Christmas Celebrations Part 2

 

     After a wonderful Christmas in Graham, it was time to head south to have Christmas with the Moores. We packed up Christmas night and the next morning, waited for Dalton to finish his feeding and then headed out! We were excited to see everyone and get a chance to visit for a few days.

 Ace practicing his Tigger bounce and Tucker stretching after a long ride in the car.

Of course there had to be a sword fight before we got to the gifts.

Papa gave him the instructions on how to fight properly. 

     We got there at about dark and chatted with everyone. Then we decided to open gifts. The boys were excited about that. They had become experts at this over the last couple of days. So we all opened gifts and oooed and ahhhed at what everyone received.   

      It's always entertaining to see what everyone gets because it's usually a surprise. Garrett won the prize this year for the most unexpected, yet greatly appreciated gift. He got Dalton and I 'furry Crocs'. Dalton was especially excited because he'd been asking for house shoes. And let me tell you, we have worn those Crocs a LOT since we got them. I appreciate them more and more each time I slip them on in the middle of the night on my way to take care of Tucker.

Fun times! 

     Mom and Dad were thinking of the distance between us when they did Christmas shopping, and they were thinking of how to get us to come visit more often…they got us a portable DVD player for the car. I thank them every time that I turn it on and ride in a quiet car.
     The boys had a big time opening presents and they got some cool things too. I think their favorite from this round was a playhouse for in or outside. It makes a great hot dog stand, something they pretend a lot.

Anyone need a hot dog? 

Settling down for bed. It was a full house so the boys slept on a mat in the living room.

I'm sure the twinkling Christmas lights helped them have sweet dreams.

     After gifts, we had a good holiday dinner and finished the evening out playing with our gifts and watching the boys play with theirs. One gift goof that I made was when I ordered Castaway Cowboy for Garrett. I was so excited to give it to him and he was excited to get it, until we tried to watch it. Unfortunately when I ordered it on Amazon I neglected to realize that it was from the UK so we weren't able to play it on our DVD player. Not sure why they make it different, but it was a bummer. Looks like I'll be ordering again from the Disney site now.

Before we figured out it was a UK video

     The next day we got ready for visitors and had another Christmas celebration. Grandma, Papaw, the Franks and Scherers all came over to visit.

 Grandma met Tucker for the first time. 

Loved getting to visit with family

     We had a fun chinese Christmas gift exchange, all using things that we already had but didn't use anymore. That way we got to have the fun without the cost. I was a little worried when Dalton opened a set of clippers; he keeps threatening to cut Ace's hair! But luckily they got stolen.

 The smile says it all

    Then we all did a couple of activities together, including guessing Christmas songs by scientific names. But my favorite was when we all shared our favorite names for Christ. It's always refreshing to hear what Christ means to others and how even though we have the same Lord, he is so many things to different people. We heard The Vine, Love, Lord, The Word, and several others. Parker and Paige also sang "How Many Kings" for us, an encore performance of one they did at church Christmas Eve.

Cooper and Logan did a little singing too.

Garrett was the historian for the moment, capturing it all on video

    We finished the visit with yummy sandwiches and soup and games including dominoes and Apples to Apples. Paige and Pearson stayed the night so we had some extra late night fun playing Spoons; I even got to play a round when Tucker was happy. Unfortunately that weekend there weren't that many moments, his poor tummy and nose were giving him troubles.

 

Everyone's playing dominoes

Mom has the little bundle of joy, and a rousing game of spoons.

    The next day we hung out, said good bye to Garrett and Amy and then visited with Aunt Vicky and Mycahla.

 Visiting on the porch. Ace is heading out to feed with the guys.

     And we had the Brian Moores over for pizza that evening. It was fun, but unfortunately I only snapped one picture so I didn't document well. Ava does Classical Conversations as part of her homeschooling and she sang a little of her history timeline song. It was pretty neat to hear and made me excited to explore the options out there for Cooper as the time approaches.

Cousins playing a tune together 

 Both the boys got matching hoodies from GG and Papa, so cute.

    Sunday we loaded up all of our luggage, goodies and kids and got ready to head home. The boys settled in with a movie and Ace was asleep before we made it to Waco. We stopped at the mall and Dalton and Cooper went in to find some Levis for Cooper. When Ace woke up I strapped Tucker to me and we headed inside to find them. It's a bit of a workout carrying Ace and Tucker through a parking lot into the mall but I made it. We made the purchase, got Cooper a haircut (Dalton was going to get one until we asked how much it cost) and headed out of town with Whataburger in hand. We've quickly figured out that Cooper won't nap with the TV going so we had to turn it off so he would nap.
    We stopped in Stephenville and Dalton got a haircut (at a very reasonable price I might add). Then we went by HEB for a couple of necessities. Cooper was asleep by then so Ace and Dalton went in. It's cute seeing Dalton and his boys going in to take care of business, always love sweet Daddy child moments. Any time we are in Stephenville I want to linger and just hang out. I so enjoyed living there and would move back in a heartbeat! I keep trying to think of excuses to go back.
    Finally we made it home about dark and unloaded the car. I think it's taken me a good two weeks to get everything back to normal. I had to find places for the new things we received, clean out some old things and catch up on clothes and chores. It's an exhausting season celebrating Christmas, but I love it too. Another wonderful year is gone and now we're on to new challenges and adventures this 2014. I have a feeling it's going to be a big year for us.

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:14