Bears, Oh My

Ben is wearing his new bear pajamas from Aunt Connie and his bear slippers from Nana and Grandaddy.

After Christmas Fun

We got home around lunch-time Saturday and by bedtime I had found homes for all our Christmas presents. I stored a few things in Ben's closet to pull out when we need something new and fun to do. I haven't put together his basketball goal yet. I'll probably wait until next week. Two of his favorite gifts are the table and chairs he got from Mama and Daddy and the wagon full of blocks he got from the Elders.

I think it's cute how his feet don't touch the floor.



I was pretty impressed that he built a three-level structure. Usually when we play with his ABC blocks, I build towers and he knocks them down. He was interested in building today.

This afternoon we got a special icecream treat at Sonic. Once before I bought icecream at Sonic thinking Ben would love it and he refused to even put a spoonful in his mouth. This time he really did love it.

Elder Christmas

Our family picture in front of the Elder's Christmas tree.

Ben had a lot of fun playing with Mary Varner. They get better at playing together each time they are together. They are jumping on the trampoline that Santa Claus brought MV. She was very nice to share her new toy with Ben.

Janey is mobile now and was very interested in Ben. Not long after this picture was taken she got Ben down and he didn't want much to do with her after that. With so many girl cousins, he's going to have to learn to hold his own against them.

MV got a doctor's kit for Christmas. Grandaddy is getting a checkup. She is checking his reflexes.

Blowing out the candles on the "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake. Ben put his candle in wick first, but Nana turned it over and managed to get it to light.

I uploaded all my pictures from the Elder's house to Snapfish to share with Fran. It gives you a link so that you can share it on your blog. So if you want to look at all 37 pics we took that night, go here: Elder Christmas 2009.

Christmas Day

Santa Claus delivered Ben's presents to Mama and Daddy's house. While last year Ben loved the wrapping paper, this year he wouldn't unwrap a gift at all. He was generally interested in what was inside once it was unwrapped, but I had to unwrap all his presents. This is Ben with his Curious George book. He likes George.

Ben's favorite gift from Santa was a box of four Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs. He's gotten really into Thomas (the most boring animated program I've ever seen) lately. He walked around carrying two DVDs saying, "and Thomas, and Thomas, and Thomas, and Thomas . . ." This went on for a long time.

Zac shooting the "screaming monkey" that Mama put in his, John's, and Will's stockings. It's a monkey wearing a mask and cape that shoots like a sling shot and screams as it flies. They all got a big kick out of it.

Emalee dressed to leave. Isn't she cute in her coat and hat? You can barely see her Zebra print boots peeking out at the bottom of the print.

Ben eating our annual Christmas lunch at the Arby's in the Love's Truck Stop in Tallulah. We have Christmas breakfast with my parents, then head to Jackson to have dinner with the Elders. That puts us on the road at lunchtime and this is the only place we've found open through the years.

Since I figured out I could post a link to all my Christmas pics on Snapfish, I went back and uploaded the ones from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, as well. So if you want to look at these 65 or so pics, here's the link: Christmas in Jena.

After Dinner

Afer dinner on Christmas Eve, PawPaw always lights a big fire and we shoot fireworks -- mainly bottle rockets, roman candles, sparklers, and black cats. Over the years as we've gotten older and there were no small children (Emalee always has to leave right after we open gifts), it's become more of a war where we set off strings of black cats right under each other. This year we were on probation. MawMaw said we couldn't have fireworks if we didn't behave since we have babies now. Cara and I took Ben and Aubrey out to watch the fireworks. Both of them really enjoyed the lights and noises.

Notice Ben's rolled up coveralls. Those belonged to me and Will (and probably Zac) many years ago.

John glowing in his FedEx jacket with a silver reflector strip.

Ben and Uncle Larry bonded during the fireworks. Ben's been talking about Uncle Larry a lot since then.

On our way home from MawMaw and PawPaw's house, we always stop and visit Marv, Yvonne, and Lynn. Lynn always takes a group pic before we leave.

We were 10 p.m. getting home, two hours after Ben's usual bedtime. He was still in a good mood though. As we drove along the rough roads, he discovered that his voice bounced. He belted out "Go Tell it on the Mountain" over and over and over again.

Christmas Eve

Zac, Ben, and Emalee. Zac is a good uncle. Both Ben and Emalee love playing with him.

