Around the House during the Holidays

How cool is the spike?  There is no pictures of the crowd at Sam's Christmas show at school, but this had to be a fire hazard.  Crazy amount of people packed in to watch a couple hundred 1st and 2nd graders sing some christmas songs.  Can you find Sam in the pictures below?  Hint:  He is at the top of the doorway in the third picture down.

Mom's birthday meal at Stonesthrow in Mt. Laurel.  This is excellent food, probably not the best place to take kids, but we are old folks that eat at 5:30 PM, so usually beat the crowds.  White Chocolate bread pudding had blueberries this night...too good!

Our Elf left some presents on the toilet one night.   Silly guy! Magan for some reason, decided that she wanted the kids to make some cookies with her.  They had fun, but the cookies were not too good.  :)  Even the elf did some late night decorating later that night.

Sam wrote a letter explaining to the Elf that "Christmas spirit  it is about joy and kindness and family and friends and believing...From Sam".  The Elf also placed the joker in the corner for hiding a wild card up his sleeve.

After Christmas, the Elf got to sleep with Sam in his bed.  All were sad to see him leave, but he left them a message...

Hey Sam/Davis/Belle:

I am going to really miss you guys.  I had so much fun this year, my favorite was putting the streamers up down the hall and watching Santa put out all of the toys.  Rudolph said that he wanted some carrots next year. 

Sam:

I hope you liked the monorail, I told Santa that you would like it, and that it would be a great surprise.  Thanks for letting me sleep in your comfy bed this week. 

Davis:

Cool Star Wars guys, next time you need to let me play.  I bet I could karate chop that blue guy.  He doesn’t scare me. 

Belle:

Your Belle baby doll was funny, and Santa kept making her sing “Beauty and the Beast” in the living room.  But it was too loud and we heard your Dad make a loud poot noise, so we turned her off so it wouldn’t wake anyone up.

I love you guys, and can’t wait to be back at your house next December.  I will ask Santa if he will let me visit next summer.  We are always busy during the year, but he may give me some vacation. 

Be good to each other, don’t fight so much, give your mom and dad big hugs.

Oh, and thanks for the peppermints, I only ate 4 before I left, but that filled me up.

C. P.

Christopher Poppinkins

A Davis and Sam Story...

I was reading a devotional to the boys the other night in preparation for bed, and this one was talking about God's protection and that even angels are watching over us.  With no hesitation, Sam leaned over to Davis (who is hot natured and always sleeps in just underwear) and says "I would be embarrassed if I was you".  Davis then realized what Sam meant and said "AGHHH", then jumped up and put on some pajamas.  Funny Kids.

Christmas with MawMaw

Our last Christmas get together was at MawMaws.  We had a great time with lots of good food as usual.  Love the cake balls.  

The kids were beat...A day at the Space and Rocket Center, A night at the Movies, then a fun filled final Christmas Feast at MawMaws.  Time for a nap!

US Space and Rocket Center

Nobody else probably notices, but blogspot for some reason did not put some of these pictures in order, and that frustrates me.  But Oh well, Look at this great big group of fun loving cousins on their trip to the moon.  Have I mentioned lately that I always wanted to go to spacecamp...and I will go one day whether Sam or Davis or Belle want to go or not.  Always something new that I have not seen before, and this place is always fun.  Too bad it was cold and rainy, so no spaceshot for the big kids, and no mini-spaceshot for the little ones.

Sam made it all the way to the top, and even close on the 2nd level.  And while Davis did not make it too far up on his try, I was very proud of him as he has some similar height issues as me.

After the space and rocket center, the plans were to go to Schlotsky's, but with the addition of the Sartins and their high class, they wanted to go to Shoguns.  So we called Marcus, John/Seab, and Katie...and told them about Shoguns.  We then found out that Shogun closed before we could get there, so it was off to the Olive Garden...where there was a 45 minute wait...then off to Dreamland.  And it was sooooo good.  Half Rack o Ribs just about took me out of service.  

Our plans were further changed when we let Belle go home with Melissa, so that Magan and I and the boys could go to see "The Hobbit" with John and Colby...only to find out that the elitist Huntsville theater had no room for us.  After me trying to let the kids out of the door while at the same time accelerating and placing the van in park, I realized that I should not be speaking to Colby on the cell phone while learning about seats being unavailable for the theater.  Anyway, story ended well with Katie coming home with us...dropping Belle off with Granny and Granddaddy, then making it to the Cullman theater to watch the Hobbit.  Really good movie.  First time watching one in 3D.  Thank you Katie for the Popcorn.