn't going to go well this year, and I was right!! He cried and cried. I even tried to get in there, but he was done. I was happy that we hadn't wasted too much time, because we'd gone at an off time, and we didn't have to order the picture. We tried again on Friday night in Grapevine, and he did better. I didn't even try to put him down without me. I just got in the picture with him and he did OK. He was in the middle of a blink, but I'll take what I can get at this point! Hopefully next year will be better! I will scan that picture soon.

*James only broke 3 Christmas decorations this year!! ;) He threw two Christmas coasters on the tile floor and ripped the arms off of the wooden toy soldier that I love. My aunt made it and carried it all the way from New York to Texas this summer. When he broke it, he said, "Oh NO!" I couldn't get mad at him, and luckily, I can easily hot glue it back together.

*James has been a little doll this Christmas, and we've had more fun introducing him to Christmas traditions. He won't remember anything, but it's fun anyway! We have watched almost every Christmas show and movie. He loved most of them, but he was not a fan of "The Grinch". He was trying hard not to cry, and it about broke my heart. I didn't notice it at first, but I heard a few whimpers, looked over at him, and his face was getting red, tears were welling up, and then he said, "Mama...Mama...Mama". We won't be watching that one again!

*My whole family went to Grapevine Friday night for the North Pole Express ride. It's a train that looks just like the Polar Express train, and the kids loved it! They sang Christmas songs, and Santa even came! Here is a slideshow of some of the pictures my sister took.


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Hey guys! I am going to make my blog private. If you read my blog, and I don't have your email address to invite you, please email me at laurentx20@hotmail.com. If I know you or know of you, I will be happy to invite you to read! If I have your email address, I will be sending you an invitation soon...no need to respond to this.

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MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family tree chart

Hang your Stockings with Care!

On Thursday afternoon, James got the worst bump he's gotten so far. He pulled on one of our stockings, and the stocking holder (which is pretty heavy), came crashing down right in between his eyebrows. First of all, I have to say how incredibly thankful I am that it didn't land on one of his eyes, because I think he really might have been blind from it. It was so sad, and I felt so guilty, because it was my fault for putting it there, but he, like always, got over it pretty quickly. Ever since it happened, though, we have gotten more laughs, because the little guy has turned into quite the storyteller. James has "told me" the story of what happened I can't even tell you how many times. The first time he told me what happened, I couldn't believe it! I laughed so hard, which is probably why I've heard it so many times now. Then, he just would bring it up out of nowhere. He would say, "Dididididi socks!(while pointing to the mantle) ....Ahhhhhhh!(then point to his bump)". I started telling a friend about it on the phone, and he stopped what he was doing, and "retold" the story. Then, the next day, he got on the phone with my mom. He started "retelling" the story to her, with hand-motions and all, and when I asked my mom if she had asked James about it, she said, "No! I just asked him how he was doing!". He'll even add sometimes, "I tieee", which is "I sorry". I feel badly for him, but we have had more fun talking about it since it happened!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

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(notice how my dad is holding James the same way he held me)

My dad's birthday is today, and I decided for his birthday this year to write a blog tribute to him. Here are a few things in no particular order that I love about my dad.

Since it's Christmastime, I thought I'd start out with this story...
My dad made our Christmases growing up the most exciting they could possibly be. He really got into them, would read us tons of Christmas stories, made sure we watched Christmas movies, and on Christmas morning, he would make the anticipation of Santa almost unbearable. Every year on Christmas morning, we would be excitedly waiting behind the last wall before you could see the toys/gifts Santa left for us (Santa brought us things until about the time Matthew arrived, and then he started bringing the grandchildren toys). My dad would go into the living room, start the fire, come out, and say (word for word), "Well kids, it looks like Santa made a big mistake! He left WAY too many toys!" We would follow that up with squealing/screaming, and then run out as fast as we could. Nothing was more exciting!

My dad provided such a safe, secure, loving home for us to grow up in that I am eternally grateful to him.

My dad has a huge heart and is a softy for his family. I always felt lucky to be one of his.

My dad is an incredibly unique person. He is interesting, the smartest person I know, well spoken, funny, quirky, generous, charming, passionate, sentimental, and many more things.

My dad is meticulous about taking care of his things. You will not find an item out of place or a speck of dirt on the floor. I laugh out loud when I go into his closet and see each shirt perfectly spaced apart. He passed this on to my brother, too!

