I have been so behind on blogging and am determined to catch-up and be more prompt in 2013! In an effort to document the most busy month of the year, I have attempted to overload blogger and put the whole month into one post. So all of my faithful readers, hang on to your hats, because this is our December!
The month started with a Gingerbread House making party at church. It was SO fun to be with our friends to decorate the houses. I think the boys were more engage and "into" decorating their houses. The both made GI Joe forts, complete with cannons, guns, cannon balls and guards.
Mrs. Kim A, the organizer, also had gingerbread ornaments for all the kids. We had fun hanging them on our tree and remembering our fun night! I hope this becomes an annual event!
The next morning we had breakfast straight from the North Pole! This was the first year an elf came to stay at our house. The boys were SOOOOO excited to meet (and name) Peter, our elf. Through the month he did all kinds of tricks and stunts, but overall he was very well behaved compared to other elves.
We had smowman shaped pancakes, snowballs from the North Pole (white powder do-nuts), snowmen on a stick (more white powder do-nuts), new cups, trading cards, a fun peg game and a new Nutcracker. I made some bacon and eggs to go along with all the sweets and it was a great morning!
That night we went to our town Christmas parade... notice our shorts! It was a hot month here in Houston. I think we wore jackets6 days total! We sat with the Madrazo's and Villasana's and enjoyed a LONG, but fun parade. At one point Kristi almost had to tell-off some "too-cool-for-school" jr; high girls who kept standing in front of us in their daisy dukes.
We also wrote letters to Santa. Jacob asked for a GI Joe Hovercraft. Rylan asked for GI Joe Base and BBQ. We mailed the letters at Macy's in the big red mailbox.
Not related to Christmas, but still a great event... Jacob got awarded "Good Citizen" for December for his class. They had an assembly with all the Kindergarteners and the counselor gave each class rep a yard sign and certificate. It was a short, but VERY sweet assembly. We are SO proud of Jacob for being kind and for making good choices at school.
This was also GPop's first outing since his abdominal hernia surgery on November 5th. Jacob was extra excited for Granna and GPop to see him get the award. He did not know he was getting it until that morning when they announced it over the speaker. He thought that was SO cool!
We went to visit Bethlehem again. I took a TON of photos, but only put one on here. Once again, notice the shorts! hahaha The boys loved seeing the Roman soldiers! There was no lamb to eat and that was disappointing, but they did get to touch a real camel! Jacob's favorite was making rope and Rylan's favorite was making pottery. It seemed even more interactive than in the past and we loved it!!
On Saturday the 9th, we had Mugs and Muffins at Connie's house. Here are the Birds that were there - Robyn, me and Holly. It was a perfectly delightful morning! The food was delicious and Connie's lesson was wonderfully perfect!
Later than afternoon, we made our first batch of cookies! These were Mrs. Sondra's cut-out cookies... YUM! We also made Over the Top Reese's cookies, peppermint bark, Marsha's Chocolate Crinkle cookies, Pecan Tassies, Snickers Cookies, Hello Joe's and gingerbread. Needless to say, it took a LOT of self-control for this Weight Watchers girl not to eat like crazy!
Jacob has 2 loose teeth. This is one of many attempts to pull the teeth! As of today, they are both still in his mouth. He can hardly wait to lose his first tooth!!!
Since 1/3 of the Flamingo's are living far north of us and could not come down, we did not have the usual Pink Christmas at someone's house. A Cheesecake Factory opened in our neck of the woods, so the 4 local birds, went for dinner one night. We all got the Factory Chopped Salad and Tropical Iced Tea.
Then we indulged in the good stuff... Godiva Cheesecake and Kahula Coffee Cheesecake. It was DIVINE! We also did a favorite thing under $5 swap and each person went home with 3 new favorite things!
Here's our visit with Santa... I love our Santa. He is so kind and talks so good with the kids. We went one day right after school and walked right up.
Grinch is one of our favorite Christmas movies. The boys still love singing the main song and laugh every time the Grinch says, "You're a bad banana withered..." I saw on Pinterest, that someone had a Grinch night, so of course, I copied them! We ate Roast Beast (ham), Who Hash (hashbrown casserole), Who Pudding (pudding cups with toppings), Grinch Punch (lime sherbert and Sprite) and Grinch Cake. Here's the cake... The boys LOVED it!
The family on Grinch night!!! After eating our Grinch-y feast, we watched the movie in our jammies. I think this will become an annual tradition! The boys are still talking about it a month later!
