Christmas Week 2014

Visiting Santa downtown at Neiman's has become such a fun tradition.

Poor Santa got an earful this year including, "the remote control car you gave me last year broke" and  "I made cookies for you, but they accidentally broke."  Palmer also asked for a nut cracker (the kind that chops nuts, not a soldier) and a "squirrel chopper".  After Palmer and Grace walked away from Santa, Palmer worried that he forgot to tell Santa what Grace wanted.  He was comforted by the idea of writing Santa a letter update.

Rick and I spent much of the December month trying to figure out what a squirrel chopper was.  We were told, "It chops squirrels." (Obviously.)

Baby Grace's first Christmas:

Palmer's school party and Grace, the party crasher:

Our holiday celebrations were spread out amidst our various families.  We spent a lot of time in Fort Worth over the last few weeks:

A quick run to a brewery with my siblings.   Yes, that's normal.

Grace and Elle, the sweet matching Christmas angels:

 And the angels' fearless sidekick...

Christmas Eve in Fort Worth:

 Game playing with Gram:

Christmas Eve church with Nana.  We let Palmer hold his own candle this year.  I was careful to keep a firm grip on his hand.  What I didn't do is keep an eye on the rest of Palmer's body.  Palmer was standing on the pew and fell off.  In the briskness of the fall, the candle luckily blew out.  Whew.  That coulda been exciting.

Setting cookies and milk out for Santa.  We also had hot chocolate floats with peppermint ice cream along with the traditional Texas tamales.  We are going to have to make the floats a new tradition.  Yummers.

Palmer was pretty set on trying to stay up to see Santa.  Sure enough, he was fast asleep in bed about 5 minutes after we put him down. 

Merry Christmas Eve.

-Bethany