Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas Eve

We enjoyed a nice relaxing Christmas Eve day. We were all home as both Papa Vaughn & I had the day off. We were able to take time to work around the house, enjoy cooking and ultimately relax. We enjoyed a yummy dinner of Salmon, rice, roasted squash and salad. Aunt Kat helped entertain the munchkins getting her kid fix before going back to her new home in southern California. She certainly does NOT recommend moving during the winter months if you can help it!

Boopy being a snuggle bug in Mama's arms. Oh how I love these moments!

One wrinkle in our day was the Big Boy ran a fever and wasn't feeling too well. Thankfully it was just a fever, nothing more and he still shows signs of having outgrown the seizures. Big Boy and Boopy sure enjoyed hanging out with great-aunt Jeannine. We had the pleasure of her and great-uncle David's visit for Christmas this year!

Christmas Day

Presents, presents and more presents! That's what the kids found under the tree when they came down stairs Christmas morning. Thank you everyone for all your thoughtful gifts! We were all pleasantly spoiled and well taken care of! Overall the day was wonderful. We even squeezed in some time for most everyone to take a nap in the afternoon. Dinner was a bit later than intended but still yummy! We enjoyed a traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, fresh roasted vegetables, green beans, corn bread and even a vegetarian dish for Aunt Jeannine. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

Oh my! Santa sure was hungry! He hardly left any crumbs or milk behind!

Checking out their new bikes Santa brought them.

Misc. fun pictures of the day.

Surveying the loot!

Aunt Kat & Uncle David

Tea Party time!

We hope you all had a wonderful Very Merry Christmas!

Jingle Bells, An Eye Infection and a New Job

So the crazy week before Christmas finally came to a close with a Christmas party, trip to the doctor and a job interview. Phew!

Big Boy's class Christmas program was at 11:30 so I took an early lunch to watch him sing a couple of songs and participate in the class party. I was impressed that there were so many other parents and family members that came! I'd say there were probably at least 20 or so family members. Big Boy's teachers said that because so many parents couldn't make it to the early performance, they were going to have the kids perform again at 3:30. This worked out great since Papa Vaughn couldn't come due to an interview at Circuit City at precisely 11:30. He has since been offered a job in the evenings which he'll do for a while to help make ends meet. He has officially FINALLY received the approvals for the temp position at the base which he'll start back at just after Christmas. Regardless the short time out of work helped us realize a little extra work wouldn't hurt. So...Papa will now be working a second job for a little while. So, back to the party, the kids were really cute. They were in the teachers lounge waiting for the parents to arrive and get settled in their classroom. The teachers then ushered them in and set them up. Once everyone was in a place (it didn't really matter where) they were set to start! The song was "Jingle Bells" and I think maybe about 5 kids and the teachers sang it out of the 30 or so kids total! A majority of them had stage fright now realizing that there were all these strange people staring at them. Some were simply doing their own thing and one cried the minute he say his mother and wouldn't join the class. All in all it was REALLY cute and I'm so glad I was able to go!

Big Boy's seat for snacks.

Peek-a-boo, Big Boy! Here he is coming into the classroom with the other kids.

Can you find Big Boy?

Poor Boopy! Her little eyes started out the night before with green gross stuff that we figured with connected with her having a cold/sinus infection. But her poor little eyes just got worse and worse throughout the day. Before I went to the class program I had already made her a doctors appointment for the afternoon, but since she was so miserable and the daycare was afraid she had pink eye they were all set to send her home. They did let her join me for brother's performance though. We got her to the doctor late afternoon and thankfully the eye drops prescribed have cleared her right up. Although, you would think she's being tortured to death if you heard her when we put them in her eyes. I swear she already knows cuss words, just not sure where she's picking them up from!

I stuck around long enough for Big Boy to pick out and open a present. Each child brought in a present to exchange with a classmate. After the 2 songs, it was utter chaos. Imagine 27-30, 3 year olds running around with presents, greeting family and munching on cookies and other lunch party treats! Here Big Boy is showing Boopy the cool floor puzzle he received.

