Christmas Morning

Christmas Day has come and gone! As you can see in the pictures, the kids had a wonderful day. In the top picture, the kids are wearing their new PJs from Santa that they opened on Christmas Eve. The rest of the pictures are taken throughout the day, although they are in their pajamas for all of them. What it is about Christmas that makes kids (and me!) want to stay in pajamas as long as possible? Well anyway, Ruby was the sweetest thing all day. It helped that she slept wonderfully the night before, which is a lot more than I can say about the other three. They all slept together in the boy's room, and according to Spencer, "Ella was terrible!" She's not used to the company at night, I guess. Whatever the case, I heard them awake upstairs at 5:40. They knew that they had to wait for Ruby to wake up before we could go downstairs, and so of course she sleeps in until after 8:00! Even then I had to wake her up! So the kids took turns opening their presents (Ruby just sitting contentedly playing with a toy or two, wrapping paper, and bows) culminating with the BIG present from Santa. It was a big box, all wrapped up, but it actually just had a note inside telling them to look in the backyard. So we had pajama trampoline jumping all morning! It was just as much fun as when I was a kid! We had several fat lips and bleeding throughout the day ("At this rate we'll be in the Emergency Room within the next three days!" says Bryan), but it was fun. Ella's pretend cooking has now been taken to a whole new level with the introduction of the Easy Bake Oven. What a hit! Unfortunately she has been hounding me ever since to make cookies and cakes - in fact she's harassing me even as I type! It was a fun day. I hope you all had a great day as well!

Christmas Sunday

Merry Christmas from the Carlsons! With only one more day of WAITING, the kids are pretty insane right now. So I thought I'd post this sweet little picture of them, looking cute and happy, and let everybody have the illusion that this is what Christmas is like at our house this year. Nothing but sweetness and bliss! We are very excited for the big day tomorrow, and we hope you all have a wonderful day. Merry Christmas!

Seeing Santa

We were very lucky to have Santa come right to our neighborhood this year, and the kids were all thrilled! All 4 of our kids are in full-up in Santa mode (I'm counting Ruby, although she is a little young), so Christmas this year is going to be exciting. Here is a play-by-play of the happenings on Santa's lap. First, Ruby was so cute. She is such a sweet, easy going little girl. It was practically impossible to get a picture of her looking at the camera, because she was so mesmerized by this man with a white beard who was holding her. The top picture is the only smiling (or looking!) picture I got of her! The rest of them look just like the second picture - Ruby staring at this weird man. Ella was darling with Santa. She told him that she wanted a real watch for Christmas, which is what she's been telling me for months, and "Snap Dolls" which I found out from a friend of hers is a cute little type of doll that she loves to play with. Next Tyler sat on his lap. He may be getting older, but he was still cute to see on Santa's lap. He told him he wanted the Lego Star Wars video game, and then couldn't think of another thing. So that is why he is laughing in the picture. He drew a blank! Then came Spencer. Spencer did not draw a blank, but had it all mapped out. He told Santa that he wanted the Kung Fu Panda video game, and football pads. So after the pictures, hot chocolate, and cookies, we started to walk home. It turns out that Santa had to leave just that minute as well, and so as we started our walk home the boys saw Santa get into his pick-up truck and drive away!! They were NOT impressed! This opened up A LOT of question. Tyler kept saying, "He's a real man!" We had to explain to them that Santa works a little differently in Texas. Evidently he drives a pick-up truck. Plus our street is too narrow for his sleigh and reindeer, so he parked it down the road a ways. They were satisfied, and so the fun is back on! I love Christmas!

Funny Story...

Spencer cracks me up! He came home from school last week and asked if we could have a talk about Christmas Eve. I said "Sure!" Well, he said:
"Is it possible for us to say TWO prayers on Christmas Eve this year?"
"Of course, Spencer." (Thinking, wow...how cool that Spencer is wanting to double up on prayers for Christmas! He must be growing up..."
He continues, "Because if we say two prayers on Christmas Eve then we could skip the one on Christmas morning and get down to our presents faster!" :)
So...not quite what I was thinking! After further discussion I learned that this was brought on by a discussion he was having with some friends at school, and they were talking about how they get up and immediately run out to open presents. Spencer, recalling years past, was feeling ripped off! He had to endure a PRAYER (and, being Christmas, usually a long one) before running to the presents! And the funniest thing is that he had a talk with one of his teachers about this. Teachers must crack up on a daily basis at the things they hear. Anyway...we will not relent! Pray we will!

Thanksgiving

What a great Thanksgiving! It is our first "turkey dinner" Thanksgiving in three years, and we loved it. Bryan's parents are now living in San Antonio, and so they were here, as well as his brother Scott and his family and sister Jani and her family. They all either flew or drove here for Thanksgiving and so we had a full house! We split up food assignments, so nobody spent the entire day slaving away in the kitchen, and it was all delicious. We loved having everybody here with us. And the kids (9 of them in all) had a great time together as well (as you can see from the pictures). With temperatures in the 70s, it was perfect weather to be outside. So we played a lot of backyard football, took walks to the park, and we also went to SeaWorld one day. All that fun can be quite draining, however, as you can see from the last picture (my favorite!). I also have a good one of Bryan's parents both asleep on our couch at 7:15 one night, so I think we definitely wore them out. :) We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well.