In the Aftermath of Christmas Day

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas day. I guess I should step back one day. I was actually not feeling well at all on Christmas Eve morning. I spent most of the morning in bed. By the afternoon, I was feeling better, but Nathan couldn't breathe though his nose. That was very unfortunate because he had to sing a solo and lead music at the Christmas Eve service that night. Hello Afrin. He calls it the miracle drug. Clears the nose instantly. I was actually amazed that the voice I heard that night was from the same person I had been hearing all afternoon. The service was wonderful. I do love candlelight Christmas Eve service. It was a little different for me because it was the first time Brenna had to sit with me through a service. She was a little distracting for me, but I still enjoyed the service.


That night we played elves. I love seeing all the presents under the tree late on Christmas Eve. Nathan and I went to bed and anticipated the fun of the morning. Brenna didn't disappoint us. She woke up early and excited about Christmas morning. What a joy it was for us to be at home with with her. I loved being able to watch her open her gifts. She was so excited when she came in first thing and saw her dolphin and her bike. I loved her exclamation. "A bike for me. It's just what I wanted for Christmas!" (Note: She really just likes to sit on it. No luck on the riding yet. Maybe one day she will learn to peddle. I won't even try to imagine no training wheels.)




We left for Mom and Dad's house in the afternoon. Christmas dinner was late but good. Now we are awaiting the arrival of Tanner (and family). We decided to wait to open the rest of the gifts which has been a little hard especially with an almost four year old She knows Christmas Day has passed, but has to look at a tree loaded with gifts everyday. She keeps asking, "Is Tanner coming today?" We tried to explain that we are waiting for Tanner and Avery so that we can all open together. That is a little hard for her, but she is managing well. It will be worth the wait come tomorrow when we can answer Brenna's daily question with "Yes, Tanner is coming today after your nap." I am looking forward to Christmas Day round two with everyone here.


Meanwhile, we have been enjoying our newest addition to the family. Call me crazy, but I just couldn't resist the cute little puppies that Mom's dog had. I love Toy Havanese breed. I may be hating myself next week when Annie and Westin realize that the puppy is coming to stay at our house. I will have to be a constant referee for sure, but she is just too cute to resist. Brenna really loves her and it will be fun to watch them grow together. We have named her Sophie Puchabelle Jones, but will call her Sophie Belle or just Sophie. She is a ball of cuteness.


Oh, one other funny story of the week. Brenna has discovered the joy of "Lip Chomp". (aka Chapstick) She has been so funny asking for her lip chomp every time she puts it down. We have laughed a lot.


I hope your Christmas week has been filled with laughter and joy as well. We have missed everyone we didn't get to see. I'll let you know how round two goes for us in a few days.

I can't believe I almost forgot the exclamation of last night. GO DAWGS! I cheered for a football team for the first time that I can remember last night. It was a lot of fun, but a little too stressful for me. Not sure I will be that committed again, but it was fun. So exciting to watch Georgia win. Sorry my Aggie friends.

Life According to Annie (Boo Bear) Oakley Jones

1. One's name doesn't always determine one's personality. Sometimes it does.
When Nathan and I picked Annie out of the litter we quickly came up with her name. I left our friends house singing, "I can do anything better than you." We watched our newly picked puppy fight back against her much larger brother. She was determined to win the battle. She was also determined to get out first. It was quite cute to watch her determination.

2. Have a style all your own.
When Annie was a puppy her two big ears didn't look so big because they lay flat against her head. Several months after we got her, I noticed that her ears started to stick up. For months I taped pennies to the ends of them to try and "train" the wayward ears to lay down. All my hard work did no good. She refused to allow her ears to stay down. That should have been a warning to me from the beginning. Annie was not going to be a laid back dog that simply did what she was asked to do. She had her own ideas.

3. You are always the biggest no matter what that other dog says.
Annie has "big dog complex". Maybe we are similar in that aspect. She always sees herself as bigger than she is. She truly believes she is bigger than every dog she meets. I try to explain to her that some dogs can eat her in one bite, but she just doesn't believe me.

4. Enjoy life to the fullest.

5. Always take time to enjoy a belly scratch.

6. Why be quite when you could be very loud?

7. Look for the opportunities in life to bark. They are always there.

8. When there is a "will" there is a "way", and there is always a "will".
This last philosophy brings me to the reason I am writing this post. We came home from Church today to find several chip bags littered across the floor. Annie is amazing in her ability to find and eat hidden foods. From the beginning of her life she has always been able to eat food out of bags, wrappers, and containers without eating the coverings. We don't know how she does it. The first time we saw this amazing ability of hers we came home to find our floor littered with little silver wrappers. I had a bowl of chocolate kisses sitting on our coffee table. Annie found the joys of kisses. Amazingly enough she didn't eat any of the wrappers. She vomited chocolate all night but was not harmed in any other way. Chocolate remains one of her favorite delicacies.

