Christmas: The Week Long Novel

Well, I realize that I have been behind in my blogging. With the hustle of Christmas, I just have been too tired! I realize that the best of bloggers find time to blog while feeding babies, cooking, or performing other daunting tasks, however I have to be in the right frame of mind and have plenty of time.
We have been out of school all week so the girls went to Holly Lake for the first part for some Grammie Camp time. Really they went because we had the Cowboy game, the 3 Redneck Tenors, and tons of shopping to do last weekend. However you look at it, fun was had by all!

Kickin' Off Christmas
Tuesday night Corey and I decided to give the girls our presents. We knew that we weren't going to be home long enough in the coming days, and our main gift was too big to hide! We gave them an Air Hockey Table and they loved it! It is something that they can play together and it doesn't take a lot of skill to enjoy! We also gave Makinley a Build a Bear and Morgan a stuffed "Bernie", both of which were requested. Makinley had purchased everyone gifts at the Santa store at school so she was thrilled to hand out her goodies. She gave Corey a bag of golf tees, me a Precious Moments Magnet, and Morgan a box of princess stickers. She bought it all with her own money and shopped to please everyone!


Corey and I also exchanged presents. He gave me a laptop which is awesome! I think I am the last person in the world to have one, but I love it! I gave him an iPod (he is the last one in our house to have an iPod!), dress pants, socks, and sleep shorts. We haven't exchanged presents in years, probably since Makinley was born, so it was fun to shop for each other again!

Christmas Eve

Our first Christmas family gathering was Wednesday, Christmas Eve. We went to Mamaw's for lunch and then presents. Almost all of the grandkids and great grandkids were there. The only ones missing were Ashley, Van, and Cameron. The kids had so much fun being together and playing OUTSIDE! I will have to get the great grandkids picture from Sarah to post!
After Mamaw's we were off to the Candlelight service at church. This is one of my favorite things at Christmas. I love standing there, surrounded by family, watching my kids sing songs about the baby Jesus. We are so blessed to know God's love and to understand the true meaning of Christmas. We always end with Silent Night and light candles and I ALWAYS wipe tears from my eyes as we sing. I love this time!

We finished the night at our house with part of Corey's family. We had Chicken and Dumplins that I made from scratch, which is a huge accomplishment in itself! We ate, opened our $1 gifts, and visited. We finished the day pouring chocolate milk for Santa and putting out cookies that the girls had decorated at Holly Lake. We hit the bed and waited for the sound of jingle bells and reindeer paws!

Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus!

Christmas Day
Santa came! And boy did he leave a lot of stuff! However, somehow Makinley always makes it to our room without looking at the loot. She is such a rule follower!!!! I made her wait in our room while I went and woke up Morgan! There were scooters and Nintendo DS's for both of them. Morgan got the ping pig that she told Santa she wanted, and even though it wasn't alive, she was happy! There were also games, dress up clothes, and craft/coloring stuff. Santa was very good to them this year.


For lunch we went to Corey's parent's house and what do you know..Santa had been there too! The girls walked in to find Smores, the almost real horse standing in the living room! They took right to her brushing and feeding her. We ate enchiladas, no not barbecue! Then we opened more gifts. Everyone has a big sack with their presents in it and you have to pull out 1 gift at a time, without looking in the sack. It was funny to watch the girls! Makinley would pull something out and Morgan would start feeling for that same thing in her bag! We came home with a truck full! The girls got bunk beds and tables for their American dolls, games, and tons of other stuff! Corey and I also got lots of cool stuff too! A down feather comforter, Chi straightener, a BlueRay DVD player, etc....!


Christmas, Day 4

Now it was Friday...Corey had to go to work. We had to take the dog to his post-op appointment. I forgot to mention that during all of this Christmas chaos, we had our dog fixed and his dew claws removed. Not a big deal if it wasn't for the ENORMOUS dish he has to wear on his head for 10 days!!!! He runs into everything and isn't very happy that he has to wear it at all. He scrapes it on the couches, the walls and our legs trying to break it! He is pretty pitiful!

Friday night we went to Wade and Sarah's for Christmas with my parents. They cooked a
Prime Rib and we ate on Christmas china. (Made my party a few nights earlier look pretty lame, we ate on plastic!) We played Shoot the Can and Shoot the Snowman for prizes and then opened more presents. The girls got more games, a closet for their American doll clothes and much more. The best part of the gift giving was just about to begin though!
A quick flashback...at Thanksgiving I asked Clayton what he wanted for me to get him for Christmas. He couldn't really think of anything so I started listing ideas: hulk punching hands, a drum set, a lizard. I was really doing it to get a reaction from my brother, but Clayton bit on the lizard! He sat with me for a good 20 minutes and wanted to know everything there was to know about lizards. So what was an aunt to do?
Back to the party...he opened all of his presents and last he opened ours. It was a box with a log and a bag of live crickets! He didn't really get it but his wheels were turning. I went into Wade's office and brought out the tank with the lizard in it and his eyes nearly popped out of his head! He was so excited! We gave him a Leopard Gecko that is green, yellow, orange and purple. I must admit it is pretty cool, and I miss him being here for me to watch! I'm not sure that I earned any points with Sarah this year, but I know I did with my nephew. Before we left that night he came up and said, " Thanks, Leigh Ann for the lizard so I didn't have to not pitch a fit". Apparently my brother told him that he had to be happy with whatever we gave him and that I was probably kidding about the lizard...not me...I came through for the boy!





