CHRISTMAS 2011

 Christmas tree.  One day it will be beautiful.  It's all part of the master plan.  Every year I buy the same silver picture frame ornament for each of the kids, and one for myself.  A picture from that Christmas goes into each ornament. Then when they fly the coop- they get to take their collection of ornaments.  Good, right?  Anyway- I buy silver... and all the same.  I figure that way they can mix in any additional ornaments (colors, and styles) that they choose.  As I'm writing this- I realize that I didn't think this all the way through.  In a few years, I am going to have a beautiful- silver ornament covered tree.  Then a few years after that, they are going to all be living in new homes on new trees.  Dang.  

 We bought the Tony Hawk skateboard/snowboard game from the game exchange store.  It didn't end up costing us anything, because we traded an old iPod.  Although- I would have paid money just to watch Tyke shred like a tiny little pro, and Crew yell "DANGIT SAUCE" over and over.  Not sure where he got that... but it's funny.  Speaking of phrases- it's lovely how the 2 year old in the family, is always the one to make you painfully aware of the things you actually say.  According to Tyke, my phrase of choice is apparently, "crap! We gotta go!" I am reminded of how much I must actually say this, roughly every 15 minuets or so when Tyke randomly screams it.  Great.

 I love holidays... but after 7 solid years of EVERY single holiday without ANY family, it gets a little old. (okay- not entirely true.  in 7 years we had one Christmas with my mom and her husband, A fourth of July with my aunts uncles and cousins, and a Halloween with my mom)  There are a lot of things I love about it just being our little family.  We do what we want, when we want.  We don't have the craziness of travel.  We can be as unorthodox as we please.  BUT, our kids are missing out on cousins (most of whom they've never met) and traditions.  They don't know they are missing out, but I do.  Somebody please come visit us!  They are pretty nice kids... I promise they will be on their best behavior.

 Luckily, we are building our own little Texas family.  Gabrielle is one of our "people".  She owns the gym where I work... and we love her!  She has let us use the gym as our own little (HUGE) playground.  We Headed over there to take a break from our new toys.  

 Elle is turning into a good tumbler.  (although she needs to point her dang toes!) It just took her deciding to WORK at it.  Go figure.

 Tyke is a CRAZY climber.  I'm not going to list the horrific places I have found him, for fear CPS would show up on my doorstep.

 We're all pretty comfy at the gym.  Even Dale spends a great deal of time there.  He ends up being the on call doc for the gym.  He's gotten called a lot. (p.s. Dale- when you bury yourself in a foam pit, you run the risk of getting jumped on.  And if you're really unfortunate, (which you seem to be) when you get jumped on- you will shield your head with your hand.  More specifically- your hand with an amputated stub of a finger left.  It WILL really hurt.  Just sayin.

 He's not dead.  His back isn't broken.  He's just hanging... happily.

 Ryan and Carol (my aunt and uncle) sent us a FUN game.  It's been played a lot.  It's pieces are being closely supervised.  For some reason, the girls are worried the boys will steal them- or loose them- or eat them- or flush them.  hmmmmmm.. .

We ended our Christmas the way we always do- with a whole lotta love for A CHRISTMAS STORY.

Merry Christmas world!