Christmas at MeeMee and DeeDee's House

Every year, we celebrate Christmas with my parents on Christmas Eve at their house. My mom cooks and then we open presents. When I was a child, we celebrated Christmas Eve at Granny and Grandaddy's house (my dad's parents), so I know that celebrating Christmas Eve at the grandparent's house is a wonderful memory that my kids will keep with them for the rest of their lives.

This year, Nana joined us for Christmas and was along to celebrate.

Ellie got to open the first present: a Dora the Explorer plate and cup set so we could wash it and she could eat her dinner out of it.



There is a story about Kevin and his "platter", but you'll have to ask him about it. *smile*


This year was Ellie's year to wear us into the ground wanting to open presents. She's not a big eater anyway, and three bites in and she was READY to open presents. Of course, the rule is we don't open presents until dinner is over. I thought she might pop before she got to open a present!

Here are Nana and Ellie waiting to open presents.


Josh got the big present of the year (although none of us did badly!!) with a 32" television for his room.


Ellie got so many toys we couldn't keep up with it all.


Josh even helped put together some of her things:


DeeDee got his annual pair of slippers:


Sorry, apparently no pictures of MeeMee or me this year. *smile*

Christmas Day - 2010

Stay tuned for stories and pictures from our Christmas Day!

Christmas 2010 - At MeeMee and DeeDee's

Stay tuned for photos and updates!

Ellie's Preschool Christmas Pageant

How did that whole Christmas event slip by so quickly and I didn't manage to capture one bit of it in words?

I'll try to make it all up here.

I had a great "plan of action" whereby I had each day planned right down to the time Ellie and Josh got out of school. Then the bad weather came and shot that right out of the water.

Ellie's preschool did manage to make it back to school long enough to have their pageant. It was SO SWEET. Her class was angels. And, of course, there was drama with me. My camera broke several weeks ago and I haven't taken the time to send it in for repair. BUT, I asked my mom to bring hers so I wasn't concerned. I called her as I was pulling in to the church to see where she was and she was "clocking down" and stopping at the post office. All of a sudden she uttered, "Oh No! I've locked my keys in the car!" Lots of phone calls were sent around trying to find someone to unlock her car as it was freezing cold. Finally, a local fire fighter called someone and they got it unlocked. She called to tell me she was on her way and the pageant was already over. We were both just broken-hearted about it.

Ellie, however, did a great job!! She came out on stage and I could tell she was nervous as she was laying over on the arm of one of her classmates. Josh and I were sitting a few rows back and I was waving, trying to let her see us. When she did, her face just lit up (it was SO sweet) and she waved and then pointed out to us and loudly told her friend, "THERE'S MY BUBBA!" Josh's face lit up too -- you could tell it made him proud.

I did manage to snap a few (really bad quality) phone photos of Ellie. I have another mom in the class who told me she got several of Ellie, so I'm waiting to get those (maybe when we get back to school).

Posing in her classroom after the event!

Adorable angel!

It was a sweet pageant, re-creating the birth of Jesus and with the kids singing some really sweet songs. What a blessing this little ones were!! And, I'd be remiss to not admit that I thought my sweetie was the cutest one there!! :-)

"Got it?"

Yesterday was a hard day for Ellie (and her mama and her brother). She has fallen head-first into the "terrible" part of the terrible two's and has developed a really nasty little streak. Any time a nap or bedtime is mentioned she screams, "I NOT DO IT!!!" Many nights she is carried upstairs and put in the bed and cries the entire time, "I NO DO IT!!!".

Yesterday she "not" take a nap and I didn't feel like fighting her on it -- so we skipped nap. I paid for THAT decision later.

Josh slept in and then went to a friends house to play video games. John came back with him and they played video games in Josh's room for a while and then, about 4:30, we saw the first of Josh for the day. Ellie, who asked about him, ALL DAY, was pretty tired and put out at that point and was absolutely cranky.

She told me, at one point, that she wanted a snack. It was pretty close to dinner, so I was pondering what to make her and decided on some peaches. As I was getting them ready, she rounded the corner and said, "I SAID I WANT A SNACK - GOT IT?" I whipped my head around, certain I had misunderstood what she said and said, "What did you say?" and she repeated it. UGH. Needless to say, a conversation ensued about how to ask for a snack nicely and how that was ugly.

After her snack, she proceeded to start fighting with Josh about everything. She hit him with anything she could put her hands on (her broom, doll, hands). She ended up in permanent time out because everytime I put her in it and went back to cooking dinner, she was up and beating on him again. FINALLY, her daddy got home and I had some reinforcements to help out!! She was just a pistol all evening, fell asleep at 6:30, back up at 7:30 and back down again at 10:00.

