Christmas 2009

Christmas was so much fun this year! I remember Adilyn's first Christmas, and how I was so disappointed that she wasn't opening any presents. She was only 6 months old, so I don't know what I expected, but it was a let down. Last year, she got a little more into it, but this year was a totally different story. She was so excited to open the presents, so excited in fact, that she opened everybody's presents. She just picked a present from under the tree opened it, then decided who it belonged to. Poor Kacy, she just had toys and wrapping paper all around her...she was just left to fend for herself.







Let me back up a little bit first...

Adilyn finally sat with Santa this year. Of course, that only happened after Kacy sat with him and survived. She got into all the decorations and lights everywhere. Any time we saw a Santa, she would yell out, "Santa!"

Whenever I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she would always respond, "Ummm, a choo choo!" I didn't really think she wanted a train, but she stuck with it. I never got around to getting one, and I thought she would drop it. On Christmas Eve morning, I asked her again if there was anything that she hoped Santa would bring her, again with the choo choo response. Well, crap, I hadn't ever gotten the choo choo, but I couldn't have Santa let her down on the very first year that she understood the concept of Santa! It would ruin her for years to come, I'm sure...So, I sucked it up, and I went to Walmart. Yes, Walmart on Christmas Eve is exactly what you would expect from Walmart on Christmas Eve. It took me over an hour just to get a stupid train and a few groceries! I had to wait in line just to get down the aisle. Never again!!!

Christmas Eve, we decorated cookies for Santa. I also told her the story of Santa Mouse (Santa's littlest helper). Santa Mouse likes cheese, and the reindeer drink Coke, so we left cookies, milk, cheese, and Coke to make everyone happy. Adilyn ate so much icing as we were decorating that I thought she was going to make herself sick!
Ashley came into to town to surprise everyone, so she came over to spend the night on Christmas Eve. I still had a lot of presents to wrap, and Kacy was not tired, so Cory, Kacy, Ashley, and I stayed up until almost 2am wrapping and getting things together. Luckily Ashley was there to help keep Kacy entertained. I guess Kacy was excited about Santa coming, too!

We all slept in on Christmas morning until about 10am, which was awesome! When Adilyn woke up, I brought her downstairs, and she didn't want to open any presents. That surely wasn't the response that I thought she would have! I think she was tired, and once she woke up, she decided she was ready. Boy, did she get into then! Almost every present she opened, she would say, "Maybe this my choo choo?" I was so glad that I had actually gotten that stupid train for her! I think my heart would have been broken each time she said that if I didn't have one for her. The train was her last present in the "hunt", which is a tradition my mom started years ago. Man, was she excited to see that little train!
Later that day we went to Tommie's house for more family fun and great food. It was a long day, but a very fun one!

Fort Worth Christmas

We had our first Christmas celebration this weekend. We went up to Ft. Worth to celebrate with my family. Cory came back from California, and we all drove up there on Saturday. The drive went very well; we weren't sure how Kacy would do in the car because we hadn't driven anywhere since she was really little. When we had to drive to Atlanta, we got a DVD player, so after Adilyn asking us a million questions in the first hour and a half, we put that dude on to entertain her. Our first stop on the agenda was Mom's house. We got there around 1pm, and we hung out there until Brandon came over for pizza and presents. Adilyn definitely got into to the opening of the presents. Kacy just wanted to eat the paper. She actually slept through most of the present opening, but we saved her presents for her to open when she woke up.
After Mom's house, we loaded up for our next stop, Dad's. We got there, and Adilyn was wired - go figure! She was going to sleep on a pallet in Dad and Kris's bedroom. We got it all ready, and she told us that she was not tired. It was about 10pm, and she had not taken a nap. The girl was exhausted. Finally, I got her to lay down, and with the help of her magical music (the CD she has slept to every night since she was 6 months old), she fell asleep. The next morning we woke up, and everyone came over for breakfast. Luckily, everyone was able to be together except for Nina, who lives in Seattle. We had a great time. There were presents, playing outside on the new swingset, eating, and more eating. Cory's flight out to Sacramento from DFW left around 8pm, so Brandon, Kacy, and I took him to the airport.
I had planned to stay in Ft. Worth with the girls until Wednesday afternoon, but Kacy had been sick, and she needed to go in for a follow-up appointment on Wednesday morning. On Monday morning, Dad and I went to breakfast after we all slept in a little. After that, I went over to Mom's house to hang out a little with her. We stopped by Laura's (high school friend) mom's house for a visit. She is expecting her first little one in February. Adilyn had a blast over there! She has a bunch of grandkids, so her house was filled with "new" toys. I heard my mom and Adilyn cracking up in the playroom, and I glanced in there to find Mom on one scooter and Adilyn on another. They were running the scooters into the wall and acting like they were crashing. It was really cute. Then, on Tuesday, we drove back. Adilyn played with her new computer for a lot of the drive home. She kept saying, "Mama, my 'puter not working." Then she would get mad and throw her computer on the floor. Then she would change her mind and scream to get her computer back. It was a love/hate relationship...the same that we all have with our real computers. :) Finally, I realized that her computer was working, she just doesn't know her letters yet, so it wasn't moving on from that letter. Poor girl! Maybe she'll learn them soon.
It was a great time, just as it always is when we go visit Ft. Worth. I feel like I have the best family ever! I love spending time with them every chance I get!

