Holly Jolly Christmas, Kate edition

Here's her version of the bridge:

"Oh Ho, the mistletoe, hanging secretly. Somebody catches you; you'll get kissed you see!"

Hutchinson Christmas

The closest we got to a white Christmas this year was our trip to Hutch. There was a small remnant of snow on the ground, which Sam immediately made plans to play with. Good luck with that.

The whole Brown family descended upon scenic Hutch for family Christmas this year. I thought it was such a treat to attend and not host, even if we did have to do a bit of driving to pull it off. We got showered with way too many gifts, as usual, but it sure was fun. Sam got a spy video watch and Harry Potter wii game and blu ray. Stu got Star Wars and gift cards. Kate received her big gift from Nanny (it didn't make the trip to KC as planned), her very own American Girl doll! What a hit! Mom and Dad gave her some clothes to go with it, so Kaylee changes clothes each morning.

We went and shopped with Phil and Molly in downtown Hutch, and ate at their favorite, Lone Star. After they left for MN, we went to Wichita and split off... Sam and Stu went to Exploration Place and Kate and I went with Mamaw and Papaw to see the Muppets and shop for jeans for Kate, who took an unexpected like to them this week. (The Muppets is such a huge hit around our house, even 6 weeks after initally seeing it. The reviewing kicked off a new frenzy of "Mahna Mahna" and "Man or Muppet" that cannot be stopped. Love it!)
We had a great time just hanging out a a family, watching movies, playing games, ping ponging, and of course, working on the trains. We may have to look into a ping pong table for the new house!

Leaving was hard, but as Kate told me, "Sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to do, even if they are hard. But at least we can visit!"

As Philip and I agree, the trains are much more interesting when one gets to actually touch them.

Sam at Exploration Place. Not the only time he was in time out this vacation...

Hanging downstairs.

Jack

Before we left for KC, we got our very own Elf on the Shelf. The kids named him Jack. For those few who are my privy to the Elf-lore, I will summarize: Santa has scout elfin who live with kids during the Christmas season and return nightly to the North Pole to report. He moves to a different spot each night, but he cannot be touched, or else he'll lose his magic.

Since we were spending Christmas away from home, the kids left Jack a very nice note explaining that we were going to Grandma's house and asking him to meet us there. And he did! When we arrived, Jack was waiting in Grandma's TV room. The kids were very excited, and it was all the better when Santa made it to us on Christmas Eve.

Santa brought a lot of toys the kids had asked for, so Jack must have given a good report. Sam got his Beyblade stuff and Kate got Barbie stuff. And he even brought treats for Stu and I too!

The kids are looking forward to seeing Jack again next season. He left us a note explaining that he'd be back after we set up the Christmas tree. Sam has already requested setting it up early next year.

Nanny Christmas

We went to great lengths this season to balance out the gift giving with Nanny and all of the great-grandchildren after some chaos ensued last year. So, at our appointed time on Christmas Day, Mom and Dad and our family all went and had lunch with Nanny and then back to her place for presents. We get all settled in to give Kate her BIG surprise, when oops. It wasn't there. See, I had ordered the present online and shipped it to Mom, who ordered a few things to go with it and would wrap and deliver for Christmas with Nanny. Only, the present was mislabeled, so instead of Kate's American Girl Doll, it was a present for Phylis. Oh, the tears. The agony. I'm not sure who was more disappointed-- Kate, who was really into the present-getting thing this year, or Nanny, who had the idea to give Kate the doll in the first place. Sam took the high road and offered to wait to open his present from Nanny (a very cool Lego set he wanted) when Kate did.

So, Nanny opened her presents, and the kids bucked up enough to get through the afternoon. We gave Nanny an early copy of this year's blog book (minus December) to entertain her through the year. Sam was particularly good about talking to Nanny and answering her questions. We left about 3 to go to the movies, and Molly and Philip were in town in time to go with us. We finished up Christmas day with Chinese food (again, very Christmas Story-esque. Love it.). Kate was concerned for days about being a Chinese dog or rat or whatever she was.

Of all the things back home that I miss, being so close to Nanny is definitely one of the hardest. I enjoyed solving her phone issues, running to the store for her, and helping her around the apartment. I'm planning to try to call even more this year than I had before, and may take my friend up on her offer to Skype with her.

It was another wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed!

Christmas Morning

We had a terrific Christmas this year, even though it certainly marked a first for us. This was the first time we didn't have the kids in our own home for Christmas morning. Fortunately, Jack did a great job and let Santa know just where to find us, so we awoke to a living room full of surprises on Christmas morning. The kids were great about coming to wake us up first, and then patiently (or not so, in Kate's case) waiting for us to get up and around for the festivities. Grandma and Grandpa were prepared with all of the things we needed to open boxes and power up new toys. Grandma Mary made the breakfast casserole we always have, and Janet supplied us with enough cinnamon rolls for all 6 of us. We are so blessed!


We're just so excited! (Isn't that a beautiful Christmas tree??!)



Tangled Sing and Glow doll for Kate

Unwrapping mania!

Whoever came up with the boxing strategies for Barbies should be shot.

Wearing our new jacket (for me) while playing wiht the Beyblade we are really interested in

Christmas and a baby on the side

We had a new feature attraction for our entertainment at Matthews Christmas this year: Baby Tucker! Tucker, our great nephew?, is 7 months and a crawling nice guy. Aside from the usual food and gift opening, we basically just watched Tucker pull himself around. It was a great time.

