WHITE CHRISTMAS

May your days be merry and bright... And may all your Christmas' be white.

Wow. A white Christmas in Lewisville. Carmine's first Christmas was the first in North D/FW history with recordable snow. What a surprise treat. Usually when we get snow it comes down for an hour or two then stops and is gone in 24 hours. But on Christmas Eve this year it snowed all day. Nearly. And on December 26, today, we still have snow in our front yard. There are still snowmen on our street.

The first clip I attempted to narrate, but the wind was blowing so hard that you couldn't hear me most of the time. It was cold.

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Grandma Jean came up from Midlothian. She made it just in time. If she would've left any later the roads would have been too icy and she wouldn't have made it. After the boys opened presents from Grandma Jean, it was time to make a plate of cookies for Santa and go to bed. I wish getting to boys to bed every night was as easy as getting them to bed on Christmas Eve. For Christmas dinner we went to Uncle James and Aunt Heidi's for turkey, ham and everything else.

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I know that this Christmas will be one that we will always remember.

The Soldier Crawl

He's on the move. For weeks now I've been putting Carmine on the floor on his bottom in the middle of a donut of toys. He's pretty content and I LOVE this stage of babyhood. He's even holding his arms up when he wants me to hold him. I LOVE IT. However, as quickly as this stage has arrived, the next stage is sadly on it's way in. The dreaded crawling stage. Crawling is cute. Sure. But that means my floors have to stay extra clean. Sugar is a long haired cat and her hairballs are everywhere. I can vacuum and 20 minutes later more hairballs. I just can't have a cat and a baby spitting up hairballs. Besides getting rid of Sugar (which we've considered for this reason alone) there is just no getting around it except vacuuming every morning. Awesome. So lately I've been finding Carmine under the tree batting at the low hanging ornaments. It's really cute. But now I'm freaking out that he's going to be putting Christmas tree needles in his mouth. (Yes, we are one of an endangered species, the real tree people.) This is a 4 minute video of Carmine doing the soldier crawl.

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Taking Carmine to See Santa

Waiting in line to see the man in red. This was the first year that the big boys actually didn't want to sit on Santa's lap (wiping tears from my eyes as I type this). I didnt' make a big deal out of it, but I was secretly crushed, like most moms would be I suppose. Dominic and Ethan just wanted to get it over with because if they were good, I was going to let them look around at GameStop. Stupid video games are turning my little boys into.... well, little boys.

See, I think they were kind of excited about the whole thing. Even though they are getting big and just too cool to have their picture taken with him, they did remind me a few times that they did send him a letter anyway, so it didn't matter if they told them in person what they wanted.

Cake Auction

The boys slam-dunked the cake auction this year. Or, I should say, Brad slam-dunked the cake auction this year. Why does he continue to put the pressure on himself? It will be hard to beat the "campfire" cake he made this year. The boys and I are so proud of his work. The detail is amazing. I definitely don't think I have the patience to pull off a cake like Brad's-I mean, Dominic's and Ethan's. Allthough, my "cookie" cake was nothing to sneeze at.

The auction was a lot of fun. They boys discussed ahead of time that they would agree on a cake they both wanted, all the while keeping in mind the personal bidding allowance we set for them. Then Ethan would represent the both of them when it comes to the bidding. This was to prevent them from bidding against each other like they did last year. The cake they both agreed to bid on was, of course, the Lego cake. Their second choice cake was (get ready for it) the SpongeBob cake. They were not allowed to bid on the campfire cake, or mom's cookie cake.

Half way through the auction the cub master annouced the winners of the different categories. The boys won the "Best All-Around Cake" award. No doubt, due to all the blood, sweat, and tears (I think Ethan's cheek grazed Brad's elbow once) they surely deserve it. When the Cub Master called them up for their certificate only Dominic could bask in the glory because Ethan was... where? Where else. In the bathroom doing what Ethan does best.

At the end of the night, Brad's "Campfire" cake brought in $26 dollars and my "Cookie" cake brought in, what? $31. Yes, my cookie cake was the dark horse. (Go me!) Since the video I made was all about the beautiful "Camfire" cake I thought I'd pop in a picture of my beauty...



Here's a few pics of Brad's masterpeice. We are so proud of him. He really put a lot of time and effort into this cake and it was a little hard to let it go when the Wolf paid for it and walked away. I think I saw Brad get a little misty-eyed. Sigh. Good-bye lucious pound cake topped with chocolatey goodness. Hello Lego cake (Ethan ended up getting the highest bid on the crowd pleaser. $16.)

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Other honorable mentions that we liked...

This one was my favorite. Van Gogh's Starry, Starry Night. It won "best works of art".

The French Fry cake

The Lego cake

Very creative. Won "best scouting theme".

The Californian in me loved this one. Take a close look. The beach towels are strips of gum. I love it!

Thanksgiving 2009

Another successful Thanksgiving has come and gone. Good turkey (thanks to Brad) and a hectic scramble for time with Grandma and Papa. Too bad Keller and Lewisville are 40 minutes apart... But regardless, we were all able to spend a lot of time together and overall things went pretty smooth and we had a great time. It was especially nice this year because Alicia was able to come out for her first visit to Texas. She ended up spening most nights over at Uncle James and Aunt Heidi's (more girl friendly I'm thinking). Alicia was here for her 12th birthday and we had a party for her with pizza and an awesome birthday cake (which ended up having her favorite color around the trim - green. I didn't realize how good I was :D).

If I could sum up the Thanksgiving holiday in 5 words, they would be: Cooking, eating, shopping, driving... and slingshots.

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