Well as my school was starting, Grant and Alexis were getting out for winter break. Alexis still went to preschool for playtime with her classmates a couple of days, but no uniform and not full time. She was excited to have her party and book exchange at which the teachers couldn't figure out how she and Skylar had each others names. We already have our first birthday invitation for the new year and she is wound up and excited for her first event of the new year.
But anyway, back to Christmas. As mentioned previously, we were keeping things pretty low key this year. As you already know, Andrew was not a fan of Santa when we went to get our pictures. I thought that Santa on the firetruck would be more fun, after all he loves trucks and it was from farther away. Santa had been rescheduled due to rain, so we hung out with our neighbors and roasted marshmallows. Santa didn't hang around as usual, but just did a drive by which turned out to be good for us because Andrew was fine and excited looking at the lights and truck as it pulled up but as soon as Santa waved and HOHOHO'd he broke out screaming in horror.
Friday, Alexis made a Gingerbread house and we went to look at Christmas lights. During a drive through the neighborhood earlier in the month, Alexis had been telling Andrew to look at all the different blow up characters..."look at the snowman, and Santa, and look there's a bear with a... um, box." So on this drive we got a picture of what we have come to call "Dreidel Bear". We also went to the house in Flower Mound that is choreographed to 15 minutes of music played on 107.3 FM. Grant turned off the radio when it played a portion of the Tech Fight Song.
 |
| Dreidel Bear |
 |
| falling asleep 5 minutes into the drive despite shouting that she wasn't tired then telling us she was tired and wanted to go home when we tried to wake her up to see the one that was set to music. |
Saturday, we had a laid back day. Grant took Alexis to the Valley Creek children's church program because Mr. Vic was playing! It was cool for Alexis to see the puppeteer/entertainer from her birthday party and preschool do a Christian show about letting your light for Jesus GLOW. During that time, our Elf was trying to start stuffing the stockings early but was caught quite literally with the first of Alexis' stocking stuffers still in his hands as he was balanced precariously with her stocking after getting Andrew's first stocking stuffer in his stocking. Andrew and I were at the store (still managing to forget an ingredient because I had not read the whole list of what was needed). Then later we went to the Lakeland Christmas Eve service. While the service without childcare started out well for us, it quickly went downhill as an anxious Andrew tried ripping Grant's hair clean out of his head while bouncing on Grant's shoulders while we were singing. Then he just wanted to run, so even though both kids were enjoying themselves, it became necessary to take Andrew out to the lobby where I joined and was joined by others that also had children that needed to be removed from the service. After the service, the kiddos continued to chase and wear each other out while we chatted, which worked out well for us to get Andrew to bed once we got home and Alexis stayed up to help make cookies and set up the cookie plate for Santa and his reindeer.
Once she was in bed, we got the call that Aunt Becca wasn't going to make it. Bummer and shame on you American Airlines for 2 trips in a row for my sister trying to get to Dallas for a short stay...at least this time she was able to come just a day later. But back to Christmas Eve, we got everything set up and I was very glad that we turned off the tree since Alexis came downstairs in the middle of the night! She didn't see her things and after Andrew fussing due to teeth and her chattering in the middle of night after being hyper all day and then flip flopping in our bed and then Sadie snoring, I gave up on sleeping in my own bed and went to Alexis'. Grant was sweet enough to keep her calm and in bed until Andrew was ready to get up and then she went looking for me before wanting to dive into gifts. After all of the excitement, Alexis' favorite gift was her "princess computer" (aka Leapster Explorer with Princess game) from Santa and Andrew loves his new toys, but his favorite Christmas treasure might actually be the memory foam bathmat that Grant and I received...he keeps laying down on it and cuddling with it. The day was spent playing with toys, eating Christmas dinner (beef tenderloin, sweet potatoes with gingersnap streusel, and rolls) and cookies. We were all worn out by the end, but it was a great day and luckily we got to extend our Christmas blessings and fun by one day when Aunt Becca got here. It may not have been quite the same as if she had been there on Christmas but at least we got to see her and Alexis enjoyed getting to show her everything and serve her tea. Next up: New Years!
No comments:
Post a Comment