Christmas 2010 In Reverse

There are so many pictures in this post that I feel sure my 2 loyal blog followers (the Grandmas) will be the only ones reading by the end of it! The way I downloaded the pictures, they go in reverse order, so we will all have to stretch our brains to see Christmas in rewind!

Luke LOVES his Buz PJs! Back at home, winding down from a very fun visit.

One more story time before we say goodbye:

Santa brought Luke the coolest train set!

Daddy... get in on this before Momma steals all my Christmas sugar!

Aunt Jamie makes the best french toast in the world!

Debbie lost her wedding ring years ago... Dwight secretly replaced it this Christmas with a beautiful (and I mean beautiful!) set! It was fun to watch it all unfold!

Giving $$ is still fun!

Dwight and Debbie are in housing limbo... Debbie made do and Santa still knew where to drop our goodies!!!

Luke got his very own Woody!!!

A Santa Sack with socks?!!! That silly Santa! The soccer ball and books were a much bigger hit.

Aunt Jamie makes sugar cookies every year... Luke helped. She tires at icing them, so I have stepped in, in year's past.

Christy got 6 bowls dirty to keep all of the icing colors separate! Ha! Her cookies turned out prettier than my brownish purple iced cookies... you are hired!

When we arrived to Chris and Christy's house, we saw a fire truck! Granddaddy took Luke up real close to get a look inside!

When they left, they turned on their lights for Luke!

The Christmas Eve service was beautiful... we got to hear the preacher who married us deliver the sermon and Luke did great all the way until the lights went out for the candles. The music was so pretty- a night to remember for sure!

The best full length picture I got of Luke... he had a train applique vest over a red plaid shirt. Cutie pie!

It works out nicely that both of our family's go to the same church, so we got to do this together (as in almost every year we have known each other). Here is the group at Papasitos afterwards!

At the Allison household, Granna dressed Luke so Santa would not miss us! These are his Santa shoes!

Christmas kiss!

Making cookies with Granna:

Santa filled our stockings early! He somehow always finds us!

Army guys:

Opening presents was really fun! Luke was a great helper running from person to person to open every EVERY last one!

Riding his big boy tricycle from Granna and Pops:

Opening cars from Honey:

A quick hug and then he was OFF to play!

Breakfast with Honey:

On our way to Houston, we stopped in College Station to see our Buddies, Ben and Tiffany... we took a run through the Holiday in the Park too! Luke and I twirled around under the big Christmas tree:

Daddy recalled in his younger years jumping up and touching the rim of this basketball goal... he thought he would try again, so he stretched out real good

AND.... (got close!) Ha!

We had a great Christmas... I will certainly miss the age of two!

Memaw Visits

I had training in New Jersey for a week, so we called on Memaw to be my stand in while Brent had class at night... she did a great job, as always! They made gingerbread men:

Luke thought rolling the dough was so much fun!

They played cars:

They went to see the fish at Cabellas:

And they loved on Horsey:

Aunt Jamie came up for the weekend and got some hugs too!

It was a good feeling to know my boys were well taken care of!

Santa 2010

So, we thought we would do it up big this year and go see Santa at the Gaylord- we were pretty sure Luke would throw a fit that would cost us $15, but hey, no Christmas is complete without seeing Santa!:

Walking into the Gaylord

EASing into walking toward Santa... the trains were a big hit!

Waiting in line to see Santa... filling up on cookies makes us all happy!

I'll have to scan in the actual Santa picture, but Luke was a CHAMP! Brent bent down and narrated through what would happen while the kids in front of us went. When it was Luke's turn, he hesitated for a second then walked right up and sat in Santa's lap! Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he said Cars! I am sure my mouth hung open in shock as I watched my little boy being so brave! I am a proud Momma!

Directly after the Santa encounter, Luke was so excited, he started doing cartwheels! What a ham!

While we were there, we thought we would try to get a Christmas picture... we had a lot of out- takes!

Here is about the last one before we were all D.O.N.E!

Merry Christmas!

PS- The following week, Santa visited Luke at day care-- when Santa walked in their class, all of th kids except Luke and one other boy were crying... Santa gave them all books and on his way out the door, Luke gave him a big wave and said "Bye Santa" like they were BFFs! Ha!

Gingerbread House

Brent's company had a gingerbread house decorating contest at their Christmas Party-- this is his group's house:

Brent designed the porch overhang and the garage with cars.

The hotel staff (where the party was held) voted on the best and then each group had to SELL their house! Brent was nominated to sell it and HE WON! My accountant outsold the sales people! Ha! He thought he won it when he threw in "lush landscaping", free cars, and a debris free neighboring lot.

Door Decorating Contest

This is the second annual door decorating contest we have had at work. My group won last year, so we had to make it even better this year to retain the title!

We choose Santa's Workshop as our theme... the three of us were elves going through the production process of making candy for the little children all over the world...

Receiving the raw materials (my favorite is the roof tops... they are 3D on all three doors):

Making the candy:

Tasting everything... this is engineering genius! you turn the lever at the top left and a Hershey kiss comes down the chute for a sample!

Bottom half of the door saying "ship it!" a phrase we say every day! Ha!

It goes without saying that WE WON again this year for "Best In Show"... yay!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was so yummy this year... the only thing that would have made it better is if Honey was there-- her appendix was successfully removed on Monday and she was not ready to travel, so that just means we will look forward to seeing her at Christmas! The cherry on the top would have been if Melody and Justin were there, but they were giving thanks Italian style!
The big bird, host and hostess!

Pre turkey pic:

Post turkey pic:

Honey sent Luke's Christmas present early-- we couldn't wait!

Pops got a birthday present too!

Riding on the neighbor's tricycle:

Shopping at the outlet malls- Daddy kept Luke busy!

Granna fed the rides with coins:

Playing with blocks:

The Brewers came over to watch the Ags beat tu.. WHOOP!

Puzzles with Granna during the Aggie game:

Luke's concentration face:

Playing cars in the tent Pops had set up for Luke! Aunt Jaime spent the night until midnight when the outlet malls opened!

And the highlight of Luke's visit (and probably Pops too!) An ATV ride!

I do have a few more pictures on my camera to add, so check back in a few more days!