And so it begins...

While sitting around the kitchen table making Valentine's cards for our bowling party tomorrow, Ian drops a bomb on me that I was totally not expecting.  AND of course, he said it in front of his sister.  "So Mom, are Santa and the Tooth Fairy real or are they just an elaborate hoax put on by parents?!?!"  At the moment I am in avoidance mode, trying to figure out the best way to address this.  I read a beautiful blog awhile back that totally explained everything in a way that still allowed you to feel the magic of the season and for the life of me, I can't find that damn blog!  I knew I should have printed it out!!!!  I will keep everyone posted on the outcome.  Damn 10 year-olds!  Why is he growing up so fast?!?!

Christmas Festivities!

We started our Christmas celebrations with a wonderful evening at Linda and Woody's house.  Our company included my mom, the folks, Woody's mom and her friend, Bill.  As per tradition, Woody made a pot of his renowned chili and Linda made 2 types of cornbread!  YUMMY!  After dinner there was some gift-giving that had to be attended to.  Normally, we buy a Christmas Eve gift for the kiddos.  Usually it has to do with one of our favorite movies, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and this year was no exception.  Ian received a new Jack Skellington sweatshirt and a Jack water bottle and Ainsley received a set of "Nightmare" figurines and a Sally water bottle.  But this year, there were a couple of other gifts to hand out.  Over the two weeks before Christmas, Brady and Ian worked on a little CD of some of Woody's favorite songs.  Brady played ukulele and Ian sang "Yesterday" by the Beatles and "Travelin' Soldier" by the Dixie Chicks.  Needless to say, after "Travelin' Soldier" there wasn't a dry eye in the house!  We also surprised Linda by sneaking some new photos into her house.  Many months ago, Brady decided he wanted to take some of Linda's old photos and re-do them.  So he set about finding flight suits, shirts, shoes, a cowboy hat, etc...  So we set out to take the SAME photos, but with Brady and Daren as adults.  Needless to say, they turned out awesome, and I for one, had the BEST time taking these photos!  I giggled the whole time!  Linda was completely surprised and overwhelmed!  She laughed so hard she cried!  The idea that her boys would go to that extent to make her smile, definitely made her day!

After we stuffed ourselves with chili and cornbread, we all sat down for a visit and an impromptu sing-along!  With Brady on uke and my mom on mandolin, we sang some oldies and some goodies!  It was a great night!  We finally decided to call it quits, when NORAD was showing Santa entering the Eastern time zone.  Had to get those little rugrats into bed!  We set out gingerbread cookies and some milk for Santa and of course, oats and carrots for the reindeer.  The kids and I read "The Night Before Christmas" then I tucked them both into bed.  Before long, they had visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads!

We're lucky, our kids come and get us before racing downstairs.  So we got up and Brady went downstairs to gather the camera and take a couple of shots of the LOOT before the kids got their hands on it!  And they waited at the top of the stairs OH so patiently!

Here is the calm before the storm...

Ainsley was SO happy that Santa brought her Penbo!

Ian was thrilled to get a new Nerf gun and some new video games!!!

While Brady, Mom and I enjoyed watching the kids play with their Santa stuff, Linda and Woody, packed up Grandmama, Bill and the rest of their presents and headed over for gift-giving!

Ainsley got some new hats!

And a new handmade crib from Nana with a new dolly,

Both kids got brand new, handmade cowboy boots from Grammy!

Ian got a million new Nerf guns, so he is now officially armed to the teeth and prepared for any and all Nerf Wars in the park!

As a side note, Daddy is NOT allowed to play with this particular gun anymore because he shot my eye out with it later that night!  Right after we finished watching "A Christmas Story"!!!!  What are the odds?

Needless to say, the kids over-dosed on gifts and wrapping paper!

I was so happy that my mom was able to come and celebrate with us this year!

And it is SO nice to have Linda and Woody in town so we can spend all of our Christmases together!

