Merry Christmas - Part 1

I bet you were wondering if I would ever get these posted, weren't you?? Lots of pictures to sort through - and it was a little overwhelming to me to even try to get started!

Our Christmas holidays started off with a trip to Stillwater, starting with a bowling extravaganza. Here is Jackson getting some tips from the pro:

We had taken Jackson bowling a week or so before Christmas, and we were so impressed that he would hold the bowling ball by himself the entire way. Jackson and Reese were in a mighty close race. In fact, they did such a good job, that the team with the two professional bowlers (Tom, Mom, Reese and Jackson) beat the rest of us - with no child handicaps!! Quite impressive.
On Christmas Eve, we all got dressed up to go to the 6pm service. I just love my parents house at Christmas - so festive!
Quite a happy crowd! All Reese wanted to do during the service (and after) was to go hold baby Jesus. So sweet!
After we all got home, we started our preparations for Santa's arrival. Here Jackson and I are spreading out the reindeer food for Rudolph and the other reindeers.
Don't forget the cookies and milk! Jackson decided that Santa needed three hello dolly squares. Nice choice, Jackson!

Arranging the cookies for Santa.

Uh oh - we forgot to write letters to Santa! I hoped that Jackson wouldn't have any last minute requests like his friend Ben did. Ben asked his mom how to spell dog. She spelled it out for him, not thinking anything of it. Ben wrote it out, signed his name, and then placed it under the tree. She started to get nervous and asked Ben what it was all about - Ben said Santa would know what to do! Ben was asking Santa for a dog at the last minute. Fortunately after some discussion, it came out that Ben just wanted a stuffed dog. I laughed when I heard the story - thankfully, Jackson didn't come up with any last minute requests.

Jackson took his letter writing very seriously. He wrote his name, traced both hands and then decided that the finishing touch would be a picture of his cowboy hat. I love how he was studying the hat. He'd look at it really close, draw a little bit and then look at it again.

The next morning, Jackson found a letter that Santa had written to Jackson!

Here's a quick video of Jackson's reactions to all of the Christmas activities.

Merry Christmas! Time for the annual picture!

I'd say these are two happy kids!
Jackson was showing his Toy Story wall decals to Papa. These decals are so easy to put up and look so cool on the walls. I'll post pics of how we redecorated his room with them in a future post.
Reese and Jackson both got a fire engine to play with. It plays some very dramatic music - and we heard it all morning. We all laughed each time they played it...
This was definitely the year of Toy Story. Jackson got Hamm, Jessie, wall decals, some Toy Story games and a cool Toy Story shirt. This has been one of his favorites to wear since Christmas morning!
Jackson and Reese also each got a fireman costume to play with as they play with their fire engines. By this time, Jackson was wearing three layers - his pajamas, his Toy Story shirt and the fireman costume. He was a little toasty!
Jackson played with this by himself for at least 20 minutes. Amazing! He really likes it.
We had such a great Christmas. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for such a wonderful couple of days! (and the single mom and kids thank you, too!). Jackson loved opening all of the packages and playing with his toys. Almost every day he still asks me, "Is it Christmas day today?".

The next morning, Jackson and Papa were playing with Jackson's new scooter when Papa had a great idea. Check out that engineering!

Now is it Christmas Day yet??

Jackson has been so excited for Christmas. I think every single day (and multiple times a day) for the last two weeks he has asked, "Is it Christmas day?". After Jackson's nap one Saturday, I told him that we were going to go see Santa in Mommy's building (he loves that place!). He gasped in surprise and said "I need to write him a letter!" While I was getting ready, he drew Santa three pictures and even signed his name! Looking at one of the pictures, I thought he drew a picture of Santa because it looked like he had a mustache and beard. So I said "Oh look, you drew Santa! He'll love it!" Jackson looked at me and said "Mom, that's not Santa, that's a pumpkin." Oh.....right.

Jackson gripped tightly to those drawings the entire way downtown. Every once in a while he'd look down at the drawings and just smile proudly. It made my heart melt. It was so windy walking into the building, and Jackson just kept gripping tighter and tighter. He held them the entire time while we waited for Santa (almost 30 minutes!). When it was his turn, he walked up so fast and gave the pictures to Santa so quickly that I barely had time to turn on the camera! Sorry for the blurry shot.

I was hoping that I could get the pictures back to keep, but I couldn't get the assistants attention. :( On the bright side, Jackson wasn't scared at all of Santa this year! He told Santa he wanted a bike....a motorcycle bike.

Jackson loves dressing up right now, and his Woody pajamas are at the top of the list, especially when we let him wear his Woody hat and boot slippers. Here he is looking at his Buzz Lightyear ornament.

