Christmas in Texas

Merry Christmas Ya'll!!

On Christmas evening we flew to Houston for a visit with the Applewhite's.

We celebrated a second Christmas morning...again! He was thrilled beyond belief!!

The motorcycle Aunt Samanti gave him was a big hit...so she scored a big hug!! And Stephen was glad to get a new chair for his desk up at A& M.

The girls got Coach purses from Santa. How did he know we all wanted one?! ;)

The time always goes so fast...but we make the most of it spending time...like here, when the 'guys' were playing with the new Batman motorcycle!

Landon slipped into Uncle Stepehen's boots and started scootin' around the house...with Aunt Samanti.

We had a great time and sadly, Landon was MOST disappointed to leave the Uncle Stephen's childhood Power Ranger MegaZordyou see below. It consumed his every moment and will continue to be a special toy the two "share"!!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was a drizzly one...and it started early with Landon rushing into our room around 6am, slamming open the door and in utter disappointment saying, "Santa went down! He missed my house!"

On Christmas Eve he saw the NORAD tracker and saw Santa's sleigh headed toward South America and was apparently so "traumatized" from seeing that... that he ran right past the scene below on his way to our room!!

Like any sleep deprived parent, we capitalized on this oversight and I said, "ooooh. I'm so sorry ,Honey. Maybe we just need to lay here a little longer for him to come to our house.". We were able to squeeze another hour out of this ...with Landon laying in bed with us!

Finally, I decided we had tortured him enough and went and took a bell from the tree and shook it on the other side of the house. Yelling from over there...I asked Landon if he heard the reindeer's flying away.
His response? "No Mommy, that's just the bells on the tree.". ha! I guess that was too easy.

Christmas morning goes so quickly, doesn't it! All the gifts gone so quickly.

While Landon LOVED the Big Batman from Santa...he biggest gift of the year was his first bicycle and a helmet! Carlos picked out a Diamondback bike...white with green writing.

Landon was a bit unsure about his new ride...but, quickly got the hand of it and was all smiles.

The rest of the day went quickly as Landon and I boarded a plane to go visit Grammy & GranDaddy Applewhite and Uncle Steve & Aunt Samanti. Carlos stayed behind to work and we were home in time for New Year's Eve!!

Christams Catch-up

We're well into the 2009, but I'm going to play a little Christmas catch-up. In part, because I want my family to be able to see some pictures. But, also because I use this blog as a joural to remember special moments with Landon!

Christmas Eve was a beautiful night. The pictures above were from church.


After church, we came home we made cookies for Santa and then the Elves dropped off Landon's "magic jammies" on the front doorstep. Landon was completely ecstatic and knew exactly how to rip open the box!

Then we put out the cookies and carrots, read Twas' the Night before Christmas and then pulled out the lap-top and used the Norad tracker to find Santa.

We hung the special Santa key on the door for children who don't have a fireplace, so Santa and his helper Elves would be able to get inside and deliver the goodies!

When Landon didn't want to go to bed, and we saw that Santa on the Norad map was heading "down" to South America. That's when we I told Landon that he had to go to bed because Santa was heading down and away from our house.


THAT turned out to be a bad decision...because he was paranoid that Santa was going to miss his house! So we had to take the lap top into his bedroom and place it on his bed and pray...hard!


I didn't know what we were going to do if the little Santa on the computer was still heading South. But, FORTUNATELY, the sleigh was over Texas...so we convinced Landon to try to sleep. (Keep in mind this was at nearly 11pm!)


I went back and checked on him 15 minutes later and the poor little guy was laying on his back...fingers intertwined on his chest...eyes as big as quarters and staring at the ceiling! HA~ The excitement of children on Christmas Eve is so precious!



But finally, not a creature was stirring...not even a weiner dog.


After a little help from Santa's elves we were all set for Christmas morning and Carlos and I fell into bed to wait for Christmas morning!!

Santa's Checking His List

We have a little elf around here counting down the hours

until Santa comes!

We've actually implemented a little trickery here to get Landon to behave! It's from the manual of "Great Parents Not Opposed to Idol Threats"...ha!

