The North Pole Express and Other Christmas Fun!

The countdown to Christmas is getting shorter - only four more days! We have had wonderful experiences during this magical season; it really is the best time of the year for families. We've been letting Jackson open presents every few days instead of holding them all to open on one day. He gets so excited over one present that forcing him to open them all at once would only confuse and frustrate him. Besides, I've always felt like the holidays are a month-long experience. Part of this notion came from my friend CC who would put up her huge Christmas tree and take it down in February! Talk about extending the season... So, in that spirit we are celebrating every day.
Last week we went to the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine. The hotel brings in ice sculptors from China to construct an enormous "village" made solely of ice. This year the theme was "The Grinch" so the sculptures followed this theme and include a two story ice slide. However, my favorite sculpture was the finale of a life-size ice nativity scene that was just breathtaking and they played the bible Christmas story which was so refreshing. That is the reason for the season, right?! In addition, the hotel was decorated beautifully with extravagant train displays including one that went through a huge Christmas tree. Jackson was mesmerized by the trains but wasn't quite sure about the ice exhibit - it was cold (9 degrees to be exact) and he wasn't allowed to touch anything (which is impossible for a toddler!).

This weekend we had David's company Christmas party in Dallas - it was a great date night for mommy and daddy. We used the night out to celebrate David's impending 40th birthday on the 23rd. Needless to say, we had a great time (though were exhausted on Sunday)! On Sunday, our church had the annual Christmas musical program and we had lunch as a family afterwards.
To cap off a great weekend, we had our Polar Express train ride in our pajamas on the antique railroad in Grapevine. They start the fun with a music presentation where the kids, and adults, sing songs, dance and have fun. We then go through a "winter wonderland" of Christmas trees where they have snow blowers going. Upon boarding the train, we were greeted by "Iona" - the train Master of Ceremonies - over the speaker system. With her amazing enthusiasm (I say this very sarcastically), we were led through songs and stories before getting a visit by Santa. Actually, Ms. Iona had us laughing the whole time with her commentaries - I can't begin to explain so I won't. Though I highly recommend going next year and taking the last train just to get a chance to hear her...
We wish you all a wonderful Christmas week!! Enjoy this time because the week will fly by and a new year will have begun before we know it...

10 days until Christmas!

Wow, this month has flown by! I knew it would, so who am I kidding... Once we returned home from Louisiana, we have been incredibly busy and very preoccupied with the housebuilding. The hardest part of beginning a blog posting after being absent so long is deciding where to begin. So, let's go back to the beginning of the month. Our house had really made progress while we were gone and we were able to see a closer resemblence to the final product than ever before. The walls were painted, the cabinets were stained and the yard had been grated after they poured driveway and sidewalk. Since then, they have put in the granite countertops, all the fixtures (including fans, lights, switches, etc.), the kitchen backsplash and begun the tile work. We're hoping that the next few weeks will be really productive and we'll be in some time at the beginning of the month of January. Uncle Lee came to visit us last week for his 30th birthday and we had a great time with him. Though the trip was extra short, we still were grateful for the time to hang with him. Mommy even got a night out while Daddy took care of Jack! Woohoo! We've done our best to experience a lot of fun Christmas activities including the tree trimming and present wrapping (Jackson loves to rip the paper and stomp on the boxes). We also had our playgroup Christmas cookie swap last week which was a blast and this week we'll be having the Christmas party book exchange.

Over this past weekend, we took Jackson to the Northpark Mall (one of my favorite places in Dallas) to see Santa and the Christmas trains. To our dismay, the wait for Santa was 8 hours (and we got there at 10:30am) so we decided to visit the Santa at Town Square instead which was only a 45 minute wait when we got there on Sunday (early again!). This Santa Claus picture thing has become quite the money-making scheme these days. I was shocked to say the least... Not only is it expensive, but you have to wait longer for pictures than you do to ride Space Mountain at Disney World. I guess it is just another joy of parenthood... And, despite watching Santa take pictures with other kids for almost an hour, Jackson still screamed his head off when it was our turn to sit on his lap. We attempted a family picture to calm him down but that didn't help much. In our cute picture, he's attempting to crawl down as fast as he can while Mommy has an iron grip on him holding him in place (as much as possible). Oh well, it makes for a good story...

I'll end here and save more stories for the next posting (this will encourage me to post again soon). As far as updates on Jackson, he is growing up too fast (but doesn't every mommy sa that about their babies). He still jabbers away and I understand about 25% of what he's saying. He is really big into playing with cars right now and will be getting a train set from Santa for Christmas. He loves chasing his doggies and loving on them when they stay still for him. His new favorite book is "Hurry, Hurry" and he has an infatuation with the Elf on the Shelf doll and I"m not sure why. His hair has gotten pretty long, as you can see from the pictures, but his daddy doesn't want me to cut it and I really don't want to either. It's just so beautiful!

We hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season. The lesson we taught to our Sunday School class this week was about the angels telling the shepherds the good news of Jesus' Birth so in that spirit, we are thankful for the first Christmas present - Jesus!