Christmas 2009

Well we've all had a week to have our Christmas time and get back home, get sick, get well, and get to Corpus for another round of visting the grandparents and I haven't even told you all about it!

The house at night

It all started last Wednesday, the 23rd, when Mommy and Daddy and I packed the car up, dropped Maggie off at Lisa's and headed on our way to Olney, TX to go see the family and participate in that yearly (as I have been told) tradition of the Strealy family sing-along.

All the girls

All my cousins and Uncles and Aunts were there. I am glad they were too because all of us kids got to sit in the center and pick any instrument we want. And then we wailed on it as hard as we could to make sweet beautiful music to no one but our parents (well ok Nana and Grandad too).

The adults got to participate by singing Christmas carols over our rock jam session.

Like the rock stars we were, once we were finished we left (without picking up, I mean seriously what are parents good for but that?) to head to our rooms demand food service and pass out. Some of the band members went over to their grand parents house (since they live in Olney) and crashed there. It was a sweet gig.

Oh I forgot to mention that Nana was a the little drummer boy this year. What? Costumes at Christmas? Yes that is what makes the sing-along cool is that Nana dresses up as a different character each year (so I am told). I channeled this costume inspiration into my rocking out that night with my cousins and had lots of fun.

All the great grand children

Next morning, I woke to a Christmas morning surprise! Despite the fact that the weather during the drive to Olney was nice, sunny, and 75, we woke up to SNOW! It was a White Christmas.

The beginning and end of the day

Seeing that the weather man totally failed in predicting snow for the entire week, Daddy and Mommy didn't have their snow clothes, but being the good parents they are they brought my stuff just in case.

Playing in the snow

We spent the day running around outside, building snowmen, and tossing snowballs just before retreating to hot chocolate. Well that's what Daddy did mostly. I played outside some too but the snowball throwing was all Daddy and my Uncles.

We spent the rest of the day watching the snow get deeper and by the end were watching "Its a Wonderful Life"

The best part of the movie was when it got interrupted by the funniest public safety announcement EVER! It started with what sounded like a police car driving into the living room to flash its sirens only to be followed up by the most informal message delivery to ever pass as official.

This guy, who sounds like he is sitting in his living room with the mic propped up on his Santa belly, kinda sighs in the mic and says:

"huuuuhh.....Well folks...........the weather outside is.......tuurrilble"

Laugher erupts on our end and the rest of the message is not heard

That was Christmas Eve

Christmas Day YAYAYA

I got me a play house and a stroller that I am learning to walk with and clothes that make me look cute (if it is possible to make me look cuter) and tons of toys that make noise (DADDY SAYS THANKS ALOT FAMILY)! My cousins came over that afternoon after Daddy and Papa rescued them in their 4x4's from being trapped in their snowed in house. We ate lots of food (peas and bananas for me) and spent the rest of the day playing in the snow and finally for me learning how to pull my self up!

Play time

The next day was the day after my first Christmas and the first day for me to sport some of my new clothing. We made our way through the snow again to the car and loaded it up to leave town. We ate at Koffee Kup in Hico and had some AMAZING burgers before heading home and fell asleep.

Standing tall!

Emma loves to pull herself up and stand on her own at her laugh and
learn table. She also likes to dance to the different songs it plays!
When she gets tired she just falls back on her chair, sometimes she
misses but she doesn't mind too much ;)

Thanksgiving

Emma had her first Thanksgiving this last week and as predicted, stole the show. From dinner to play time, to the gift exchange she was the center of attention! And rightfully so, as she did her best to make every moment the cutest.

This was our year to have Thanksgiving with Daddy's side of the family (much to GeGe's dismay, though she can't complain because she gets Christmas). We started the holidays on that Wednesday by putting my engineering to the test in order to pack all of the girls's stuff into the car.

15 Hours later we were on our way....

No, more like 30 mins later, but anyway we were off to the
booming metropolis of Waskom, TX

There Emma got to see her Great Gran Rena and John as they hosted the family Thanksgiving. There was turkey, corn, stuffing, pie and more pie! Yummy

Uncle Jared and Auntie Morgan were there as well as the Grandparents. The family greeted us at the door and daddy was happy to let everyone hug Emma right away......Emma wasn't so happy though! She didn't recognize everyone in the room just yet so she got upset, but as you can see it didn't take her long to warm up to everyone. Catching up with the family was fun and daddy and grandaddy got a chance to do so for the next 5 hours as they proceeded to unload the car with all 50 of mommy and Emma's suitcases so that he could get to the one bag he brought. Emma spent the evening entertaining the guests and the day ended well.

The next day was thanksgiving and Emma got a chance to have turkey for the first time. EWWWW she didn't like it.

The rest of the food for the grown-ups (and Morgan) disappeared quickly and the whole family moved quickly to the gift exchange. THE WHAT!??!? Yes the gift exchange (since Aurlie had Emma for Christmas). Everyone got some amazing stuff. What Emma got was epic. Her things littered the floor and seeing her play with the things as they were opened was the best gift of all.

By the weekend Emma, her parents and the grandparents all packed it up to head to Dallas for two extremely important events.

The Texas Tech vs Baylor Shootout

In the newly constructed Cowboys Stadium

And the 29th Annual Dickens of a Christmas Event in McKinney, TX

In addition to the wonderful breakfast that we enjoyed Sunday morning at Spoons Cafe the highlight was Emma's first picture with Santa Claus (for real this time, not the scary one from Halloween)

Though judging by the look of things Emma doesn't know that!

As always you are invited to click on any of the above photos and check out the rest of the best on Emma's photo page.

Crawling

Life as Daddy knows it is over.......

EMMA CRAWLS!

What you can't see is that after successfully crawling to the Wii remote, Emma used it to beat a video game on expert difficulty.