How we spent our Christmas

This year we stayed at our home in Texas for the Holidays. Here's how we spent our Christmas.

I got an amazing early Christmas present as the option for delivery was either the Friday before Christmas or after Christmas. Kyle surprised me with a piano. I don't play. I wish I did. However, learning to play had better be one of my top resolutions for 2009. Kyle plays. Jaden is taking lessons and we hope the rest of our children follow suit. Long story short, we have been looking for a piano on craigslist ever since we moved into our new house. We found this one online and it happened to be in our same city a few miles away from us. We drove over looked at it, played it and of course loved it. We thought the price was decent, loved the color and great shape it was in and couldn't argue with it being delivered and tuned as part of the deal. It seemed to good to be true. Then we started talking ourselves down from it. We wouldn't be living beyond our means by purchasing it but the economy is taking a turn. Maybe we should just hold on to our money. In the end I gave up on getting a piano in the near future. Obviously, Kyle had other plans. He tried to have it delivered while a friend was supposed to get me out of the house. But Jaden came down with an illness and it seemed I wouldn't leave so easily. Here is a picture of the beautiful and even more beautiful sounding piano that has made our house feel like a home! Thank you Kyle. I love it!

Christmas Eve Day we attended the Houston Ballet Nutcracker. This is a long standing tradition that Kyle's family has. They have always attended the "cracker" as they call it on Christmas Eve day. We loved it. Afterwards and non-traditionally, (although I could see it becoming a tradition) we drove through a downtown McDonald's drive through and ordered some dollar menu food. Classic! We hurried home read our last countdown to Christmas scripture story, watched the Luke 2 video, opened PJ's, made cookies for Santa, scattered reindeer food on the lawn, prayed that Santa would be guided safely to our home and tucked the 2 oldest in bed together.

We planned not to take Reese with us. However, she woke that morning with a slight fever. We took her with us and she did great. She slept until intermission and literally watched the second half without budging an inch on my lap. She loved it. We were glad we took her after all.

Let's pretend I made these pajamas. . .

The look of bewilderment. . .

The look of down right excitement. . .

Christmas Day dinner. We enjoyed a Christmas ham with all the trimmings. It was so relaxing to be on our own as we were able to spend every second with our kids. Afterwards, we visited a nearby rest home for some Christmas carolling. Can I just say it scared the crap out of my kids! Mission accomplished. . . just kidding.

Here are a few more highlights from December:

What keeps us busy. . .

Jaden: middle row first dancer on the left

This was an informal 1 minute nutcracker dance her teacher let us sit in on.

Jaden quit gymnastics in the fall of '08 and has taken dance since then. She takes 2 ballets, jazz and tap. She liked gymnastics but it's interesting to note how much more excited she is to go to dance. She is really starting to have a passion for it. She is always twirling around the house as she sets the table or walks to and from places, often running into walls, counters, cupboards and corners. Ty and Reese get the award for sitting through all of her dance classes. However, Ty's recent DS he got for Christmas will, hopefully, help dance fly by for him.

Ty taking the ball down field. His soccer team's name is the Fireballs. He will start up again with the same team in the Spring. They had an awesome first season.

Here is a story I just have to post about one of his games. We have some friends who also have a son on the team named Jake. After the first couple of games with their son not having scored a goal, bribery set in. Here is the deal they made: if Jake scored a goal his reward would be a Wii game. Ty caught wind of Jake's parents bribery. At the next game Jake stepped it up and he was doing better but a couple games came and went with out Jake scoring. So the next Saturday rolls around. Ty and Jake are in the game together. Ty gets the ball and starts kicking up field towards our goal, Jake is by his side. Ty weaves in and out of a few players keeping the ball and Jake at his side. Jake is following along with Ty. Ty is nearing the goal and just at the last second with no opponent near Ty backs off from the ball and allows Jake to score! Everyone is cheering while Ty and Jake each run to their parents and yell: (Jake) "I scored, I scored now I can get Lego Batman!" (Ty) "I let Jake score, I let Jake score now he can get Lego Batman!" It was pretty cute. As thoughtful as my little boy is I can't let you think he did this to help boost Jake's inner confidence. You guessed it. Ty was looking out for number one. He plays at Jake's house at least 2x a week. Jake obviously owns a Wii. Ty's family, however, does not (to Ty's dismay). That same Saturday Jake's family invited Ty to go to the video store to pick out the Wii game.

Reese crawling keeps us busy. Reese has been crawling for over a month, recently she has turned into a turbo crawler/stair magnet. We can't keep up with her. I need to get a larger gate to help put my mind at ease. Until then. . .