Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful, wonderful past two days it has been!

It's been so nice (and that's an understatement) to have K-man home, really at home for these past couple of days. We were actually able to get ourselves and both kids dressed and out the door for Christmas Eve service at church yesterday with minimal trouble. K joked that maybe church should start at 5:30 p.m. on Sundays, too. Seriously, sometimes it's nothing less than a sheer struggle to get us out the door on Sunday mornings. But I digress...the service was great. We have a tradition in our church that children participate in part of the service as angels complete with white smocks and tinsely garland halos. Pook was the most angelic angel of them all until they handed her a glow stick before the singing of Silent Night. That's when K spotted her have a sword fight with another little girl on stage. Ha! That's my girl!Diesel sat quietly (well, mostly) through it all. I think that the snacks of Goldfish, Cheerios and sweet corn puffs had something to do with that. However, he was a hungry and tired boy by the time we made it home and was not really interested in the fact that Santa's elves had been to the house and dropped off Christmas PJs for him and his sister. Crazy thing...neither was Pook. That little oddity can be attributed to the fact that our next door neighbors grandkids were coming to the door wanting her to come and play.

We have great neighbors and we always run over on Christmas Eve to socialize for a bit. Mimi and Papa Jack are so incredibly sweet and always include our kids in their gift-giving. Polly Pockets (oh joy!) for Pook and a cuddly snowman for the Diesel.

K-man and I even made it to bed before 1 a.m. this morning! Shock of shocks since I still had to wrap EVERY last present. We got such a late start on the gift buying that I just decided to knock it all out at once and save it for last night.

This morning, we awoke to the sounds of Diesel ready to be out of his crib and had a blessedly peaceful 30 minutes before the Pookster got up and the feast of presents began! After it was all said and done, we had a very excited 4 year old who loved all her new books, clothes, movies, toys and bike and a very tired 1 year old who was more interested in the tissue paper than the opening of gifts. It was on to Daddy's pancakes for breakfast and then the rest of the day has been spent lounging about. Grammie made it over just before the festivities began and we all enjoyed a low key Mexican Christmas dinner tonight. As per request, I made my sour cream chicken enchiladas and we busted out the Dean & Daluca green chile chicken tamales that Bill & Connie sent us for Christmas. Mucho gusto! And now finally, the kiddos are asleep and I'm able to steal some time to get pics uploaded to the computer and post about our day.

I'll leave you with a Pook funny. As you know, we live in Texas and hear Spanish spoken quite often. The Pookster's school is great about incorporating the language into the curriculum. Well, while on the phone with Aunt Sherrie tonight, Emma tells her "Felis Labidaub." Yep, that Feliz Navidad for all you non-speakers! I can't do it justice because you really need to hear her say it. That girl keeps us rolling!

Merry Christmas, y'all!