Christmas

 Pre-Christmas preparation - making cookies for Santa.  If it looks like Chase used the entire jar of sugar on one cookie, well, he did.

 Chase's creations.  At one point there was a plain cookie with green all around it on the pan.  I asked Chase what happened and he said "I wanted it to look like the snowman was standing in the grass."  Mission accomplished buddy.

 Taylor's creations.  She ate as many chocolate chips and sprinkles as she put on the pan.

 My creations - because you know Santa loves some good sugar cookies.

 Christmas morning!

 The only actual toy Chase asked for was the bat cave.  Notice Max made an early morning appearance to see if Santa dropped any cookie crumbs.

 Taylor has always been a unique gift opener.  This year she was more excited about it, but she opened all of her gifts in about 1 minute - one after another after another with no reaction!

 Chase gives you a little more reaction!

 He was most excited over his sports hats and jerseys.

Happy boy. 

 Happy girl.

 After opening presents at our house we went to my parents for breakfast.  Taylor was so excited about this gift for PaPa that she gave it to him first thing.  She found it at the store a month or so ago all by herself.  It is BFF necklaces - one is a chocolate donut and one is pink.  Perfect.

 Chase sporting his new basketball gear. 

 The chaos that is opening presents with four kids!

 Vanessa with her favorite gift!  

It is actually a pair of boxers, even though it looks like a big pillow case!

 Poor Chase.  The only thing he asked my parents for was a puppy named George.  Luckily, this is what he got.  Max is still concerned, as you can tell.  

 Best buddies.

 Later that afternoon we did a facetime chat with Grandpa and the rest of the Caddells.

 And we finished the night with dinner at Grandma and Vickie's house and playing with the cat!

 The next night, Grandpa and Grandma Edwards arrived with Christmas: Round 2.

 The kids got LeapPads!

 But they are convinced they have their own iPads now!

 Then the next day, the mailman arrived with Christmas: Round 3 from Grandpa and Grandma Caddell.

 So excited.

 A My Little Pony!

Ninja Turtle pjs and blanket.

And a Hello Kitty airplane - "just what I wanted!"  I'm pretty sure the kids got waaaay more than they ever could have thought they wanted.  It has been a fun week.

School Christmas Parties

First up was Taylor's party on Thursday.  Her class got to visit with Santa before the parents got there.  I like that her school shares their pictures! She can obviously be brave when she wants too.  It's not like she's right next to him either, though!

Then it was party time.  

 Decorating a cookie.

It was like put one m&m on the tree, one in her mouth and repeat!

And a book exchange!  

 Yesterday was Chase's party.  Taylor was more excited about that one than her own!

 Hard at work on the craft.

 Food time.  Neither was interested in pictures - Chase was too cool for that.  I think I was more excited for Christmas break to start than they were!!  Let the fun begin!

Christmas with Zeke

 Taylor and Zeke exchanged Christmas presents this week.  He sent her an ornament with his paw print on it...his dirty paw print on it, because well, that's Zeke!  Rumor has it that he recently got into a bag of flour and made a terrible mess and ate too much of it and ended up needing a trip to the vet for an IV for his dehydration.  I believe it all.

 Best of all though, Zeke sent us this very nice Christmas card indicating that all is well at his house!

I'm glad he is a happy dog (and has a happy owner!)

Taylor sent Zeke a gift too.  Christmas bones and a toy.  He looks thrilled and completely shocked!!

Best dog we ever had.

Celebrations, Christmas, Company & The Claw

 A picture to document the celebratory dinner at Chuy's last week!

 Celebrating Keagan's 2nd Birthday!

 Celebrating Grandma's 84th birthday! 

(It appears there are 84 candles on the cake in this picture!  Quite the glow!)

 We went Christmas caroling last Sunday night.  It was a good time.

 Good time made even better with donuts!

 On Monday, Santa paid his visit to our neighborhood on the fire truck.  Taylor went running out the front door barefoot to make sure she didn't miss it.

 It was exciting. And this year he came at 6:30 instead of 9:00, also exciting!

 One of Taylor's many Christmas crafts from school.  She only went to preschool 4 days in December and I'm pretty sure she must have been crafting the whole time!  She made some neat things.

 Two happy campers when Daddy came home from work with Starbucks in hand!  

Never a bad decision!

 We had much company this week - Two of our favorite Savannahs came for dinner one night while they are home for break.  We sure miss having them closer!!  The kids were loving life.

 There is no better company for Taylor than Max, especially while eating multiple candy canes that she brought home from school!

 Chase has been learning about all of the various holidays at school.  

His menorah picture was my favorite.

Finally, claw machine victory.  Long story short, Chase has watched a few youtube videos about how to win at the claw machine game.  When we were at Kroger this week, he asked to play.  I said, yes, but you know you probably won't win....then he won.  First try.  I'm pretty sure he peed his pants.  He hasn't stopped smiling and he actually got a decent prize.  He said "and I didn't even have the right angle" - now he can't wait to go back.  And he told me not to even bother with my speech next time!