One day when I left for work, I accidental left my lunch bag on a chair. That evening when I came home, there was a small, snout sized tear in the bag. I found all the Ziploc baggies opened, empty, but not torn. I didn't find any of my lunch.

I normally leave my purse sitting on the couch. There have been several incidents of missing food that I didn't discover for awhile. She is a sneaky one. She can dig through my purse without dumping the purse over to find her treasures. She has found M&Ms from a plastic egg, junior mints from their box, fasier mints from a Ziploc bag, and endless snacks for Brenna through her three years. You would think I would learn to stop leaving food in my purse.

As you can see, today's incident is not an isolated one. We aren't sure how she even got the big bag of chips off the counter. It must have fallen down. She opened the big bag with a snout sized hole then continued to rip the perforated opening. She delicately stole three personal size bags of chips opened each back without tearing it at all. Not sure how she did that either. There were no holes in the individual bags. There were no crumbs left over. At least she cleans up after herself and only leaves the bags that are uneatable.

Christmas

Brenna and I have been baking this week. On the first day, we opened one of the "before Christmas" gifts that Oma and Pepere sent. She pulled out a Christmas apron, chef hat and oven mitts. She soon noticed my apron and oven mitts and asked where my hat was. I had to explain that Mommy didn't have a cute hat like she did. Can you guess her next question? If you guessed "Why not?" you are correct.



She also opened a box set of pre-baked gingerbread men to decorate. That was fun activity that lasted until lunch. Not sure if the cookies or Brenna's tummy got more of the decorations.



Then yesterday, I picked up the tradition that Mom set for our family. I decided to take on the mammoth task of baking five batches of Dilly Bread. I only had one mishaps. Our house is so cold even with the heat that bread won't rise. My solution? Leave the oven on all day and place the covered dough on top of the hot oven. Thank goodness that worked. The bread tasted and smelled as good as I always remembered it tasting. I do love Dilly Bread fresh out of the oven.

And why only bake one type of food when you could bake bread, cupcakes, and cake balls. It was a crazy day. Brenna got to watch TV all morning. Great morning for her. She did help with the cupcakes. Although she had to wash her hands a total of five times. She really had a hard time with not licking her fingers then picking up the sprinkles again. It was very funny, and I'm not sure it has ever taken me so long to ice and sprinkle 24 cupcakes.



As for the week before Christmas, Nathan is done with school on Friday. His break begins Monday with a few dentist appointments. Poor Nathan, but they do need to get done. I plan to spend lots of time with Nathan in the next two weeks. Brenna and I have really missed him in the last few busy months. We are all looking forward to Christmas morning with an almost 4 year old. I still have a few things to finish up, but I am almost done with all my preparations. I am looking forward to the joy of the next few weeks.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We decorated the tree last night. I'm so glad we were finally able to do that. We couldn't really wait much longer or we wouldn't have been able to have it up much time at all. Brenna loved it this year. She was jumping around in circles, laughing, and smiling a lot. Note to self, It is not a good idea to start decorating the Christmas tree 30 minutes before bedtime. Oh well, we had a good time.


Well, most may think that a three year old or a husband with mitten fingers is most likely to be the one to break the first ornament of the year. Most would be wrong. I was the first this year. I don't think I have broken one in my adult life. It was a little sad, but I think I will get over it.

After Brenna went to bed we had to rearrange a few ornaments due to Westin's tree fetish. This is truly his favorite time of the year. He is such a funny little cat. He spends hours laying under the tree, and he loves to drink the tree's water and eat it's needles.


Lastly, look at all that snow in Karnes City!


No, it didn't really snow that much. The elementary school had a winter festival and brought in some snow. Brenna loved playing in it even though it was pretty wet by the time we got there. She really wanted to make snow angels, but was coerced to just make some snowballs. What a great idea the PTO had with that one.

Even in Karnes City

Miracles do happen. It "snowed" today, if you can call it that. Pretty sure those who live up north would not. But for us, it snowed. This was Brenna's first experience with snow. That too makes me a little sad. Now she will think little spits of white from the sky will qualify as snow. Oh well, we take what we can get. It was magical for her. We played outside for a little while and I got to take a few pictures. If you look very closely, you might see a little white speck in one corner. Yep, that would be the snow. Please don't go blind trying to find it.