Future Red Raider

Today we ventured to Lubbock to visit B. J., Nikah & baby Brynn and Uncle Chris & Aunt Kylie!  While in town, we had to let Leah run around the Tech campus.  I wanted pictures to show her in sixteen years when she receives her acceptance letter!  Speaking of which.....Aunt Kelley received hers this week!  She'll be moving into the dorms (hopefully Stangel) in the fall!

Leah LOVED Brynn and asked to hold her twice!  She is going to make the best big sister someday!  Brynn is the BEST baby I have ever seen!  She is such a cutie pie!

Merry Christmas

Celebrating the holidays with family means more to us than ever now that we live so far away from everyone!  We take turns each year, and this year we celebrated with my family.  My family has always always always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with finger foods and opening presents.  We always did this at my Mimi and Grandaddy's house, but now that my parents are Papaw and Nana, they have taken over as host and hostess.  Christmas Eve night Santa would come and then we would spend Christmas day playing with our presents from Santa (this was always our "big" presents).  This same schedule works out perfect for our family now because my brother and sister-in-law are able to celebrate with us on Christmas Eve and then get up early on Christmas Day to leave and celebrate with Kylie's family.

Mimi always makes the best Christmas brunch.  We used to do this on Christmas morning but now do it Christmas Eve morning.  For as many years as I can remember, Mimi makes breakfast casserole (Brunch for a Bunch as it's called), sausage breakfast whirls (aka dog mush, we were just talking about why in the world we started calling this such a thing and we can't exactly recall), sausage stuffed french loaf (my absolute favorite), Mimi's fun shaped muffins and Mimi's homemade hot cocoa!  We always enjoy Christmas breakfast on Mimi's pig plates that are only brought out for this occasion!

We were all very blessed this year just as always!  Leah got lots of fun things.  She opens presents just like me.....I like to stop and admire whatever it is I just opened so I am always the last to finish opening.  If it's a book, I stop to read it right then and there.  Leah showed this side of herself this year.  Each time she opened an outfit, she wanted to put it on right then.  If she opened a book, she wanted someone to read it right away.  She even got some princess panties from Nana and Papaw and immediately took her pants off and put a pair of panties on!  She got about half way finished opening her gifts and seemed to be done because she wanted to play with all of the things she had opened so far.  We asked her if she wanted to open more and she said "no thank you".  Sweet girl!  She was also the sweetest little helper girl and helped every single person open their presents as we took turns going in a circle!

One of the special presents Leah received was from Aunt Kelley!  Aunt Kelley drew this just for her!  This girl is talented!  Even Leah knew exactly who was in the picture!

Today we're being lazy in our jammies and eating a good ol' Tex-Mex meal of enchiladas, beans and rice.  We used to have turkey and dressing but sometime a few years back (more like 10 or so) we decided to spice things up with a little fiesta.  Now, this is part of our Christmas tradition!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Tonight we're loading up in the car in our jammies and going to look at Christmas lights, a tradition we started last year!

Santa's First Stop

When we were visiting Santa at Disneyland a couple of weeks ago, Santa pulled Luke and I aside and asked if he could do a trial run to our house the weekend before Christmas as long as Leah continued to be a good girl.  He wanted to make sure that his sleigh and reindeer were in tip top shape before the big night!  Just from talking to him, it sounds like he chooses a different family each year to help him complete his "test run" and this year we were the chosen ones!  Boy do we feel special!  We decided that we would take advantage of the weekend and make it our family Christmas as well.  We treated Sunday just like it was Christmas morning!  We woke up Sunday morning to this.....

Santa MUST have thought Leah was a good girl!  I'm sure Oliver told him many good things about our little princess to ensure that Santa delivered the exact pink dollhouse that she was hoping for!  Santa also brought her a beanbag, a vacuum cleaner that looks just like Mommy's, a book caddy full of fun books, a table and chairs just the perfect size for Leah and every accessory imaginable for her dream dollhouse!  What a lucky little girl she is! 

We all three sat and enjoyed a Christmas breakfast of egg strata and sausage balls at Leah's new table and then we opened presents!  First, though, we made sure that Santa enjoyed the little treats that Leah left for him!  Santa must have been thirsty because he drank his juice box dry!

Leah received lots of fun things from Mommy and Daddy.....a Cinderella dress complete with all of the accessories (even a pair of glass slippers), an aquadoodle, lots of movies including Caillou and Toy Story 3, the cutest little bathtub dollhouse and princess castle, bathtub crayons and markers, bathtub tablets to turn the bath colors, tons of food for her kitchen, walkie talkies because she is fascinated with hearing us talk on the baby monitor, a pink princess potty, a pretty pink robe and a Leap Frog Tag Junior with books.  Her stocking was also full of more movies, an electric toothbrush that she gets to put a sticker on each night after she brushes her teeth and some other fun things for the bath!  She was such a sweet little present opener.  She said "thank you" after opening each gift and would then wait her turn as Mommy and Daddy opened theirs.

Daddy was a fantastic shopper this year and blew Mommy away!  He surprised me with a giftcard (complete with reservations for February 5th) to The Kitchen, a restaurant I've wanted to go to for forever!  It's more than a restaurant, it's an experience!  The restaurant is set in "the kitchen" and you are watching them cook your food course by course.  Reservations are required months in advance so I never ever thought I'd get the chance to eat here!  Luke is amazing!!!!!  He scored us reservations at the kitchen bar, right at the front and center of all the action!  I can't wait!  He also got me the Pottery Barn daily system wall organization system that I've been wanting for the pantry!  He was super sneaky and had everything shipped to the neighbors so I had no idea!  Leah and I got him a gift card to get the last two golf clubs that he needs to complete his new set along with lots of fun golf accessories and a new tie!  We also got him a Southern Living barbecue cookbook so he can master the grill!  I can't wait to sample his creations!