I've decided she needs an opportunity to burn more energy as she is used to pre-school and play time. Today she is going to "Donalds" (ie., McDonalds) to the play land to play hard so she will nap!!

After long conversations about how God, mama, daddy, Joshua and Santa don't like hitting, her first words out of her mouth this morning were, "I not hit Bubba anymore." Time will tell!!

First Snow

It was an early first snow this year, coming December 12 and causing the kiddos to miss three days of school during the last week of school. It wasn't much (especially by Northern standards), but in the South, a dusting causes a complete shut-down. The kiddos were all about playing outside, but it was FREEZING cold at 17* with some serious wind factoring in. There was some snow angels, sledding and the dog had a GREAT time. Ellie wasn't much on sitting on a sled; she just scooted down the hills on her bottom.

All-Star

This year was a first for Middle Tennessee Junior Football -- an all-star east and west team playing in a bowl game. Josh was one of several from his team chosen to play on the all-stars team on December 11 at MBA in Nashville.

It was RAINING cats and dogs (didn't we JUST do that in Owensboro a few weeks ago???) and cold to boot. I can't imagine how hard it was to play football on a field that looked like this:





This was the view from our seats -- umbrellas everywhere. The west division (Josh's) won with a final score of 25 - 0. It was a nice win, but sitting out in the cold and rain wasn't a lot of fun! And now, Vikings football is truly over (and I can have my life back!).

Christmas with Grandmother

One of the things that has been MOST frustrating lately is the fact that my GOOD camera is broken. I have had (taken) the time to call and send it in for repair so I'm stuck with a snappy digital. FRUSTRATING. Anyway, I digress.

Saturday morning was Christmas with Santa at Grandmother's nursing home. We all went over for breakfast, took Grandmother's gifts and got to see Santa (which really excited Ellie who got to remind him about her "Barbie toys!").

MeeMee takes Ellie to see Santa:





This girl LOVES her some Santa:




Why exactly is NO ONE looking at the camera?


Since my camera is kaplut, I don't have any more pictures from the day. Apparently, if I can stick the camera in my pocket I forget to take pictures until the event is almost over. *sigh*

Here are a few pictures of Ellie in front of our tree before church the next day.



This girl is SO sassy!

Christmas Decorating

Although we were several weeks late in Christmas decorating (we normally do it Thanksgiving weekend), we finally managed to get out all our decorations and get to work. Unlike last year, Ellie was ALL in the mix this year. She was fascinated with all the Christmas ornaments and decorations. Everything is new and fun to her this year. We watched our annual traditional movie while we decorated: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Still my favorite ever. And even though they complain for weeks in advance that they have to watch it, Kevin and Josh were glued to the television as well!

I thought it would be really cool to have a live tree this year since it was Ellie's first Christmas to really be active and participate. THEN I remembered that I am apparently highly allergic to pine. And so, we continue to have a"fake" tree -- I think the "PC" name for them is artificial. But we like it well enough and it serves the purpose to hold the ornaments, which are my favorite part of the tree. I love looking back over all the ornaments from year's past and associating the memories to those.

Later that night, as I was putting Ellie to bed, we read her book, "The Christmas Story". When I asked her who the baby was in the manger, she threw her hand up and said, "ME!". I gently explained to her that it was Baby Jesus. Then we talked about the wise men and asked who they were bringing presents for. She waved her hand in the air and said, "ME!" All Ellie, all the time. Funny girl!!

Opening the tree box:



Putting together the tree:


Happy faces!!


Everyone LOVES wearing tinsel!









Putting the angel on the tree:

Pleasant View Parade and Santa Visit

Ellie has been talking about sitting on Santa's lap for weeks. Every few days she would say, "I want to sit on Santa's lap." I asked her what she was going to ask him for. Her reply, "Barbie toys!". Now, keep in mind, she doesn't HAVE any Barbie toys, hasn't ever played with any Barbie toys, but I suppose she sees commercials while she's watching Dora each morning.

So, when we saw that they were taking photos with Santa after the Pleasant View Parade, I knew that was a great opportunity to get that visit with Santa in.

After the parade, we were second in line to see Santa. While we waited Ellie was so excited and wanted to go set in Santa's chair. It was so funny when Santa came in, she didn't pause when it became her time. She walked right up, climbed up in his lap and POSED!!! She talked and talked to him, hugged him and posed for all the pictures.

Getting ready to leave:


Before the parade, we stapped a few pictures in front of the Livery Stables.





Waiting for the parade to start:

Posing with Santa (yes, the photos seem a little red to me??)