DG Tea

One of the fun things about being in Dallas this year is participating in a Delta Gamma alumni group with Casey.  Each winter, one of the Dallas groups hosts a legacy tea at the SMU house.  Since Elizabeth is here this year, Casey was able to go with our potential DG girl.  Too cute!!  

Dallas North Cities DGs and their little legacies

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!  Happy Birthday Jesus!  and Happy Birthday Andy!

Wow, we had a busy, fun Christmas day.  It started early with Santa, then we enjoyed several rounds of holiday cheer with family.  Something we did different this year was having a brunch instead of dinner.  We hosted at our house and had a wonderful time.  Andy was able to Skype with us during the brunch, which made it all the more special. 

Wii!!!

Marshall enjoyed every box as though it was the only box.

Some assembly required......

Tikka LOVES her new "stuffing free" toy.  She also really enjoyed Austin's new hotwheels track.  As you can see, she would sit in the middle of the track and watch the cars going around and around.  It was so funny.  I kept thinking she would try to stop one, but she just sat and watched.

Santa fun

The kids were ready for Santa this year.  They baked him some special cookies with Grandma - sprinkles included.  Austin made reindeer food with extra sparkles so they could find the house.  After he sat in Santa's lap for the first time, he was super excited about his visit this year.  So magical....I know it won't last forever.

Feeding the reindeer - and a dash of glitter

Christmas morning!!

Austin LOVES his disco light.  He also provided us with the best quote while going through his stocking - "It's what I've always wanted!  What is it Mom?"

American Girl Doll everything!  Don't worry, she did recover from her Christmas day injuries.

Redneck Christmas Fun!

Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like looking at a pasture full of Christmas lights from the back of a truck.  We were all in Tyler for the Burks family gathering and decided to go see some lights.  Papa drove the truck with the windows down so we could hear the Christmas music.  The kids thought it was fantastic!  There were tons of characters, from Buzz Lightyear to Noah's ark. 

Making memories people; we're making memories!

School Holiday Parties

The kids had fun getting ready for Christmas this year. One of the highlights of their school year is the holiday party time.  Miller Elementary did not disappoint!

Ms. Sale's second grade class.

 3 eyed donut snowman says "Merry Christmas"

Mrs. Willis's Kindergarten class

 Look Mom! I ate my snowman!

Santa

As I mentioned in the previous blog, Neimans had a fabulous Santa.  Also, as most of you know, my kids have historically not been interested in actually speaking to Old St. Nick.  Elizabeth still considers him "scary Christmas man," and flat refuses to have anything to do with him.  Austin, on the other hand, is interested, but follows Elizabeth's lead and usually declines any offers to go see Santa. 

Well, although she can be quite convincing, I guess even she can't compete with a Santa and an awesome rocket ship full of toys and flashing lights.  I've waited five years for a cute Santa photo!  Merry Christmas!

Neiman Marcus windows rock!!

Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas is known for their holiday window displays.  This year, they decorated in a space monkey theme, complete with rockets, monkey astronauts,  robots, stars, interactive tv screens and tunnels.  After church and lunch, Grandma and I headed downtown with the unknowing kids.  We only told them we were going to do a Christmas fun thing.  When they saw the big downtown buildings, I think they were convinced we were about to do some seriously boring holiday shopping.  Once we drove past the windows (trying to park downtown) they started to clue in.  At first, they blew right past looking at the windows, and went straight to the tunnel entrance.  They were able to actually climb through the playground style tubes in the windows, out of the windows and interact with tv screens.  After about 3 times through, they finally slowed down enough to see the windows and enjoyed the displays. 

In addition to the cool exterior window displays, Neimans had one of the best Santas.  We went into the store to just look around, then discovered that Santa was actually sitting behind the fabulous rocket in the window.  More to come about Santa in the next post.

We had a blast!!  Thank you to Grandma for suggesting this nugget of holiday fun! 

Let's go!!

Our monkey in the window

So cool.  Wish Moms could go too.