Christmas with the Folks

Chris and I are so very lucky to have both of our families here, heck, they live 2 miles apart! When we finished our family morning we headed off to the Krieg's for the traditional breakfast. When we finished we opened our presents. Tucker got a load of cars with a fancy truck to hold them all in. Tater got an Aurora dollie that she absolutely loved. In the picture she is dancing and singing to her. So cute! The real present was the 12 ft. trampoline. We set it up and they jumped all day! Tater and my mom, Noni, have a special bond- Tatum's the oldest grandchild and so they're pretty much obsessed with each other and I love it! Tatum is so lucky to have grandparents who love her so much!

Next we were off to the Anderson's. Tatum got a really cute chef hat and apron with her name on them. Handsome Chris recently annihilated his dad is racket ball and so Sam thought he should have his very one sweat band and glasses. Love the cheesy smile!

Their big present was this super cute Jeep power wheel. Oh they were so excited, you bet they drove in that ALL day! Watch out when Tuck drives, he ran Sam over, TWICE! We laughed about it all day. They feel so big with their very own car!

Christmas Morning

Doesn't Christmas morning make you feel like a child again? I can remember being so, so excited Santa brought presents just for me. I loved to see Rudolph's teeth marks at the end of the carrot. So this Christmas with my rugrats old enough to understand, it brought back so many wonderful memories. The magic was definitely at our house Christmas morning as they each squealed over their presents and made excited faces. Tatum loved her big dollie house and her cowgirl boots. Every little girl, or gril as Tucker says, should have a pair of boots.

Tucker is always stealing Chris's tools which of course bothers Chris so you can imagine how thrilled he was to find his very own tool set loaded with screws, a hammer, screw drivers, saws, sanders, a drill, and a car to make. He couldn't have been happier. He also got some batman gloves witch he loves, loves to wear. You can't tell but Santa bought them way to big. Tuck had such a busy morning he had to relax on the couch with his "real cowboy guns" and his new shirts.

Getting Ready for Santa

Santa is coming tonight!! We made our cookies, bought our carrots and made our reindeer food. Our reindeer food is glitter to attract the reindeer to our house and oats for an appetizer before their carrots.

Here's our cookies and carrots waiting by the front door.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with my family, YEAH! Every year my Dad's family get together for a big dinner and gift exchange. Every Christmas Eve we'd take family pictures to send to our Gramps who lives out of state. It's funny to go through them and look and all my clunky stages where I thought I looked so stinken cute! So in the Christmas Eve tradition my siblings had to have the annual family picture. My cousin has a little girlie, Kendall, who is 6 days older than Tater and they love to play together. And then there's Tuck, poor little guy never seems to have any little buddies.

We always do a gift exchange and here is Tatum and Kendall waiting for the go ahead to open their gifts. Tatum got the game Bingo, a Tinkerbell watch, and a fridge alphabet magnet thing.
Tucker was so excited to open his present from his favorite Uncel Danny. He was thrilled to discover a "sparky bat!!!" Chris and my family LOVE the Devils and so Chris has instilled in Tucker that the Devils are the best thing ever!

Christmas Fun!

We've had such a fun month. One of our newer traditions is making gingerbread houses at Grandmas. We divide up into teams and see who can come up with the best, most creative house. I got stuck with 3 of the 4 kids so as you can see our house had zero order to it, which really makes me nervous. But they had so much fun sticking the candy everywhere. Tucker could hardly decorate because he was to busy shoving candy in his mouth. He had chipmunk cheeks full of this gross candy. I think he ate more than he decorated with! Good thing they spent the night with Grandma and Gramps, I didn't have to worry about the sugar buzz!

The highlight, as you can guess, is when Santa makes a personal visit to our house to check on our rugrats. It wouldn't be very practical of Santa if he didn't know Tatum and Tucker's correct address, I mean, what if he gave their presents to the wrong boy and girl? How tragic that would be! So to make sure they have been good and to be sure of where they live he in all his glory stops in with fun goody's and questions.

Santa is asking Tuck what he would like for Christmas. Tucker says he wants a skate board. Ummm, we got him that for his b-day, maybe we should re-think that one. Santa let Tuck look in his bag and choose a few fun things. He got a Skooby Do top, a candy cane, and like 4 army men. They both got candy canes and Santa was so sweet and gave them each their very own dollar! Yeah! Tatum can hardly believe it's all hers. She also got a fashionable electric yellow bracelet I'm sure she'll sport proudly.






They're showing off their very own moola! Notice all of Tuck's loot! He has to hold on tight just in case Tatum gets any funny ideas! Don't worry Tucker, she doesn't want your army men, she has her bracelet.

Well, before Santa left he gave them each a bat ring and told them they needed to all make a bat pact that they'll be good and if so he'll come back next year! Thank you Santa, we love you!

Another favorite this year was spending the night at Nonnie and Papa's house. They made mini gingerbread houses and of course they split into teams, the boy team and the girl, or grel as Tucker says, team. Oh they had "so much stinken fun".

They even got to sleep by the Christmas tree. Shhhhh....

Toffee Making Date

My most favorite Christmas treat growing up was my Mom's toffee, I'd beg her to make it. Now that I'm older and have the toffee making skills of my mother my sister and I decided we needed to have an annual date to make toffee. So Sunday night Natalie (who is taking the picture), my dear friend Heather, and Nat's friends Michelle spent 4 hours making 9 batches of this most heavenly treat! If you guessed that I had toffee for breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday you guessed right. So much for eating healthy! It's still my most favorite treat! Only 355 more days until our next toffee making date!

Family Pictures

We had the dreaded family pictures with my family last Sunday. But if I do say so myself they turned out rather well! Chris was his usual grumbly self and complained about my outfit selection for him. But doesn't he look good! Tatum was so cute and cooperative we got a zillion great shots of her. She loves to smile for the camera as long as we show her the picture we just took.















These are all the beautiful girls in the family, aren't we lovely? The dudes of course would only take the minimum pictures and a group picture didn't qualify as necessary. Tucker was in his usual grouchy picture self so this was the only picture we got of him. Him and my Dad are best friends. Who needs Noni when Gramps is around!





















Hooray! We're done with pictures for a whole year! Notice the height!