Here is our Christmas overview, as well as the week after. The Saturday before Christmas Mom watched Allen for us while Peter and I took Katy to the movies to see Despereaux, the brave little mouse. It was the first time Peter has been able to come to the movies with Katybird and we all had a blast! Katy was probably wondering why she didn’t need 3-D glasses this time.

On Christmas Eve we went over to Warren and Marjean’s house where Jerry and Kathy joined us for a lovely dinner. We opened up one gift each and then just sat around watching the kids play for a bit.

For Christmas morning, two sleep little nuggets were ushered out into the living room where Mom and Warren and Marjean were waiting to see their expressions of shocked joy. The cookies that Katy made for Santa were eaten. The living room floor was completely covered because several of their gifts were too big to be wrapped. I can’t remember which toy was attacked first but I’m sure it was either Allen’s dump truck, his shopping cart, their slide or their bikes. Hmmm….the wrapped stuff just didn’t stand out much.

That afternoon we headed to Jerry and Kathy’s house for more festivities. The kids went to feed the horses, which they love to do. I think it was Karli who pointed out that Allen is easy to take care of when all he has to do is wander around a huge pasture. And speaking of horses, Katy’s gift was a full rodeo set with the vest, spurs, holster and pop gun, plus the chaps. We were instructed to arrive with our pink boots and hat so Katy was ready for the rodeo! Allen strutted his stuff wearing Dad’s Christmas gift, a festive sweater vest and matching shirt. He also sported boots which cracks me up to see!

Starting on Friday night, my sisters and Uncle John came in to town for the holiday. We opened presents that night and the kids were too tired for it. Instead of looking happy, Allen went to bed and Katy moped around whining for more gifts to open. They improved greatly by the next morning and overall it was a fabulous time! We kept all the kids busy the entire time, which must be the way to keep everyone happy. There were two different Christmas crafts plus a gingerbread house, trips to the park, to McDonald’s play land and to Chuck E. Cheese. That doesn’t even count all the fun we had in Mom’s backyard. As always, the food was delicious. And everyone but John (slacker) waited around until late afternoon on Sunday for Gramma Great to arrive. Wahoo! She just blew down from Iowa and is ready to have adventures with Mom.

Delma and her wee ones came to town on Monday. It was just a day visit but we had lots of fun. Plus, eating out twice in one day is lots of fun. We delayed them from leaving for an hour at least when Baby Requay couldn’t find her new baby doll. We turned the house upside down and then finally gave up. The next morning I walked past the window and saw the doll sitting in the baby seat of our outdoor swing set. Go figure.

Then on Tuesday Amy F. came to town and once we found each other at the Chick-a-lay, we played up a storm! Ava came along too and those three girls together are fun to see. They played for a long time, then had ice cream cones, and then shopped a bit. That’s where things got extra crazy. They are climbers! Allen didn’t lay across Eli this time, so that was good.

After that we went to Mom’s house where the kids napped while Mom, Gramma and I played King’s Corners, a fun card game. When naps were over we shopped a bit. Then Peter called to say that Katy was invited to join Karli for a women’s basketball game. Wahoo! The game started right at Allen's bed time so he was not allowed to go. It was quite the day for us.

Today was much calmer but I’m ready to hit the hay. It was a quiet way to ring in the New Year. Warren and Marjean came over and played games while I caught up on my photos and blogging. I have high hopes for 2009!

OK, here is the last blog entry before Katy’s fourth Christmas, and Allen’s second. It’s just too exciting! They are at the perfect age to please, I tell ya what. In no time at all Peter and I will be dodging fishing poles and make-up kits as the kids throw our gifts across the room in disgust. Sigh…but for now, we are kings!

The weekend before last I believe I mentioned that we went to see Santa. Katy did GREAT!! Allen was not a fan. It didn’t help that we waited in line for 45 minutes, but every so often we were visited by a giant Christmas mouse or a polar bear and once even Rudolph came along! Allen really liked when were in line outside so he could run circles around the lighting displays and make new friends. I must say that Mrs. Claus only looked about 45 and should have put some baby powder in her hair. C’mon…let’s try for a little consistency here.

We also stopped by Jerry & Kathy’s for some yummy steak to celebrate Jake’s graduation from college. Here is proof. Jake did a great little presentation with framed certificates of thanks and everything. I think snagging Hillary is still his best accomplishment.

Mom got us hooked on orange rolls for breakfast many years ago. I don’t know if we did it in the early days or not. With Dad’s diabetes, maybe not. The kiddos really seem to enjoy this tradition.