We had an amazing party of three Christmas this year and can't wait to celebrate with our families!  We were all blessed beyond our wildest dreams!

P-A-R-T-I-E-S

We were busy bees today as we had two fun parties to attend!  The first was Leah's friend Nevio's 3rd birthday party!  Leah and Nevi have been buddies for a very long time.  They used to go to Ms. Pam's house together and now are best buddies at Ms. Trish's house!  Nevi has an older sister, Olivia, and Leah LOVED playing in her room.  Holy smokes!  It was like pulling teeth to get her to come out!  Soon after we had arrived, Leah discoverd a pink princess dress in Olivia's room and had to have it on!  She wore the pink dress during the entire party (no other children were playing dress up, just her)!  At one point in the party Luke and I were downstairs eating and Leah was upstairs playing.  Toni, Olivia and Nevi's mom, came walking downstairs with Leah and was carrying a little (real looking) guitar.  She was laughing and was so excited to tell us that she had walked into Olivia's room and Leah was sitting on the floor, strumming the guitar and singing "Jingle Bells".  There is never a dull moment with that girl of mine!

Enjoying her lunch!

Watching Nevi open his presents!

Leah was a little scared of this train at first but then loved it so much that we had to beg her to get off of it!  The little gym that we used to go to had one, and she used to LOVE it!  If she wasn't a princess, this is probably what she would be asking Santa for!

Leah loves to eat cake, especially ice cream cake!

Olivia wanted to hold Leah!  She is the best big sister in the whole wide world!

Playing "Pin the Treasure on the Map"!

Home sweet home all ready to take a nap before the next party!  It poured down rain here today so her hair's a little crazy!  We all looked like wet puppy dogs when we got home!

We came home after Nevi's party for a quick nap and then we were off to a Christmas party at our neighbor's house (Shannon, Matt, Charlie and Lyla).  Of course being the little dress up diva that she is, Leah found a tutu right off the bat that she wore for the duration of the party (again, she was the only one in costume)!  Leah had lots of fun becuause there were TONS of kids to play with!  The kiddos stayed busy upstairs while the adults played a little Christmas gift exchange game.  Luke and I ended up with a heated massaging pillow and a digital picture keychain (not bad considering the gifts we took included a camouflage baseball cap and a sound machine).  I went to check on Leah upstairs at one point and found her and a little boy, Landon, in the bathroom.  They were each standing on stepstools at their own little sinks and there was water EVERYWHERE!  I asked what was going on and Leah told me "he was helping me wash my hands".  To this Landon replied "I was helping her wash her hands."  What a little gentleman to help the little lady out!  Tonight's party included a very special treat.....a visit from Santa!  This was Leah's fifth visit with Santa this holiday season and the first visit with him that she didn't cry when attempting to sit on his lap!  She actually sat in the jolly man's lap all on her own!  She got a little frazzled when he first arrived (I found her a little unhappy sitting in another Mama's lap) but had warmed up to him by the time her present was up!  I was so proud of her for being such a big girl!

Leah got some Caillou movies from Santa!  Leah LOVES Caillou!

Speaking of Santa, Leah received a very special message from him tonight, just in time for our family Christmas celebration tomorrow!  This may just be the cutest thing I've ever seen!  Click on the link to see Santa's sweet little message to her!

Leah's Message from Santa

And, just for the record Santa, Leah DID brush her teeth tonight!  It was a bit of a battle, but all that matters is that her teeth got brushed!

The Polar Express

Tonight we bundled up in our Christmas jammies (one of us did anyways) and boarded The Polar Express!  We had round trip tickets to the North Pole!  The entire experience is based on the beloved book (and movie) by Chris Van Allsburg.  We have been reading the book with Leah for the past few weeks so it was really fun getting to see her watch it all come to life!  Once onboard our train, we were served hot cocoa and cookies by the tap dancing chefs, sang and danced to Christmas carols and followed along in our own book as The Polar Express was read aloud.  Once the last page of the book had been read, we had reached the North Pole where Santa and his elves were busy packing Santa's sleigh.  Santa hopped on board and rode back to the station with us.  While on board Santa went to each child (young and old) and passed out the first gift of Christmas.....a shiny silver bell!  If you truly believe, you can hear it ring!  As for the Hendricks family, we all believe!

Daddy and Leah getting our tickets!

Before it was time for us to board, we had a little fun at the station!

 We even got to meet the conductor!

All ready to board our train!

We're ready to go! 

Mimi made Leah some very special Christmas jammies to wear tonight!



The conductor came down the aisle to punch our tickets!

Somewhere along the way to the North Pole, we stopped and a hobo jumped on!

He was pretty funny!  He tricked us into thinking that Santa was onboard at one point!



We made it to the North Pole!  Leah had fun waving at Santa and the elves!

The North Pole!

 

Waiting on Santa!

Santa giving Leah the first gift of Christmas!

We can hear the bell ring because we BELIEVE!

When we got off our train, we were greeted with an extra surprise.....the Old Sacramento Theatre of Lights!  The buildings in Old Sac were lit up to music as The Night Before Christmas was read aloud!