Clay County Christmas

Christmas lasted about week for us this year! Here we are in Clay County on Dec 29th.

Caroline either thinks it's summer or it's Christmas in Miami?


Here's Sam's new tractor blanket. He's in there with his head tucked into the pocket designed for feet.

Ok, good, he made it out alive.

Debra has such a laugh going on here.... hmm, what could it be about? Looking cool, Bjorn.
This year we drew names for a family gift exchange with a fitness theme.

In case you didn't already know, Karen was born to run.

Grant, what's up with the pop eyes lately?
We had some happy kids.
Caroline- self portrait.

Some cool Illini stuff!

And the leather jacket from 1985 returned home to its original owner. That jacket has some real significance.

Flashback: May 1985, Gary leaving his leather scent through the halls of our high school, just days before our graduation. And yes, it was rather warm in southern Illinois by May that year.

You know how a smell can bring on a flood of memories? This jacket equals instant memory trigger of really good times some 24-25 years ago.

Aunt Debra seemed to like her SpongeBob tennis balls from Grant.

And Grandpa got his favorites, too.

Warm clothes for everybody. Or some hot cash~~thank you, Ebay.

The Snuggies made an appearance, or two.

We had a great time with lots of family fun...Qwirkle/Uno/New Year's Eve. We hung around for a few days, but then it was time to head home.

I snapped some shots to see what was going on in the back of the van, and to, you know, add some excitement to cruising a 4500 pound van down the highway while doing that pesky boring driving thing.

And then someone realized I was taking pictures.

And then Sam started singing his "My name is Dorf and you'll do what I say."

"Whoop, whoop."

Emphasis on the whoop, whoop.

Check back later to see what else was discovered on the van ride home.

Our Days Following Christmas

Just a quick update on what's going on around our house. It's so nice to have total family down time-- nowhere to be, no certain time to get up, eat whenever, no real meals cooked, fun all day long in pj's if we want. It only happens one time a year and we live for this week between Christmas and New Years.



So, yesterday.... Gary had just gotten home from a run and Scooter really wanted the rope.


He'll try this angle. Nope.

He'll try climbing up on the playground. Nope.

Stretch over a little closer. Nope.

Back to the ground approach. Get a little jump and

DOG SUCCESS.

We had gotten more snow. Not enough for sledding really, but still fun and beautiful. Especially on days you can stay home and have nowhere to be out in it.

Same views as the shots taken on Christmas Day but with a couple of inches accumulated yesterday. But it's melting fast today with the sun shining.

We've been able to work on the kitchen lately and got the grout in for the slate tiles FINALLY. We weren't thrilled with the color choice once it was in, but not too much we can do about that now. It didn't really darken up much, but maybe it will a bit once the sealant is on?

All that's left is to the kitchen update is to shine up the cabinets some, change the outlets, and add crown molding. Not bad after almost 2 years in the works? Well, yeah, that's kinda bad.
It'll be due for an update by the time we finally get it finished.

Just gotta share. Here are the sweats I mentioned Grant wearing on Christmas Day.

To me, they kinda make him look Christmas tree-shaped, no?

I was laughing out loud at him while snapping the picture and here he's saying, "What? What's wrong with them?"


Ah, these fun lazy days.

Big Time on Christmas Day

This is what we woke up to this morning. Atnas stayed away!! Caroline was up around 5 a.m. but was convinced to rest awhile longer. We didn't all get up until this time.

The kids confirmed Santa had been here. Cookies and milk GONE.

Next stop is always the stockings. Caroline was so up and at 'em. The boys notsomuch. Everyone but Sam was still awake at 11:00-11:30 last night despite having gone to bed at 9-9:30.

But then everyone got into it and had fun finding lots of miscellaneous in their sock.

Grant exclaimed, "It's Shaw-sta!" Imagine Shasta said with an English accent. That cracked us up. Plus, Grant has kept falling down all day due to his way-big sweats. He didn't want to change because, he says, since they are so long, they keep his feet warm. So he's been providing us nonstop crack ups. Except when he fell into the coffee table and banged his knee so hard we were thinking for a minute this might be a Very ER Christmas. But he's ok.

Sam got a shirt and wasn't even angry about it. Probably because it is his favorite color. And because he's looking to branch out from those tired muscle shirts?

The anger came later when he unwrapped pencils and more clothes.

Caroline and the toe socks didn't really work out.

By 6:40, the stockings were done. Time to move to the tree.
Caroline made up little name slips for us to draw names to see what order we would unwrap. Then we decided to just go with youngest to oldest.

This is Caroline giving Grant a big hug. She loved the gift he gave her: a sock monkey.

She said it was her favorite gift. That means it beat out Patches the ZhuZhu pet, her Liv doll, her Lego stable, her new clothes.

Jack got a new garage door opener. SWEET!

Really it was an Airsoft shotgun/pistol combo pack, just like he hoped for.

Grant's always happy when Legos are around. In fact his written wish list was, and I copy:

either a big Lego Star Wars set or 5 small Lego sets, or a few medium ones for at least 20$.

Sam got a jet to wear.
Our friend Danny from Nashville shipped the kids all kinds of silly stuff like he always does.

Sam got a cowboy set from Grant. It was hilarious to watch him use his knife to open packages. Let me restate that:
It was hilarious to watch him use his plastic play knife to open packages.

This is my new big clock. Now, if anyone has any idea just where this is going to work out, let me know. I loved it when I saw it, but really, I am not sure where to put it.

We unwrapped for awhile and then took a break to make some breakfast around 8:20. Hollow biscuits and a sausage egg casserole were delish.

Almost missed getting a shot of any hollow biscuits left in the pan.

And how about this hot oven shot?

Gary humored me by wearing some hip clothes I had for him. Well, hipper than usual, we'll say. Jeans that hit below the waist and had a current look were so rockin' on him! Sadly, he wasn't that comfortable in his new look.

But he still has them on and it's 5:15 in the evening so I know that guy loves me!

He actually bought himself the new (the Goodwill kind of new) Sketchers.

Sam's superexcited about his new headlamp!!!

Later in the morning we resumed unwrapping, and by 1:00 the last present was done.

Lunch: your choice of chili or potato soup.

The rest of the afternoon, we played.

It is really a Lego Land around here. Everyone got some but me, so just helped myself to Caroline's. I got a new set of lamps (shopping yourself to help Santa out just really is thoughtful), and this one was the big shocker. I have wanted a Roomba since they first came out and Gary was never in favor of getting one. He was very skeptical that they really worked and never wanted to shell out the bucks, of course. And this year I got one and, wow, am I gonna be on easy street now?!

As you know, Scooter's a part of the family. He has his own stocking, and here he shows off his new coat to wear over his old coat.

And good thing since it's been like this all day.

To all of you sunning it up in warm Florida, maybe you miss seeing snow flakes falling on Christmas Day just a tad bit? Nah, I wouldn't either.

Continuing to wish you all a Merry Christmas!