Christmas Eve 2009

It is Christmas Eve 2009 and typically we would be in West Texas or Northeast Oklahoma but the impending arrival of Miss Vivien Leigh has grounded us here at home. As much as we miss being with family at either of the farms, we are enjoying the time to relax and do a few things that we never have the opportunity to do when we are away for the holiday.


This morning, I headed to our closest WalMart in search of one last little gift for Amity from Nanna (Fridge Phonics). I had thought I would beat the crowd at 7:30am but it was already packed and the toy was not to be found. Soon after I returned home, Dennis and Dylan began uninstalling and installing an attic ladder in our hallway to replace the 1960s attic fan that was very retro and cool but never used! Unfortunately, the boys had spent most of the day on Wednesday installing the first ladder only to find upon completion that it was missing the last few rungs of stairs. Apparently that is a big deal! So it required another four hours of work today but it did earn us a 50% discount on the ladder from Home Depot.


While Dennis and Dylan worked, I tried to keep Amity occupied in the living room and kitchen while I prepared the side dishes for Christmas dinner. She loves her Daddy and Uncle Dylan and was a little confused as to why she could not be with them. Thankfully, she was a good little helper to me! She started out by smashing the pretzels for the Strawberry Pretzel Salad.
Then, she "cooked" with her color puffs while I made Sweet Potato Puff, Aweful Ol' Cornbread Dressing, and Chuck's Favorite Mac 'n Cheese (we'll make Airport Bob's Green Beans tomorrow) . Do you notice Amity's Michael Jordan resemblance with her tongue out and to the side? This is the face of serious concentration!

Another favorite face...the "I did it!" face!

Later, she put on my old apron that my Aunt Pixie made and hopped on a chair to help me make a "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" cake for tomorrow night. This was her first baking experience and she was a little unsure about the whole situation but it was a start that will hopefully lead to many future baking opportunities!

Stirring obviously requires major concentration

You would think she would want to lick the spatula but she wanted nothing to do with it when I offered her a taste. Dennis thinks this will change in the future!

Somehow, the finger that I put a little batter on ended up touching her eye. It was our only battle wound from our first baking adventure.

While the cake was baking, we settled in for some Sesame Street and then ate lunch with Dennis and Dylan. After that, it was naptime and I headed out to a different WalMart just as the snow began to come down. WalMart was a zoo but I found the toy I needed and returned home to find our house just starting to turn a little white-ish.

After naptime, we headed to New St. Peter's to attend their Christmas Eve service for the very first time. We sang with a big band/jazz-style band and Pastor Rich gave our Christmas meditation. Afterwards, we stopped by McDonalds (nice Christmas Eve dinner, huh?) and headed home in the snow.

Amity helped Dennis wrap some gifts while I continued working in the kitchen. She decided that it was more fun to stack the gifts in a tower rather than lay them under the tree.

I think Dennis was trying to convince me that his wrapping job was going to be too sloppy but I told him I had very low standards!

By 9:00 pm, our backyard looked pretty white (for Texas) and all of our Dallas Facebook friends were commenting about the first WHITE Christmas since 1926.

Now, we're off to bed! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!