He may not be old, and he may not be a Saint, but you can call Dave "Nick"

At approximately 6:30 Christmas morning, the phone started ringing.  I would pick it up and nobody would answer.  So I would hang up again.  This happened 3 more times until I finally woke up, and I knew without a doubt that it was Dave calling.  I asked him if it was him and he confessed with a big smile on his face, "Yah, I just wanted to wake everybody up!"A few minutes later, Natalia ran into our room excited about all the gifts Santa left.  We went back to the living room and started going through all the stuff in the stockings.  I was taking video while Dave took pictures.  All of a sudden Dave says, "Natalia, what else did y'all get?"  She looks around and screams, "the Wii, the Wii, the Wii!"  I looked in the direction she was looking  and saw a small box!  I was a little confused and anxious, because I was unsure how well the Wii shortage/elf delivery explanation was going to go over.  But then I noticed that the box Natalia was looking at did not look like the box for the Wii controller we left out the night before.  I didn't know if it was just an empty box, or just another part to the Wii or if Dave had broken into somebody's house and taken the Wii from them (no, just kidding, this did not cross my mind).  No, the only explanation was that Old St. Nick had visited our home!  And, needless to say, we had a lot to talk about once the kids weren't around, part of which involved my ride on the Polar Express!

The funny part is that while I was so concerned about the kids not having a "big" gift from Santa,  to my surprise they enjoyed their stocking a lot more than any of the other stuff...even the Wii!  Natalia's favorite was the $2 glitter dough Dave found the day before.  Luke and Carson's favorite gift was their new Nerf guns (just what we needed, more weapons in the house).  Although, Natalia kept wondering why Santa had not brought her the roller skates she had been asking for.  We told her that she could not be disappointed, but to be thankful for all the wonderful gifts she had received.

Natalia excited about the Wii!?! 

Luke playing dead with his $15 gift!  He loves to play dead.

Later that day, we went to Grannie and Papaw's to open more gifts.

Natalia and Grannie went the next day to "Build a Bear"

Carson got a wooden castle from Papaw & Grannie

Luke got a Fisher Price Camera!

After being at Grannie and Papaw's house, we went to our house to meet my parents who drove from San Antonio with more gifts.  Natalia and Carson finally got the roller skates they had been wishing for.

Luke and his remote control dump truck

Carson & Natalia got the roller skates they had been wishing for!

We were blessed to enjoy Christmas with our family and that's what made this time so wonderful!

I BELIEVE

I Believe...

I Believe...

I Believe...

These were the words that kept coming out of Dave's mouth as he stared at the Christmas tree with his arm around me on Christmas Eve!  I didn't know what was up, but then again, this behavior is "normal" for him.  He was even incoherent at times, talking about some Polar express picking me up that night?

On Christmas Eve, Dave left the house at 5:00 in the morning to look for something from Santa for the kids!  Yup, you read that right, on Christmas Eve!  He was looking for a Wii out of all things.  One salesman even told him that he was more likely "to find an unicorn on Christmas Eve than a Wii."  Anyway, after being gone for several hours, he came home with a few small gifts for the kids and the controls for the Wii.  ~~His idea was that Santa could leave a note for the kids explaining to them that there were no more Wiis but that an elf would drop it off at a later time.  WHAT?!  I let him know that was the stupidest idea I've ever heard, but what else could I do?!!

That afternoon, I went out shopping for a few other gifts from my parents, but before I left the house, Dave kept telling me to please let him know if I was going to purchase any big items.  I didn't know where that was coming from, but anyway, I reassured him that I would let him know first.

I was a little concerned about the whole "Santa's letter" idea!  Dave's mom was also a little concerned.  She even went to Toy's R Us later that day to get the kids something extra, but Dave wouldn't let her bring them over to the house.   He kept reassuring us that everything was going to be fine, that "this was not the true meaning of Christmas".  So she took the extra gifts back to her house, and Dave kept staring at the christmas tree with his arm around me saying, "I believe..."

That night, we got ready for Santa as usual:  we read the "The Night Before Christmas" and tracked Santa on the Iphone one last time (we had been tracking Santa every 15 minutes since we woke up!).  We prepared Santa's snacks - everyone knows Santa Clause loves Dr Pepper more than anything, and finally we wrote the jolly old fellow a note.  

