our Christmas

This Christmas was a little less Merry than years past unfortunately.  The plan as usual was for us to head first to OKC to visit with Mark's mom and family for a few days and then on to Eufaula to visit with my family for a few days.  What is with my holiday plans derailing this year??  Well, we got some very sad news right before Christmas.  Mark's dad was diagnosed with a very aggressive and terminal cancer.  It looked like he may have just days so Mark got the next flight out to AZ.  That left me with the kids and a long trip to OK without Daddy to celebrate Christmas with us.  So the kids and I changed our plans and went to visit Nanny and Poppa in Eufaula first and spent most of our time there with the exception of  Christmas day when we made the 2 hour drive to OKC to spend some time with Mark's mom and her family.  It wasn't exactly the same without Daddy.  He is back now and his dad is doing as well as can be expected which is not good I'm afraid.  We all were so lucky that we went out to visit him for Thanksgiving and had a lovely visit not knowing that he was even sick.  We have been and continue thinking about Gramps and sending lots of love out to Phoenix.

On a happier note the kids did enjoy their Christmas.  Here they are throwing out "reindeer food" (aka oatmeal with glitter) on Christmas Eve.  Notice the coats and hats, it was freezing in OK, actually below freezing much of the time, brrrr.

And Lucky for us Santa could not fit their presents in his sleigh with the rest of the kids' toys so he needed to drop them off at our house a few days early which let Daddy enjoy their surprise before he left for AZ.  All Celia has been asking for is a bike, specifically a "Barbie" bike.  Honestly, she hardly ever plays with her Barbies so I'm not sure why she wanted a Barbie bike, but that was her request and Santa very nicely obliged.  Celia also told Santa that her little brother needed a bike as well.  Poor Kye has been stuck with her hand-me-downs so Santa brought him his very own boy bike....

They both LOVE their new bikes.  I thought Celia would have a hard time riding hers.  But she is doing so well on it.  And Kye can't quite reach the petals on his.  But he has got the hang of "walking" it with his feet.  He is so happy to have a bike of his own.


And it seems Santa had room in his sleigh after all for one more ride-on for the kids.  On Christmas morning this monstrosity was under the tree at my parents' house.

They LOVE it as well.  Celia is a major horse nut anyway and had to put this huge thing beside her bed that night so it could sleep with her.  She has given it 3 different names and I think she finally settled on "Spirit".  And, yes, she's riding with a feather boa.  Shouldn't every girl ride her horse with a feather boa?  Check out what's on the TV.  My dad watches all those old westerns.  Celia is racing the horses on there.

I predicted there would be lots of fights over it and there have been.  But I also thought Kye might have trouble riding it since it's for age 3 and over.  I was wrong.

Here he is introducing himself... oh and check out his cap.  I can't get Kye to leave a hat on.  But this one?  He wouldn't take it off.  Why??  Because it's a John Deere hat like the one his Poppa has and anything Poppa has Kye wants too.  In fact, this was a pretty much a John Deere Christmas for Kye which is fine by him.  I think my dad bought every toy tractor he could find.  Kye loves them and he calls them all "Poppa".  Like if he drops one "Oh, no, Poppa" etc.  He's obsessed.

Back to the horse.  Why did I think he would have trouble riding it??  Check him out...

Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately for me) there was no way I could fit "Spirit" in my car with all the other presents we had to take home to Houston so my parents are boarding her until they can bring her down.  Until then I will be looking for a place to put her in my house.  Thanks Nanny and Poppa??