Christmas Day

Santa came to our house! He left presents, ate cookies, and stuffed stockings. The boys were waiting in Luke's room while I took the pictures.

Here they come! Luke is excited...


Caleb doesn't have a clue what is going on.


Santa brought them each a Plasmacar; they were very excited and jumped right on to ride around.


Luke couldn't wait to open his stocking.


Caleb didn't know or care about the stocking, he just wanted to ride around on his new toy.


Caleb liked the stocking once he realized there were suckers in the bottom of them!


Luke was ecstatic to get a real Nutcracker in his stocking. Santa must have looked all over the place to find him one.


This was Luke's gift to us, he made it at school. I love it!


Luke also picked out gifts for each of us from the holiday gift market at school. He got Nate a tire gauge that said "Dad", Caleb a light up bouncy ball, me a pen and key chain set that said "Mom", and Daisy and Lily a stuffed toy. He was very proud of his choices.

After we finished up at home, we headed to Mammie and Boppa's for brunch, presents, and dinner.

Luke and Caleb's big presents were set up in the living room when we got there. Luke was thrilled with the easel...


while Caleb loved the cars and ramp set.


The Christmas tree before presents were distributed and opened.


While we opened presents, Luke stayed with his easel.


Caleb was very interested in his new goodies. He didn't care much for opening the gifts but liked seeing what was inside!

He also loved all the boxes.


Luke and Caleb loved to sit by the fire.


Guess what, it ended up snowing. The boys were itching to get outside and play in it!


So we went out for a few minutes. We weren't exactly prepared for snow!


And finally, the traditional Jenkins/Stroder/Burgin family picture.

One Final Christmas Celebration

Our Christmas celebration with the Stroder family was on December 29th. For some reason when we are all together it is so crazy that I never end up with enough pictures! And since we had done family pics at Thanksgiving we didn't take any others. We were very excited to give Nate's parents the framed prints and a photobook with all the pictures. Of course, they loved them. I'm very pleased with how well everything turned out! I think it may be a Thanksgiving tradition from now on.

Look at the tree, it was overflowing with presents!


Luke with his mound of gifts!


Caleb was napping when we started the gift process, and when he got up he was a major GRUMP so he just hung out with Daddy and we opened his gifts later.


Luke was busy with all of his, though!




Aunt Hannah and {soon-to-be Uncle} Nat gave Luke a Rangers gift set - wrist bands, shirt and batting helmet! I think you can tell by his smile that he was excited. {And he doesn't have a skin condition - he insisted on drinking red Hawaiian Punch with lunch and it stained his face!}


After all the gifts were opened and cleaned up, the kids just played and played together. They have so much fun with their cousins!
Kennett, Luke and Karlee


Garrett and Caleb

And that wraps up Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2012

We had a low key Christmas Eve day. The excitement started that evening, with the Christmas Eve service at church. My mom and dad decided to come to church with us. Nate's boss and his wife were both baptized during the service, so Nate's mom and dad were there, too. We took advantage of both sets of grandparents in one place and invited them back to our house for dinner afterwards. Our Stroder family Christmas had been scheduled for the previous Saturday (12/22) but that had to be postponed due to the death of Debbie's brother, Ricky. We had planned to do enchiladas for Christmas dinner, and I already had all the ingredients on hand and spinach that needed to be cooked so I went ahead and made spinach, chicken, and cheese enchiladas for Christmas Eve as well. Imagine our shock when my father-in-law ate almost all of my spinach enchiladas! I told Nate he has no excuse now, if his dad can do it so can he! :)

I wish we had done pictures before dinner; after dinner Caleb was just done. And you know we can't make him do anything he doesn't want to.




Luke made reindeer food at school, so he and Caleb went out front to spread it on the lawn.




After the grandparents went home, we all got to open one present before bed.


We all got jammies to wear to bed that night! Here are Luke and Caleb modeling their new pj's in front of the tree.


Finally, Luke set out cookies and milk for Santa. Then it was bedtime! {Caleb was already in bed by this time.}

Luke's Winter Party at School

Today was the last day of school before Christmas break! That means Christmas winter party! Heaven forbid we mention ANYTHING related to Christmas! I am the room mom for Luke's class this year so I was in charge. Scary thought! Thankfully all the other parents pitched in to bring something for the class and lots showed up to help and enjoy with their kids. The kids played bingo, musical chairs, and decorated a sugar cookie. They had a choice between a snowman or a gingerbread man shape. It seemed like all the kids had fun!


Luke has a cookie!


Luke and one of his most favorite people in the whole world, his sweet teacher Mrs. Butler

Breathing Treatments for Caleb

On December 18th I decided to take Caleb to the doctor because the cough that started over the weekend was just not sounding good. Turns out he had walking pneumonia. That meant Caleb got his first breathing treatment! And it was a nightmare. I ended up having to be a human straightjacket...wrapped my arms around his upper body and my legs around his lower body. Let's just say I was sore from fighing him! My expression says it all.



Two days later and he's a pro.

Sight Words and the Giraffe

In kindergarten there are 50 sight words that all the students are required to learn. There are 10 for the first five six weeks. When a student has mastered all 50 sight words, they get to put their name on the giraffe outside of their classroom. When Luke heard this, it became his mission to get all 50 sight words learned as fast as possible. We work on sight words every night. Finally, on December 13th, Luke was ready to have Mrs. Butler test him on all 50 words. Let me add that we didn't even get the sight word book or find out about the giraffe until October 8th. So it took him a little over two months to learn them all. I emailed her to ask if he could be tested before the break, and she tested him that day. She emailed me back to let me know that he did it! I was so excited for him and it was so hard to wait all day until he got out of school so I could give him a hug!

This week he brought home his first grade sight word book and we have started working on those already. But I had to take a picture of his kindergarten sight word book - so proud of him.


Here are the pics of his name on the giraffe!

Visit to the {Real} Santa

We spent the night in Dallas Saturday night, so Sunday morning I got up early and went to NorthPark to wait in line to get a number to wait in line to see Santa. We went back up to the mall for storytime with Santa and then waited until it was time for the kids to visit with him.

The boys and I waiting for storytime.






Santa!


Caleb didn't want to sit still and be quiet, so I had to keep feeding him mini Sweettarts.


My sweet Luke wanted to go slide down whatever it is that most kids love to slide down. Beth and I did it, too.


We walked by the Trains at NorthPark and Caleb was very impressed with the Thomas display set up outside.


We were next to see Santa, finally!


Luke got right in Santa's lap. Caleb, well...he was not pleased.


So they had me sit down and hold Caleb where he couldn't see Santa to get a decent picture.


Luke had a handwritten letter and requests for Santa. Here they are discussing.


Before we went back home, we wanted to get a picture of Luke with the tree that has grown out of the acorns he planted in 2009.


Finally, some Santa comparisons.
1989 v. 2012


Luke v. Caleb


To me, this is the perfect example of the difference in my two boys. Night and day!