Last Thursday was Katy’s school party and we totally partied like rock stars! I was kind of nervous for the first time being in charge of a school party. My team members were not leadership material, so I googled for hours to find just the right activities. Then I made assignments and hoped for the best. I brought stuff for two of the three activities, and assigned cupcakes to the “fresh from China” mom who is sweet as could be. Bless her button heart. She brought frosted muffins…blueberry and strawberry. I am still smiling at that. The kids chunked bean bags through a bell-shaped hole to ring the jingle bells, and even got to keep their own bean bag…cool! Mom came with me for support and it’s a good thing she did because I was snapping photos and working that video camera like I was a Japanese tourist in the Hello Kitty factory. Mom stayed at the table with the little foam Christmas stocking craft. The other mom supervised my ornament craft with glued-on sequins. After the crafting and snacks (don’t forget that we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and pretended to blow out imaginary candles on our muffins) we adjourned to the circle rug for a good Christmas story. And finally, the kids swapped their gifts with one another…books…after drawing names a couple weeks ago. I call the party a huge success!! Hopefully one of many to come! And to top it off, Katy even presented me with a gift and instructed me not to open it until Christmas! Check out that adorable foot print snowman!

Last Thursday night Peter and I attended a party in the home of his boss. Grammy & Papa came over to sit on the kids for us. We are so spoiled. Come to think of it, I guess that means our kids are, too. Our prize at the end of the night? Wineglasses. A lovely set of four.

Then on Friday Peter’s office had their annual Kid’s Day party with a visit from Santa, face painting, games, singing, and yummy snacks. Katy couldn’t wait to get in there. His accounting office won first place in the decorating contest. It was pretty amazing. Then Katy and Allen jumped on Santa (no line this time) and Katy reported that Allen wants a train set. This is something she has been consistent with, and she came up with it on her own. I have it through reliable sources that Aunt Laura is taking care of this particular need. Katy went alone first, and then we plopped Allen down. He didn’t like it any more than the first time. She even gave him an impromptu kiss that brought ohh’s and awww’s from all the on-lookers. Peter chased Allen and then fed him some cookies with green ‘rostings. Katy played a game with about eight other kids sitting in a circle. You pass a present and when the music stops, the person holding it gets to unwrap it. Each gift had at least five layers, so she played for about 15 minutes before actually winning. I couldn’t believe that Katy understood the concept, but she was adorable! After a bit her friend Ava showed up and they both had their face painted. Juice wouldn’t sit still easily so I tried to hold him down long enough for a fast candy cane. He wiped it off as soon as I let go of him. Maybe it’s just a girl thing? Finally they handed out the presents and Katy got the one thing (of two) she’s been asking Santa to bring her – a cute puppy! It’s not the real one she wanted, but she looked so happy in that moment that I don’t think she even cared. It has a little pink bone and Frisbee that magnetically attach to his mouth. She's also been asking for a blue elephant, even though she already has two pretty big ones. I know Marie loves elephants and it must be genetically passing down. Allen received a snail that converts to a drum. Jim and Tara will be happy to hear that. :o) It also lets him put little shapes into different holes in the side. The kids have already been fighting over it, which is a good sign that it’s a well-liked toy.

That night Peter and I attended his official Christmas party at the Hilton. Mom came and sat on the kids. We closed the party down and didn’t get home until after 11pm. Woohoo!! Some younger folks walked out just ahead of us and they totally believed me when I told them we won $100 as a prize for being the last to leave. HAHAHAHAHA!! Then I didn’t have $100 to show them, so that blew it.

OK, I think that catches me up for now. I tried to video Allen saying some of the holiday words that he’s learned (Santa, snowman, snow, HoHoHo, etc…) but he was in the tub and it was just too distracting. He cracks me up! There has been a bug (we called them blood-suckers when I was growing up) trapped between the glass sliding door and the screen. Allen keeps stomping over to it and pointing with a smile saying, “Bug…YUCK!!” He’s a man after my own heart. Lately after his bath since he hates to get out I have been swaddling him in a towel and singing to him like he’s a wee baby. He loves it and just looks up at me with his eyes peeking out and a big grin on his face.

Here are some recent Katy-ism’s before I forget:

*Last night Peter took Katy out for some daddy/daughter Christmas shopping. I wanted to stalk them just to hear them talking. Too cute. So she got to play at the playland in the mall. I was wondering what may have brought them there. I didn’t have to wonder long. Last night and then again several times today Katy told me, “Mommy, we got lotion for you. I’n not sposed to tell you. Dat’s what my daddy said. He said don’t tell her. It’s a aprise.

