Catching Up

Wow!!! When I think about all we've done the past week, I make myself tired. Granted it didn't seem like much at the time, but in retrospect we crammed a lot of activities in to a short amount of time. So to catch you all up, here's our past week:

• Friday, Nov 30 - home in the evening to work more on decorating the house.
• Saturday, Dec 1 - Papa Vaughn had drill all weekend. The kids and I went out to the base in the morning to help stuff bags for the base children's Christmas party. Then we went to our friend Gabby's 3rd birthday party where the kids had a blast playing in a bounce house. The evening brought a walking trip down Christmas Tree Lane.
• Sunday, Dec 2 - I held my annual Christmas Tea. Long, Fun Day!
• Monday, Dec 3 - Back to regular routine.
• Tuesday, Dec 4 - Back to regular routine.
• Wednesday, Dec 5 - Children's Christmas party out at the base.
• Today, Thursday, Dec 6 - Back to regular routine.

Since there is so much to share, I'll start you off with details from Saturday and do separate entries for my Tea and the base Christmas party.

Gabby's Party

After helping at the base with the Christmas bags, we rushed to my friend and co-worker's house to celebrate her daughter, Gabrielle's 3rd birthday party. Natalie's kids are just about one year older that Big Boy and Boopy. They take good care of use and send many wonderful "hand-me downs" which we love. Plus it's so fun for the kids to be close in age and play so well together. Although we were a bit late, we got there just in time for the festivities of a sweet family party. I was pleasantly surprised that Big Boy was not scared or leery of the bounce house and went right in when it was available to the little kids. Boopy on the other hand, did surprise me with her timid attitude. She perked right up to her usual crazy self though once I joined her in the bounce house. I think I can still feel the movement from sitting in the corner and trying to take pictures of the kids bouncing!

Big Boy supervising & Rocky (Gabby's big brother) helping to open presents.

Boopy was in awe of what a big girl Gabby is! After the party it was all about "Gabby, Gabby, Gabby!" I only wish I had snapped a picture of the two hugging from the front!

Boopy wanted to be like Gabby and wear a bow on her head. Silly girl!

Sweet Gabby getting a kiss from her Grandma and Great Grandpa!

A bite of birthday cake.

Jump, jump, and more "jumpy"! I had a hard time convincing the kids it was time to go. They didn't want to get out of the bounce house. I even threatened to leave without them and simply got told, "Bye, Mama" and waved at! They weren't too happy when I had to physically insist that it was time to go.

Christmas Tree Lane!

Thankfully, Gabby only lives a few streets away from us, so getting home didn't take long. Our problem was that the kids had not napped at all and we were now rushing home to change and then head out with Darren & Carolyn to walk Christmas Tree Lane. Christmas Tree Lane is only open a couple of nights each Christmas season for those to walk it, otherwise it's all about riding in your car, which definitely sounds warmer than walking. Anyway, I digress.

So after a quick change and lots of each layers of clothes we were on our way to park, ride shuttles and walk to see the Christmas lights. The kids crashed in the car mere seconds from home, so they ended up with about a 15-20 minute nap. After such an energetic long day, it was quite enough. Mind you they did really good waiting forever in line to board the charter buses to the start of the walk. The walk itself, well IF we do it next year, we will be sure to have naps beforehand and make sure we start earlier. Big Boy was good at the start riding in the stroller. Boopy refused and insisted on walking and holding Darren & Carolyn's hands. So, Boopy walked most of the way until we convinced her otherwise. Then about 3/4 of the way, it became a battle over who could whine the most and who could cry the most over having to be carried by Mama. Ugh...Papa Vaughn & I were a tad worn out by the end to say the least. We're amazed that Darren & Carolyn stuck it out with us for the whole walk. We would have understood if they wanted to leave and walk without the third wheel of the stroller they ended up pushing for us! Thanks guys! :) All in all, we did have a good time, just a bit too long. It also make the kids whining more understandable when we realized that it was 9 pm at the end of the walk and the kids are usually in bed by 8! Plus, they hadn't napped all day! So, not too bad considering we'll just need better planning next time on my part.

All bundled up, waiting for the bus.

Boopy guiding Carolyn & Darren.

Giving money to a musical Santa and watching the bubbles on a display.

Big Boy was excited to see Mickey Mouse.

Boopy passed out before we even got back to the car. Big Boy was out seconds after climbing in.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Thursday night we spent working on decorating the Christmas tree and getting ready for my Christmas Tea which was on Sunday. Big Boy did pretty good with hanging ornaments other than he hung them mostly on the lights rather than the branches. Boopy didn't quite get it and just set ornaments in the tree. Regardless they both had fun watching the tree turn into a pretty Christmas tree. Their favorite was putting up the angel on the top and then waving to her. They wave to her almost every day!

This was their reaction to the angel.

Getting our Christmas Tree!

Don't let the date on this entry throw you off. I started this post on the 30th and am just now getting it finished on Dec 3rd! It's been a busy couple of weeks as you can tell. So anyway, I was bad and skipped bible study last Wednesday night so that we could get our Christmas tree. Thankfully I knew the other ladies would understand. We went to Cobb's to get our tree and at first thought about trying to do the "cut your own tree" thing but you need to do that when there's daylight and since it would basically be up to Papa Vaughn to do it, we figured probably best to wait another year or so until he can have some actual help. Anyhow, we found a nice tree rather easily and got home early enough in the evening to still work on setting up some Christmas decorations. As for the tree "picking" pictures, Papa Vaughn forgot to grab my camera for me so I'm stuck with cell phone pictures. And and by the way we don't normally dress Big Boy in such weird winter attire. Papa Vaughn also forgot a jacket for Big Boy so he was stuck with whatever I had in the car, which was one of my jackets and Boopy's hat. Big Boy didn't seem to mind that he was wearing a jacket dress.

The kids had nearly as much fun helping put up decorations as watching the Christmas tree get tied to the top of my car! Big Boy was such a big helper! He helped carry quite a few boxes of my Christmas village downstairs without even being asked. Then it was all about watching to see what kind of house would come out of the box. Both Big Boy and Boopy are fascinated with the village and LOVE it when all the lights are on.

Then it was time for Papa to bring the tree in and set it up. We only set it up and actually decorated it on Thursday night, which I will blog about later.

First the tree needed a hug.

Papa had to be supervised to make sure he was doing it right. And yes, Boopy is half naked. The tree actually got set up after dinner. She made a major mess and was quite content to remain without a shirt. Crazy girl!