Thank you, GG and KK!

Somehow, I accidentally deleted the video of Amity opening her new Bible Storybooks but she was very fascinated with them and we can't wait to begin to read them at night before bed.

We are very excited about the new (to her) and sentimental (to me) doll clothes and baby!

Of course, anything Elmo is always a hit!

Thank you, Nanna!

Thank you so much, Nanna, for the Fridge Phonics toy! We already have it on our refrigerator!

Christmas Morning 2009

This morning, we awoke to the first white Christmas since 1926. It wasn't a lot of snow but it was still pretty and it was WHITE!

Santa had paid a visit in the night...
but someone wasn't in a hurry to get up...
At least not in as much of a hurry as her Mommy and Daddy! This is what she did when we tried to wake her. She just rolled over and played "possum"!

Once she woke up, we realized she had a very wet diaper so we made a quick wardrobe change before heading out to see what Santa had left.

I think her Daddy was more excited about Christmas morning than she was!

Paco was delighted with his toy squirrel.

Amity opened her gifts from Nanna, GG & KK, Uncle Brent's family, and us.

Dennis was surprised (yeah!) by his Jason Witten jersey!

Amity modeled her new backpack. This was as much a gift for me as for her. I am hoping she can carry some of her own stuff to church and Bible Study and make the diaper bag a little lighter once Vivien comes along.

Such a big girl!

Then, Dennis and Amity watched the Walt Disney Christmas Parade.

Amity played with her kitchen.

And then we all took a morning 2 1/2 hour nap!

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!

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!