What A Merry Christmas!

We had a really great Christmas here in Tennessee. Santa left Jackson some really great presents. All Jackson ever asked for was a race track and gummy worms, and he got both! As he was opening his presents, he said, "I have been really good!" He was just going 90 to nothing all morning. He has been playing with his race track a whole lot!

On Christmas Eve, we went and ate at the Mexican Restaurant and then I made cookies for Santa. Jackson decorated the ones for Santa and I was too lazy to decorate any more of them. I made sugar cookies, and they did turn out, but they didn't taste sweet enough for my liking. Anyway, they were good enough for Santa to eat :)

Mom, Darin and Tonya came in on Christmas Day, so that was really nice. It was the first Christmas I have spent away from Missouri, and I really missed Dad and Sherry, but I hope we can meet up soon. All in all, it was a very nice time. We even got some shopping done along with all of the other crazy shoppers the day after Christmas!

I don't want to bore everyone with the Christmas pictures, but for those of you who would like to look at them, here is a link to view them: KODAK GALLERY. And I hope Tonya doesn't mind, but here is a link, also, to the pictures she took: KODAK GALLERY.

Jackson's first view of Santa's gifts to him!

Santa even wrote Jackson a letter. Not that Jackson was interested at all in it, but I read it to him anyway!

Look how happy he looks playing with his race track!

Getting a hug from my favorite boy!

Jackson is getting so verbal, maybe too verbal. Tonight he was playing with this little jungle setup and I heard him say, "Let's get this party started." I asked him, "Where did you hear that?" And he said, "At the Mexican Restaurant." That place is like his home away from home, seriously. He and Tom went there tonight to eat, and Tom said there was a table next to them that was having quite a bit to drink. Three is a fun age!

I hope everyone had a merry and blessed Christmas! The new year is right around the corner! Ugh! I guess I need to come up with some resolutions that won't be realized throughout the year. I'll start thinking...

Santa Claus is Coming!

We were in Indiana last weekend celebrating Christmas there. We had, I guess, four gatherings in all. We had the Hart Christmas, the Schneider Christmas (just us and Tom and Mary) and then on Sunday we had the Kluemper Christmas and the Schneider Christmas, which are pretty large affairs.

I told Jackson on Sunday that we were headed to the Kluemper Christmas party and he asked me if there were going to be bouncies, which means blow-up bounce houses. And I told him that was all that would be missing from it. It would actually be fun to rent one of those some year and fit it inside the center where they have their party. You'll have to run that by the planning committee for next year, Jackson!

Jackson has already gotten a Lucky Ducks game, a Hungry Hippo game, a couple of Hot Wheels trick track thingies, a couple of dinosaurs, lots of toy animals, a remote control helicopter, a remote control car that runs on the wall, money, and I'm sure I'm leaving something out, but all of that and Santa hasn't even stopped here yet! It's going to be a fun time Christmas morning!

I want this to be the best Christmas for Jackson, as does every parent I suspect. But even if he won't remember this one when he's older, I am going to make sure and take lots of pictures and videotape him the instant he sees what Santa left for him under the tree. At 3, he's just getting the gist of Christmas and Santa and all that goes along with it. He tells me "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" or "Happy New Year" a couple of times a day!

This is the first Christmas I'll be spending away from Missouri, and I'm sad only because I won't see Dad and Sherry. Mom, Darin and Tonya are coming in Christmas Day. I just think it's time we stay home and start our own family traditions here in TN where Jackson will grow up. Tomorrow will be a busy day because I have a lot of cleaning to do, and I have to go to the grocery store. Stay tuned for pictures of Jackson after Santa visits. I plan on taking a lot of them!

Merry Christmas everyone!

7 Days To Go!

Jackson's Christmas party was a success! I don't know why I stress so much over having everything just so-so, because in the end, the kids don't care or know the difference. Like my edible take-home treat was supposed to be those ginerbread men, right? Well, this morning when I went to put them in their individual little cello bags, the heads fell off of two of them! But the way I looked at it was they were going to have so many cookies and candy that they really could do without these gingerbread men.

