Christmas 2009

(Please ignore the fact that it is February and I'm just posting my Christmas blog)

Christmas was GREAT! It was the best yet! We always have a lot of different celebrations to attend.

This year we started on December 20 at Grandpa and Gram's house (Earle and Deb). Jacob made a new friend, Jake. He is Deb's youngest son; I think he's 11 now. Jake was so nice to Jacob and kept him occupied all evening. Andrew enjoyed chasing the cat around the house. We always have a great time at their house. Here are pics from that evening (Aunt Em and Andrew, Antonio, and Aunt Em with Jacob and Andrew).





On Christmas Eve, it snowed and iced like crazy. I was so happy that the kids got to have a white Christmas, although they will never remember it and I'm sure we didn't take enough pictures. Emily and Antonio had a party on Christmas Eve. Brian and Grandmother went to the party together because we didn't want to haul the kids in the ice; Texans CANNOT drive in that crap. Our tradition in our family is to read The Night Before Christmas before the kids go to bed. I tried to keep Jacob up so that we could carry on the tradition, but he totally crashed while we watched a movie. Brian and I were a little bummed, but we were excited that Jacob would get to play in the snow on Christmas morning!

We woke up Christmas Day and did our family thing. It was so fun to watch Jacob. He was finally old enough to get it. And, as bad as I feel saying it, for me it was all about Jacob this Christmas. We bought Jacob a little Thomas train set. He was having some trouble working it and it was a little flimsy, so Santa had to end up getting him a GeoTrax train set in January. We did keep the other track and the trains. Now the trains are a constant source of frustration for Jacob; Andrew likes to play with them, too! So here are a few pics from our family Christmas.





And here is a shot of Jacob in the snow on Christmas morning! He had so much fun!



So with the snow, we did not leave our house on Christmas until 4:00 in the afternoon...with 2 more places to go by the end of the day. Our next stop was Grandmother's house. Aunt Becky and Uncle Tom came into town, and we were so happy that they made it! Emily, Antonio, and Sirius came over, too!





Becky and Tom got The Beatles Rock Band. Emily and Antonio had another stop to make that evening, too. So we all decided that we were going to go to our next stops and meet back at Grandmother's to rock out!

Our next stop was Big Gaga's. I was so happy to catch my cousin Robbie and his wife Ericka and their daughter Olivia. Olivia is so sweet! I hate that they live in Austin and we can't see them more often. I did not get any pictures of Christmas at Gaga's.

So back to Grandmother's we went. Becky and Tom did not participate in playing the game, but Antonio, Emily, Brian, and I had a great time! I think we finally left the house at 2:00 a.m.

December 26 was another full day. We had to be in Kaufman by noon for the Paxton family Christmas. We were all so happy to have it at Big John's house this year. We all ate really well, did our gift exchange game, and then visited the cemetery to take some wreaths to Russell and Grandma. It was a very nice Christmas, and I'm so thankful now for it. Again, I suck at taking pictures; I have none, but I'm told that my mother got some good shots.

After Kaufman, we went to Red Oak for Christmas with my family. I think the best part was when my parents opened their gift from all of us. We got them tickets to the last regular season Cowboy game at the new Cowboys Stadium. Oh my goodness! My mom's face says it all. They were truly surprised and so excited! Here are the pics.

So Christmas is usually a little chaotic with scheduling everything and trying to make sure we do not stress ourselves out just to make it to all of the different places. But I'm always so thankful for my family, Brian's family, Brian, and most importantly my babies. I feel so lucky that we all get to spend that time together.