How to have an awesome Christmas!

Having a great Christmas is pretty easy to do in our family! Here are the requirements that you need to create your very own AWESOME Christmas! These are in no particular order (except for the order that Blogger is forcing me to use...)

1. Multiple stockings. Seriously, how loved is this boy with his THREE stockings??

 Stocking #1: We put a train in the bottom & had him look in his stocking after presents. When he pulled the train out, we told him to go put it on his table...Surprise! There was his train from Santa.

 Stocking #2: GG's house! How precious is this penguin with the glasses?

Stocking #3: Noni's house-It had all kinds of fun goodies in it, including another train whistle!

 2. Receive an abundance of presents related to all things transportation.

Excavator from GG

 Garbage truck from GG (Technically it is a recycling truck, but isn't that just a politically correct term for garbage truck?)

Really huge dump truck & loader from Aunt Manda

Trains from Santa! On a side note, I had NO idea how expensive the Thomas stuff is. We are extremely thankful that Santa's elves knew about the A.C. Moore 75% off sale a few weeks ago. And he got even more more trains from GG & Jpa later! And, my friend, Jeannie, totally hooked us up with extra track, trains & more goodies!

Tractor (with matching tractor book) from Aunt LoLo! It matched the tractor on his sweater perfectly!

And, it fits perfectly in the dump truck from Pappaw!

I knew he was going to love this. It is a garbage truck that stores little trucks. (This was my best deal. Kroger had it on clearance for 4.55 & I had a $5 off any Chuck purchase!!)

Really elaborate car carrier from Noni & Bop. (How fun is my dad's shirt?)

3. Have really, really high expectations for how excited your kid is going to be when he sees the most awesome train set up ever...but, be ok when is a teeny but nonchalant about the whole thing. 

We were SO excited about Christmas morning that it was hard to sleep. Anderson, a creature of habit, had other plans. We had moved his chair to put presents from Santa there & he was not ok with his world being screwed with, so we had to move it back, have milk & watch a few minutes of Frosty to wake up a bit. Then, he started to catch on a bitl & Christmas began! And lasted until about 11 when he was so grumpy I had to lock him in his room to get him to calm down & take a nap. Ahhh, the sounds of great parenting...locking your kid in his room on Christmas. 

4. Have an awesome family who lives close by AND who live far away but are willing to drive to be close by

 Making animal noises with Uncle Austin

Love Aunt Donna's dog slippers!

 Apparently all they (boys) do once they hit a certain age is text/tweet/facebook. Of course, we still love them.

If you ignore the creepy looking eyes, it is a pretty good picture of the girls. Somehow Santa must have overlooked their naughty behavior , as they got stockings again this year.

 A sub rule is to make sure that you skype before the family driving in actually gets here, just to make sure they know you can't wait! I think you should overlook the fact that Anderson has lost his pants based on how excited he is to see Lily.

Wrestling with Uncle Curtis, the Lumberjack

Uncle Zack is always a favorite

Bobble Cole.

The L Pad in possibly one of her best shots. 

4. Even though it is not about the presents, some really fun gifts do add a bit of festivity to the whole thing

 Matching train conductor hats for Bop & his boy! I also got them a new train dvd to mix up the 1980's. Why are all of the transportation videos made in that decade?

 Only my mother would buy a drum set to keep AT HER HOUSE! I love it.

 Lily gave my parents some peanuts, chocolate, water, sand...and a picture of a cruise ship because we are going on a cruise in March! I love this picture because the parents don't know about the cruise yet and are just really excited about some peanuts because they think Lily picked them out.

Anderson got a tool set from Bobble Cole & Uncle Hughes!

5. Festivities/Traditions

The best present I saw was this giant inflatable shark that Amanda found for my nephews. It is huge & is full of helium, but it is a remote control thing. Awesome. It just "swam" through the house kind of checking in on everything.

Brandon got the fruitcake in the gag gift exchange! Now, it has to live in our freezer until next year!

Pappaw got some fun fairy socks, which I am sure he will wear often

Ping pong tournament. 

We stole a Kersey tradition & have started doing the Christmas cracker thing & wore crowns at breakfast!

Aunt Manda loves me to take pictures of her while she is eating. 

We are going to take a picture of Anderson with this Santa every year to see how he has grown! It is nice to see that he has, in fact, grown some since he wore the exact same pair of black pants to church last year & this year. 

6. Sleep helps everything!

Anderson was getting a little tired on Christmas Eve.

This is what I came home to find the other day. Precious.

WISHbones.

Yes, that is the trash. The Thanksgiving trash, to be exact. Notice what is on the top? 2 wishbones.

I got to pull both of them. One with Jeff & one with Curtis. I won the bigger bone (wish) both times.

I cheated each time.

Or, I tried harder. However you want to look at it.

It was the end of November. I knew we had 2 big days coming up & I needed 2 wishes.

WISH #1: J-Pa.

Jack had his pet scan a few weeks ago &...IT WAS GREAT!! No evidence of lymphoma anywhere.  I know. We weren't that surprised either; Jack Glover does not play around.

 I will never forget the day we found out about the diagnosis & Brandon telling his dad he better fight this with everything he has. Looks like he is & we couldn't be happier. 

He still has at least 1 round of chemo & a stem cell transplant, but this is the best news we could have heard at this point. 

                                          

A HUGE thanks to everyone who signed up for/participated in the Buddy's Race. I love this picture. It's just proof of how loved Jack is & how much support he has in the fight. 

Here is the link for updates on his progress. Thank you for your continued prayers:)

WISH #2: Anderson's eye visit

As you already know, our visit to Dr. Cogen was wonderful since we found out the patching IS working, he IS developing vision & my sanity IS going to return since we get to cut patching down by an hour!

I fully recognize that both the positive pet scan & the positive vision results are the results of a helluva lot of hard work from a lot of people, but will be superstitious every now & then if I need to be, so I call dibs on the wishbone next year.

Twas the night before Anderson's second stocking...

 Anderson has really been into Frosty the Snowman lately. I ordered the "twas the night before Christmas" DVD (the awesome one with the mouse family) & the other episode is Frosty's Wedding episode. I didn't know he got married, either. Her name is Crystal. She is a bit redneck, but it is sweet.

 We made cookies with Clare & Jack! My favorite is the one blue eyed reindeer. Sort of reminds me of a certain one blue eyed boy that I know...

 Then, my bright idea was to let them paint ornaments. It was hilarious. Let's just say it ended with a bath & a magic eraser on the counters.

A positive of the glasses is that they protect his eyes from paint!

 How cute is this picture??

 Jack The Elf making cookies. Later he added some camo eye paint to his outfit...

A few of his crafts from school. Love a church school that makes a Nativity Scene!

 I found this pic in our wedding stuff & wanted a little flashback. We took this at our wedding & then put it on our Christmas cards that year.  We look young. And tan.

Present from Aunt Ems!! A new bulldozer! (Not sure where the clothes went...)