Christmas Vacation

As always, Santa was nice enough to honor our request that he come a few days early since we were going to travel to Jackson on Christmas Eve. He missed the memo from Jingle the Elf that two little people have not been good listeners. Oh well. Tis the season. Both kids got all of their requests to Santa and then some. Tuesday we spent the day playing with all of our new toys.

You have to read The Night Before Christmas on "Christmas Eve"!

Jingle got special permission from Santa to stay and watch us open our gifts.

Notice the size of the toys and keep in mind our ever shrinking house. Time to move!

The kids enjoy picking out funny "joke" gifts for me (remember the birthday whoopie cushion?). This one was actually kind of good. I am now the proud owner of a singing Elvis ornament. Love it!

Both kids spent days drawing cards and putting them under the tree for everybody. Obviously, we watch Elf too many times. This is Sterling's to Joel and me.

Wednesday night my mom continued the tradition of reading The Night Before Christmas Cajun Style. She's a total pro with the cajun accent.

Mary Presley was in heaven with her new trunk full of clothes for her American Girl doll Isabelle.

"Santa" brought Joel a set of nerf dart guns.

Mary Presley loves her new dress from Aunt Amy. And so does Isabelle.

As always, we played plenty of games. This trip we taught the kids to play dominoes. You will notice it's hard to get a serious face out of Sterling these days. I predict he will be a class clown.

Friday we headed to the park for our last dry day. We met my bestest of besties and her kids there. Before we left, we toured the decorated trees and had to sit in the sleigh.

Before we headed out Sunday, we ate lunch out. Sterling refused to look up and smile despite silly Amy's prodding.

Now it's on to the new year holidays and then tax season 2015! Everyone control your excitement! To calm you down I will leave you with this gem my dad found while cleaning out his office. Throwback to 1987 when perms were cool and bangs were even cooler! Thank goodness we've found some fashion sense since!

Christmas Parties and Programs

It's that time of year, when there is 156873 holiday events at school yet you are out of paid time off. Oh well. Family is priority.

Yesterday was Christmas party day for the kids. Joel headed to Mary Presley's room, and I headed to Sterling's. They played games, made crafts, and got a special visit and gift from the big guy. Exciting stuff!

Today was their Christmas program which featured Christmas around the world. Each grade was assigned a country to dress as. Luckily we got USA. I love seeing them sing in front of people. Sterling is so serious and focused, and Mary Presley is shy and almost looks scared sometimes. She had a bit of a goofy break out today, though. They did so good and we are so proud of them. On to Christmas break!

This is his trying really hard to not smile face.

Zippers can be so distracting.

Snaggle Tooth

We had a milestone this week. Sterling lost his first two teeth! I think as far back as Halloween we had discovered his front two middle teeth were loose. Then a few weeks ago a new tooth started breaking through behind them. When the kids had their teeth cleaning the week of Thanksgiving, the dentist decided they needed to go ahead and pull the two teeth to make room and allow the new one to move forward, and yesterday was the scheduled day! I was way more nervous than Sterling, and I wasn't even taking him! I'm so proud of how brave he was. Not a tear shed...by him. I'm having a bit of a hard time letting these two grow up. It can't happen! Pause button please!

We took one last picture with all his teeth Monday night.

Ready to go! This will be a GREAT black mail picture in the future.

Add two teeth to his Santa list!

Apparently the Tooth Fairy does still exist because last night she brought Sterling a $5 bill for his first lost tooth and a $1 bill for the second. She also left him a note congratulating him and welcoming him to the Tooth Fairy Club. She was also nice enough to leave his two teeth to put in his baby book.

A Trip on the Holiday Express

BNSF Railway in Memphis held a Holiday Express train ride for military families. This was the first year for them to do it, and I sure hope it becomes an annual event. Joel wasn't sure if we would get selected for tickets, so we kept it a secret from the kids so they wouldn't be disappointed if it didn't work out. I'm so glad we did because they were very surprised when we pulled in the train yard. Confused but surprised. We enjoyed many snacks and hot chocolate during the two hour trip, visited with several BNSF head honchos and top military guys, and got to see Mr. C himself. It was a dark rainy night, so we couldn't see much out the windows, but we did ride straight down the tracks all the way to Holly Springs, MS before heading back to Memphis!

They spotted Santa!

When we got back to the train yard the monsoon had stopped, so they had a short ceremony with BNSF Railway presenting $40,000 to several local organizations, including Joel's Air National Guard base. Then the kids got to see Santa one more time. Got to get those last minute wishes in!