Up on the Housetop Reindeer Pause

Out jumps dear old Santa Claus
Down through the chimney with lots of toys
All for the little ones' Christmas joy

Christmas joy is the best joy! After scarfing our Christmas pizza and getting exhausted Annie off to bed, Chance and Cade took their annual drive around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights one last time. Once again, they saw Rudolph's nose glowing in the sky!! Cade had already written his letter to Santa, so we got it set out with the treats for Santa and his reindeer and elves.



We also got a picture of Cade with his tree that he decorated all by himself.

Check out December blog posts starting in 2011 to see how much Cade has grown next to his tree!

And yes, Santa managed to get down our chimney and make it all the way to the tree in the dining room.



The best kids in the world slept till 6:00 Christmas morning and even let me take 2 pictures before they ripped into the gifts.



Cade got a box of Pokemon cards, a Ninja Turtle figurine, and some custom Nike shoes.



Annie got a flashight, an Olaf book, and some play food for her baby.



We all enjoyed a delicious pancake breakfast cooked by Daddy and fun time playing outside with Cade's new bow and arrow from Nana and Papa and Annie's new bubbles from Oma and Opa. What a beautiful Christmas day!



Happy Christmas to all!

Joy, Unspeakable Joy

If you haven't heard the version of Joy to the World by Chris Tomlin, you should listen to it! It is a contemporary version of the song, and ends with a verse about unspeakable joy. This is how we ended our Christmas Eve service and it was the most perfect hymn for the time.

As the service began, we were all dressed in our Christmas finest, hoping for a wonderful time of worship as a family, but expecting less. We drove back to College Station that day from Dallas, and Annie was so excited to be home that she refused to take a nap in the afternoon. So, she was in "top form" when we arrived at church just before 5:00. She was noisy, wiggly, and ended up actually asking to play in the nursery instead of being forced to be still and quiet with us. I was so disappointed... I had wanted us to all be together and for the kids to color cute Christmas pictures while sitting like angels during the sermon. So, I will admit that I got in quite a funk about things not going as I planned. We picked up Annie in time for Communion and then started my favorite part of our service - the lighting of the candles while we sang Christmas hymns. Annie was still being really noisy, but I noticed something... so were all of the other toddlers. And all of the parents just exchanged sympathetic glances instead of getting frustrated. And I also remembered our little buddy Carson, who was celebrating his first Christmas in heaven, and I thought about how I wouldn't care how loud he was if we could just have him with us at church one more time, and how my feelings about Carson are nothing compared to how much his parents must miss him. Then, as we sang Silent Night and Chance was ushering and lighting candles with his big one, I was overcome with another memory - my Opa serving as an usher at our church in New Braunfels and lighting our candles at a Christmas Eve service. My worry over Annie's behavior was replaced with thankfulness for the years we had with Opa and the fact that my husband now serves in the same role that he did. As our candles were lit (and Annie's safe battery powered one turned on), we sang our last song, which was Unspeakable Joy. Everyone raised their candles high, and Cade's face was filled with joy because he was lucky enough to hold 2 candles (mine and his, because who knows what would have happened if I held one while holding Annie). Annie was fascinated with her light, and Chance joined us after making sure everyone around us had functioning candles. Like a child, I honestly thought at that moment that our candles were high enough and bright enough to be seen by everyone that we love in heaven, including Jesus and God. We truly experienced Unspeakable Joy!

After the service, everyone's moods were good enough for a couple of pictures! Some friends from church stuck around to take our picture and even turned the stage lights back on for us.



I love that Annie is so intrigued by her big brother that she looks at him instead of the camera. I also love the fact that she had stopped screaming.

Our pictures took long enough that the tasty dinner we had planned turned into picking up Little Ceasars pizza. Oops. I do think a Christmas memory was made though!

"Joy, unspeakable joy
An overflowing well, no tongue can tell.
Joy, unspeakable joy
Rises in my soul, never lets me go"

There's Something About Christmas Time

... makes you wish it was Christmas every day...

Our next Christmas destination was Dallas, with even more cousin and sibling fun! On the way, Annie watched her first movie in the car - Frozen! She loves Olaf, so we thought we would see if the movie would keep her entertained in the moving torture chamber that she usually finds the car or truck. As long as there was a song playing, she was pretty happy and it was wonderful! When the movie was over, both kids were pretty restless, so we happened to find a fancy rest stop that had a playground! Yay for our tax dollars being put to good use!



When we got to Papaw and Melly's house, the kids got busy checking out all of the fun things to do at their house before everyone else arrived. "Big Red" has been in the Locklear family since Chance and Sheri were little, and the youngest grandchild now likes to ride him. Annie also loved reading Christmas stories with Melly, going on a wagon ride with Snow, and playing with all of the musical toys.



Don't worry, Cade was there too... he was just so anxious waiting for Xavier to arrive that he pretty much just sat by the front door waiting on his beloved cousin (who he hadn't seen since 8:30 that morning).
Everything ran a little late that day, so Annie actually opened her gifts before anyone else so she could get to bed on time. She got a book about Tails (that Sheri and Bob could still recite from memory!) and a nativity scene.