Her Mickey Mouse lounge chair

She is searching for more presents

Smiles from Kacy!

Kacy got into the presents more than I thought she would

Laughs and fun!

Snow, in Houston???

Kacy's snow ball (ball of ice)

Growing up in Fort Worth, having family in Michigan and New England, and being able to travel a lot, I have seen a lot of snow. Well, not a lot, but enough to not make snow a complete life changing event. Still, when it snows in Houston, it is pretty exciting. It's only snowed about three times since I have lived here, so when snow was in the forecast for Friday, everyone was hyped! School was crazy, just as I expected. Katy decided to let the kids go home early, so I was excited to go get Adilyn and play her first snow. As I drove north on Fry Road, I started to realize that there was not anymore snow on the ground. At my school, there was a good two or three inches. Just 10 miles north of that...nothing. I was determined to have some snow fun, so I bundled Adilyn up in her new snow jacket, put Kacy in her full body jacket, and we went on a snow hunt! We found some snow in our neighbor's backyard that had piled up on the side of his shed. Nothing to get that excited about, but enough to make a snowball. Adilyn had a great time once we showed her that she could throw it. I wish we would have had a little more to work with, but we are in Houston...gotta roll with what ya got!

Contagious Laughter

Tonight Kacy was drooling (as usual), and Adilyn thought it was funny, so she started to laugh. As she started to laugh, she started to drool, too. She thought that was even funnier, so she started laughing again. Something about the situation made me start laughing, too. Before I knew it Kacy was laughing hysterically, also! She giggles every now and then, but this was a true "belly laugh". We were all giggling. It feels great to laugh! Some things are actually good to be contagious! We usually just share our germs, but tonight we just shared our laughter and our love.

The holidays are here!

I have always loved Christmas. I used to beg my mom to let me have a tree in my bedroom while I was growing up. Each night I would lay in my bed and just stare at the tree. It was a symbol of happiness, a symbol of family, and a symbol of hope for the new year. In an interview one time, I was randomly asked, "If you were a tree, what tree would you be?" Without thinking for more than a minute or two, I answered, "A Christmas tree." I had knee surgery one winter break in college, and the only thing good thing I remember about those horrible three weeks was laying on the couch looking at the tree and my mom throwing cotton balls all over the living room as fake snow. We always had a fun time celebrating Christmas and being silly as a family. Now that I have kids of my own, Christmas is even more fun! I remember the first year with Adilyn, I was all excited about buying her gifts and starting new traditions. Unfortunately, since she was only 6 months old, she didn't quite get the whole opening of the presents or visiting Santa Clause, go figure. I ended up opening them for her and trying to make her get excited about books, stuffed animals, and other little toys. What a let down it was! The whole anticipation of it sure was fun, though. Last year we had a lot of fun with decorating cookies, looking at Christmas lights, and opening presents. I can already tell that this year is going to be even more fun!

We started the tradition of going to the Christmas Tree farm last year. This year we were all ready for Adilyn to run around and get excited about all the trees. We were ready for her to pick out whatever tree she wanted. When we got there, she was nervous. Nervous about the "scary man" and the loud tractor noise, so we had to carry her. Finally, she at least got down and walked around a bit. She then relaized that the Christmas trees tickled her every time she walked by, so she had fun with that.

Our family picture...we can never get everyone to look at once time!

Adilyn is still scared of Santa, so I figured I might as well snap this picture of her since it's probably the closest she will get to any Santa! :)

I can't wait for these next few weeks to experience all the rest of the holiday fun!