Cookie Time

In addition to the normal hustle and bustle of the holiday season, I've been busy with my new hobby of making iced sugar cookies. It can be tedious and a lot of work, but the end result is always so satisfying.
These were margarita cookies for a girls weekend in San Antonio in early December.

These were for a baby shower for a good friend at work. Her nursery is a jungle theme, so I wanted to coordinate with that.

Then came the Christmas cookie marathon!




A special thanks to Kenny for helping me with the details!

With this post, I'm participating in Bake at 350's Flavor of the Month.

Merry (late) Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We have been so busy that this is the first time I actually had a few minutes to sit down at the computer. We've been fighting a double ear infection and then a stomach bug that hit the house Christmas Day. I'm praying that the sickies have left the house for good. Kenny and the kids got in the Christmas spirit with their Santa hats. Notice even Jordan's doll had to wear one.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my mom's house. After 5pm mass, the festivities began.


Then Christmas morning, Santa came!!!



The scooter was a big hit!!!


Then Christmas Day was celebrated at Aunt Gayle's and Uncle Mark's. I had a stomach bug, so I didn't get to go. Of all days to be sick, Christmas is the worst! But, enough of that. The kids had a ball and got lots of good stuff there too.
Jordan with her tutu from Aunt Carla.

This was one of Jack's best presents. We lost one of these magnets this football season and he was very sad. Uncle Mark came through!

We're still recovering from Christmas, but it was such a memorable time with the kids. Of course they wish it was Christmas every day!

He Did It!!!

Jackson has always had a love/hate relationship with Santa. We don't even have a decent picture with Santa. Jackson had RSV his first Christmas, so we avoided all public places/people and that meant Santa. And every Christmas since, he's been deathly afraid of him. When we saw Santa on the Christmas train, Jackson said, "I don't need to talk to him, I'll send him a letter." And we left it at that.

BUT, at our family Christmas last Saturday, he DID IT! He sat on Santa's lap. All it took was for Reed to say it wasn't scary and he did it!!! (sorry for the red eyes) Then after he conquered his fear, he wouldn't leave Santa alone. It was so funny.

I wish I could say the same for Jordan. She was okay until Santa called her name, then it was panic city!!! My pictures of Jordan screaming at Santa were very, very dark. If anyone has a decent one, shoot it my way.

Here's a pic of the grandparents and grandkids with Santa. Wow! He's tall!

Santa's Christmas Train

In all the craziness going on, I forgot to post about the Christmas Train that we toured a couple of weekends ago. It was the Sunday of the big snow weekend, and the weather did not cooperate AT ALL, but that didn't damper our Christmas spirit. The train had a face like a Thomas train, and it had 4 cars that you went through. Santa was in the first car. Of course J&J both ran from him. Then the 2nd car had model trains going. Jackson could have stayed there all day. He LOVED it.


Then there were lots of fun decorations to look at. Jackson still talks about it and asks if we'll get to go thru the train again. I think he'll remember it for a long time.

Oh, Christmas Treesssss!

I think we have more Christmas trees in our house than the average person. Currently we've got 4, and I actually have a box of decorations out for a 5th one in the game room. The one we have is too full if we want to have Jackson's GeoTrax out, so we borrowed a skinny tree from Kenny's mom. Hopefully I can put that one up this weekend.

The first tree we put up this year was Jackson's. He loves the wooden ornaments that we put on it.

Then of course Jordan's was next. It was so fun to decorate with pink for a change!

Here's my blue tree that's in the entry way. You can see the garland that goes up the banister as well. All of our banisters have garland.

And here's the big tree in the family room. I just love this tree. It has just the right amount of lights.



I'm joining the Christmas gatherings at the Thrifty Decor Chick and Nesting Place blogs today. This also gives me an opportunity to share my house over the holidays since some folks *cough*Tami*cough* are afraid to cross the Brazos. :-)

Christmas Program at School

The grand production "The Gingerbread Boy and Girl Visit Daycare" was presented Friday at Jackson and Jordan's Daycare. The school does a holiday program for the younger classes on Thursday and the pre-school and pre-K classes on Friday. Jordan's class was on Thursday, but she gets to go with the older kids since Jack is in pre-K.

The program started with a short skit that one of the school directors narrated. They bring the kids in by age. They brought a baby in first who has a sibling in the older classes. Then it was Jordan's turn. She was a candy cane. She's making her entrance as the Easter bunny though. Look at her hopping!

Then Jackson's class came in dressed as all sorts of things. Jackson was so proud to be a snowman.

Once all the kids are brought in, they sing several holiday songs. Then conclude with a visit from Santa. Of course my kids ran the opposite way. HOWEVER, something exciting happened the next day. Stay tuned...

After the program, I took a few pics. Here's Jackson pretending to be the engine of the train.


As always, the program was great, and the kids had a really good time.

SNOW!!!

What??? Snow on the Texas Gulf Coast??? That just doesn't happen. But it did, and I missed it all. I was on a girls trip and just saw remnants on Saturday night. Kenny took the kids to his parents house Friday and it snowed 4 inches. Enough to make a snowman and snow angels.


They played and played and played. Watch out Popo!


And enough stuck around on Saturday to make igloos.


We are so unprepared for weather like this that they put plastic bags over the kids shoes so that their feet didn't get wet.

What a fun weekend and what great memories.

Santa's Wonderland

The day before Thanksgiving we took a drive thru Santa's Wonderland. Wow! What a sight!



You're welcomed into the park by two Aggie Corps members.


Then you drive thru some Aggie-themed scenes. Next you get to Santa's Flight School.


Then you get to Santa's workshop.


There are also animated scenes. These dragonflies flew across the creek.


Then you get to the real reason for Christmas.


The visit is concluded with a Resurrection scene that is incredible.


And if that weren't enough lights, we then went to Christmas in the Park. They had some cute scenes too. This was Jackson's favorite.


So if you're in College Station this holiday season, stop by Santa's Wonderland and Christmas in the Park. You won't be disappointed.