Christmas at our House

We had a wonderful day! Braxton was sooo excited this year! He did not get as much as he has in the past, but he was so happy with everything he got! Devin too, they were both so greatful for everything! We had so much fun watching the boys faces light up!! Sunday my sister and dad will come over to my house and we will have our family gathering! Can't wait!

My hummingbird feeder, my husband knows I love to watch the butterflies and hummingbirds.
A Christmas hug!

Robert showing off his Syracuse shirt!

Braxton showing off his Syracuse shirt!

Braxton got a digital camera, he was surprised!

Devin and his Converse shoes! (or are they boats?)

Devin's new hoodie!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas traditions

This year my sister is in Florida and won't be here on Christmas day so we are going to have our Christmas dinner that I usually do on Christmas Eve on the Sunday after Christmas, so Robert declared that I will not cook 2 big meals, it is too much work and he won't allow it! I was glad to hear it actually.

I told the boys that I thought I would make Nacho soup on Christmas Eve and we would have our "big" dinner when Tracy came over and they were thrilled! Devin even thought we should make the Nacho soup our new tradition for Christmas Eve. He said, mom, you work so hard that you can't enjoy the time with us, so why don't we just make the soup our new tradition!

What a smart husband and kid I have. It will be so much more fun to cook the big meal with my sister on Sunday, she plans to come and help me! The older we get the more fun doing things like that together are! I am so excited about our new tradition!

Christmas Service Rocked

New Spring Christmas service was awesome today! Perry is so awesome, he used the Christmas story in a way that I had never heard it used before. He focused on King Herod! Over 200 people received Christ today throuhgout the 3 campuses. It was really cool, because Robert had invited a girl from his work to come, he has been on her for a while and she conceded tonight and she accepted Christ tonight!!! How awesome! Inviting people, well sometimes even begging or bugging people to come to church works!!!!

Christmas with my boys

Storm came over on Sunday and spent some time with me and his brothers! He will be with his daddy on Christmas day so I wanted to spend some time with him and give him his gifts. We had such a good time! I love it when all 3 of the boys are together! I so love my boys!!!

This is such a good picture of Braxton and Storm, I don't know what Devin's problem is! What handsome boys I have!
I thought the days of them picking their noses were long gone! They had such a good time!

The "Real" Santa is in Charlotte, NC

We had a wonderful night last night. We decided to go to Charlotte, NC (about a hour trip) to Bass Pro Shop because they have Santa's Wonderland until Christmas Eve night. They have Santa and some retro games like a Red Ryder bb gun shooting range! It was so fun! We did not tell the boys where we were going. We told them we were going to the store, when we got past Gaffney the boys realized that we weren't just going to the store, but had not figured out where we were going. In fact, Devin figured it out when we got off of the exit, but Braxton did not until we pulled into the parking lot, and he had no idea that Santa was there.

We went inside and found Santa, when Braxton saw him he looked at me and said, "how did they get the real Santa". Look at him, he has a real beard and everything! He is the real santa! He was so excited! We played the games for a while and then left.

On the way home Robert decided to go through Macadenville, a town in NC that everyone in the town puts up lights! It was great. We went on a good night, it only took us about 30 minutes to go through the entire town. On the weekends it takes 2 or 3 hours due to traffic!

The boys enjoyed it. Even Devin said that even though the activities weren't some that he would have chosen, he enjoyed the family time!

WOW! Girls are sooo different than boys!

OK. You all know that I have 3 boys. I have gotten used to dealing with boys and realized last night that I have no clue how to deal with girls! A friend of mine had a Christmas gathering to go to last night and did not have a sitter, her parents usually watch her kids for her but they were out of town for the weekend, so I agreed to watch Haley 7, and Zack 3 1/2. They are such good kids and had lots of fun with my boys. Well, when it came to bedtime I took them upstairs and put them in bed. Zack asked for something to drink, because he may get thirsty during the night. I explained to him that I did not have a cup for him to keep upstairs. He told me he knew I had cups and I told him that I didn't have one with a lid on it. He proclaimed that I needed to get 2 sippy cups for the next time he was here so that one could be washed while he was using the other one. I agreed that I would have them next time he stayed and he rolled over and went to sleep.
Haley on the other hand did not want to sleep in the same bed as her brother, so I explained that I did not have another bed and that she would need to sleep with him or in Braxton's bed and Braxton would sleep on the couch. She said that she would just stay in the bed with her brother. I thought that was the end of it and went downstairs to watch TV with Devin. In a few minutes I heard someone coming down the stairs and looked up to see Haley, tears streaming down her face proclaiming that she wanted her mommy and daddy, she missed them. I explained to her that mommy and daddy weren't home and the she could not go home tonight, she would have to go back to bed. She turned and went upstairs and again I thought that was the end of it until I heard the bathroom door close and Haley sobbing loudly. I went upstairs and talked to her again and had her to lay down again.
By now I was beginning to lose it, I had done everything I have always done with my boys and their friends that have stayed over and it had always worked in the past, what was I doing wrong? I called Robert exasperated and told him of my plight. He explained to me that girls are different, he has a daughter and remembers some of the drama from her childhood. He told me to see if she wanted to sleep in the papasan chair that is in the bedroom they were in and to console her a little bit and remind her that we had church in the morning and how much fun she would have. So I took his advice and went back upstairs.
When I walked into the room she was still crying, so I asked if she would like to sleep in the chair, to which she replied with a smile, yes and she climbed out of the bed. I laid the papsan chair down flat and it resembled a birds nest because the cushion is brown. I told her that it looked like a birds nest and she agreed and laughed. She climbed in the chair with her baby doll and I covered her with her blanket. Within 5 minutes she was sound asleep. When she got up this morning she declared to the boys that she got to sleep in the birds nest. We went to church and she was completely happy until her parents came and got her.
As much as I wanted girls I am now greatful to God that he gave me boys!

