Christmas Eve in Coppell

Happy Christmas Eve! We have had a WONDERFUL day. We are loving being in our own home for the first time for Christmas.

We started the day by Mommy cooking for our big dinner tomorrow while Daddy took the boys out to breakfast and to visit Santa at Bass Pro Shop. Of course, if it's at Bass Pro...some shooting has to be involved.


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Then they had their pictures made with Santa. We are a "no-force" family when it comes to this. This is actually the first year Leo has wanted to get close to Santa, and Henry just wanted to stand with Daddy behind Santa.


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Tonight we opened a few presents...


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And put our Christmas PJs on and left Santa some cookies and milk. And a carrot for the reindeer.


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Our self-portrait. I love this picture.


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Christmas decorations

We're having minimalist Christmas decor this year. I just haven't had tons of time for it - busy eating bon-bons and watching soaps, right?

I love to put up a lighted garland and then hang the cards we receive on it. In our old house, I put it around a kitchen window. In the new house, I did the staircase. This picture doesn't really do it justice - it's pretty, and you can see the garland from the street at night through the window above the front door.


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We have a little table top tree that we put out of the reach of little hands. We might get a bigger tree in a couple of years. For now, I love not having to worry about Henry pulling the tree over. He also doesn't understand about not opening gifts, so we have to keep those out of reach. We think it looks great on this TV Hutch that Aunt Carolyn gave us several years ago.


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We also put up lights outside this year b/c that is very popular in this neighborhood. I don't have a picture, but I did simple white lights in the bushes and also used a couple of lighted topiaries that mama gave me.

This man that I love...

he does the funniest things! He doesn't like sweets very much...but his oatmeal was just too bland. So he put Tobasco on it! Mmmmmm....Mmmmm!


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This weekend, our remote garage door opener (the one I keep in my car) quit working. We have a joke around here that Todd always says..."It won't work." whenever we have a home fix-it project. He's not exactly the most positive or optimistic when it comes to handyman stuff. Anyway, I happened to have a new opener that I bought back when we bought the house, and he looked it over and said in a surprised voice..."Hey, I think this might work!" To which I said..."Wow! You mean we won't have to stop using the garage forever? What a glorious way for this tragedy to end!"

So, he fixed it in about five minutes (faint!) and showed me that it worked. I had the new opener in my hand, and I was gesturing around with it and saying how this was the easiest and most pleasant home fix-it thing we had ever done...and the opener came flying out of my hand, landed on the concrete, and split into four pieces.

And, Todd...wonderful Todd...started laughing. He is so good-natured! I love living with him!!! And he picked it up and put it back together, and all was right with the world.

White Rock Half Marathon

On Sunday Dec. 14th, I ran the White Rock Half Marathon for the second year in a row. Last year, it was cold and wet...this year it was in the high 60s/low 70s and humid. That is a little warm for running, but not too bad.

I had a pretty good race except for some tummy issues that made me glad to see port-a-potties every few miles. I enjoyed running and visiting with Carla up until mile 9, and then I let her go ahead and I listened to music and ran alone for the last four miles.

My time this year (by my watch, not their clock) was 2h20m, which is 5 minutes better than my time last year. I'm pretty pleased with that!

You can see pictures here, but they're nothing spectacular. Click on White Rock Marathon...my bib number was 10828.

http://www.sportphoto.com/

Holiday Parties

Last week, both of they boys' classes had Holiday Parties. Leo's was on Wednesday. They had a big hoopla in the gym that was just for the kids while the parents put out a "feast" in the classroom. When they got back to the room, they ate their feast (chicken fingers from Chicken Express, biscuit from Chicken Express, fruit, popcorn, and other stuff that I can't remember.). Then they rotated through different centers such as bingo, make-an-ornament, open their stocking (they had a stocking that Tingle the Elf put prizes in each day of December), and another craft that I never figured out. I did bingo until it was time to go get Henry from drop-in care for his nap. They did ballroom dancing after that, but I missed that b/c of naptime. Only one mommy to go around!


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Henry's party was on Thursday at the church where he goes to Mother's Day Out. It began with a little concert. None of Henry's class sang the song, but he did do a few motions. Yes, he has on Spongebob Crocs. He wears crocs pretty much every day now...we do not fight him on it at all. It's actually a great conversation starter with the general public.


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Then he had a little party. Henry thoroughly enjoyed the cupcake!

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