Finding Sister Elf each day has been such a fun game. Now he's starting to talk to the Elf a bit during the day.

The Friday before Christmas, Jackson's daycare had their Christmas program. I can't believe it, but we forgot the camera!! Thankfully, my friends took some pictures as did my Dad (who also shot some video). This program was priceless. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. When Jackson's class came out, you could Jackson was a little nervous. He kept looking around for us. When he finally saw us, he called each one of us out by name excitedly as we were all there to see him. Right before they started singing, Jackson took a couple of really deep breaths, as if he was trying to calm his nerves. So sweet. The pictures below are from "Feliz Navidad".

The video is priceless and has a little bit from all of the songs. I absolutely love how animated and excited he was. You could tell he really knew the words and the motions. I think I've watched this video 50 times already!

After the Christmas program, we headed to Dry Gulch to go to the Christmas Train. We had never been there before. It was really impressive! It's like a little Western town all decked out in Christmas lights.

As soon as we got there, we went to go see Santa. They have the best operation there - we were able to walk right up in Santa's personal room, and Santa gave Jackson all the time he wanted to talk to him. Jackson just stood there for a while holding and rubbing Santa's hands. And he again asked for a motorcycle bike...and a boat (None of which were on the original list).

After a quick dinner (and a fast drive by Tom to get the camera for us - thanks, Tom!!), we stood in line for the Christmas train, which was a small trolley car on train tracks that told the story of Jesus. I really could have done without all of the reenactments. When we got to the point where Jesus was on the cross, Jackson turned away and just kept saying "I'm not scared. I'm not scared." A little too graphic for young kids, in my opinion. All night long Jackson clung tightly to Papa and Pama.

I think all of the workers were actually volunteers from the Church on the Move. They were all dressed in old-timey costumes.

After the train ride, we rode the Carousel. Jackson picked the tiger and named it Sally (EVERYTHING he rides he names Sally. Maybe he gets that from Grandma Petrie, as my mom says she always wanted to be called Sally, too.) I love their faces in this picture as they are both roaring together.

Before we left, it was time for a quick coffee/hot chocolate break, and a cinnamon roll to go. Yummy! Jackson still couldn't get enough of Papa and was making faces with Papa the entire time in line. Thanks for making the long trip to go with us, Mom and Dad! We had fun.

While we were out Christmas shopping, Jackson latched on to a few necklaces that he just had to try on. As soon as we got home, he had to wear all of the ones that we got (which he now thinks are his) as well as many of mine. New fashion statement, I think.

Then he had to get back to business and write yet another letter to Santa.

In preparation for Jackson's Christmas party at his daycare, we were writing notes to all of his wonderful teachers. This year, Jackson also drew them a picture and signed his name. They were so cute that I had to capture them for posterity:

At his Christmas party, they played Musical Chairs. I didn't even know Jackson knew how to play that game! When they started playing, everyone stood up and walked around the chairs....except Jackson. He knew the best way to get a chair was not to leave it!! Nash's brother, Cooper also was playing, and he would save Jackson a chair beside him. Unfortunately, Jackson didn't always realize it!

To kick off the Christmas vacation, we took a trip down to look at the Christmas lights on the Rhema campus. So cool! It was like you set foot in a magical world. Everything was lit up and some of the displays were timed with the Christmas music playing in the background. We'll be making this part of our Christmas traditions!

We all really liked the bridge covered in Christmas lights. In front of us, there was a group of about 10 people, and one of the couple got engaged right in front of us. Congrats! It was a little awkward since the bridge got really backed up, but it certainly will be memorable. I hope they got better pictures on the bridge than I did. It would be a shame if their pictures ended up like the one I took below! I don't know quite what happened with this picture, but it makes me laugh hysterically each time I look at it. Tom turned into a hillbilly, and Jackson turned into either goth or phantom of the opera!

Fortunately, here is a better one of the faces that I love!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had such a fun time with family. Several more posts to come shortly to share our time together.

Is it Christmas yet?

Every day Jackson asks me this question! He is really enjoying all of our Christmas "traditions". I love all of the traditions we used to do when we were growing up, and we decided we needed to start some with Jackson, too. Our first tradition is borrowed from my parents. Whenever we decorated our tree, it was a fancy affair with sparkling grape juice, fancy glasses and fancy crackers, meats and cheeses.

Jackson really seemed to enjoy it, especially the fancy glasses! We brought out his little table and his special Buzz Lightyear chair, which he loved.

And then Jackson decided that he was going to be a flashlight. Yes, a flashlight. I'm not too sure where that came from. But he's a handsome flashlight, isn't he?