*Tonight Katy got out of bed and tried to sleep on the sofa. I was working on the computer and thought the noises I heard were from the cats. Then Peter came home around 10pm from his church meeting and made the grand discovery. It helped that she was all decked out in sassy zebra-striped jammies with hot pink trim. He re-tucked her in and reported back that she told him, “Santa’s watching. You need to go to sleep, too.”

*During Katy’s first tucking-in tonight she wanted her new Cute Puppy to sleep with her. It’s becoming her classic delay tactic, sending us traipsing around the mansion looking high and low for a certain, special animal. When I asked her where she last had Cute Puppy, she immediately replied, “In my hands.”

*bo = boy, and to = toy

*don’t see me = don’t look at me

*Katy’s favorite fantasy at bedtime involves a crocodile. It doesn’t matter what story I’m making up to tell her, she always says, “Put a crocodile in it.” She prefers for the crocodile to be bad, taking candy or “someping”

*When playing house with Big Juicy she said, “Allen, you’re my wife.”

*When Katy wants us to make it seem like one of her stuffed animals is alive and carrying on a conversation she firmly tells us, “Show her how to talk.”

*Last week Katy and I were playing with a stuffed animal puppy. I made him tell her that he was hungry. She said, “No, you’re not.” I said, “My tummy’s growling” to which she replied, “No, you’re just purring.”

*A couple days ago I pressed two quarters into Katy’s hand so she could feed the shiny red bucket in front of the Salvation Army Santa. When I was explaining to her that the money would buy food for hungry children, she looked at me and told me she was hungry.

*Katy sings the entire Rudolph song from top to bottom and I love every wrong word in there. I don’t know what “gleep” is but she really makes it sound grand. (…as they shouted out with gleep…)

And in closing, this was taken in a mad dash after church last Sunday. We are smiling but it was a painful process. Hope the kiddos appreciate this someday. HA! Check out my little man in his stylin' three-piece suit, minus the jacket which I forgot to put on. And since I'm closer to the camera, I look big enough to eat my husband. As an appetizer. And ask for more. Finger lickin' good.

Mom came over last night and taught us how to play the card game Old Maid. She was originally supposed to babysit while I worked one of my rare commercial cleaning gigs. The job was cancelled so Mom came anyway and we had some laughs. Once Allen went to bed the game was a lot easier to play. Katy kept picking the far left card from my hand so if I scored the old maid card, I could easily dump it on her. Once Mom thought that's what I was going to do and she lunged for my cards to force Katy to pick from the middle. Katy with her OCD had to pick the left card no matter what and we all had a good laugh to see it was Maid Molly or Doctor Dan, not the old maid card. She would scream, "I won!" after each game and it was lots of fun.

Last week we drove around to see Christmas lights with Warren and Marjean, then they treated us to dinner at Wendy's. The restaurant only had 2 high chairs and another family was using both. That left Allen free to slide out of his seat and run around the place. Luckily for us it wasn't very crowded, but we were getting a few looks from the high chair family. Oh well!

Instead of starting off with snow pics I’m going to catch up on the past week or two. At the beginning of this month my friend Dory brought over some of her adorable boutique clothing that we love to inherit. This time there were things in there for Allen, too but he’s happy with whatever!

We also put up the Christmas tree over a series of two or three days. I had my camera all ready for the first morning that Katy and Allen saw the tree lit up with ornaments and I wasn’t disappointed with their reaction. Unfortunately, Allen likes it a little too much because he brings me an ornament every hour, or so. Peter got tired of that game and has been re-hanging them in the top half of the tree. It doesn’t look like this anymore so good thing I took a picture. Mom even made them each their own little ornament!

It is way past time for our Christmas cards to be started so I dragged out my nuggets to the park for an impromptu shoot. Of course, Allen has been snuffly and not quite himself so it was tough to capture something good of him. They were just happy to play at the park when we were done. My entire shoot lasted about a minute and a half, maybe less. They are tough customers.

Last week I went to Katy’s school with her for chapel and watched their canned food donation for the Food Bank get blessed. The kids were so cute heading up to the alter with boxes of mac & cheese. They sang “This Little Light of Mine” (I’m gonna let it shine) and held up their pointer finger for the light. So cute! When they said they wouldn’t let Satan blow it out, they pretended to blow out their candle and then raised it up again to let it shine. Next they hid it under a bushel (put their other hand over it) and I could tell that this was a crowd pleaser. The real reason for my visit was to help with their annual “Christmas for the Birds” activity where they each made three different kinds of bird feeders. Instead of helping I was taking pictures. This doesn’t bode well for the Christmas party I’m supposed to be helping with. Hmmm…. One feeder was made from half an orange peel filled with bird feed, another from a pine cone coated in feed, and the last was a wire with Cheerios, cranberries and popcorn strung on it. Could it get any better than that? Unfortunately for the birds, Katy and her friend Quinn spent much of the time eating the popcorn and cereal. Then Katy pushed her friends Kalan and Amy around on the two-seater bicycle. Kalan is probably her best friend during school, and then Quinn is for Lunch Bunch on Thursday afternoons.

