A new Christmas Tradition...I hope

This year as I have already mentioned, we had Christmas really early. The next week, David had to leave on a business trip so Ashley asked if I could come hang out with her and Emma! Oh how fun! Of course we started making the plans right then!!! We always have a million things we want to do but we wanted this week to be special!

We decided to take Emma to North Park Mall to see Santa and to spend the day shopping and eating somewhere special! It was such a perfect day. We even dressed up a bit but Emma outdid us when she her put on her Christmas dress! So adorable!
We arrived at North Park at 10, just in time to see Santa and his cute little dog arrive for story time. It was so sweet!! Then we picked up our ticket to see Santa later in the day and did a bit of fun shopping. Fun in the respect that we had both finished our Christmas shopping so this was just fun looking with NO pressure!



Lunch time was very special. When I was in the 6th grade, it was determined that I had curvature of the spine. We began seeing a team of drs at the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas for the next four years, which required me wearing a back brace, a brace that went from my chin to my pelvic bones. Not fun. I had no idea the sacrifice and tough love my mom had for me till I was a mom myself. She knew how embarrased I was to have to wear that brace 23 hours a day but she also knew if I didn't I would be very crippled later in my life. I realized much later on in life, how hard she worked to make our trips to Dallas fun! She knew how I hated to go to this clinic and it was usually a very long day for us both. But she worked hard to make the rest of the trip amazing. We would stay in a Hotel, which was a huge treat for me! We would ALWAYS go shopping at North Park. Of course it was very hard to find clothes to fit me with this brace, but we would try things on and she would figure out a way to alter them to fit or how to copy them and come home and make me something similar. She was amazing. One thing we always did was eat at the Mermaid Bar in Neiman Marcus. It was the highlight of the trip for me. I had not thought of this place in years. When Ashley and I were making plans, I was on the computer looking for somewhere special for us to eat and that popped up on the screen! My heart soared! I knew it had to be the place I would take my daughter and granddaughter!!!! We had such a special time and we hope to make it a tradition!

North Park is just a fun place to window shop! A lot of the stores, we just walk on by but it then there are some of our favorites...PAPER SOURCE, H&M, PAPYRUS...and some amazing children's stores to ooh and aah over the clothes! They also had so many fun holiday decorations, puppet shows, etc. Here are Ashley and Emma watching a puppet show...Emma is being silly!
Here are my girls with Santa's sleigh and reindeer flying above. I remember these decorations when I was a girl! They are so neat!

Finally, it was time for Emma to have her turn in Santa's lap. It was a very long day but she did amazing. She really got only a short morning nap while we drove to Dallas, so she was way overdue for her afternoon nap. But, she was so sweet and happy. Now, she wasn't too sure about the man with the beard...but we were thrilled because there were no tears! She just sat there taking him in! It was so cute!!

Then we let her get a nap in the car, while we drove around and checked out things in the area...like stopping at SPRINKLES for a few cupcakes to take home for a evening treat! Oh yum. That was my first trip and Ashley sat in the car and let me go in and pick out which ones to take home...WHAT PRESSURE!!! I may need to do that again, Ashley!

It was a perfect day! I loved every second of it!!

The rest of the time together we watched movies, played with Emma, ate good food, Ashley worked on a wreath, etc. As always the time flew and it was time for me to come home! I loved getting to sit in the floor and play with Emma. She is growing and changing so much so I relish these moments so much.

Again, it was a precious time and I really hope it is a new tradition for us girls! I like to think that my mom was smiling down upon us as we sat in the Mermaid Bar and carried on a sweet tradition set into place many years ago!

Christmas Trip 2010

Since we had already had "Christmas" with our kids..we planned a little getwaway...if time and work allowed. It did and we were thrilled! We had such a good time. We drove to downtown Fort Worth and here is a sampling of the fun we had...Amazing Food (and way too much I hate to admit)

Fireside Pies-oh yummy! Probably one of our new favorites!!! Thanks to Jessica for blogging about this one!! If you go, sit at the bar and watch them make your pizza!
Fuzzy's Taco's-so good! Chicken tacos are my favorite...so fresh! Not your typical taco!
McKinley Bakery-best cakes and pies ever! My new favorite cake...Chocolate Italian Creme Cake! Oh my...anyone have the recipe??
Cowtown Diner-good but not our favorite! Larry had deep fried deviled eggs! Crazy!
Corner Bakery-always good and I loved sitting there on Christmas Eve morning sipping coffee and planning our day together! It was so relaxing and fun!
Worthington Hotel Christmas Day Buffet-Whew. It was crazy good. Our favorites...boiled shrimp and the salmon dish! Ugh. I could have even my weight in it...oh wait...maybe I did! :)
Cooper's BBQ-always good and we had a new cobbler...Pecan Cobbler...oh goodness...I don't need to go there too often!

