Make sure you see all the pictures by doing this!!!!

I have just finished posting all of our December pictures. Since there were so many separate posts they are not all showing up on one page. To see everything all at once, please SCROLL down a little and on the MENU to the right under BLOG ARCHIVE, CLICK on 2009 (19). This will put all the posts on one screen where you can just scroll through to look at them. If you don't do this it leaves off some of the pictures as you go from page to page (not sure why??)
We had a great Christmas! Thanks to all of our family for everything. We hope you all had a great one too!

Christmas Dinner

For Christmas dinner we go to Jesse's Mom (Cindy) and Step-dad's (Wayne) house. Cindy makes lasagna with meatballs, sausage, and braciole. Braciole is a flattened steak with hard boiled eggs and spices rolled up and then simmered in a marinara sauce. I had to look it up online to see how to spell it! She makes this for Jesse's birthday. Since Jesse's birthday is on Christmas, we always have a birthday cake for him after everyone has opened their Christmas gifts.

Christmas Morning

These are some pictures from Christmas morning at our house. Little Jesse was not there yet because he was with his Mom. She and her fiancee, David, brought him over not long after so he could open his gifts and we all ate breakfast.

Christmas Eve

We go to Joe and Donna's (Jesse's Dad and step-mom) for Christmas Eve dinner. We eat calimari, fried shrimp, and eggplant parmigiana. I don't know the exact tradition, but it is something about not eating meat until Christmas. The kids get to open their presents from them while we are there, so they enjoy getting to open some gifts early.

Cross' First Judo Tournament

Cross had is first tournament on December 9th. It was at his Judo school. He did good, but he accidentally tapped the mat during his match which means he is giving up. When they are practicing they tap the mat to stop and get out of the hold. He did not realize he shouldn't do it during the tournament. They let him have another match and he did really good. All the kids get medals and he was super excited to get his. The next week during class he teste for his yellow belt. So he should be getting it soon.
Little Jesse just decided he wanted to try Judo too. He did one class last week and said he wants to keep doing it, so we will have stuff to post for him sometime in the future.

Burleson Christmas Parade

State Farm (Where Grandma Donna, Jesse's step-mom) works entered a float in the Burleson Christmas Parade. They let all the kids come ride on the float. Cross was so excited about throwing out the candy to everyone along the road watching the parade. Cole was even throwing out the candy and sometimes would throw it far enough to reach the side of the road. I rode on the float with them and Jesse ended up driving the car pulling the float. All the ladies that work in the office were walking behind the float and Art, the agent, was dressed up in the bear costume. Cross loves that bear, even though he saw Art putting it on. As soon as he had it on Cross was just hovering around him trying to hug him! It was fun to be in the parade instead of watching it.

Recording Christmas Carols

Jesse's Dad, Joe, and Step-mom, Donna, have a music store and recording studio. They wanted to have us come in and sing a couple of Christmas carols and send the CD to their moms for Christmas. We sang Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Cross loved it. He was singing the loudest and did a solo rendition of the Batman smells version of Jingle Bells. Cole would not sing for it, but he will sing Jingle Bells on his own. It was fun and cute gift. I can make a copy if anyone wants one.

Prairie Lights

We went to Prairie Lights again this year. This is a drive through Christmas light display. They have all these different scenes that they have made out of lights on both sides of a winding road near Joe Pool Lake. You drive through slowly and look at all the lights while listening to Christmas songs on the radio. Before the end you come to a big tent where you can park. They have a carousel and carnival rides outside. Inside the tent they serve food, hot chocolate, hot cider etc. They have a Santa to take photos with, but we did not since the kids had already seen him. We got someone to take a picture of all of us. Mema (Jesse's Mom) went with us, but PaPa Wayne was sick so he did not get to go.

Decorating the tree

Here are some pictures of decorating the tree. Cole was sick, so he didn't help much and he really didn't want to get his picture taken. There is also the gingerbread house that I made with Cross and Cole. Cole mostly just ate the candy, but he did actually put a few pieces of candy on. I did the icing and Cross put on most of the candy.

Pictures With Santa

This year Santa made a special trip to the office building where the State Farm Office that Grandma Donna (Jesse's Step-Mother) works. We barely had to wait so that was nice. Cole was being pretty adamant that he did not want to sit in Santa's lap, but while we were waiting for the family in front of us I managed to talk him into it. He did good, he didn't cry and he told Santa what he wanted. He would not smile for the pictures, but I was just happy he wasn't crying!! he told Santa he wanted the Wiggles Big Red Car. Cross asked Santa for a new bike, an alien spaceship, an Ipod, and a Nascar playset.