This past Saturday Peter and I took the kids to see Dad for the holiday season. I’m calling it “Crumbs of the Holiday”. Even though it was less than a day, we had lots of fun playing at the park near his apartment and then snooping around his place. The weather was just perfect for some outdoor fun. And then Peter found a “digger” for the kids to crawl on and play inside. They were so excited! Katy did get a bit nervous about climbing into the bucket. Later she confessed that she didn’t want it to pick her up. Dad’s gifts are the only ones under our tree so far, which means I haven’t even started my gift wrapping yet. I’m sure I’m not the only ones behind!

On Tuesday night Mom came by to pick up Katy so they could watch the movie “Ice Age” together in front of a roaring fire. She brought piggy corn candy for Juice so he wouldn’t be sad. Mom always sends cute little e-mails when Katy is over to play that tell me a little about what they’re doing. For example: “Katy has taken her babies (in the stroller) to the little kitchen table. Katy told me I had to be the doctor and sure enough, each one has a fever and had to get a shot-just a little one - she didn't like it when I gave them a big one and made them cry. She then took them to school (the first big cardboard box) and discovered her pink elephant that she left here - he is now in the stroller, too. She just came to tell me that they are almost done working. She showed her babies how to change diapers. The pink elephant is now in my arms - he's a little bit sick. I asked me if she liked my Santa Claus on the piano - "no - sorry" Now I wonder how one of the red "very pretty" satin balls ended up under the tree? ‘Sorry.’” They had a slumber party and Katy reportedly told Mom that they were “Kate and Mook” which cracks me up! Then the next day they went to the movies to see “Bolt” the saving dog, as Katy calls him. It was 3-D and Katy couldn’t take her eyes off the screen…until she fell asleep sitting straight up with only 20 minutes left in the movie. The happy couple brought Allen back some popcorn, so he was happy, too!

And finally – our snow story! I was awakened yesterday morning by Katy yelling on my answering machine (from Mom’s house) that it was snowing! After another call or two I had Allen and myself dressed and over to Mom’s house to record the event. Of course, her place had much less snow on the ground than ours so it was pretty funny to see us trying to build a snow man. He was one hand tall and fell over quite a bit. That afternoon while the kids were home napping, the snow really started to come down. I was afraid it was only going to last a minute and I almost woke the kids up to see it. Good thing I didn’t because it snowed all the rest of the day…the biggest flakes I have ever seen in Texas! It really did cheer me up to see it everything covered in white. I’ve never seen so much on the ground. Usually it melts as soon as it hits. So Katy woke up first and the two of us made our second venture out into the cold for the day. We had a snowball fight and built our second snow man, this time about 8 inches tall. Katybird was wearing gloves, two shirts, a winter coat with a hood, scarf, cozy socks and blue jeans. Are we missing anything? Hmmm…oh yeah. I told her to put on shoes but didn’t double-check her. I guess I was so excited to get out there that we were playing for at least five minutes before she said her feet hurt. I am the mother of the year. I expect my trophy any day now. She warmed up in the tub and then Peter came home. Allen woke up from his late nap and the entire family trooped out yet again into the snow. This time was the best because Peter was there, we all had shoes on, and the snow was pretty thick at this point. The snowball fight was even more fun, and our snow man was almost three feet tall. Today I drove around and saw some over six feet tall! Now it’s warmed up to the mid fifties and the snow is all gone. For a while there it was our Christmas miracle!

In closing I’m just going to mention a couple little things that make Allen happy. His favorite footy jammies have a hole in the toe and he pokes his big toe out and says, “Peek a boo!” He also loves to wear shoes around the house, and I finally figured out that he thinks he’s going somewhere when he has his shoes on. He has been pointing to a snow man in one of our books and identifying it, but he seems like the real kind much better. Big Juicy brings me a bottle of lotion (or shampoo – whatever he can reach) and asks me to help him put it on. And finally, if my hands are cold and I put them down the back of his shirt against his neck or back, he squeals with laughter and runs away, then returns walking backwards so I will do it again!