On the Last Day of Christmas...

Saturday we rounded out our Week o' Christmas with dinner and presents at my Grandparents house. IT was great because everyone was there, even my Aunt Kim and Uncle Joe who recently moved to China. It was great listening to them talk about everyday life in a foreign country! I can't imagine!!! They are very brave and I admire them very much! It was good to spend time with all of my cousins too. We all live so close and rarely see each other, however when we do, it's like we are together everyday. We have a great family! We opened presents and the girls got clothes, which was great since they hadn't gotten any up to this point! We did our Chinese gift exchange and it was pretty tame, not too much stealing went on until the very end. Grandmom and Granddad opened their gifts, which is always fun to watch and the kids were entertained by Doug and Jay, which is the norm! Everything was perfect and it was a great way to wrap up our Christmas!


We are so tired and our house is a complete disaster, but I wouldn't trade it for anything! We are so blessed to have so many families to celebrate Christmas with! We love each member dearly and we are so thankful for each of them! We had a wonderful Christmas and we hope that all of our family and friends did as well! Merry Christmas y'all!

THE END

A Cowboy Affair

Well, our Cowboy affair ended just as fast as it began. With Corey's new position came season tickets to the Cowboy games. I have to admit, I was not too excited about going in the beginning. Corey drug me kicking and screaming to the first few but I grew to LOVE the Cowboys! The energy in the stadium is unbelievable! We hardly ever got to sit down!

The purpose of having the tickets is to entertain Corey's clients, so in addition to learning to love football, I also got to work on my personal skills. It is kind of wired knowing that you are going to spend 3-4 hours with people that you don't know and it's your job to carry the conversation and make sure that they are having a good time. Luckily, we had a great time with everyone we took. I got to meet and talk with people who I would have never met if it hadn't been for these tickets. It definitely put me out of my comfort zone but ended up working out great.

Last Saturday was the last game at Texas Stadium. Unfortunately, the Cowboys lost(not as bad as today, but close)!!! They got booed off the field! The Stadium Farewell followed the game. About half of the fans left in disgust before the final farewell began, but we stayed until the end. When would we ever get another chance to do that? NEVER!

Hank Williams Jr. was there, along with legendary Cowboys from the 70's 80's and 90's. A little disappointed in Aikman...he was too busy to attend!

Even though the Cowboys had their ups and downs, it was a great season! Corey's company hasn't made any decisions on getting tickets at the new stadium yet, but we are so glad that we got to live the Cowboy life for a few weeks anyway! Go Cowboys!

Gettin' in the Holiday Spirit

This weekend has been packed full of holiday cheer. It started out with our 2nd annual Adolphus Christmas Parade extravaganza. Our family and the Bryant's got a hotel rooms at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas and planned for a fun morning at the parade. We got there Friday night and luckily we got adjoining rooms. The kids were so excited about the rooms, we had to pry them out to go eat dinner. Hunter, Makinley, Morgan, and Maddie have such a good time together and get along so well. We went to dinner then came back to the rooms where Wendy had goodie bags for all of the kids. They played with puzzles, colored, and ate candy while we enjoyed champagne and chocolate covered strawberries:)

The next morning we opened our door to let Stacy and Wendy know that we were ready and we were met by Stacy saying that Wendy was sick. She had a stomach virus! I know that she was bummed! We had all been looking forward to this weekend for so long!

So Corey, Stacy and I packed up the kids and went to breakfast, then to the parade. We got down there at 8:15, but obviously we were about 2 hours behind everyone else! There were people everywhere! We walked and walked and walked and finally found a place. Stacy passed out more goodie bags that Wendy had made, poor Wendy! The only perk that Wendy had was heat, because we froze!!!! We weren't there more that 10 minutes and Morgan was ready to go back to the hotel. Everyone was VERY cold and we huddled together and wrapped the kids in blankets.
Despite the crowd and the cold, we had a great time. The kids waved to every character that passed and cheered as the balloons floated overhead. All of it together got us all in the Christmas spirit!

Today was round two of holiday fun. We went with my Mom and Dad, Wade, Sarah, Clayton and Drew to Grapevine to ride the Polar Express train. The kids had lots of fun. The narrator on the train was a little over the top with her rules to "be quiet and reminisce". But we did get to sing some Christmas songs and see Santa. After the train ride the kids got to ride some ponies which rounded out an exciting weekend!