And I really went all out, I thought, on treat bags and made sure that the two girls got something different than the boys' bags. I got them a miniature etch-a-sketch thing. And I mean miniature. It was tiny. But anyway, Gracie opened up her treat bag, poured everything on the table, grabbed the etch-a-sketch and then before I knew it, she and her mommy had left! So the other things just got left behind!
This was their little game. It was to see who could pick up the most peanut packing thingies in their Santa hat the fastest, I guess. Anyway, everyone got a prize. And amazingly, the kids really liked this game. I had whispered to Connie, Jackson's teacher, that he was probably just trying to clean the floor and not really playing the game. And right after that, Jackson looked up at us and said, "Have to pick this floor up!"

And lastly, the object of Jack's affection, Gracie. He always likes the wild ones. She looks like she just came out of a wind tunnel. And she's pretty much the most rambunctious. But he talks about her a lot. And today when they were making their ornament, she walked around the table to give him a foam heart. Maybe she's smitten too. Can't say as I blame her ;) He's the cutest in his class, of course.

8 Days To Go!

Jackson's school Christmas party is tomorrow at 1:00, and I am in charge of treat bags and an edible take-home treat, whatever that is. I ended up spending too much on the treat bags because I just didn't know where to stop. Plus I didn't get enough little cars and so I have to short Jackson's bag a car. Well, actually I plan on getting one somewhere in the morning after I drop him off at school. Buster will be traveling with us since I have to take him to the vet to get his stitches out! These treat bags did not turn out the way I had envisioned them. In my mind they were so much craftier. Anyway, here they are:

I know. I know. Again with the gingerbread men. Even though they're just marginally edible, I like to decorate them with the icing and stuff. Maybe the kids won't try to eat them anyway! This is they're edible take-home treat. It's better than the edible take-home treat we had at our Halloween party. The mom that had signed up for that just brought a bag of candy bars in (I forgot exactly what kind) and told Ms. Connie to pass them out to them. Seriously. That sure would have been easier on me!

And here are my favorite Christmas decorations. They're like paper mache snowmen from an artist that lives in Hermitage. I have a couple of this Halloween things too. Not sure why I like this stuff so much, but they make me smile :)

My Christmas card tree is starting to get filled up! I love it when it is completely full, which will be any day now!

Here is my display of Jackson and Santa through the years. That one in front was his first year. I guess he was three months old. It's my favorite by far. Last year he wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, so we only have three.

Jackson tonight in his mismatched pajamas.

**********************

And I wanted to save these pictures and not show them before Christmas since the grandparents are getting these as a gift, but I really want to post them on here because I am so proud of how they turned out. These are Jackson's school pictures, and he is actually looking at the camera and smiling. Unbelievable. That is truly rare!

Yes, his pants are too long, but I just thought they would take from the waist up!

***********************

Here are the stockings I ordered for us this year. There are no monograms on ours yet because they wanted 6.95 to monogram each one, and I'm sure I can find it cheaper around here. They were and are still trying to sell these on eBay for 26.99 and above and they're on sale at Pottery Barn Kids for 12.99. Some people just don't like to hunt around. Anyway, the snowman one is Jackson's. I think I want the multicolor one and then that leaves the red one for Tom!

This post is all over the place because I don't have much going on right now. We're going to Jasper this weekend to celebrate early Christmas. So I'll have lots of pictures next week to post. In the meantime, say a prayer for Tom's grandmother Bernadette. She's in the hospital with some heart issues and she will miss their Christmas get-together.

11 More Days!

Today I baked. I made gingerbread cookies and banana nut bread, with very few nuts. Overall, it was a success, but the gingerbread cookies aren't very good. They're cute once they're decorated, but the taste is not so memorable. Here are some pictures.

This banana nut bread is made from Tom's grandmother's recipe, and I hope it's good. We haven't tasted it yet. It kind of looks like I baked it too long, but I hope not. Jackson really likes it too, so I hope it turned out. I'm crossing my fingers!

And for some reason I wanted to make a paper garland for our tree. I guess I was channeling Laura Ingalls or someone earthy like that who makes their own ornaments and such! It just looked kind of bare and needed some bulking up, so I got some Christmas scrapbooking paper and Jackson and I made garland on Thursday night. It's a mindless activity and I found it pretty relaxing. Anyway, here's what our tree looks like now.

I still have about everyone left to buy presents for except for Jackson. I think we're done. He did say today that he wanted Santa to bring him robots, but I'm not sure which robots he's talking about. I'll have to delve further. Maybe he means Transformers.

And for those of you out there who need a good laugh, here is a clip of Brian Regan, one of my favorite comedians. It is really funny: Brian Regan clip