We were also so pleased that Grandmama and Bill could join us!

We had a wonderful dinner complete with spiral cut ham, green beans, mashed sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, Parker House rolls, spinach salad and of course, pumpkin and pecan pies!  We were all full, happy and thankful for all of the good food and good company of the day!  It was truly a Merry, Merry Christmas!!!

Gingerbread Cookies--Christmas 2011

You have to give me a few kudos, as I DID manage to get the gingerbread house post done before Christmas, but then the festivities caught up with me and I have been slacking ever since!  Luckily, it is a dreary, rainy day and we have finished all of our schoolwork, so I actually have a moment to update things!  Yea!

Like every year, we made gingerbread cookies!  I really do have the best recipe ever!  The gingerbread is always slightly crispy on the outside, but soft and moist on the inside.  I also have a wonderful recipe for frosting, very buttery and creamy!  I have to say, I am slightly annoyed with myself because I did take some pictures of our gingerbread adventure that night, as Brady and my mom were in on the action, but I think something happened to the photos from my little camera and I must have thought I downloaded them already and erased them by accident.  Grrrr.  Thankfully I did manage to save the photos of the finished product since I took them with my big camera.  It was quite a creative year and the kids are getting better and better with their frosting and decorating skills.  Although I would have to say that Ainsley has an unnatural affinity for Red Hots!  We had to warn folks ahead of time!  Nothing like biting into a soft, gingery cookie and getting a huge punch of Red Hots to boot!

Here is the finished product:

And here are the kids enjoying a treat afterwards!

I say, BRAVO and a job well done!

The Countdown to Christmas

I was a little worried this year, we didn't have the ability to do much in the way of early Christmas shopping, so I waited until December 16th and believe it or not, I pretty much knocked it out in one 8-hour day!  There were a few highly coveted items that had to be ordered from the internet, and all but one are here and wrapped and under the tree!  So considering that 6 days ago I was stressed beyond belief about Christmas, I am now fairly relaxed, doing some housework, working on some handmade Christmas gifts, baking and waiting for my mom to arrive.  A Christmas dinner menu has been planned, groceries have been bought, the ham is thawing in the fridge and life is good!  I do have to run out tomorrow to grab a few stocking stuffers for the kids and the dogs, but Daddy's home tomorrow so he can stay with the kiddos while I go knock that out.  Then tomorrow evening... WE BAKE!  I love baking and decorating gingerbread cookies (it's one of my favorite holiday traditions), but I love eating them even more!!!  Christmas Eve we will be heading to Linda and Woody's house for "Christmas Eve chili" (yet another holiday tradition I'm a fan of!)  The kids will get to open one gift then it will be time to head home, check the NORAD site to see what Santa is up to, read the The Night Before Christmas, set out some of our AWESOME gingerbread (we're sure he likes ours the best) and milk for Santa, carrots and oats for the reindeer, and tuck little children into bed so they'll be sound asleep when Santa comes!  I am thankful that this year I'm calm.  It is so much easier to slip into the magic of the holiday when you're not freaking out!  I look forward to spending some quality time with my children and my family and enjoying all that this holiday season has to offer!  Here's wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday!  Cheers!

The 2011 Gingerbread House Edition

Gingerbread house construction has become quite the tradition around here!  And why not, it's FUN!  This year's experience was a little easier for me, all I had to do was construct the houses and let them have at it!  I helped Ainsley a little bit with some of the decorative frosting, but I only put it where she wanted it and she was in charge of candy.  Of course, she wanted to eat the candy more than decorate with it!  Ian, on the other hand, took full charge of his house this year.  He wanted to do the frosting and the candy and he did a GREAT job!  He was so proud of his house when he was finished!  They both did a wonderful job and I feel like next year, Ian will probably be able to construct his as well and Ainsley will be completely in charge of decorating hers.  It's wonderful to see them create!  And without further ado, this year's gingerbread houses!

Close-up!

Bravo kids!  BRAVO!