Growing up, my dad loved more than anything to be with my mom, sister, brother, and me. We felt so special because of this. He was able to come home at 4:30 or 5:00 every day, and he would take us in the backyard and play sports, ride bikes, or just run around with us. He made it very clear we were his top priority. I didn't sit there and reflect on that as a kid, but I knew it. I LOVED special time with my dad, like going to McDonald's to get a Happy Meal, going to the movies just the two of us, going to father/daughter things together that he would never miss and thoroughly enjoyed. He also read to us and/or told us a story (he was an awesome story teller) as he put us to bed every night. This has carried over to him being an excellent, hands-on grandfather who adores his grandkids. He is such a neat, loving grandfather, and all four of his grandkids adore him! He beings four pieces of chocolate to church for his four specials little ones, he loves to get them all riled up and then hand them back to us, he takes them on rides in his convertible, and many more things that are making such special memories for them.

We love how much my dad loves my mom. He always wants to be with her. It is so neat to see a couple married as long as they have been, enjoy each other as much as they do. My mom and I teared up recently talking about how much we love Dad, and she says that he was so easy to love and be married to, some of the reasons being that he was devoted, honest, forgiving, gave the most sincere apologies, hard working, humble, sweet, and consistent, not to mention fun to be married to. They are such a great example of what a Christian couple should be. I am SO thankful to have them as role models.

My dad wanted us kids to go on a trip every summer with Mom and him. My brother, sister, and I called them "educational opportunities". He would research the place for about a year and would plan it out to a T. Everything went smoothly with my dad.

My dad was the one we would go to when we were having the bigger problems growing up. We told my mom the little things, but we wanted to go to my dad with the bigger things. He was the best at saying the right thing to make it all better, and it made perfect sense when he said it! He is incredibly wise.

Every so often, my dad will tear up when we're all together, talking about how much God has blessed him with our family. My dad is a strong man of God, who truly lives out his faith. He has been an incredible example to us on how you never lose your passion for Christ and you never stop growing in your faith.

Today is also my nephew, Thomas' birthday. My sister, Elizabeth, wrote a blog tribute to him today if you'd like to check it out!

Georgia's #1 in this house!

Okay, it's official, James has decided to be a #1 Georgia fan along with his daddy! Somehow he picked up perfectly along with way the Georgia cheer (whatever you call that), and it's one of the things he says best! He says, "Goooooooo, Dog! Woo-woo-woo-woo" and does the hand motions perfectly! The only thing he leaves out is the "sic'em" part in the middle. I kinda knew he would be, and I think it's really cute to see Josh beam when he does that. He says that every time he sees football on tv, but what made it official was what he did this morning. Josh was just putting him in his car seat and was wearing a Georgia hat (it has a big G logo on it). James saw his hat and said, "Goooooo, Dog! Woo-woo-woo-woo!". When and how did he learn the Georgia logo??? We have no clue, but I guess it's official!

This is more evidence that James is paying attention to everything, whether we think he is or not. Yesterday, we went to pick up Josh for lunch, and when we got up to his office building, he said, "Daddy!!!". Well, when we got to the parking lot before the parking lot of his office to take him back after lunch, James started saying, "Bye, Daddy!" over and over! He did the same thing with my mom the other day during her lunch break. We had gone shopping, and on our way back to my mom's office, she got her purse ready in her lap, and James said, "Bye, Nana!". It's so crazy to me how aware he is of everything we do.

The picture above is a picture of us last night at our church's Children's Christmas program. James sat perfectly still in his daddy's lap most of the time, which is so rare for him (and nice for us). He was obviously enjoying the music very much!

James is happy and he knows it!

James really gets into the "then your face will surely show it" part of If you're happy and you know it.

Tina Fey and I think alike!

This is spooky! I got my People magazine today, see an ad for American Express with Tina Fey on it, and I decide to read the whole ad, because I think she's hilarious. It was a questionaire, and one of the questions was her Perfect Day. This is what she put...

"coffee/playground/nap/exercise/flea market/playground/bath time/dinner with grownups/see a great movie/asleep by 9pm"

Now, if you'll recall, I posted a couple of weeks ago my perfect day, and it was eerily similar!

Here's what I put...

"Josh and I wake up 30 minutes before James(who has slept late), have our coffee talk, James wakes up, we eat blintz (that my mom just happened to bring over for us to eat), we go to the park and play, we go shopping and find a really good deal for each of us, we come home and take a nap all at the same time (just long enough to make us feel refreshed), we wake up and get ready for dinner with friends, go to dinner and the food was delicious, we rent a movie on our way home, play with James, get snuggles from James after his bath, put him to bed, pop popcorn, watch the movie that happens to be fantastic!"

Does anyone else think that's crazy? She must read my blog! Ha! ;) I wish I could contact her and send her this. Mine was a little wordier, but we pretty much said the same thing, except she included exercising and I included eating. That was spooky!