Pictures with Santa 2015

Gloria had off today as did Baylor so she spent the day with him.  I begged him to wear jeans and the red sweater to see Santa and he said he could make that sacrifice.  She took him to get a hair cut before going and they did an awesome job, other than he now looks much older!!  He has always done with with Santa, every single year he is smiling.  They stopped by work to give me the photos and see his new hair cut and he just looks amazing!  

Working on Bringing Out Christmas

After Jamie and family left, my parents came back to pick up the gifts Jamie said they had no room in the car to pack.  I joyfully enlisted their help in getting the Christmas tree down from the attic and put up in the living room.  It is one of my favorite things to do this time of year.   Baylor was a big help, as usual, in putting up the branches while I wired it up with a ton of lights.  The best way for me to find out if the lights are balanced is to take an out of focus photo.  I can see the empty spots much better that way. 

With just the lights on, he loves it already.  

Baylor and Buddy put the ornaments on the tree while I brought them down from the attic and unwrapped them.  I loved seeing them work together on it. 

A few family selfies in front of the tree.  

And our tree, it its beautiful splendor! 

A Very Presley Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning I finally met my now 14 month old niece!! They family drove down late and arrived after we were asleep.  We had the room ready for them and they were hoping she would just stay asleep when the arrived but apparently she wanted to stay up and party for a bit!  But they brought her up to the kitchen when they woke up and I was so excised to see all of them.  

My first selfie with Presley.  I am not sure she was too impressed with me at first but she went with it.  

We planned for dinner around 1:00 and we had fun playing with her in the morning, especially Baylor.  He was so looking forward to meeting his cousin.  We had a bin of toys waiting for her that we thought would help to entertain her while at our home.  But most of the time we just played with her and loved her up. 

And took a lot of photos! 

Grandma will love this one! 

She liked Eddy a lot and the little piano we have from when Baylor was little.  

Such a cutie!! 

Mom and Dad came back on Friday to see them and we took more photos before they left.  It will be a long time until we are all together again but sadly I did not get a photo of everyone in the family.  Gloria was at work and Laura was not too keen on being photographed for some reason. 

They left on Saturday morning to visit several friends on the trip home to MA.  We loved seeing them and looking forward to visiting them in 2016 in their new home.  

Baylor was sad to see her go.  He is an awesome older cousin and I hope they can be good family friends as they grow up.  

My Truffle Elves at Work

I was off work to get ready for the Gingerbread party and Mom and Dad came over in the afternoon to stay for the weekend.  I ordered Greek food for dinner and picked it up on the way to pick up Baylor from COF.  After dinner and a bath, we worked on the Oreo Truffles.  Grandma dipped in chocolate and Baylor applied the sprinkles.  

Until he applied the sprinkles to the floor on accident!! 

Little round red and green balls everywhere.  We had a good laugh and worked together to clean them up, as best we could of course! 

Baylor ran the vacuum for us while I swept them over to him.  Those things really roll! 

A Weekend in Chambersburg

Saturday morning Baylor and I headed to Chambersburg to spend the day and night with the McGraws.  Saturday night was the Christmas Parade in town and we were all excited to go together!  Julie and I did shopping run to Aldi's, stopped at a local music store and found an electric guitar for Cullen for Christmas, and checked on our chairs on the square for later in the day.  One of the best parts of the afternoon was when we watched cat videos on YouTube on the TV.  All three adults and the two boys were laughing so hard at the cats!! It was so fun. 

We had pizza for dinner and headed out to find a close enough place to park.  We had excellent seats right on the square, thanks to Amy for putting chairs out in the early AM, right in the front, thanks to me shamelessly flirting with the workers there when we were out earlier in the day!  

The boys got light-ups sabers and loved them!  

I was behind Lochlan but still had a great view.  

We bought fries of course, Baylor's favorite food. 

And cotton candy, another sweet close to his heart.  

And then there was the parade.  I LOVE parades and I love to scream and cheer on the parade people, and hoot and holler.  Apparently, that is not how the people of Chamersburg watch parades.  They are much more stoic about these things.  But I did not let their silence stop me from enjoying myself, even when the kid next to us asked him Mom why that lady keeps yelling.  I answered him of course telling him if I were in a parade, I would want people to acknowledge me too.  And I was just crazy like that.   

Here come the pretty horses.  We did not scream at them too much and no one pooped in front of us. 

A selfie with Julie was in order.  

A fire truck all lit up!! 

A beautiful gingerbread house. 

The ROTC kids showing off their push up skills.  

Even Darth Vader and his daughter showed up.

A lady on a truck, with a tree. 

Another selfie, this time with the baby. 

Another truck all lit up.

Around 6 I noticed Baylor starting to nod off and within 10 minutes he was out, for good. Even with all the noise going on around him. I took a video of his head bobbing up and down.  It was so cute.  

We got this semi to honk his horn.  Baylor did not even flinch. 

This truck honked his horn. Nothing.  

Nothing worked to wake him up. 

He even missed Santa and the lighting of the tree.  

I wanted to take a picture with Baylor by the tree but he was so cranky after his 40 minute nap he would not even consider it.  Julie was happy to oblige me. 

We went home and watched some Christmas movies and snacked until bed time.  Baylor crashed in mid sentence on the couch and Cullen was hoping Baylor would sleep in his room.  Julie suggested he sleep on the couch with us and that worked out of everyone.   I woke up early and did my usual morning routine: making coffee and dishes.  The girls enjoyed having coffee ready and the sink empty.  The boys and I were watching TV and talking about being friends forever.  And when they have kids, getting them together at Christmas and telling them about this night.  I hope so, younglings, I hope so. 

We left around 10:30 to head to Mom's for a family holiday, but not holiday, dinner with the Hazel's and Fletcher's.  Since most holiday dinners are at Heather's or my house, Mom was missing having dinner at her house so we obliged.