Merry Christmas!

'Twas the night before Christmas and we had guests in our home.
Me Me and Pa Pa came over since Nanny and Poppy had gone to roam. What fun we had making and eating chili.
Except for all the beans which made us poot till we were silly.

Then we had presents for the kids; of course, they were excited.
Lucky for them, not a one was slighted.

Gifts were given, gifts were received.

Even some from Santa because they believed!

There's my 30 second attempt at a Christmas poem. I know, I know, I won't be quitting my day job! :-)

We really have had a very Merry Christmas!

Our normal Christmas tradition, for the past several years anyway, is to go to my brother Russ (Poppy) and sister in law Aggie's (Nanny) house for Christmas Eve. Aggie, from Poland, fixes us a traditional many-course Polish feast. This year, they decided to go down to Louisiana, with their kids Ela and Tre, for Christmas to visit our family down there.

So, we invited Mom and Dad to come to our house for Christmas Eve and stay the night with us so they could see the kids with their Christmas morning presents too. (We are no longer separated by only 10 minutes, now it's an hour, so them coming back in the morning wouldn't have been feasible!)

As was tradition when Russ and I were growing up, mom made her delicious chili. It was so yummy, as usual. The only difference between this chili and some others, was that she must have put some "extra gassy" beans in there this time. Holy cow, I will spare you the details, but we heard "Eww" and "you're rotten!" more than once by more than one person... terrible. :-)

After dinner, the kids got to open their presents from MeMe and PaPa and a few from Mom and Dad.

They all got new PJs and new slippers to wear to bed so they would be nice and cozy for Christmas morning. I don't have pictures of this night, because we let PaPa be in charge of those with his camera and I haven't gotten them yet.

Here are the kids' letters to Santa and the goodies we left. We already had cupcakes and chocolate covered pretzels made, so we left those for him. I assured the boys that Santa would be so excited to receive somthing different than the same old cookies and milk, that he would be delighted!

Here's Braden's letter. It says,
"Dear Santa, Thanks for bringing us presents. I just want one thing for Christmas. I want a gutar. Your frind, Braden"
Gracie was definately in to opening her own presents by herself this year. She had so much fun and kept saying "Thank You!" and "Wow, Cool!" and "I'm so excited!" It was very sweet!

Rhett got a Knight play set, which he LOVES! All 3 kids have been playing with it!
Here's Braden with his guitar from Santa! Can you tell he was excited?!

All the kids got new "snuggle buddies", as we call them. Braden got a Neopet. Rhett got a webkins and Gracie got a sweet little girl Monkey from the Children's Place.

Rhett got the drum set from Santa that he wanted!!

Here's Sissy on the "brums"!

After a few hours at home in the morning, we got ready and headed to Berryville for the celebration with the Kennetts. We had a million desserts, some yummy rotel dip and some ham. It was nice to get everyone together and also to spend some time with Great-Grandpa at the holidays. Now in his mid-90's, you just never know how many more Christmases you're going to have with him.

Here's Braden with Uncle Jeff's fancy Christmas wrapping paper. He said that was a "real man's" wrapping paper. If he was secure enough to have such pretty wrapping paper, he's a real man. Braden just giggled. :-)
Here's Braden with his Cubs hat and shirt from Uncle Jeff and some of his baseball cards he got from Bammaw and Grandpa.
Here's Rhett with his Chivas Mexico soccer jersey from Uncle Jeff. This really came from Mexico!
Here's Gracie with her vanity from Uncle Jeff. She likes the pretend

"yip-stick", so she calls the vanity her "yips"!

Gracie loves her new Barbie that sings a song that she got from Bammaw and Grandpa.

Here's Gracie in her newly rearranged room. Mamma and Daddy got her a new kitchen set. It is in her room and she has already spent hours playing with it! The new little basketball goal was a gift from MeMe and PaPa.

Here's a view of the other side of Gracie's room.
And the other side.

And the last side. It took a lot of work to rearrange everything to make her new large gifts fit! I am so thankful to finally have the space for Gracie to have her own room. She has so much fun playing with her toys and dolls in her very own peace and quiet.

Our family has been so blessed this year by our wonderful family! I want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who has given gifts to our kids. They are all very thankful for each gift they have received. I know because they've told me so. I am so proud of them for their thankful hearts. You'd never know that we've had "less than usual" finances lately (due to the 2 house payments and 2 of each utility bill...). Thanks to God providing what we could get for them and for our family members giving them the rest of what they wanted, you'd think they were children of millionaires! :-) Thank you, thank you, thank you to Nanny and Poppy, MeMe and Papa, Bammaw and Grandpa, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jennifer!

We will be having the Walker family Christmas in Eureka tomorrow afternoon where we will have lots of good food and the kids will each get a few more gifts. WOW! I told you we were blessed! What a fun time we will have!!