Halloween 2011--Beetlejuice and Lydia

Oh my GOSH!  It is December 13th and I just realized that I haven't posted about HALLOWEEN!!!  Clearly I have TOO MUCH stuff going on!  I feel like I have been living in 3 alternate universes at one time.  As much as I think I'm dialed into my calendar, I'm still missing stuff, showing up to dance class late and all sorts of wonderful stuff.  Sometimes I really long for a much simpler life!  But alas... that is another subject entirely and I just want to share the Halloween AWESOMENESS with everyone!

This year, Ian and Ainsley decided to go as two of their favorite movie characters, Beetlejuice and Lydia!  I was excited about this as I LOVE Beetlejuice and I couldn't wait to make the red wedding dress!  Like last year, Brady and I tag-teamed costumes.  He was primarily responsible for Beetlejuice and his black & white striped suit, I was responsible for Lydia and the dress.

Brady managed to find a white, baptismal suit on eBay.  Here is a before photo...

It's important for it to be comfortable enough for ninja maneuvers!  He took masking tape and taped off the stripes and then we used black, fabric spray-paint.  It worked pretty well.  The lines weren't perfect, but then again, neither was Beetlejuice's suit.  He was dead and dirty and whatnot.

We also found Ainsley a dress on eBay.  And just an FYI, it is really hard to find blood red dresses for 5 year-olds!  We finally found a pageant dress that had spaghetti straps, which is nothing like the actual dress in the movie, but hey, we were desperate.  So I went out and bought like 15 yards of red net to fluff the dress out, make a shoulder wrap and fashion a veil.  I also had the chore of finding a black wig with bangs as I refused to cut her bangs or dye her real hair black!  With much hard work and a couple of "dress rehearsals" to test make-up, the kids were ready for their Halloween debut!  I think we rocked it, but you can judge for yourself!

I stylized this one a bit, just for fun!

And, for good measure, Brady and I dressed up as Barbara and Adam on Halloween night!

Nevermind the gray hair, it was strictly for theatrical effect!  ;)

We took the kids and Linda to our normal "haunt" in Hyde Park and had a blast!  The kids' costumes were well-received to say the least.  We had numerous people stop us and ask to take photos.  They got loads of candy and accolades and once we were all sufficiently pooped out, we packed up and headed to EZ's for our Halloween night burgers!  It's a great family tradition.  What can I say, Halloween is absolutely my favorite holiday of the year!!!

The Annual Trimming of the Tree

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is a BIG deal in the Woodall household!  We drag that tree in from the garage, set it up, string it with lights and let the kids have at it!  This year, the kids and I were able to talk Daddy into letting us do colorful lights.  He prefers crisp white lights, and last year we tried blue lights but it made the tree have this strange, ominous glow and you could hardly see the ornaments.  The colorful lights are lovely though and I'm so happy!

So we invited the folks over, had some soup, then let the kiddos go!  Trimming the tree is almost as suspenseful as Christmas because I individually wrap most of the ornaments.  So they have to unwrap each little ornament "gift" and it is always a surprise to see what's in there!  Is it the frog with the candy cane or the pig in the Luftwaffe, or the drum kit?  Seeing their eyes light up with every ornament just makes me smile!

And it's always better to work as a team!

No tree is complete without Jack Skellington!

Or an Appalachian opossum.

Of course there has to be a flying pig!

And yes, if you live in Texas, it is mandatory to have a flying armadillo on your tree!

Ian got the honor of topping the tree this year and he did a GREAT job!

Once the tree was fully trimmed, we made the kids stand in front of it for the mandatory "Kids in Front of the Tree" pics!

And yes, those are without a doubt, the cutest footie jammies in the world!  Not to mention the cutest little girl in the world!

Can you tell how enthused he is about this part?

Seriously.  Could I love them any more?!?!?  It was a great night with family, one of the many that I will treasure forever!  They are getting so big and I know that I don't have that many of these special "little kid" times left.  So you better believe I am enjoying every one of them to the fullest!