Jackson had a ball clicking glasses with everyone saying "Cheers" before every drink. It's a miracle that our plastic glasses stayed intact throughout the evening!

Finally it was time to bring out the ornaments. I don't know if Jackson enjoyed hearing about every single ornament and the story behind it, but I sure loved seeing them all again! Here is Jackson with his 1st year ornament (baby bird in an egg - takes after his "Old Bird").

All of his favorite ornaments (which just happened to be either his ornaments or ornaments that had him on it) were placed front and center.

At school, Jackson has been learning about matching. So I guess it should be no surprise that ALL of the OSU ornaments ended up together in the same area (sometimes on the same branch!).

To top off the night, Jackson decided he needed to be a superhero, too. Here he is pretending to take pictures like mommy.

Our 2nd tradition was started was "Elf on a Shelf". Jackson named our Elf "Santa Elf" (also known as "Sister Elf"). I can't imagine where he got his talent for naming things.....does Blackie or Whitey ring a bell, Dad?? The elf flies every night to the North Pole to tell Santa how well Jackson did that day, and then the elf flies back to our house and lands in a different spot every morning. The first thing Jackson wants to do each morning is find Santa Elf. He makes a big production when he finds it. I can't tell if he really believes or if he's just humoring me. :) Tom and I have had fun finding spots for it to land each morning. We haven't forgotten yet, though we are starting to run out of spaces!

I was particularly proud of this one - it was really hard to balance! One morning after finding Santa perched on a ledge, Jackson decided he wanted to be the Elf, too. Here is his version - looks almost like the real thing!

On another note, Jackson also has a new name. I was trying to get Jackson to stop wandering away, and I said "Jackson William McGillen, please come here now!" Jackson looked over at me with those big eyes and said "Hey, I'm not Willy McGilley!" and then started cracking up hysterically. Hard to get mad at him when he does that! If you ever talk to him on the phone now, ask to speak to Willy McGilley. I love hearing him say it!

Family Ornaments

I love our family traditions, especially the ones around Christmas. We always look forward to Thanksgiving to see what Mom has made for our annual Christmas ornaments out of clay. As you scroll through the pictures, you can see this joy in our faces as we open our special ornaments - they make me smile. I can't imagine how much time it takes to make all of those since our family has grown since we first started this....she now has to bring them all down in a plastic tub! Thank you for making these for us, Mom. They are so wonderful and personal. I love how our Christmas trees are stories of our lives, and it's so much fun to relive those stories each year as we decorate our tree.

Reese was the first to open her gift. Mom made Reese a little girl who looked just like her with her pink cowboy boots, boa, purse, earrings, dress and hat. Looks like it was made especially for a little girl who loves to dress up!
Mom made Jackson a Buzz Lightyear ornament - of course! He loved playing with it. It was the first ornament he put on the tree this year (and it was directly eye level so that he can look at it every day).
For Casey, she made him a Bronze Star. We're proud of you, Casey! She also made an ornament for Reese and Casey that was a little girl holding a Curious George book in front of a TV/Computer that had Casey on the screen. They would do Skype on the computer so that they could see and talk to each other while he was away, and he also recorded himself reading Curious George so that Reese could listen and read along while she watched him on the TV. What a great ornament idea, Mom!
Mom and I had the same idea (unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of Mom opening her ornament). I made her Elphaba, the Wicked Witch from "Wicked". The timing was perfect, because Jenna opened hers up next and found.....Elphaba! Great minds think alike. She also made Jenna a giraffe with a bandage wrapped around its throat. I really don't know how you come up with these, Mom. They are so clever and fitting!
Mom made Tom two ornaments this year, too. The first was a black and white "Zo" in honor of Broken Arrow's marching band show this year. The 2nd ornament was Jackson (with his hat on backwards) holding his baby doll Charlie. Attached to the ornament was Jackson's comment "It's ok, Charlie. Daddy's here. You're safe." So sweet. Jackson has a wonderful role model - we know that's where he heard it!
My first ornament was a snowman with her new camera - I really love taking pictures now, which is such a departure from before! So fitting for an ornament. My second one was hilarious in honor of my great mom moments as described in my previous blog posts. It was Jackson riding a tricycle (with a helmet) with open Easter Eggs in the back. Ha ha!!
For Dad, she made him a replica of his retirement party table decorations as well as my Dad's new truck (complete with Jackson and Reese in the back playing together). Happy 1 Yr Retirement, Dad!
Here's a grouping of all of them together. Thank you so much, Mom. They are so special. We are so impressed by your many talents!