PawPaw Sherman loves holding the great-grandbabies. Here he is feeding Rylee.

Every year MawMaw gets money for Christmas from PawPaw. He saves the same box from year to year and reuses it.

Cara and Aubrey in their coordinating Christmas outfits. Tom had to work Christmas Eve, but stopped by briefly on his way.

MawMaw and PawPaw really wanted a picture of all five great-grandchildren together. The three little girls (Rylee, Olivia, and Aubrey) were all born in the last six months. As usual Ben did not cooperate for the group picture.

Ho Ho Ho

Today we took Ben to see Santa Claus at Bass Pro Shop. After waiting an hour in line, Ben was disappointed to only have a few minutes with Santa. He cried, "Santa, Santa" as we were wheeling him away in the shopping cart.

Ben loved the huge fish tank. He would have stayed there all day.

Waiting patiently to see Santa. Ben was very good in line, looking at books and writing in a notebook.

Santa coaxing Ben to come near him with a candy cane.

John's pic of Ben and Santa.

Away in a Manger

Here is a video of Ben singing "Away in a Manger." I had no idea he knew so many of the words until he started singing. I grabbed my camera to video him. I had to clip two videos together. The first time, I missed the first couple of lines. I convinced him to sing it again for me, but he got distracted halfway through by the "umbrella tree."



The very distracting "umbrella tree."

Indoor Fun

Ben has had a cough and runny nose for over a week. We are trying to stay out of the cold, rainy weather to help him get well. I had planned to grocery shop today, but woke up to find it raining. During a brief break in the rain, we hurried to the nearest convenience store and bought a gallon of milk. Now I think I can make it until Wednesday (when the high is supposed to be 70) to grocery shop. Today we . . .

wrapped presents,

baked cookies,

and played in a big box.

Benny Lou Who

Although hanging the outdoor lights had caused our hearts to shrink two sizes too small, we turned on the Christmas cheer and got Ben involved in decorating the tree. This year I bought him an Elmo ornament. I doubt it spends much time on the tree. He was pretty excited about it.

John helping Ben hang Elmo on the tree.

Still looking at Elmo.

Checking out his "Baby's 1st Christmas" Mickey Mouse ornament. Since it's breakable, it's hung on the tree out of easy reach.

The finished product.

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was Ben's bedtime story tonight.

Lighting the Way

In the five years we've been married we've never bought a tree topper. Some years we used a bow. Some years there was nothing at the top. I've always intended to buy something, but never could decide exactly what I wanted. Ben saw the stars in Wal-Mart and got very excited. He likes stars. So this year I bought a star to go on top of the tree. It took all three of us trying to finally get it up.

First, Ben tried although we didn't actually expect him to be able to get it to stay.

Then John reached up and stuck it on the top of the tree. It turns out that when you have a very cheap fake tree and a heavy lighted star, the star just falls over.

Finally, I climbed up, moved some lights around, and bent the top branch over double to make it sturdy enough to hold the star.

We've mentioned a few times lately that we should put some lights up outside. About lunch time we decided to go out to eat for lunch and then stop by Lowes and get some outdoor lights. We really didn't go to Lowes with a plan. Just that we wanted some lights. We ended up walking up and down the aisle staring at all the lighting options for a really long time.(John finally took Ben for a ride around the store in the cart.) Finally we decided on lights for the bushes and snowflakes for over the entrance. We get home and immediately discover that we don't have nearly enough lights for the bushes. So back I go (this time to Wal-Mart) and buy four times as many lights as we originally purchased. Time to try again. We get the first bush done and realize that the extension cords we bought are three prong, the lights two prongs, and they absolutely will not fit together. After some thought, we figure out how to get by without the extension cords. About 4:30 p.m. we get the job finished and are feeling pretty Grinch-ish. We still have the tree to put up where the original plan had been to put together the tree, string the lights on it while Ben was napping, and even get naps ourselves. I don't know what kind of magic time we thought we were working in.

Let It Snow

Ben was asleep last night when it started snowing so he didn't see it coming down. I hated to go to bed last night, it was so pretty to watch and we get snow so seldom. This morning, I saw through the window that the neighbors (who are from Nebraska) managed to make this great snowman. I took Ben across the street to see him.

John's snow man.

John took this picture of the front of the house before he went to bed last night.

Ben's swingset.

The front of our house when I got up this morning.