Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! Our prayer this year is that each person reading this will draw closer to Jesus as we realize the reason for the season is His birth and great love and sacrifice for us all. A pastor said recently that Jesus was probably born around March, but a Roman emperor changed the date to coincide with a pagan holiday to draw attention away from that and to the Savior's birth. I am fine with that as I like to think that at least Jesus was not as cold as I was on most December evenings (the low tonight in Bethlehem is 40). We are blessed beyond measure for another year together. I am blessed to know you, and to be able to wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.

We spent a wonderful Christmas morning together, the five of us, beginning at a pleasant 7:00 AM. Each year on Christmas eve, we go over to my step dad's family in Ft. Worth. The make delicious tamales and other authentic Mexican foods. Yummy! We have a good time catching up with people we unfortunately only see once a year. That puts us home most years, around 11:00, so the kids get a late start and give us a little more time in the morning as we stay up even later than the girls, of course!

The girls repeatedly said, "This is the best Christmas ever!" Music to a mother's ears. The yikes got their American Girl dolls, Kit and Addy. They were anamored with each outfit, bow, shoe, book, and even miniature hanger! Katelyn's big gift was a great hot pink digital camera. Also, my uncle Shawn graciously gave us his old Wii and we set it up for Christmas as well. We originally did not think we wanted a Wii and as per an earlier post, you might know I bought one after Thanksgiving to sell, not use for ourselves. That said, all the girls, Jake and myself have enjoyed playing. In fact, I played boxing with Jake and won!! And, golf with Jadyn and lost (she is good!) So far, we are having a great, but carefully limited time, with it. I am thankful to have it uncle Shawn!! Thanks. It is the one video game system that is actually fun to watch as well as play. For me, at least, that is not true with the others.

I took Jadyn and Bryn to see Santa on Christmas Eve. We went to a place that was recommend by several people, but this was our first time to attend this particular Santa's workshop. The children gathered around Santa's chair instead of standing in line and Santa called their names, much to everyone's amazement. Then, Santa spent a good amount of time with each child. I told the girls that they needed to not be shy and speak clearly and loudly to Santa what they wanted so he could hear correctly...





Last Thursday, Bryn had a friend and his family over to play. One of the girls told us she wanted a sled for Christmas. Their mom had no really idea why she wanted a sled as she had rarely if not ever been on a sled and it snows in Texas on an extremely limited basis. Nonetheless, she wanted a sled. Bryn, quick to pick up on this, said she wanted a sled too! When she did not get on on Christmas day, that night as I was tucking her into bed, she said to me ever so sweetly, "Mom, next year, I am going to speak in a clear, loud voice to Santa that I want a sled for Christmas!" :) She did have a wonderful day. One of the girls favorite things were matching pajamas and outfits for themselves and their dolls!







My Dad and Cindy from Oregon sent the girls matching PJ's for themselves and their dolls. This holds special significance as my Dad's mom, my Grandmommy, used to make me matching outfits for me and my doll! I loved them so much. They put them on right away and even wore them over to open presents at my moms house. This brings me to our second event of the day, presents at mom's. We open presents one at a time at our house. It is by no means slow, but it it is significanly slower than the mad dash as Grandma's and Grandpa's. The presents were all from them, so there was no need to make sure we knew who gave what, as is important to me at our house. I actually like how different the two houses are. Both are fun. The girls and Austin had a ball. We all had fun watching them:)



Yikes!



Mom with me and my sister Hope.



Beautiful Ella



We went home and changed into more new matching doll clothes and went out to eat at a hotel bufffet.



We have done this in the past and it is quite nice. There were 24 of us and we had our own room in the main ballroom area of the hotel. The food was fantactic. I sat next to Jacque and we each had seveal plates from the sushi bar. She actually figured we could have ham or turkey more often than a full sushi and seafood bar. I could not agree more. It was delicious. The kids had their own buffet with chicken nuggets, pizza, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. Their small desserts even had s'mores and jello squares! It was a great time, with no clean up and prep, so we all had more time to visit with each other.

Aunt Diane sat next to all the kids as she is the kids magnet most of the time we get together. Here she is with Bryn.



Jadyn and Aunt Sandy are having a fun meal together too.



Me and mom!



Here are cousins Carter and Zander.



Dad (Mike) with Jake.



I teased Katelyn that this picture with Corbin and thier cousin Aiden looked like Aiden was her and Corbin's baby, thus the silly face!



My mom with my brother Garett.



Aunt Jacque with her sweet Kaylee and Zander.



Many of us headed back over to my Grandparents in Mansfield to visit some more. We took a few pictures there of my cousin Mandy's Jace and my sister, Hope's Ella.



Mandy with the babies.



Jadyn will hold the babies until we tell her to stop. She does not even care if they are crying!! What a sweet cousin she is.



Aunt Sandy with Jace with Aunt Pam and Aunt Jacque in the background.



On another note, I usually forget to write down so many of the funny things the girls say. Usually we say, we should So blog that, then I forget!! I want to start writing down the cute way the kids say things too. I will try hard to be better! Anyway, Bryn speaks actually very clearly for a 4 year old. So when something comes out wrong, all of us love it so much! Two such words lately are "Dubbon for button" as in "Mom, will you please dubbon my dubbon?" The second is "Skabetty for Spaghetti" as in "I wike Skabetty, can I have it for dinner?" I love it:)

Today Katelyn did something I had a flashback to doing when I was a kid. She went shopping with some friends. One of her friends got some money for Christmas and decided to buy a small Coach purse. (I wish I had a Coach, but that is not the funny!) Anyway, Katelyn and another friend did not have the money for said purse. The decided, however to ask for a cute bag from the store to carry around (with nothing in it!) I did the same thing in 6th grade with my friend Joanna. We were at the Galleria and got a few bags. I think from Clinique makeup and Macy's, two very cute and popular stores back then! Now, it is Coach. I was cracking up at the memory.



I have chemo on Friday. I am confident I will have just as good a round as last time. I feel great and had almost a full three weeks of low to no side effects. Please pray for that to be the case for Round 2. I will have new scans in February, so I am eager to see its effectivness, which of course is my fervent prayer. Jake decided to come with my Friday as he is off work for Christmas and rarely gets to go. I know I will enjoy our time together.

Speaking of time together, December 21st, Jake I celebrated 9 years of marriage. Jake planned a complete surprise date for us beginning at the Cheesecake Factory for a great lunch. We went to go see the movie I Am Legend in an IMAX theater, which we really enjoyed. We were still pretty full from luch, but had some time , so we stopped at the Olive Garden for drinks and hordorves. But them the best part was the completely suprise of going to a Dallas Maverick game. I have not been to a game since I went with my dad back in the 80's-ealy 90's when they still played in their old stadium. Jake got a great deal on amazing seats and we both had a ball (pun intended!) I married a fabulous husband and father to our children. I felt treasured that night we spent together. I can't wait until #10!

As I mentioned earlier, Katelyn's big gift from us this year was a digital camera. Katie always has taken pictures of herself, quite the high self esteem that I am in love with! She takes pictues on her photo booth on her computer, she uses my camera. But, a whole new world had opened up hith her own camera! Watch out!! :) Here are a few examples.





Finally, I want to share with you one last moment with the yikes. Whenever either Jake or I get home from being away for any length of time, they hear the car and come running. It is a sweet moment to have them run to great you as you get out of the car. What a welcome!! I happened to have my camera in my hand and needed to capture the love!