We had lots of time with Granna and GPop. This was their card pic and I loved it so much that it had to be blogged too! :)
Gingerbread cookies are Rylan's new favorite! Even with 8 choices, he always picked the Gingerbread. We made 3 batches this December!
Here's my little Packer smashing the peppermint for the Bark. We gave the bark to their school teachers and Bible Class teachers along with some other goodies. I had little restraint with this treat and may or may not have eaten 90% of what was not a gift...
The day before school let out, the kids got to wear jammies and watch the Polar Express. I had the hardest time finding Christmas jammies now that they are bigger than 5T.
Since the Grinch night was such a hit, Rylan decided we needed a Rudolph night too! So we did and it was awesome too! Here was our main course... reindeer pancakes complete with bacon antlers!
Then we dipped Nutter BUtters in melted chocolate to make these adorable (and yummy) reindeer cookies.
The Sunday before Christmas... this was our best shot of happy faces.
On Christmas Eve we made a Christmas Tree pizza for lunch. Rylan, who does not like pepperoni, ate the stem and the rest of of ate the top. It was really good too!
Then we made a fresh batch of Grandma's recipe for cut-out cookies for Santa. We left him these and a glass-bottle Coke.
For Christmas Eve supper we had Jason's famous Citrus Chicken, Grandmama's Potato casserole, broccolini and carrots. Here are the boys with my parents.
And here we are with Popa! It was a bittersweet holiday since it was our first Christmas without Granny. Oddly enough, I felt like she was there laughing and enjoying all the fun.
Seriously, who needs all these sweets???!!!?!?
Time for our annual Christmas Eve photos with the family.
We opened wonderful gifts galore! Some highlights were LeapPad2's from Granna and GPop, GI Joe vehicles from us and lots of books, Legos, and Hot Wheels stuff too. I got a new point-n-shoot camera and 2 jackets. Jason got a slew of IPad accessories. Needless to say, there was a pile of paper once we were all done!
Then we all went to sleep and Santa came! He brought the Dragonfly, Base and Hovercraft along with several GI Joe men and stockings stuffed full of goodies.
Me and my sweetie!
Christmas afternoon, we played several rounds of Christmas Bingo. This is definitely becoming a tradition! We had happy yelling and lots of laughing while we played!
Jacob and GPop won at the same time! Sheer joy!!!
The next day we went to Popa's to get the boys big gift from him. He passed down Granny's train. She had always wanted the boys to have it and we were all a little choked up for them to finally get it. I cannot wait to put it around our tree next year!
Then we headed north to Fort Worth for a few days with Jason's family. It had snowed 3 days earlier, and some snow was still on the ground. The boys headed straight for it and started slinging snow at each other!
After eating Christmas dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, corn and broc/rice casserole, we went to drive the light tour at Texas Motor Speedway. It was really neat. This Abombinal scene was the boys favorite!
The next day we headed to Decatur to see Jason's Popa. He had been in the hospital with congestive heart failure and we wanted to make sure and have a nice, long visit with him. On our way up, we HAD to stop at Taco Casa for lunch! Rylan ate ALL his nachos and Jacob had a bean burrito. Jason had his classic 2 spicy bean burritos and I had tacos and sweet tea. All of us at for $12.61. I like those kind of bills!
Here is Popa with all his grandkids from Mark's branch...
And our bunch with Popa...
And Justin's bunch...
And Mark, Martha and Popa...
The next day we let the kids play at home until lunch and then we went to the Fort Worth Museum. It was a really neat museum. One highlight was seeing the dinosaur bones.
Karyn and I ... mommas never get in photos! I love my sister in law!
They are in a dino footprint. Super cool!
And the highlight... digging for fossils. The BIG fossils are glued down, but using that brush and finding the leg bones was beyond awesome for these 4 kids!!!
That night we went to CowTown for dinner. As we were walking to Riscky's, we saw a memorial to Jim Bowie!
The next day we stopped by Twisted Root for burgers and root beer. It was a great meal!
Then we stopped in Lewisville to see Evelyn. She is such a encourager and evangelist!
As we squealed into town at 8, I got a call from Lyndsey that this was the only night we could see them. So we went straight to McDonald's to see our dear friends!!! Here are the Flamingo Daddies...
and the mommas!!
My boys with their BFF... these 2 hours quite possibly were their BEST gift of all!!!
Almost all the flock of kids...
So there you have it, our December. Man I'm tired! Now to start on January! :)
1 comment:
I made it through the whole post! Ha! You definitely were busy in December, but it looks like A LOT of fun!!
Post a Comment