A Snoddy Westbrook Christmas

Meemaw volunteered to sit at the kiddie table!

Granny and Papa got sleeping bags for all the kids.

Reesi and Sophia got lockets from Meemaw and Papa Van. Reesi has been wanting a locket for a while now so she was squealing with excitement.

Sophia and Papa Van singing Jingle Bells.

We all went to see Larry's basketball team play earlier that week.

We did Christmas with the Snoddy Westbrook side on Thursday night. We had a delicious meal, play some Christmas trivia games, sang carols and watched Elye dance, and Reesi recited Luke 2 for us. Reesi and Sophia don't get a lot of play time together since Sophia moved to CA so they kept themselves busy all night playing. Elye did not play so well with Jack and she tried to maul the innocent boy several times that night. We missed the Hardings, who decided to stay put in FL for Christmas this year. They missed some good times and good food!

One gift I won't forget about was Reesi's. Since the week after Thanksgiving she has been wrapping up things around the house to give to every member of her family. Sophia got one of her old princess books. Granny got a bracelet made from a fake daisy and a pipe cleaner. Meemaw got the best of all: pictures of Larry's dad (her ex), his wife, parents, and Reesi. That was good for a laugh!

20 Months

You at Christmas last year. Look how you've changed, but I wouldn't be surprised if you still tried to eat the wrapping paper this year. We shall see!

Elye, at 20 months you . . .

-are addicted to your milk. It has started to become a problem. If we are home you will go to the fridge every couple hours asking for "gilk." When we do give it to you, you get so excited and it makes you so happy.

-are saying 2 and 3 word sentences. When you do drink your milk you love to sit in someone's lap. It's pretty sweet, but the other day I was busy and I asked you if you wanted to sit in Reesi's lap. You said, "no, mama sit." I also love it when you say, "kank ooo, mama." (thank you mama)

-walk on your tip toes a lot. Hopefully, you'll grow out of that.

-can now communicate more things to us. The other day I asked you if you were ready for breakfast and you said, "uh hot. roni." This meant that you wanted beefaroni for breakfast. Disgusting, you got eggs.

-love girls, any girl. At Sweet Cece's the other night you latched on to 4 teenage girls in line. You stood right in their circle jabbering and making hand jesters. Every once in a while you would throw in a real word like dada. You will also hold you arms up to any lady that comes to talk to me. You want them to hold you even if you've never seen them before. Men, however, must keep their distance.

-still have your moments, but there are quite as many. The sweetness comes through more and more each day. I love watching your little personality grow.

Snow Day!

Reesi with the snow reindeer she made with her cousins.

Hat too small, gloves too big, and boots that she absolutely hates: Elye did not have fun playing in the snow.

It snowed!

We went sledding!

Larry made super chocolate hot chocolate that he loved. Reesi and I smiled, nodded, and raised our eyebrows when he asked us if we liked it.

Love snow days!

Merry Christmas!

Already stressing about how I can top this one next year!

Dinner at Bethlehem

Last Sunday was our church's Dinner at Bethlehem. The children had practiced their program for months, dinner had been cooked for over 600 people, and plans had been made to bus in over 50 inner city children to enjoy the night. The weather had a different plan. We still went. The kids still did their program and we still ate, but only 3 inner city kids showed up and the crafts and live animals were canceled. It was such a bummer. But we had fun anyway and brought our sled. Reesi had to go down the hill a church a few times before we left. We ended the night snuggled up at home watching a Christmas movie and eating a whole container of blueberries. Even though snow ruins a lot of things, I can't help but love being snowed in.

Elye actually sitting still for a moment to enjoy the show.

Hair

Of course, Elye will sit still for Reesi to flat iron her hair(unplugged), but she refuses to let me do it. When I do get her hair pulled back, the next time I see her she has yanked it out. That's why there are so many pictures of her with her hair in her face. Jenny tells me I just need to cut bangs, but I can't make myself do that yet. Maybe I can just train Reesi to do her hair everyday.

No, No, Ho, Ho

We took the girls this Saturday to Breakfast with Santa. Elye loves to talk about Santa and calls him, "Ho, Ho," but as soon as she saw him at the top of the stairs she started backing down. We threw her up there for a picture anyway. She was pretty sad. Reesi, on the other hand, was quite impressed that Santa knew what Squinkies were! She is hoping for 100 of them!

O Christmas Tree

Larry had to leave the day before us to get back to practice. Elye was napping so she missed the family picture.

We kept with our Ahren's Christmas Tree Farm tradition and went looking for our tree while we were in Indiana for Thanksgiving. It is getting harder and harder to find a tree each year. The owner is getting too old to care for the trees and his kids don't live close enough or have the desire to take over the farm. I'm not sure how long our tradition will last, but hopefully we will get several more Ahren's Christmas Trees over the years.

It was my year to pick out the tree which meant, "Go big or go home!" We went big. Ten and half feet of beauty. I love it! The only problem is little E. has broken most of the ornaments on the bottom of the tree so it is really only decorated from the middle up! That's the best part of a real 10.5 foot tree. It doesn't need a ton of decorations to make it beautiful!

Thanksgiving

We spent our Thanksgiving morning with Larry's side of the family. When we walked into Karen's that morning we saw Jeff sitting at the kitchen table. Jeff is stationed in New Mexico while his family is still in Florida. It was not in the plans for him to come down, but he drove the 20 something hours to surprise his family. Of course, Karen can't keep a secret about as bad as Reesi can't. Between the two of them by the time Leslie had made it to the back hallway she had figured out what the surprise was in the bedroom.

After lunch we headed to Indiana where Larry and I made our Black Friday plans. We left at 11:30 that night and got in line at Wal-mart. We were thankful they let us line up inside since it was below 30 degrees. Larry and I took turns waiting in line and shopping and around 1:30 they passed out bracelets for our "big ticket item." We went back home to sleep and then Larry left again at around 4:30 to go pick up our "big ticket item" and hit a few other sales. It really wasn't that bad and we did get a good deal so it was worth it.

Later that day we had Thanksgiving lunch and I was introduced to pecan pie. I used to be a picky eater so this was my first year to try it. I wish that I wouldn't have. I actually resorted to hiding the last piece so I could have the perfect snack while we watched The Christmas Carol that night. It was so good!

Saturday we left around lunch to head back for Great Papa Snoddy's 80th birthday party. This meant more good food! This time my favorite was carrot cake. Happy birthday Papa!

Easton trying to check out what Elye is up too.

Papoo was the only one that would brave the cold to go swing Elye.

Reesi helped make the stuffing.