Ho! Ho! Ho! at the Bass Pro (Grover Family Christmas Tradition #7)

Last year, Amity had her first visit with Santa at the local Bass Pro. There was a short line, free picture, and a Santa with a real beard so we felt that it was a great deal worthy of repeating this year.

Yesterday afternoon, we headed out to Garland. There was quite a long line to see the man in red so we grabbed some dinner at the in-store restaurant. Amity enjoyed coloring the kids' menu and watching the scuba man clean the gigantic aquarium.

The line was much shorter after dinner and when we asked Amity if she wanted to go see Santa, she would always answer "Yes!" However, as we moved forward in line, she started to get more and more serious and pensive.

This is how the whole thing played out...(only at Bass Pro will you hear gunshots in the background of Santa portraits!).

And this was the result...

Dennis and I were both happy with this picture as we figured that every child needs at least one of these in their collection!

Amity seemed to make a quick recovery once she bid Santa good-bye.

She let her Daddy review the basics of hunting with her.

And even tried on some of the stylish trends that can only be found at Bass Pro.

We can't wait to see what the Bass Pro Santa will do with TWO Grover girls on his lap next year!

Party in the Hood (Grover Family Christmas Tradition #6)

Dennis and I moved to our house a little over three and a half years ago. Over the past few years, we have come to know quite a few neighbors while working in the yard or going on walks. There are still quite a few original owners from the 1960s in the neighborhood and they often tell us about the previous owners of this house and what a wonderful couple they were. Knowing the reputation of our little house, we have dreamed up lots of ideas for continuing to build community in our neighborhood but few of our dreams have actually come to fruition. Last year, I hosted a cookie exchange and invited some neighborhood women to attend. I think we had about 10 attend and it was a good time of getting to visit with some friends and meet some new ones.

This year, we decided to just have an open house for anyone in the neighborhood that would come. I sent a few emails to friends I had addresses for and Amity and I walked the streets passing out invitations. "Walking the streets" should be defined as walking a few feet, stopping to pick up leaves and pecans, carefully observing them for a couple of minutes, laying them down, and then walking a few more feet before repeating the whole process again. Due to our slow moving process, we didn't get to as many houses as I had hoped but we hoped the word would spread.

Our little invitation read:

You’re invited for Cookies, Cider, & Christmas Cheer!

NEIGHBORHOOD OPEN HOUSE

We won’t make you sing carols or play silly games.

We just want to meet you and get to know your names!

Come enjoy some cider and a couple of sweets.

Say “Hello!” to a neighbor and all the new people you’ll meet!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

4:00-6:00 p.m. (come and go)

Home of Dennis & Candis Grover

[address & phone number]

Children are welcome.

Please invite your neighbors!

Since we had promised refreshments, I knew that I needed a willing volunteer to test out the treats. After her nap, Amity was excited to discover cookies for snack instead of her typical raisins, apple, or crackers.

Why is it that I get her best posed smiles when she is eating and covered with food?

I don't know how valid her testing was since she never actually bit into the cookie but chose to just scrape the icing off.

Apparently, it is good icing!

Just before 4:00, the table was ready and we waited to see if anyone would show up!

AND THEY DID! We never got an official count but we are pretty sure there were at least 30-35 people here. About a third were people we had never met before. Some brought cookies of their own to donate to the spread. Many were original owners that had never met before. One told us that it was the social event of the season! :) Amity liked having so many sweet people that were willing to let her eat off of their plates!

We collected addresses, phone numbers, and emails from many of the attendees and hope that there might be more get-togethers in the future at other homes. Dennis and I decided last night that we are willing to add our Christmas Cookies & Cider Open House to our list of Grover Family Christmas Traditions!

Little Debbie meets the Pillsbury Doughboy (Grover Family Christmas Tradition #5)

During our first year of marriage, we attended a church in Mesquite and worked with the high school youth group. One of the other youth workers often brought her famous Oatmeal Creme Pie cookes to our leader meetings. Dennis fell in love (with the cookies)! Our second year of marriage, Dennis was in his first year as the counselor at Agnew Middle School. He decided to bake Ashley's cookies for everyone on the staff. The problem was he couldn't find Ashley's recipe. We were no longer attending the same church and didn't know how to contact her. We found another Oatmeal Creme Pie recipe online and tried it out but they just weren't the same. Dennis went to the store to get more ingredients and guess who was waiting at the pharmacy for a prescription? It was a Christmas miracle!!!! :) Well, maybe not, but Ashley was gracious to go home and email us the recipe again.

I was working on my Masters classes and couldn't help out much with this daunting endeavor but Dennis strapped on my apron and got to work in our little apartment kitchen making about 400 cookies (200 pies) in order to give two to every person on staff, including the custodians and kitchen ladies.

Those efforts in the kitchen earned him the "Pillsbury Doughboy" award at the end-of-year staff party and his cookies were an expectation every year afterwards. This year, Dennis decided to bring the tradition to McDonald. It took three nights of baking with some packaging help from my parents and these cute little baggies were the result. The cookies themselves aren't that cute but the picture of the little girl stapled to the bags sure is!

Adolphus Children's Parade (POTENTIAL Grover Family Christmas Tradition #4)

Usually we look forward to sleeping in a little on Saturday mornings but today we got up at 6:30 and were out the door at 8:00 to head downtown for the Capital One Bank Adolphus Children's Parade. We were a little unsure of what was in store, especially since the thermometer said 27 degrees as we were getting ready. As you can see, we decided to dress for warmth rather than cuteness!