At Natalia's constant insistence, we finally put the kids to bed (she didn't even want to read the story, because she was afraid she wouldn't be asleep when Santa came by).  Normally Dave goes to bed right after the kids go down, but for some reason, Dave waited for me to go to bed this night.  I couldn't understand why though.  I cleaned the house and got everything ready for the next day, all the way to 2:30 in the morning, and there was Dave still awake, 4 and half hours past his bedtime?!? He even decided to read a little as I was falling asleep?  Well, it ALL made sense on Christmas Day - as you'll see in my next post!

Tracking Santa on the iPhone

Reading "The Night Before Christmas"

Writing note for Santa

Preparing snacks for Santa

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

December is such a busy month, but a lot of fun. Here are a few things we did this December:

We decorated for Christmas.

This year, it was Natalia's turn to place the star on the tree.  

She did a good job, don't you think?

We went to the Christmas parade in Beaumont. 

Wrote letter for Santa

Went to visit Santa

Luke asked for a real gun.  Natalia and Carson asked for roller skates.

Played with water, even though it was 50 degrees outside! 

Luke was outside, unsupervised, for only one minute...

The kids loved the advent calendar.  Each day, during the month of December, they opened a door and found chocolate and a Bible verse or a truth relating to the story of the birth of Jesus.

Decorated a Gingerbread House.

Lot's of fun and what a mess too!

Enjoyed some snow (that's another post)!

Made treats for Santa two days before Christmas, of course.

We also took MeeMaw (Dave's grandmother) to see Christmas lights.  Dave has taken his grandmother to see Christmas lights ever since he got his driver's license at 15 years old.  That means he has been doing this for 19 years!  Except now, he has added a few more passengers :0)!  Our favorite house this year, was one on 105 and Major.  We turned the radio to 103.5 and enjoyed the show.

What a fun time we had!  

Happy New Year!

Things have been a little hectic this holiday season.  I had good intentions to get our Christmas cards out right after Thanksgiving, but that didn't happen.  But, I still didn't want to miss the opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year 2008!

Santa was here!

Santa is so good!  He brought Natalia her own alarm clock.  She has been wanting one since she started kindergarten so that she won't be late to school.  I really hope having her own alarm clock works.  Carson got his drum.  Every time we would go to the store he would ask me to buy it for him.  And Luke, well he got what Mama asked Santa to bring him, a pirate ship.  He loved it!  The best thing about it is that his siblings love it too.  Wow, Santa is good.

The Night Before Christmas

What a busy day! We started off with Christmas movies. Later in the evening, we began tracking Santa on the internet.  After dinner, we read "The Night Before Christmas", got Santa's cookies and Dr. Pepper ready, and we also put out some food for the reindeer.  Memaw, David and the kids went driving around looking for Christmas lights and, of course, for Santa. The kids were anxious and wanted to come home so they could go to bed before Santa got here. Natalia even felt sick to her stomach, just to think that Santa was going to be at her house. Carson, while in bed, was complaining of being cold, which by the way he has never complained about that before. Anyway, they were a little stressed out about the whole idea of having a stranger in our house. We are all excited to see what Santa Claus is bringing us for Christmas!

Our Christmas tree is finally complete!

Due to how busy Dave has been with remodeling our house and making my Christmas gifts, our Christmas tree has been without a star. Each year, the kids take turn on who gets the opportunity to put the star on the tree. This year was Luke's turn so, today Luke had the honor of placing the star on our tree. Now our tree is 100% done! --It's starting to look a lot like Christmas around here.

Our 2007 Gingerbread House

We finally got a chance to decorate our Gingerbread house! Normally, we decorate it with the Ivey's, but this year it was not possible. That's okay though, because it gave Ms. Elizabeth the experience of decorating a gingerbread house for the very first time. What a help she was! Luke, well, I think he ate more candy than what he put on the house, but I guess that's okay. Carson did very well. He followed instructions to the dot. He only placed M&M's on the dots, just as instructed. Natalia definitely has a mind of her own and nobody, I mean nobody, is going to tell her what to do. I think her side of the house caved in because of the weight from all the candy she put on her side of the roof. Who would've ever thought that a little gingerbread house would keep their attention for approximately one hour. That goes to show you how much fun we all had. ~Merry Christmas!