Fun Shopping!
We went lots of fun places...lots of looking and bought stocking stuffers!
Central Market-yes, a "grocery store" but we love this place!!
World Market-so fun!
Aaron Brothers- I love looking at their frames and artsy stuff!
Barnes and Nobles, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, Target, Decorators Warehouse, Williams-Sonoma--Always fun!

We had so much fun just shopping, looking...and there was no pressure! We had finished our "Christmas" so this was like the sugar on top of the icing! It was fun to relax in the room, watch a movie in the room, went to see True Grit at the theater and my favorite--just hanging out with my hubby! Fort Worth had decorated downtown so pretty so we walked around every night and just took in the sights and sounds...and the Starbucks! :)

What a fun ending to a wonderful year! Larry and I talked so much about how blessed we are! Our prayer is in the coming year we can be even better stewards of our money and our resources. We have lots of new business and though it can be exhausting we are so blessed to have it and we are so thankful! We had so much fun talking about our kids and grandkids while away from them...we missed them but are thankful they have two families that love them!!!

(It was a little hard to take pictures of the two of us...we aren't very good at asking others to take them! So, here is our best stab at a picture in front of the tree in Sundance Square.)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Family and Friends!

May your day be blessed with sweet times, memories and fellowship!

This little fellow is one of my all time favorite Christmas decorations. It is such a sweet little Santa "vase". Why is it one of my favorites? It was my Mom's. She bought it in 1950. That would have been their 2nd Christmas as a married couple. It is fun for me to think back on her selecting it at a store and how delighted she must have been to have it decorating her home! It was one of her favorite pieces as well. I have to admire her, it is such a great little piece and back then, I am thinking there weren't the TONS of decorations available to her as we have today! It is the decoration that I ALWAYS remember being in our house growing up. One Christmas, when I was married and had kids, I mentioned to her how much I loved that piece. She went and got a pen and wrote my name on the bottom of it right then and there. That is how she was, she wanted things to be passed on and so she took care of that little bit of business right then! I love the Santa, I love seeing my name written on the bottom in her handwriting. She loved Christmas and she loved family. I hope she knows how much I loved her!

Our "Christmas Morning" 2010

I think I am still just a kid at heart! I can never sleep the night before Christmas, whenever that might be. So this year was no different, I couldn't sleep and woke up super early. Oh well, it gave me time to get ready, drink some coffee and finish readying the house for our fun morning. While we were waiting for Zach, Meg and the boys, David, Ashley, Emma, Larry and I had some time to drink some coffee! Emma loved this rug in our kitchen. She kept going over to it and talking to the snowmen! I love this picture of her and her daddy! David is a good little daddy!!!
I should go ahead and explain, this blog will have lots of pictures! I couldn't narrow it down anymore than this! There were just so many sweet ones!
First order of business once we were all together...I just had to have some sweet "under the tree" pictures of the four grands in their new Christmas PJ's. I have to admit, I had moments of being afraid the PJ's we made wouldn't fit but they all fit perfectly and I think they looked so precious!!! I couldn't NOT have done the sewing this year without Larry's help. He was so great to help me figure out how to make the patterns bigger and smaller in order to fit 4 different little ones. I am a little challenged when it comes to resizing a pattern!!! :) Here is my favorite picture of our adorable little ones!!
Next, I recruited some little elves to help pass out all the gifts! The boys love this job, getting to divide the gifts up into piles!
Here are a few of my favorites: First up, our oldest grandson, Owen.

Then comes Clay, our second grandchild.


Next up is Will, our third grandchild.


Then comes our youngest, Emma Grace.


I have to include just a few random ones also. One thing that was so precious, is how intrigued Emma was with all the trucks, guns, etc. She would open her gifts, but quickly crawl over to one of the boys to check out the boy gifts!

We let the kids open their gifts first, then had a big breakfast with all our favorite breakfast casseroles! Yum! At each person place on the breakfast table is another one of our traditions, giving each person or couple a new ornament for their tree.





Stockings are a big deal at our house. A few years ago, we started just doing "big" stockings for the adults. Of course, it isn't always possible to get everything in the stocking...as we say at the Knight house, sometimes the stockings just kind of "burp"!
Anyway, here are a few pictures of the crew opening their treats! We love stocking time! I need to apologize. We always share pictures and I haven't had a chance to load all the ones that Ashley took, so I don't have one of everyone loaded yet! Sorry David and Will!!! Plus, I don't have any of Larry and I opening our stockings...but let me just say that our children did amazing stockings for us this year! So many fun goodies!!!



One thing that is so sweet, is how excited the little ones are to watch their parents open their stocking!

