The Grandy's Good Times: Christmas, Cousins, and Chewing Gum

Christmas is always fun, but this one was especially fun! One of my sisters and I both got home on the Sunday before Christmas. Her husband and their six month old daughter were with them. Caleb was so sweet with her. He was much more gentle with her than he is with Karis...Karis tends to get the rough end of the playing.

Their favorite thing to do was to was swinging. Caleb liked it when we pushed him "really higher" and when Ashley spun him in circles.

His favorite thing to do was to push Karis though. He is a great big brother/cousin already! She would laugh hysterically, and he just kept laughing and laughing.

Even Annie got in on the action. She had the best smile while Caleb was pushing her.

GiGi and Grandpa came to see us too. We took a long walk in the woods, and we all had a good 'ole redneck time cleaning ducks, walking the pony, and letting the dogs swim in the back pasture. The dogs really liked their snack of duck wings and later deer legs...yep, I told you redneck!

(There's nothing like learning to chew straw at a young age!)

(Don't know if you can tell, but they are throwing sticks to the dogs in the pond.)

So we went to Mama Bet's house on Christmas Eve. Karis and Annie had fun playing with Aunt Jamie.

Caleb has a special secret with Mama Bet. Everytime he sees her he asks for chewing gum and of course she willinging gives it to him! So for Christmas, she gave him a packet of gum. He was so excited and immediately announced that it was the "best present ever in the whole world!" We laughed so hard, but the reality of it is that we get so wrapped up in "stuff" that we forget that the best present of all is something from the heart.

The best part was our new Christmas Eve tradition and the ensuing Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve we read one of Caleb's books that told the story of Jesus' birth(never mind that I threatened a spanking during the reading of the book because he WOULD NOT sit still). We finally did get him to say that Jesus was the best present, but he still wanted a Santa and a reindeer and an elf and a snowman and presents! After that we left Santa milk, cookies (well a haystack), and a carrot for the reindeer.

He was so cute looking up the chimney for Santa, and of course the adults had fun after the kids were asleep setting up for "Santa."

Christmas morning was great! We woke the kids up at 6:30 to go open presents. This isn't anything new for us "Peebles girls" though. We have always opened our presents while it is still dark outside. There is something magical about the living room being all set up with just the tree lights lighting the room. The look on Caleb's face was priceless. He just stood and stared, then immediately bypassed his "Santa" present (a toolbench) and headed straight for Annie's present. It was obviously much cooler than any old toolbench:) He did finally get around to playing with it and now he loves it! By the way, I did get the best present of all. My hubby and my dad secretly built me the book shelves we've been planning on building. They kept it the best secret...so good in fact that my feelings got hurt! They are awesome and I can't wait to get home and organize everything!