When Landon has been misbehaving lately, we've been pulling out our cell phones and saying "we're calling Santa to give him a naughty update!"

Hee-hee...next year I might actually program Santa's picture into one of my cell phone contacts. This stuff is working!

The picture above is scanned from our visit to The Polar Express!

Coming to a Mailbox Near You!

I hope this blessed season is finding you well and avoiding the stress that can detract from the Christ of Christmas!

I confess, I've been guilty of worrying about the details that aren't terribly significant in the long-run.

But this year's Christmas card reminds me of the great joy in my life...my family! My dear friend Traci took these pictures! They look professional, don't they!?!

The digital work, is only partially mine. I simply dropped our pictures into a template with my Adobe Photoshop. But, I hope you love it just the same.

Merry Christmas and I hope everything is falling in place for you as you prepare for the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior!

Trimming The Tree

Better late than never is how it goes in the Monge house these days. Our tree was up later than usual, but this whole month has been a little behind!?!

We had a Friday Night Family Date night and we all had a fabulous time. We turned on Rudolph, pulled out the decorations and got to work. I couldn't even unwrap all the ornaments before Landon went to town!

This was his work and it was a fine job. But, of course Mommy has a slightly different "style" for the tree. So I gently urged him to consider moving the placement of them! ha!

When I started trimming the tree with it's ribbons and fabric and flowers, Landon moved onto the fur-babies around here. Ruth is such a good old dog. She hardly seemed to mind when Landon started decorating her!

(No animals were harmed in this picture. lol! )

Then, after the tree was decorated and the ornaments were put away, this is how I came back into the room and found our little Curious George! This is one of boxes left over from the ornaments and he's playing with a Lion King Musical snow globe that was given to me by one of my friends/sales clients at ASU Gammage. (We're going to see the performance on January 2nd.)

Sugar HIGH!!

Landon and I were invited to a Gingerbread decorating party again this year! It's part mess, part candy 'free-for-all'! But, it's ALL fun!

I added the frosting for him, at his request...this was the end result after he added all the candy!

Traci and I have been celebrating Christmas with the boys since she lived in my neighborhood. We met when I saw her and her husband walking a stroller with a blue blanket on top. I rushed up with my stroller and eagerly asked, "do you have a boy?! how old is he?!" The boys were less than a year old...but, we began our playdates the next week!

The rest is history!

Although, now she also has twin 7 month old twins. (They're shown in an earlier blog post.)

This was an attempt to get a decent picture with 2 pre-schoolers, with 2 pounds of candy, 2 cameras, and at least 30 pictures taken!!?!

Millions of Lights in Sedona

On our way home from the Polar Express we decided to go see the Red Rock Fantasy of Lights. Literally, MILLIONS of lights in 29 different themed displays! They're all displayed throughout the Los Abrigados Resort.

We met our friends Jen and Jason and their daughters Maggie and Elyse....

But, of course...it didn't take long for us to start acting like dorks! Carlos THOUGHT he was holding up the world...until I told him...it's just a hot air balloon!

Landon is in a Wall-E phase right now. Honestly, could that movie be MORE boring? But, not to him...he's got it all memorized. And even knows that cockroaches are indestructible! If you look on top of Wall-E's Santa hat you'll see the little roach!

This was a cute moment...we were all just taking it slow, walking around and enjoying the light. Then, we looked up and saw the picture below!!?!! Elyse and Landon were holding hands. We sat back and giggled under our breath and of course had to snap a picture!
As Landon calls this one, "Spush-bock Square Pants"...known to the rest of the world as "SpongeBob Square Pants"!

Brrrr....the Apple Cider had nothing on my mom's...but it did warm us up a little.

Nothing says MERRY CHRISTMAS than a Sundevil light display!! :) Gooooo devils!!

This Carousel is actually a HUGE water fountain...and in the winter they transform it into a giant light display.
Inside the resort a beautiful tree of poinsettias. And we actually got Landon to smile. A perfect end to a beautiful night!