Dec 27

 On Friday, Ben and Mollie both wanted to wear the clothes and boots they got for Christmas.

 We put Ben's new Nascar sheets from Nana and Grandaddy on his bed.  He was opening his gifts so fast on Christmas that he really didn't know what he got.  He was very excited when he saw these at home.

 A close-up of the Kyle Busch pillow case.

 John was at the camp last night so I decided it would be a good night to try Annie in the crib in Mollie's room.  Annie has been sleeping longer at night, but maybe not long enough.  She woke Mollie up at 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Mollie was asleep when I put Annie in her crib.  I'm not sure if we are going to try that again tonight or not.

Bike Riding

 On Thursday afternoon, Mollie rode her bike for the first time.  It's a 16" bike and I was concerned she was going to have a hard time reaching the petals, but it only took a couple of tries and she had pedaling figured out with no problem.  She had one wreck.  It scared her, but she got back on and rode all the way down the street.  On the way back to our house she said, "Tricycles are for babies.  I am a big girl."  You can see Ben driving his rock crawler in the background.  What's really cool about that truck is that it will run on the grass as well as the pavement.

Ben decided he wanted to ride, too.

Missed Pics

I just found these pictures that I took on Monday on my camera.  This was Emalee and Rylee's first time to meet Annie.  They both really enjoyed holding her.

Christmas with the Elders

 There was a time in the Elder family when we opened one gift at a time.  As our family has grown, the gift opening process has sped up.  Since I like to pass out presents, John was in charge of taking pictures of the gift opening.

Everyone but John spent the night with Nana and Grandaddy.  John had to work on Thursday morning.

Christmas morning

Santa always brings Ben and Mollie's gifts to MawMaw and PawPaw's house.  Ben and Mollie slept with MawMaw and PawPaw on Christmas Eve so Mama and came and got us at seven to open gifts.  She said that Ben woke up at 6:10 but she wouldn't let him wake us up then.

 Santa brought gifts for Annie, too, but she didn't really care.

 Mollie on her sparkly princess bike.

 Ben got a remote control rock crawler.  Notice how it's crawling over Annie's presents.

 Checking out the things in their stockings.

 Mollie specifically asked for princess panties.

 Ben wanted a rock crawler, a Kyle Busch t-shirt, and candy.  Santa delivered all three.

 Mollie really wanted her bike to have a seat for her dolls to ride in so MawMaw and PawPaw got her this doll seat that attaches to the back of her bike.

 Ben playing his new Uncle Wiggily board game.

 Annie still sitting with PawPaw.  After Ben and Mollie opened their gifts for Santa, we got dressed and ate breakfast while we waited for Will's family to come over and open gifts from MawMaw and PawPaw.

 Ben and Mollie opening board games from Emalee and Rylee.

 John opening a Denny Hamlin t-shirt from the kids and me.

 A Lightening McQueen scooter from MawMaw and PawPaw.

 New cowboy boots for Mollie.  Ben also got a beautiful pair of new boots.

Christmas Eve

As is our tradition, we had Christmas Eve dinner with MawMaw Wilma and PawPaw Sherman.  After everyone ate, we opened presents and then shot fireworks.  MawMaw and PawPaw bought pom poms for all the girls and a Danica Patrick NASCAR car for Ben.

Aubrey and Olivia really liked sparklers.  Mollie was terrified of them after having burned her hand badly with one on the 4th of July.

For the first year in my memory (I don't know what year we started but we've done it for a long time), we did not stop at Marv and Yvonne's on our way home.  Mrs. Yvonne is in the nursing home and Mr. Marvin is in a rehab center.

Putting out cookies and milk for Santa.

John had secretly gotten Ben to practice reading the Christmas story but on Christmas Eve Ben was grouchy and only read a few lines.  John read the rest of the passage to us.