Christmas 2008 in pictures

Our first Christmas festivity was at Granny & Poppies in Duncan.

Next we headed over to Nana's & The Blalock's for another Christmas get-together.

On Christmas Eve, Alan & the boys went Snowtubing at the Bricktown Ballpark.

Then that evening we had a Christmas Eve dinner with Nanny, Papa, Uncle Nate & Family, Uncle Mark & family, Aunt Theresa & Jamie at our house.

Alan was so excited about his chocolate brownie trifle I made for him that he took several pictures of it!

Then after everyone left, we started our Christmas Eve traditions, which includes the kids opening one gift. I made them all robes for Christmas.

Then we tracked Santa on the NORAD tracking system online!

Next Bourbon read "Twas the night before Christmas" (Alan always reads it on Christmas eve, but he had fallen alseep already!)

Then we set out our milk & cookies and the kids went to bed.

Alan was up way before anyone else was on Christmas morning, so he played around with the christmas tree and his party lights.

Then he sat in the livingroom waiting for the rest of us to get up so he could get pictures of the kids faces as they walked into the room. Here is Starla when she first walked into the livingroom.

The Annual Christmas Loot pictures

After our Christmas morning chaos, we headed off for Christmas lunch at my Aunt Sharon's with my extended family.

Starla kisses Mickey (the wind bent him down to her, so she kissed him)

My Grandpa with Starla

My Dad with his Parents & siblings

My cousin Keisha with Papa

We had such a wonderful Christmas!

Just some pics & stuff

Starla got her first Christmas present of the season today. We had a toddler Christmas playdate/party at our house this afternoon with all of Starla's friends. Noah, one of her friends, brought her this Tutu for Christmas! She loves it, calls it her 'special dress'!

Daddy's boots go perfectly with it!

When she opened her present, she looked at me quizzically, and said "Where's my cake?" and looked like she was about to really get upset about it. It took me a second to realize what she was talking about. Ever since we introduced the idea of Santa and presents this year, she has been saying Santa is going to bring her a special cake, I have no idea why. But she thought this present was her special cake! I had to tell her that Santa would bring that and this was from Noah (Note to self, Santa must bring Starla a special cake!) She said ok and then was very excited about the tutu.

Yum, chocolate!

We made Christmas cookies!

It was lots of fun!

Daddy & Starla snuggle up for some Dora the explorer!

Last Saturday our Life Group and us went to The Red Cross and stuffed stockings for needy kids. We stuffed 316 in less than 2 hours! Woo hoo!

Starla LOVES to paint. We do it alot, which means we have lots of baths!

Apparently it tastes good, because she always ends up with it in her mouth!

It's bat baby!

One more week until Christmas!! Woo hoo!!

Alan's Dungeon

Alan's room in the house is the garage. We playfully call it his dungeon. He surfs the web, watches TV and just relaxes in his own personal space. No one else goes down there. I had to spend some time down there uploading some of my pics off of the computer (he has my old one, after he bought me a new one for my birthday!) and looking around, it cracked me up and reminded me why I love my husband. He has all of these toys, wrestlers and star wars, and they are all set up in positions in various places around the room. The whole room is just set up for him, with little quirks and displays of his personality. So I thought I would share.

He's such a big kid.

Starla & her elephants

This is Starla's collection of elephants and elephant plates. She loves elephants!

I made the purple paper mache one in Art class this semester. His body is a water bottle!

Isn't he cute?!

She likes to count her little collection.

Here is Starla in her room!

She is reading a story to Humphrey the Elephant and Pinky the Monkey.

Now she cooks them a meal!

Now she is going to feed them!

Such a busy little gal!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.....

We had so much fun putting up the Christmas tree!

Roman doubled up on the hats!

Alan gets ready to put the angel on top!

My little Christmas elves!

Bourbon helps put on an ornament!

Starla in one of her Christmas dresses!

We went to go see Santa at The North Pole City!

Bourbon looks so old in this picture!!!

Starla was SOOO excited to see Santa, she kept saying "It's Santa, he's talking to me!" as she was sitting on his lap!

Wow, only 17 more days left!! Crazy how fast it is flying by!

I'm a winner!

I am a national novel writing month winner! I wrote 50,000 words! Now granted, at this point I'm not sure I would even call it a story, but the only real qualifications was it had to be 50,000 words! Towards the end, when I wasn't sure where the story was really going, I started just writing ideas, character sketches, setting descriptions, just stuff. Now it all had to do with the story, so I still count that I got to 50,000 words!!! Now I am going to spend the next semester polishing, revising, editing and finishing it, and hopefully it will be ready to send in for possible publication! Wish me luck!