"Is it Christmastime yet?"

This Christmas was ONE to remember!
We enjoyed all the events that led up to the BIG DAY!

We started the month of December out by attending a Christmas Parade with Sam and her parents. Case enjoyed seeing the fire engines, bands playing and all the floats. He has been in a parade before, but this was his first spectator parade. It was very cold..but Case had a ball and I think he really enjoyed eating donuts and drinking chocolate milk bundled up under a blanket!!

Then a few weeks later we made Christmas ornaments at church...this was a first for Case and Mommy! Case had so much fun rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters to make ornaments out of cinnamon and applesauce.(Yes, I know what you are thinking...you can't believe that a concoction like that will make dough for ornaments...I thought the same thing when my friend Angie told me...but equal parts of both of those ingredients really works and they smell great too!!)
Here is a picture of the ornaments Case made with Mommy's help!



I am not really sure how I will ever convince Case that it does not snow every year! The snow we got in January '08 was unexpected...but the snow we got a few weeks ago was a total surprise to me and most of all to Case! It was so wet this time around before it snowed that even though it stuck on the ground...it was slush!! Daddy had to work that day...but Case, Mommy and Nanny Lynna enjoyed ourselves, we made a little snowman, and attempted a big snowman...but Case tackled it before we got it finished. He and I had a snowball fight...which ended in me busting my tail on the ground and him belly laughing at me!! Then he decided he would run and try to slide down the hill on his rear end. We had a great time playing in the snow...but now Case thinks that it snows in Mississippi EVERY Winter!!!

A couple days before Christmas, Case and I spent an afternoon at Zach, Hannah Grace and John Paul's house making Christmas cookies....we had a BLAST rolling dough and playing in the flour and spending time with friends! The kiddos loved sprinkling the cookies with colored sugar and sprinkles...but they lost interest really fast with icing the cookies so Mrs. Amie and I finished the cookies. She and I decided as we were sitting there icing about 4 dozen cookies, that we will have to make this a yearly tradition....but next year we are going to let the kids put colored sugar and sprinkles on ALL the cookies and that way they will be done when they come out of the oven!! :-) I forgot my camera that day...so I will have to wait on Mrs. Amie to send me some to post!! They were yummy...and cute too!!

For the past three years we have done Christmas cards with just Case's picture on them...but this year we decided that we would take family photos for our Christmas card. That was a "fun" and eventful evening. The last family pictures we took were for the front of our adoption profile in March. Case was not very cooperative then...and he still isn't when it comes to taking photos...I hope that it this just a "phase" because it is quite frustrating to his Mommy! :-) There is no way he is camera shy...he has been having his photo taken from his first day home!! :-)
We did get a few good pictures to use for our card...but I bet we took about 50 not so good ones!!





Granddaddy, GramGram and Aunt B came to spend the day with us on Christmas Eve. We had a wonderful time spending the day with them. We ate way too much and of course they added to the spoiling that Case has been receiving ALL month long!! I can't begin to remember all the gifts that family and friends have given him....way more than he needs...believe me when I say that he is one blessed little boy to have SO many people who love him and SPOIL him rotten!!

We exchanged our Christmas presents to each other on Christmas Eve night. Case got more gifts...one in particular was the new Kung Fu Panda movie and after we finished opening presents we put the movie on and about 30 minutes later he was down for the count. We managed to get him in his pj's and put him to bed! He missed out in participating in putting cookies out for Santa. The next morning he woke up about 7am asking to watch cartoons like he does every other morning...he didn't even realize that it was Christmas morning! We finally asked him if he thought maybe Santa came last night...and he said "Lets go look!!" He was SO EXCITED to see his gifts!! Below are a few snapshots from the day....and a video of Case riding his Christmas present from Santa!!


We had a wonderful time enjoying Christmas through Case's eyes this year...there is just something special about seeing the JOY in a child's eyes and heart at Christmas. Reflecting back at all that has transpired in the past month....the most special time of this entire season was sitting on our couch as a family reading Case the Christmas story out of the Bible. He was so amazed to hear about baby Jesus and God's greatest gift to each of us....HIS SON.

Anticipation......

We are anticipating Christmas at our house!

And I think this year we are looking forward to Christmas morning more than ever before!!! Case is EXCITED beyond EXCITED this year!!! This is the first year that we think he actually knows what is going on and his anticipation is exciting to experience!!

We put up on Christmas tree on Saturday after Thanksgiving...and if you know me...that is the earliest I have ever put up a tree!! I usually wait until the week before Christmas, because I procrastinate like that! Well, not this year, Case would not allow procrastination....he wanted his tree up ASAP!

For the past three weeks Case has been asking "How long until Christmas time?" When we tell him how many days he has left to wait his response is always......."That's a L O N G time and it is a hard time to wait!"

Don't you just love it...and when you look at his sweet face, like in this picture...it is a "hard time to wait" even for the grownups!!!

Merry Christmas!!!