Christmas Day

Christmas Day is always fun but a little crazy around here. We get up early and see what Santa has brought us then open the rest of the presents. While mom makes breakfast, dad starts messing with all things electronic. He was real happy this year because he got no clothes just electronic gadgets. After breakfast we have some downtime and just laze around for awhile.

In the afternoon it is time to go to Dorothy and John's for the big family get together. That is where it gets kinda of crazy. My sisters and I are not the quiet soft spoken types and neither are our children. We ate insane amounts of food, played games and opened presents. The kids loved everything they got and someday when I am brave I will tell the story of how Donna, Dorothy and I got potato chips for Christmas.

We had a great day and lots of fun. Here are a pic of all the cousins and I only had to threaten them once to get them all to smile.

Christmas eve

Christmas Eve in our family is reserved for just the five of us. Steve had to go to work for a little in the morning but had the afternoon off. We decided to go see a movie in downtown Fort Worth. A big thanks to the parents of all the children in my classroom who were very generous and gave me gift certificates to different places including the theater and restaurants. This was a fabulous gift for people who love to go out but hate the expense. Anyways, we went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks which was a great family movie.

While in downtown we went to see the big tree and it was beautiful. We also went to visit the Water Gardens which we had never seen before. It is a very cool feature of downtown and we intend to visit it again in the future.

When we got home we cooked king crab legs. This whole family loves seafood and the legs we got were over a pound each. Ally, Matt and I were only able to finish one but Steve and Steph ate two and were very stuffed.

It was then time to open the traditional one gift and then we all watched Dr Suess's grinch cartoon. It was a wonderful day and I am so glad we spend the day with just the five of us it is our special time.

Ally's Christmas joke:

What does a cat on the beach have in common with Christmas?

Sandy claws : )

House lights

Decorating the outside at Christmas time is a big deal at our house. This year Steve took it a step beyond. He created along with the help of the kids five snowflakes to go on our roof. Two of them our over 6 feet tall and the other three are over 4 feet tall. It took a complete weekend to just make the snowflakes and another weekend to put up the other lights. Ally says our house is the brightest in the neighborhood.

A closeup of a snowflake

Jingle Bell Jog

This morning we did the first annual Jingle Bell Jog for our school district. It benefits the scholarship foundation in our area. Ally calls it the "fun run" because she enjoys running. Mom is not as fond of running but the twins wanted me to do it so I walked it. The course is just one mile so it went fairly quick. Steve and Stephany were cheering us on the sidelines they are not joggers or walkers. There were lots of people there and it was a good way to start the morning. The finishers in order were Matt, Ally, and then mom but I did walk and talk with a friend from work so maybe that slowed me down.

Matthew came in 190

Ally came in 203

Mom came in 315