Once everything was there, the cousins did a quick "Happy" dance around the house in their Minion shirts. It is harder to find matching PJs for everyone these days, so the Minion theme had to work!



It was FINALLY time for the kids to open their gifts. They all received more than enough, and the Nerf guns for the boys were the most popular gift with the males of all ages. Cade's glowing football was pretty entertaining too!



The next morning, after a huge and tasty breakfast at the Original Pancake House, we went to Jump Street (a trampoline park) for 2 hours of extreme fun! This place was awesome! Chance and I jumped with the kids and it was quite the workout! It was impossible to get a good pic of kids jumping with my phone (but I have about 20 images of child-shaped blurs), so you will just have to believe that the kids had a great time. Here are the sweaty girls!



We rested and cleaned up for our annual Christmas dinner at La Hacienda. I cannot believe that we failed to take a group picture there! But we were able to get a few of small groups before we left the house. Annie's new pink coat is bigger than she is, but she sure loves to wear it!



We all missed Aunt Lindsay and Uncle CJ so much, but sent them tons of videos and pictures of our adventures. The Locklear siblings always have a good time and it is a joy to be part of the family.

Angels We Have Heard on High

Hearing cousins together isn't always angelic, but it is always special to have the whole family together! Our first Christmas celebration was in Bryan with the Akdison/Locklear/Kunovich clan. Zoe, Xavier, Cade, and Annie had a wonderful time playing together and the grown ups had fun chatting and hanging out too. Of course, the kids simply could not wait for the presents! Nana got them all settled down for a reading of "The Littlest Angel", and then they got to dive into their goodies. It was super fun to see all of their smiles!



While Annie had her nap, everyone else was nice enough to do some quiet activities. Cade and Xavier built one of Xavier's lego kits with Aunt Sheri's help, Zoe researched kittens online, and Nana, Chance, Bob, and Papa played dominoes, just like the old times. Cade even joined in a little and seems interested in learning how to play 42.



The next day everyone came over to our house for some trampoline fun and pizza!



Our first Christmas of 2014 was very merry!

Let There Be Peace on Earth

A karate graduation ceremony isn't the most peaceful place on Earth, but the instructors do teach the students not to practice their martial arts on their family members or pets, so at least it is a start!

On December 19, Cade graduated to the next level of camo belt in Tae Kwon Do. He really enjoys sparring in class and is doing very well with learning the forms. This graduation was a little different (longer) than most because one of the Masters came to observe/judge the students and instructors. It was fun getting to see the demo team show off their routine and see the students demonstrate everything they've been learning in class. However, did I mention that it was very loooong? Annie was pretty good considering the fact that she was extremely hungry and tired. We were so excited to have Cade's biggest cheering section ever: Mama, Daddy, Annie, Oma, Nana, Papa, Aunt Sheri, Uncle Bob, Zoe, and Xavier were all there! Unfortunately, I did not take a single picture of the crowd :( I was on the floor to watch Cade do a combo on the bags and spar, and we were all so proud of him!



We celebrated with dinner at Whataburger (Cade's choice!) and then got ready for our first Christmas celebration!

And Mom and Dad Can Hardly Wait for School to Start Again

No, we do not feel this way (yet... we have finished day 4 of the break!), I am sticking with my Christmas song quote/title theme for blog posts no matter what!

Both of the kids' schools have such fun holiday events! We didn't have any formal Christmas programs to attend this year, but the theme days and parties were super fun! Annie's school had 2 pajama days during December and the kids and teachers were all so precious and comfy! They had silly glasses for the kids to wear and Annie's teachers were amazed that she was so amused by trying everything on.



1st grade at GPE had a Grinch theme for their Christmas party. I was somehow tasked with making Grinch cupcakes. They sure were cute at home:



They did not survive the drive to school. I felt like I belonged on a pinterest-fail site! But the kids didn't seem to mind and they enjoyed ALL of the sugary treats at their party, including the M&Ms that were their bingo pieces for Grinch bingo!



Since both Cade and Annie are incredibly blessed with fun friends and loving teachers at their schools, we really enjoy putting together little gifts for everyone at Christmas. I definitely should not have put EVERYTHING together in one night, so I was especially thankful for help from Chance and Cade! Chance wrapped all of the paper around the juice boxes, and Cade divided the M&Ms for his friends and sorted the snacks for his teachers. In the end, we had 12 snowman juice boxes, 21 bags of elf poop, 17 teacher/staff gifts, and 1 exhausted Mama. Smiles from everyone the next day made the short night completely worth it!



This doesn't exactly fit with this post, but I wanted to also share some work fun from TAMU. I went to a conference in Galveston a few weeks ago to give 2 presentations, and my friend Beth and I really enjoyed our "vacation" together! We were unexpectedly upgraded to an executive suite at our hotel and had fun at the conference.



I also hosted our women's Christmas party last week! This gathering has been taking place since the 70s, and it is always tons of noisy fun! We had 20 ladies at our house, and Chance even braved the estrogen to take our group picture. Several of the women in attendance were our professors in college!