Thanksgiving with the Woodall Clan

The last couple of Thanksgivings have been so nice.  In years past, we just orphaned ourselves out and hoped that some friends would have pity on us and invite us to dinner (we'd of course pitch in with meal prep).  Linda and Woody were in Clovis, my mom is in Albuquerque and I was not about to tackle a Thanksgiving dinner for just the four of us.  Thankfully, we have nice friends that hooked us up.  Then, Linda and Woody retired, moved to Austin and BAM!  Thanksgiving with family!  It's a beautiful thing!  We had the whole crew this year, Linda and Woody, Daren and his bunch and the four of us and as if that weren't good enough, we had enough food to feed all 10 of us three times over!  We had a magnificent spread that began with a surprise appetizer of escargot!

They were tasty!  Ian and Ainsley even partook!  And then there was the main spread... turkey and dressing with gravy, new potatoes, green beans, Caesar salad, cranberry jelly, deviled eggs, fresh tomatoes with mozzarella and balsamic vinaigrette, corn on the cob and Parker house rolls.

It was definitely a meal to be thankful for!  And of course for dessert, there were pumpkin and pecan pies!  Mmmmmm!  After we all stuffed ourselves to maximum capacity, I rolled everyone out to the back deck for family photos!  Yes, I know, a bunch of stuffed people OD'ing on tryptophan, but hey, it was the only time I knew I'd have everyone in one place!

Our beautiful family!  (Please feel free to click on the photos for a better look!)

And what we're really like...

The folks and their boys.

The folks with their grands.

Daren's bunch.

Mia and Riley (when did they get SO big?!?!?)

And last but not least, the folks!

I'm sure you notice that my family, as an unit, is absent from this set of photos.  Well, as it turns out, the flash died just as we started taking those!  Go figure!  Oh well, I have a photo shoot this coming weekend, so I will take advantage of the indoor studio to get some pics of my bunch!

After torturing everyone with photos, we released the kids who promptly left the house in full Nerf battle mode.  And while they spent hours at the park shooting each other with little foam darts, the grown-ups kicked back, relaxed, enjoyed the silence and ate pies!  And later on, we stuffed ourselves yet again for good measure!  Then it was off to our separate homes to succumb to the tryptophan coma!  We couldn't have asked for a nicer Thanksgiving Day!

Easter Day-2011

Turns out the Easter Bunny came to our house AND Papa and Nana's house this year!  The Bunny dropped off eggs and goodies super early at our house.  The kids were happy with what he brought them!  Legos for the boy, go figure!

And a soft, cuddly bunny WITH a baby for Miss Ainsley!  That rabbit is SO smart!

Here they are about to hunt for eggs and treasure!

Here's the Piggy in her Easter finery!  She picked the outfit all by herself!

The boy decided to test out his new foam flyer helicopter!  Sadly in the long run, that helicopter landed in the neighbor's tree, never to be seen again.  :(

We had a wonderful Easter dinner, complete with steaks, deviled eggs and a new beet and red cabbage cole slaw with beets from my garden!  It was yummy!

After dinner it was time to hunt for Easter fodder and bust out the cascarones with the cousins!  Let the hunt begin!

Somebody found something special!

And somebody didn't!  ;)

Mia checking out her loot!

Such good, sweet children.

Or maybe not?

Riley is weird...

but she sure loves him!

Our pretty Mia, when exactly did she get so big?  I mean really.

Time for the cascarones!  Ian helps Ainsley get stocked up on ammunition!

The chase is on!

She's gonna getcha!

Direct hit!

I don't think they were having any fun at all.

Riley lets Ainsley have a free shot.

Eventually they ran out of eggs and we were able to get them to sit down for a minute for one last shot!

I couldn't resist another pic of my handsome boy!

Pretty girls!

Riley was so sad to see the day end!

You couldn't have asked for a nicer Easter Sunday!  Good food, good family, good fun!