My sweet friend Ellyn's church is right on the parade route. They allowed us to park in their parking garage, stake out a place to sit, and wait in the warmth inside while enjoying the snacks they provided until the parade started at 10:00. Ellyn played her violin for the children and read a couple of Christmas books. As the parade got ready to gear up, we went outside and listened to the church's brass ensemble play Christmas music and were entertained by the clowns from Children's Medical Center.
We were cold but happy to snuggle!

Dennis couldn't wait to give Amity her first taste of cotton candy but she wanted nothing to do with it and wouldn't even let him put any in her mouth. Oh well, Daddy had to eat all of it! Bummer!

There were even lots of big balloons (just like the Macy's Parade :))!

Supposedly, there were 100,000 people there and apparently, we have quite a range of talent here in little ol' Dallas, Texas!

This was Dennis's favorite parade entry. We have quite a few more photos of the rest of the Star Wars float if you are interested (Dennis had the camera at this point in the parade!).We were surprised and excited to see HSU's Six White Horses and...

the world-famous Cowboy Band! Go Hardin-Simmons!

We thought this car would make a great vehicle for PopPop in his retirement!

Amity was so excited about the Choo-Choo Balloon. She woke up from her nap later in the afternoon and kept saying "choo-choo ba-ooooo"!

This was pretty much her expression the entire parade...just taking it all in!

So, this parade is on the list of definite-maybe traditions for our family ("definite" if you ask me and "maybe" if you ask Dennis) ...especially if the weather is a little warmer next year! Plus, we wouldn't want to cheat Vivien of the experience, right, Dennis? :)

Reading HIS-Story (Grover Family Christmas Tradition #3)

I have a little cousin named Garrett who is not so little anymore (he's 8 years old and very smart!). When he was about Amity's age, he impressed all of us by his ability to name all of the people in his little Fisher Price nativity scene. Last year, I was so excited to find the same set for half-price at Mardels after Christmas. It has been sitting on a shelf in my closet ever since. Last week, I pulled the box down, opened it up, and set it up on our coffee table. Amity has been fascinated with it ever since. It is pretty much the only toy she has played with all week.

At night before bedtime, we typically read from The Baby Bible Storybook and practice her Bible verse (Deuteronomy 6). As we countdown to Christmas this year, we are reading the book Baby Jesus is Born every night. Amity loves to hold the Little People from her nativity as we read about them in the book. She is getting good at identifying the Mommy Mary, Daddy Joseph (Dennis tried to explain that he is really the step-daddy but I think it went over her head!), and Baby Jesus. We still have some work to do to learn who those wise men are!

What a privilege it is to share this part of the Gospel with our little girl! Joy to the World!

Counting Down the Days! (Grover Family Christmas Tradition #2)

This is the Advent calendar that we made in MOPS back in November. We have filled each muffin cup with M&Ms and are counting down the days till Christmas every evening after dinner. In future years, I'd like to see us do something a little more meaningful than M&Ms but, right now, they are meaningful to a certain little person! Let me know if you can think of other things we could put in the muffin cups!

O Christmas Tree! (Grover Family Christmas Tradition #1)

In December of 2005, my birthday wish was to go to a Christmas tree farm and cut down a real Christmas tree, just like Laura Ingalls used to do (sort of!). After a little bit of online research, we found The Walls Family Farm in Terrell and it quickly became our first Grover Family Christmas Tradition. In the five years that we have been going, we have learned a few things:
1.) Go as early as possible. The best time to go is the first weekend after Thanksgiving.
2.) Take along a measuring tool, such as a precut ribbon, to ensure that you don't buy a tree that won't fit in your space.
3.) Be careful where you cut! Christmas Tree 2007 (see below) had a bit of a hole because we apparently cut above a rather important branch! Oh well, we decided this corner was a perfect place for our tree!

4.) Take along some friends or family! The Connells have joined us the past three years.
5.) Have fun! The Walls family is always so gracious and hospitable and their cookies, hot chocolate and cider is yummy too!
6.) Kids make the Christmas tree hunt all the more fun! Last year was Amity's first trip. The year before that, I was pregnant with her, and the year before that, she was just a much-longed for dream!

This year, we were some of the first people to arrive and the kids were raring to go find the perfect tree.

Amity thought she had found a good one... but her Daddy thought that we should look for one a little more substantial!

Eiley let Amity borrow her plastic saw.

Eli brought along his chainsaw for the third year in a row.

Amity tried using the saw to cut some grass.

We found lots of potentials, stopped to give Mom a snuggle, picked up a couple of sticks,

and finally found THE TREE! Daddy measured it with our ribbon. Mmmm...it looks a little tall!

Still looks really tall! Dad is 6'3" and our home just has 8 foot ceilings! Can you do the visual math here? :)

We're thankful for our big and strong Daddy that can fell the tree with just a few swoops of the saw.

The four of us and our tree!

Amity loves her Uncle Dylan ("Duh Duh")!

The men head back to the road with the trees. Wouldn't you know that we picked trees that were the furthest from the road?

Waiting for the tractor and posing for the camera!

The tractor and hay trailer picked us up and took us back to the house where we enjoyed some cider and cookies. We were surprised to learn that our tree measured 9 feet! Oops! Once we arrived home, we cut it down a bit and it soon fit perfectly in our living room.

We think it is our best tree yet! We couldn't wait for Amity to wake up from her nap so that we could show her our new tree!

Since Amity is talking and comprehending so much more this year and since we will be stuck at home over the holidays awaiting the arrival of Miss Vivien, we are looking forward to the opportunity to begin several more Grover Family Christmas Traditions. I will be adding them here as we think of them and have the chance to document them. I don't know who said it but I like this quote: "The most vivid memories of Christmases past are usually not of gifts given or received, but of the spirit of love, the special warmth of Christmas worship, the cherished little habits of the home."