Round Up

12-27

So this will be the final Round Up.  Last year my resolution was to post to Instagram once a day and I think I missed three or four days.  Not too bad for me.  I know I will still use Instagram in 2017, just not every day.  

Santa brought Grimm some new catnip toys for Christmas and apparently he thought the fish needed to go swimming.  

Snapchat filter that is hilarious!  That is my son in a dog suit. 

12-28

Another gorgeous sunset leaving work today. 

And a bright star, maybe a plant, over our trees at home. I should have used the Star Tracker app on my phone to see what it was.  

12-29

We woke up to a bit of snow and Baylor was thrilled to be able to have a snowball fight.  Which we did twice; once in our driveway and again when I dropped him off at Landon's. Joey took the week off and offered to have Baylor over for the week to play with Landon.  Win, win for everyone.  We made a slow motion video of him throwing the snowball but I cannot put it on the blog so the photos will have to do.  

Words of wisdom from the car lot. 

The snow was pretty much melted by the time work was done and the sky was so pretty. 

And within minutes, the rain rolled in.  It still made for a striking sky.  

We took Baylor out to dinner at his favorite place.  He just loves the food and so do we.  

And the fire of course.  

12-30

Good Morning sunshine on this last Friday of 2016.  

I had sort of asked/hinted to Greeva about having Baylor over one of the days this week because four days in a row with the boys was a lot I thought and Kartikey does not play with any other kids like Baylor does.  She was off on Friday and I dropped him off in the morning.  They went to see Sing (which I wanted to see but will now have to wait until it is on DVD) and out to lunch at Burger King.  Apparently they have veggie patties on the menu which is awesome. 

After coming home and doing my usual nightly stuff, I was actually able to sit down in the evening.  I love the after all the holidays break I get and can sit down. And I cannot just sit so this time of year I love to knit.  

Baylor crashed on the couch and I knitted. 

On the other side of my couch was one of Baylor's forts which Grimm took over as his mancat cave.   He did love it in there, peeking out at me watching me knit. 

12-31

The last sunrise of 2016.  Worth walking out in the cold in the morning to capture it.  

We had an uneventful stay at home last day of 2016.  We had talked about going to see a movie but by the time I looked up movie times the one we wanted to see was starting in 4 minutes.  So we made a plan to go on Sunday to see Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them. I made the pork and sauerkraut today as Gloria's request because she was going to be home late on Sunday and wanted to be able to enjoy it at a more reasonable hour. 

My last Instagram post of 2016.  Happy New Year!  

It's The Most Wonderful Time of Year

After picking up Baylor last night we stopped at Kartikey's to give them their gifts: an RC car for Kartikey and a cookie and candy tin for his parents.  Greeva gave me a nice pine branch center piece and I put a battery candle in it for the dinner table.  It looked perfect.  The day was spent in the kitchen for the most part getting ready for Christmas day and feeding the in-laws, Jason, and Baylor and myself at supper time.  Gloria had to work 4 am to noon and by 5:00 was already asleep.  

After putting Baylor in bed Santa arrived to deliver all the gifts.  I never put gifts under the tree before Christmas.  There is really not much room under the tree and we use the space beside it to open the closet and toy room doors.  So they are all put out on the same night. So it looks like a lot but it is all for everyone, not just Baylor.  

Christmas morning Baylor announced at 5:10 he was awake and ready to open his presents.  It took a bit to rouse Gloria and then Meme wanted to be up so he went in and woke them up as well.  

He was super excited to see everything, though sad we forgot the cookies and milk for Santa.  I told him it does not look like Santa was unhappy about missing out on the chocolate chip cookies this year.  

He started with his giant stocking which was full of small items and one large penguin.  

He just kept pulling things out and was excited about everything. Especially the tiny TY penguins. 

 

The mini TY penguins were given a front row seat right away for the rest of the unwrapping. 

  

Santa brought him everything on his list, less one Nerf gun that is no longer made.  

He did get this giant Nerf gun that has three different sized things to shoot.  

He also played Santa and handed out gifts to everyone else as he came across them.  

Santa found the two How to Train Your Dragon Wii games he had asked for later in the month.  Sadly after playing them he said they were not what he was expecting.  Santa also brought the Lego Star Wars U-Wing set.  

We bought him four inexpensive light sabers and he really was excited about them.  

And the gifts never seemed to end.  

I had a mug made for Pap with a few pictures of Eddy and one of Gloria, Baylor and Eddy.  He has a soft spot for Eddy and the stuffed Eddy dog even made him cry.  

The Mega Nerf gun. 

And the prized Pikachu he asked for.  

He really was happy about this one. 

My cousin posted this photo of my Mom's mom and two Aunts washing a car in an undated photo. Mom said she had never seen it and I think she would love to see any more.   

Jamie, Laura and Presley were down for the holiday and it was great having them at the house.  Presley really loved Grimm and thankfully he is a nice kitten cat that does love to be pet, just not held.   

All loving up Grimm and Presley.  

After dinner we had round two of the gifts with my parents and with the Miller Family.  Presley was at least good at opening the gifts, at two that is when it becomes fun.  

We got her a Haba doll with her hair and eye color and she just wanted to take off the shoes and put them back on.  Her big gift was at Moms's house: the IKEA kitchen with all the play felt foods and cookware to go along with it. We planned to send it home with them so they can open it at home. Two year olds do not understand wait until we get home to put this together.   

We did not get around to gifts until they were leaving and Miss P was tired and would not leave her dad.  Baylor got a nice Baylor U shirt from Jamie and Laura.  He ran out of sight and changed into it right away.  

Everyone left by 5:00 and Gloria went to bed early. But before Jamie and family left we found out they are having a boy in June!!!  

 Baylor loved seeing Pickachu's eyes glow in the darkened room.  

We both had to take turns.  

Monday we had to get ready to go to Heather's for Second Christmas.  Laura gave me a selfie stick for a gift yesterday and we were playing with it.  It is pretty touchy and I have about 70 quick photos of my hand while I was setting it up.  

Baylor loved it!  

The Miller family had never been to Heather's, ever.  They did complain about all the driving for both days but we told them that is what we do down here to see family.  Presley loved the rocking Heather's rocking horse that our grandpa, Presley's great grandpa, made many years ago.  She took several turns on it throughout the day.  

She loved all her kitchen and baking items Heather found for her.  I think she will like her new kitchen set up.  

Brigid liked her Frozen Princess snuggie blanket!  The older kids played together, shooting each other (accidentally of course). 

Presley stayed with Dad petting the dogs, looking for the kitten cats with me and rocking on the horse with whoever would help her.  

I did not want to push a lot of photo taking but I did make one request of Heather and Jamie.  I was looking through Mom's photo albums the last time I spent the night and found this gem of the three of us at Grandma's in 1999.  I did ask for a recreation of it in 2016 and they both humored me.  

It was funny to see Heather has the same window in her door that Grandma did. 

My how we have changed.  

I managed a few selfies with Presley before they left.  She was so sweet and so much fun to be with.  Especially when we were looking for the kitten cats.  It was a wonderful Christmas with the family.