Today is Rene' Day

My husband has declared today "Rene' Day". He told me that if he came home and I have cleaned anything he will be angry. So, I decided I would start the day off with some Starbucks. I got so excited when I got there, they have Gingersnap Latte, that is my favorite, yes even better than Pumkin Spice! And now I am back at home now, I am going to sit around and read my book, "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks, (it is going to be a movie next year) and just enjoy doing nothing (if I can). I am like most females, it is hard for me to sit here and see dirty dishes and not wash them, but I will fulfill my husbands wishes and take a day to relax, just for me, so I will be nicer, just for him!!!

In this time of year, remember to take some time off for yourself, it is so important.
You can't take care of others if you don't take care of yourself!! How do you relax and take care of you?

Christmas without Parents

I was on facebook today and read a note that one of my friends from high school wrote. She lost her parents several years ago in a bank robbery. She was saying in her note how this was such a hard time for her because everyone talks about going to be with their family and although she is close with her brother and sister and she has great in-laws, she still misses her mom and dad. She talks about having a Santa collection because her dad had one and baking the bread that her mom used to bake.

I am so lucky to still have my dad, but I do find myself thinking of my mom a lot during this time of year, she was such a child around Christmas time! She loved everything about Christmas. She loved having everyone she loved near her and packed as many people in our house as she could. She loved decorating the house, as my sister put it, it looked as if Santa's shop exploded in our house, every room, including the bathrooms was decorated. She loved the Christmas lights, we would ride around every year and look at lights. Every Christmas Eve she read The Night Before Christmas and dad followed it with the True Christmas story from the Bible. I find myself doing a lot of the same things, my way of keeping her alive and passing her on to my children. She was so much the Spirit of Christmas, you felt the love of Jesus when you were in the room with her, I miss her dearly.

Big Boy

Braxton was helping me get wood in to start a fire yesterday and I told him he needed to put on some shoes before he went outside. There were several pairs sitting at the front door and he chose Robert's work boots! He was so cute. It amazes me how big he is getting!

Santa

We have a fireplace in our house, the real deal that burns wood, so we had to go to get a CSL (Creosote Sweeping Log) to burn to help prevent a fire in the chimney. We were at Home Depot and they were expensive ($14.00). I thought that Wal-Mart had them cheaper, so since Wal-mart is in the same shopping center I drove down to check out their price and left Robert and Braxton in Home Depot. While I was in Wal-mart they announced that Sant a was in the Children's section taking pictures with the kids and the pictures were free. I went back to Home Depot, because the logs were the same price at Wal-Mart. We finished at Home Depot and then went into Wal-Mart for Robert to look for something that they did not have at Home Depot that he needed, while he was looking I took Braxton to the back of the store, he had no idea why, I did not tell him Santa was there. When he saw him he was surprised and excited! This is the picture we got for free!!!

Braxton and Rudolph

Last night Braxton and I watched Rudolph, another one of those must watch Christmas shows. Devin was at church, but would not have watched it anyway, he is too old and too cool to watch these shows with me anymore. I am so thankful that Braxton is still into it. He has a little Rudolph that his "Aunt Grandma" had given him a couple of years ago, so he had to get it to watch the show with. He was sooooo funny, he acted it out with his Rudolph. I have attached some pictures below:

He and Rudolph are intently watching at this point.

Then came the moment when Clarisse told Rudolph he was cute!

I'm not sure what part this was, but he was talking for Rudolph! It was adorable!!!

Dickens of a Christmas

It has become a tradition for us to go downtown Spartanburg for the Christmas tree lighting. It is such a fun time, they have people dressed up in Dicken's era clothes walking up and down the streets, Christmas Carolers, and live window displays. Santa, also dressed in the Dickens era is there. They have people in different areas reading Christmas books to the children, hot chocolate and horse drawn carriage rides and of course the tree lighting at Denny's plaza. It was last night and we did not get to go because it was quite chilly and Braxton has a cold and is losing his voice, so I borrowed a few of the pictures that were in our local paper (online of course) this morning.

The lighting of the tree!
Christmas carolers.

Horse drawn carriage.

And of course, Santa and Mrs. Clause.

Holiday Traditions

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS

Tonight on ABC the cartoon version will air at 8:30 p.m. We do not miss this animated classic. My son Devin says that I am so funny because even though I have seen this every year since I was little I still act like a little kid watching it the first time. The boys and I will have hot chocolate and sit together in the floor and watch the Grinch steal Christmas. I can't wait!!!

What are some of the traditions that you do each year?