Big Boy got an extra treat with special visitors that came to see him perform. His godmother and one of my best and oldest friends, Anne and her kids, Russell & Lindsay took time out of their day to come see Big Boy sing. Here Big Boy is giving Anne "Eskimo kisses". Thank you guys for coming!!

Baking Cookies with Papa

Oh what fun it is to bake! In preparation for the classroom parties, Papa Vaughn and the kids baked cookies. Papa has become quite the baker and plays with different ingredients in cookies often trying to make them a bit healthier. Both kids LOVED getting to help. They pushed kitchen chairs over to watch and help as much as they could. The first pictures below are actually store bought cookie dough on the trays, although, Papa did make up a batch of homemade cookies as well. Since Boopy's party was on Wednesday and our Tuesday evening was packed I wasn't too sure he'd be able to squeeze in time for homemade cookies. But being a good, Papa, he found the time.

Santa Picture 2007

So we decided to torture Boopy. As you saw below in the post on the kid's Christmas party at the base, Boopy has decided that she is afraid of people dressed as Santa and most likely any sort of character. While this is a common phase and one I'm pretty sure she'll grow out of, we still wanted a picture of the kids with Santa. Last year Boopy was young enough that for a quick moment on Santa's lap she was unfazed. Big Boy was a bit apprehensive but since Santa had a candy cane it was okay and he willing sat on his lap. This year, both kids were excited while waiting in line. They checked out all the decorations and were intrigued with the fake snow and mechanical reindeer displays. The downside was that we had to wait 30 minutes in line for Santa to come back to work from his lunch break in order to take a picture with him.

I was surprised at how crowded the mall was today considering it was middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday. I took a vacation day today to spend some time with the kids and go to a Mom's group, birthday party for Jesus, for the kids, which I will blog about later. Anyway, by the time we got to see Santa it was nearly 3 pm and neither kid had napped. They actually did REALLY well and had just gotten very silly rather than crabby. Big Boy walked right in when it was our turn and gave Santa a hug. He then played a bit shy and didn't really answer Santa's questions although we did help him out and remind him that he was going to ask Santa for a big boy bike. As for Boopy, she was fine at first, but then backed up folding her arms across her chest and kept a watchful eye on Santa. She didn't want to get close to him even with me sitting right next to him. At that point Papa Vaughn and I figured we'll take what ever we can get and threw Boopy on Santa's lap. Big Boy wasn't as smiley as he would have been as he kept looking over to make sure Boopy was okay. So without further ado, here's our proof that we tortured Boopy today.

And just for fun - here's last year's picture taken at the same Santa booth in the mall.

Kids Christmas Party

Wednesday, Dec 5th we went to a children's Christmas party held out at the base. This was the party that we helped fill party bags for the previous Saturday. Mrs. Claus was there at the start of the party and she helped start things off with a magic show. She had all kinds of cute tricks but when it came to the last one she needed a special helper to put a long string into a tube. She looked in to the group of kids watching and asked for a helper who had been sitting nicely. I asked Big Boy if he would like to help. When he told me "yes" I had him raise his hand and Mrs. Claus picked him to help! He was very proud and ready to help with more after his job was done. He's the littlest helper in the white shirt.

Boopy thought she should get to go up there too! Maybe next year.

After the magic show, we put our jackets back on and went outside to greet Santa Claus. He came riding in on a big yellow firetruck which Big Boy thought was really cool.

We followed Santa back inside and sat down for each kids name to be called. Santa had presents for everyone! Well, actually, Papa Vaughn had made sure to take in one for Big Boy and Boopy the day before the party. Darren really liked Santa. He gave him a big hug for his present and was all smiles for a picture. Boopy on the other hand was a little freaked out and clung to me crying the closer we got to Santa. Hopefully next year Santa won't be so frightening. What's funny though is that she likes pictures of Santa, stuffed Santas and all other Santa type things, just not a person dressed as Santa.

Once we got our presents from Santa, the kids got a goody bag that we had helped fill. We went back to the tables and started digging into our loot!

All in all a fun Christmas celebration!