The Christmas Season

December was another busy, fun month. But before I get into that I have to put a few pictures of Taylor's new haircut. I have debated cutting her hair for a while since she fits me on a daily basis about brushing it and it was getting so long that the curls were weighed down. But I will have to admit I almost cried when I saw how short it was. The babysitter took her to the mall the other day and had it straightened at one of the booths that the mall. But Taylor loved the way it moved when it was short and smooth. She was asking for a haircut like Ethan's but this is as short as I will go.

We started off December with a short visit from Abe's parents and then a trip to Dallas for Abe's brother's graduation. Ethan was not excited about heading back to a graduation (he was still scarred from the hours we spent at Abe's graduation) but it was very short and to the point and it was wonderful to visit with family. While Cali and Stephen were in town we were able to take a talk around the Alamo and the Riverwalk. On a side note Ethan recently was telling me about a scary dream that he had that woke him up that night. I asked him what it was about and here is what he said "It was really scary mom. You took us to H.E.B (the local grocery store) and you left us in the car alone (I will have to admit I have done this a time or two when going in for one item and I really didn't think it constituted a nightmare but he continued). You see mom, two bad guys came and stole us from H.E.B. and then....they took us to an awful place (still with a look of fear on his face and in all seriousness he says...) They took us to a graduation. It was SOOO boring." I laughed so hard that he got mad at me. He has truly been scarred.

Abe had a great schedule this month so we felt so blessed to be able to do a lot of fun things with him around. We decided to use some free tickets that we get for being in the military to visit Sea World for our first time. There is nothing like the great weather in Texas in December to do things like this. The kids had an absolute blast with the rides and the shows. It was a day well spent together.

Here they are feeding the dolphins.

We all had fun watching the Polar Express in 3D.

Ethan wasn't a huge fan of the Shamu show but it was a little slow in between the action. But it was pretty amazing to watch what all the animals can do.

The rides weren't all that exciting for the adults but the kids loved it.

Ethan's preschool took a trip to a nursing home to sing to the residents and it was so cute to watch. I was interested to see how he handled the nursing home environment but he did great. One gentleman wanted to give the kids high fives as they walked by and it was interesting to see the kids reactions. Ethan didn't shy away from him. He did tell me on the way out that he thought the placed smelled funny.

The kids both had a Christmas program at the preschool that Abe and I got to watch. We had been hearing alot about it from Ethan for the last month so it was fun to see it all come together. Ethan's class put on a short play about the littlest Christmas tree. Ethan had been annoyed because the teacher had moved him from the group made up of cute girls and put him in a different group. According to him he was going to be the dad and he was supposed to cut down the Christmas tree and carry it off stage. The "tree" was to be played by another child who was just as big as Ethan and he was a little worried about this part of the play. He was sure that the teacher expected him to lift the boy over his head and carry him away. This was the part I was waiting for the whole play. When that part came you could see Ethan trying to decide how he was going to lift the boy. Everyone laughed. He did finally admit that maybe he had misunderstood the teacher and he wasn't supposed to carry the boy off the stage. I think he just liked his version better. Taylor in her adorable rudolph costume.

After the rounds of Christmas events at the school we moved on to celebrating Ethan's birthday. A lot of Ethan's classmates had parties that we attended this year so it was the first year where the topic of what kind of party Ethan would have started coming up. Luckily he is a pretty easy going kid and was thrilled with inviting a few of his friends to Chuck E. Cheese on a slow afternoon to play a few games and eat some cupcakes. It was so easy and he had a blast. I'm sure I will have to eventually give in and plan him a true party one of these days but it is hard having a Christmas birthday.

Christmas was low key and wonderful. Abe was lucky enough to have Christmas day off so we got to enjoy the day together. The kids were wonderfully thankful for the things they got. Abe decided to surprise us all by getting them a Power Wheels and the kids went crazy about that. They sat it in for most of Christmas day just hoping for it to charge faster so they could play with it. We told Ethan that the time it would be ready was around the time we were having friends over for Christmas dinner so he would have to wait until they left to drive it. Knowing Ethan so well, we also warned him that if he tried to run our friends off then he wouldn't get to drive it today. But he couldn't help himself. The minute we were done eating he was trying to push everyone to eat dessert and the minute dessert was over he started making comments like "well desserts over, probably time to get going" along with making yawning noises. He can be such a stinker. Abe and I were both pretty annoyed for him to lose that chance to play because we both wanted to see them enjoy it. But we had to wait until the next day. It was hilarious to watch them drive it. Taylor decided she needed to get her helmet because Ethan's terrible driving kept making her hit her head. Ethan was even willing to admit that Taylor was a better driver than him.

Taylor showing off all her girlie dressup stuff.

The look on the kids face when they found the Power Wheels.

Out for our first drive.