Christmas LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

As I drove home from Waco on Thursday, I passed Santa's Wonderland. To my shock, Jonathan agreed to take us on Friday night. First mistake, we didn't leave until 7pm. Second mistake, we didn't factor in the one HOUR line we had to wait in. We didn't get home until after 11pm!

It was neat but, sadly, we were all too tired and grumpy to enjoy it.

I don't think I'll ever get Jonathan to agree to go back.
Saturday morning, the neighborhood next door had real snow! We piggybacked with Aubrey and Brynley to get in on the action. I couldn't get this photo to rotate. We kept laughing at Ace because he kept falling and sliding on the ice.

He was such a BULLY! Once we taught him how to throw a snowball, he was pelting everyone! Jonathan's jeans were soaked and he was throwing them at complete strangers (luckily, they thought it was funny). Yes, his face has mud all down the right side! The edges of the snow turned to mush and he dove into it a couple of times.

Saturday night, we headed to Granny's for our annual Christmas get-together with about 30 to 40 of our aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins. Brookelyn started reading to Ace. They were soooo cute.

Waiting to open presents on Uncle Allen's lap.

All the fun made us ready for Christmas. Ace's presents are purchased and I've scheduled the delivery of his big boy bed next week! Now, if he will just kick this awful cold that has settled into his chest, everything will be Merry.

Let's EAT!

Our breakfast room is really tiny...it's really more of an empty corner at the end of the kitchen. Not great for feeding our families when they come into town. So, I've been wanting a banquette that would give our breakfast room more space and seat more if we squoosh together.

Ta Da! My wonderful husband agreed and it was installed today.

It is still awaiting cushions (to be finished shortly by the upholsterer).

You can kind of tell from this photo that he tried to match the face of the banquette to the style of our kitchen cabinets.
From above with storage lift-tops open.

I couldn't believe he even finished out the insides!

I'd say we gained about 2 more feet in the kitchen, making the space feel a lot smaller.

Now I have storage for all of my serving dishes that I rarely get to use.

Only problem: Ace's favorite place to play is the window sills. I don't know how he'll react now that he can't reach them. Hopefully we'll adapt and find another place to crash his monster trucks.

Yippee! Finally, a contractor that does a COMPLETE job that I am COMPLETELY happy with. I had almost given up hope. (Must be because he's got a lucky name: Jonathon.)

The Big 3-0!

Jonathan is 30 today!

And he's been mine for the past 10 of those 30 years!

Gabby and Pops took him to dinner at Goodsons on Wednesday night

(which is where the photos were taken).

The funniest thing was, before any singing or mention of a birthday, look what Ace did to his roll! He started singing "Happy Birthday" all on his own before the restaurant waiters even came out. So funny.

I got him a tee time at our neighborhood golf course but he said it was too cold and has opted for a raincheck and to leave the bed for only one short hour to go to a birthday lunch at Texadelphia. It's now 4:15 and I'm hoping he gets up in time for our dinner reservations at The Yardhouse...and that he has an appetite! But, if this is what he really wants to do on his birthday, who am I to argue?

Happy Birthday Handsome!

We love Christmas around here!

We love the airplane inflatable from Honey and Sashi.

We love catching snow on our tongues.

(Though you can't even tell it was snowing in this photo!)
We love church Christmas events with pony rides.

We love our cousins!

We love a good, live manger.

We love Christmas carols and trees!

We LOVE Santa Claus.

(Santa asked what Ace wanted and Ace responded, "A present."

Duh, Santa.)

We love Christmas cookies...well, we love the icing.

And we love Christmas lights. Jonathan tooks us on a ride to see all the lights in the surrounding neighborhood this weekend and Ace went nuts. At one point he said, "Momma, we need to go find Baby Jesus...and Mommy Jesus...and Daddy Jesus." Thank goodness someone had a manger in their front yard and we found them.

Our latest...

I have been on house-arrest since starting to potty train Ace the week before Thanksgiving but it hasn't left any time to blog. Here's some photos of what we've been up to.

Honey and Sashi drove in for Thanksgiving and B and Uncle James joined us for an ENORMOUS meal of Greenberg turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, cranberry cool whip salad, pecan & pumpkin pie, mac and cheese, okra, ham, cornbread dressing and rolls! No one needs that much food.

Our little man is so loved. He camped out on the couch with Sashi most of the week.

Ace lovin' on his Hula.
And, yes, the potty-shot. Those are stickers on his legs. He LOVES getting stickers for going pee-pee. He gets wooden trains for going poop (because that doesn't happen as often.)

This one is from this morning. He was writing his letter to Santa. If you ask him what he wants, he will tell you, "The blue present." Whatever that means.

And this is just him singing to me at lunchtime. He loves to sing "I can only imagine" but I've yet to get that on video.