We were all greatly blessed by family and gifting. Sam's surprise hit was a hexbug hive. The best way I can explain it is that there are these little rubber vibrating cubes that move around the hive based upon the layout that Sam configures. Kate liked her books and new red sweater too. The kids made these trains at Lowe's that we gave both Grandpa Matthews and Papaw, so that was a special treat.

Tucker on the move!

The Hive had many fans

Christmas Eve

Had another great Christmas Eve with the Whortons and Wilkersons. They did all the work this year and we just showed up and mooched off of them. It was so nice to just sit and be with them. Luke and Lindsay were both in town and they watched Elf with Sam and Kate. I'm not sure they are really equipped for wrestling with the kids all night, despite their big city lifestyles and fancy degrees, but we had a great time watching. Lindsay and her bossy friend Kate organized a rousing game of Celebrities, during which we learned about obscure public figures and watched our budding actor and actress at work.

And Christmas Eve isn't the same without a birthday cake (ice cream). Kate blew out the candles early, so we had to go through a couple of rounds to get everyone together. Happy birthday Jesus!

I wish this were a better picture, but the faces were too cute to leave out!

Pre Christmas

With this being our first holiday away from home, we're trying to adapt to the craziness of remote present-giving. I bought a lot online and shipped it directly to grandma's, but we had a few things that just didn't make sense to ship, namely an Easy Bake Oven that I couldn't find online and bought here locally. So, we did a Matthews Pre-Christmas and opened several things early. It was strange not having all the presents on one morning-- the typical Christmas Story-esque consumer orgy-- but it was so much easier to have some things that didn't require shipping. We opened on Saturday night, so the kids would have a day to enjoy before we took off for the Midwest. In retrospect, I do miss the family time for Christmas, but I'm not sure how we'll really adjust to that in the future. Maybe more gifts in Henderson? Maybe traveling home before or after the holiday? Who knows. I'm open to suggestions.

The kids used some of their own  money to buy gifts for each other this year, and they seemed to really appreciate it. A good tradition to start.

Video Games R Us

It's an Easy Bake Oven!

It's so hot in Vegas that Sam can't even wear his shirt inside!! (No, it's all that sweaty Lego building...)

Easy Bake red velvet cupcakes. They are Barbie-sized-- can you see them on the plate? Hilarious.

Christmas Party

Though I did attend 3 Christmas, I mean holiday, events at school Friday, the most highly-anticipated event of the day was Stuart's Christmas party, and I do mean Christmas. Santa's helpers were there in full force, and Stu was happy to be included with the squadron regulars, which in this case meant hazing via an elf hat and fake pointy ears. We said no to the ears (we=me), but he wore the hat with pride.

I know, this doesn't really qualify as a cute kid story, but it makes the daily news anyway. Here's a rare picture of Stuart and I for the blog...

My fabulous student

We had our first parent/teacher conference today at the new school. We're overwhelmingly impressed with the school-- I keep thinking, and even said once, "No, we were at a really good school. Really. I don't know why there weren't any tests." But are they overwhelmingly impressed with Sam?

Of course!

Sam, who is making straight As (brag brag brag), also made the academic and citizenship honor rolls. He was so proud and wants to frame the certificates. Sure, why not? The only thing she mentioned was that he tends to rush through work sometimes and has some issues talking to neighbors because, as she said, he's "highly social. You know that, right?" Those issues are so shocking! The couple of times he's had trouble for talking at school I always think, "at least he's making friends!" You can see what we value here...

Anyway, we're really proud of him!

Go Sam!

Ice Cream Dancing

All it takes is an ice cream (or frozen yogurt) store and some tunes, and my kids are up dancing. Sam always used to dance at Custard's Last Stand in Lee's Summit when he was but a wee child. Last night, Kate was dancing to Christmas music instead of eating her yogurt. I guess exercise is better than calories, right?

The Lion King

We took the kids to see the musical The Lion King tonight at Mandalay Bay. It's ending a 3 year run there this month, and we got a great deal on the seats (yea, locals!). We saw it at the Music Hall in KC about 3 years ago, but Kate was too small to go. When I asked him afterwards, Sam admitted he remembers going, but had forgotten most of the show.

Naturally, Kate wanted to dress up and wore her Christmas dress. Sam complained about having to dress up and settled for jeans and a collared shirt. Where have I gone wrong??! (on a side note, today for church he chose dress pants and a sweater vest, so I guess it's all dependent on the day.)

We made a night of it with dinner and the late show. The kids were captivated and really enjoyed it. I was worried Kate would be scared in parts, but during one such scene at the end (good guys prevail!), I looked over and she was giving a big thumbs up.

Snow!

Yes, that's right. Today in the hills of Las Vegas we woke up to snow! We had this crazy windy storm overnight, but I didn't hear rain this morning. Storms not being the torrents of rain we're accustomed to in the Midwest, that's typical. But when I pulled apart the blinds, snow! Very fine, crazy, swirling snow. It lasted about 30 minutes off and on, and covered our backyard, the cars out front, and the mountains behind us. It was beautiful, but minimally intrusive. The kids were singing "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" all morning. We were late getting Kate to school because of the school traffic, but what a joyful morning.