The last "gift" of this year was something Larry and I were VERY excited about. We first just talked about how very blessed we are as a family and how we truly don't "need" anything. We wanted to give our kids a chance to spend the afternoon giving to others! We gave each family some money in a envelope and told them they were to go out for the afternoon and bless others! When they returned they shared with everyone what ways they found to use the money! It was so cool! Zach, Meg and the boys put together care packages to give out to the homeless! They even made enough to share with David, Ashley, Larry and I! They felt this was a way for their boys to be a part of the giving. The kids are noticing homeless people on the street corners and have been asking questions so now they have a way of giving them something to hopefully keep them warm and help supply a few of their needs. David and Ashley visited the pediatric ward at Hendricks and discovered another real need. The nurses talked about how often they send kids home from the hospital in hospital gowns because the kids don't have PJ's, socks, underwear or blankets. David and Ashley went to Wal-Mart and bought supplies for the nurses to at least give a child something new to wear home! Zach, Meg, Larry and I were so touched by the needs the hospital had, they we went back to Wal-Mart and bought some more items to take to them. Our kids blew us away with their giving spirits!! They were so excited about this "activity" and we all decided it would be a tradition every year!! Really, that is truly what Christmas is about!!! I hesitated whether to blog about this part of our Christmas because I don't want this to come across bragging! However, very few read my blog anyway and this is just my way of journaling our family events.

It goes without saying that our time together was sweet and full of memories that I will treasure up in my heart. Our time together is never long enough but I am just so thankful that when we are together we always have tons of fun, the house is full of laughter and we leave longing for more!!! We love you all and are so thankful for family time!

Christmas came early at our house!!

This was our "off" year as we call it around our place. One year we have our kids on Christmas Day and the next year they are with their "other parents". On the off year, we find a weekend in the month that works for everyone...this year it was quite early but nonetheless it was "Our Christmas" and it was tons of fun! To start off, we had a bit of tree dilema this year. You see, we got rid of our tree last year...it needed to happen. Old. Broken. Lights not working. Had to go. We thought since this was our off year, we would be "off" somewhere with the kids for our Christmas. Didn't happen. When we decided to just meet here...then there was the question of "what tree will we use??". I didn't want to rush into a tree purchase (especially since they will put them on sale later!!) so I just clumped a bunch of my trees that I use other places in the house/porch during the holidays together and this was the result. It worked. I missed seeing all my favorite ornaments, etc. but that will make getting them out next year even more fun! :)
The fun began on Friday night as soon as David, Ashley and Emma were able to get to town. Zach, Meg and the boys were here at the house waiting and watching! We had our traditional meal of snacks! We have done this for years. Everyone just brings holiday goodies and/or some new recipe they have been dying to try...we always have lots of goodies! Finger foods. Yummy!!! It is a continual feast on the island for hours...basically the meal last all evening!

After eating, it was time for our Traditional "Christmas Eve Hunt". The grandkids had picture clues. Pictures of different things in Bud and Honey's house. When they identified the item in the picture, they would run to that location and find another "picture-clue". After running all around the house, the last place was our bed where they found sacks containing Christmas PJ's and a new movie. The clue also told them someone might be waiting to meet them on the couch. When they ran to the couch, this is what they found: Owen got a puppy
Clay got a penquin...he loves penquins!
Will got a monkey, very fitting!
And Emma got a bee...couldn't resist Honey giving a bee!

Pillow Pets must be quite the hot item this year. The boys have been wanting one for awhile and so Bud and Honey decided to surprise them with one. It was so fun. It made me think back to a time when our kids wanted a Pound Puppy. It was the hot item one year and we couldn't afford to buy them. My parents surprised the grand kids with one and I can remember how delighted I was! To watch how thrilled they were! The four cousins played with those puppies all afternoon. Fast forward, we were able to buy the Pillow Pets and it was if I was watching my own kids years ago...our four grands were so delighted and snuggled and hugged on their little pets the whole weekend! What a fun treat for us!!

Then it was time for the "big" kids to do their Christmas Eve Hunt. I will readily admit that my rhyming skills are lacking. For some reason in the past, I have tried to write poems. They haven't worked so well. The kids have had fun making fun of me, which sadly, is deserved. I stink at writing poems. I would like to say, I have been doing this 30 plus years...so my ideas are running low. This year we provided them with a list of 50 words and the two couples had to write a Christmas story using all the words! It was adorable and funny and they had such fun that each year from now on, we will just provide them with 50 more words and they will have to write the next chapter! I am so excited!! It will fun to come up with the list of words and I don't have to come up with any more poems! :)

Here is a sweet picture of our "big kids" getting their instructions!
It was such a very fun evening! We ended the evening with the kids all getting in their new Christmas PJ's and reading a Christmas story before bedtime! Next blog...our "Christmas Morning"!!!!