December 23
Decorating sugar cookies. All the cousins and a few moms participate in the decorating.
Ending the night in the "round-n-round."
December 24
Family portrait. (Yep. This was the best one we got.)
The cousins.
Spreading out reindeer food.
December 25
Santa came!
Carson called this the "man's table."
December 26
Christmas at the Pattersons
Stella finally gave uncle Klay a hug.
The days leading up to Christmas the kids went to see Santa a few times. Notice Stella isn't in a single picture with Santa. She's terrified. I took the kids to the mall to ride the train and we went to look at Christmas lights in various neighborhoods.
We celebrated "our" family Christmas the morning of December 23. Daddy had been gone for a week. He arrived home late on the 22nd so the kids were excited to see him when they woke, and they finally got to open their Christmas presents Thursday morning. We left for Nebraska by 1 pm that day so we could have Christmas with extended families throughout the weekend. We drove right into an ice storm in Nebraska and witnessed several vehicles and large trucks in the ditches. We were going only 30 mph on the Interstate in Nebraska (usually drive 80 mph.) We were one of the lucky ones to have made it to our destination safely.
Here's a peek of "our" family Christmas.
Guess who's turn it was to be Star of the Week?
Friday, December 03, 2010
Ozzie and Carson were reunited. (Carson’s twin brother Owen was Star of the Week in October.) Carson was thrilled that he was chosen to be Star of the Week and that Ozzie got to come back to our house. Ozzie got to go to Carson’s basketball practice Friday night. We stopped at Sonic for supper. Ozzie didn’t eat much, but loved sitting with Carson and all his siblings for dinner.Ozzie got to go to Carson’s and his brother Owen’s basketball game in the morning. Ozzie must have brought good luck to the team because they won their first game. Both Carson and Owen played really well. Later in the day Ozzie played with Carson and his brothers and sister. He liked playing with the train set.
Saturday night the Nebraska Cornhuskers played in the Big 12 football championship game. Ozzie watched the Cornhuskers play and even wore a red collar to show his support.Ozzie was a tired little thing, but he managed to play with Carson for most of the day and watch some football. Ozzie watched the Story of Jesus video with the kids as well. Ozzie got his picture taken a lot with Carson’s digital camera. He’s a great subject!
We loved having Ozzie back at our house! All the kids loved having him stay the weekend with us. Ozzie was very good during his stay. He got to sleep with Carson at night in Carson’s and Owen’s bedroom. Ozzie liked their new bunk beds. Ozzie enjoyed meeting our special Elf on the Shelf, Joey. I’m pretty sure Joey told Santa that Ozzie was a very good otter and will be put on the “nice” list. Thank you for coming to our house, Ozzie!
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Part of being Star of the Week means you get to bring treats to preschool and you get to bring show-n-tell everyday. Carson loved every minute of being Star of the Week. He was a very patient boy waiting for it to be his turn. Carson is one of the last children to be Star of the Week.
Carson and Owen are now playing on a basketball team. It's a league in Wichita called FunBall. They seem to be enjoying it. Carson and Owen have always liked shooting hoops. We quickly learned that basketball is much more than just shooting hoops. At first I was convinced that we were all in over our heads. Now that we have a few practices and games under our belt things are getting better.
We chose this league for the boys because they really do teach the game to kids. During basketball games the refs will not only point the kids in the right direction, but will correct them when a mistake is made or whistle has been blown. Hands on learning. Most important is that Carson and Owen are learning to appreciate a game and are having a lot of fun in the process.
