Ten Days of Christmas

 I started the ten days of Christmas when Katie and Lolo were quite little. The ten days starts on my birthday and ends on Christmas Eve. I bought the girls ten gifts. They open one each day (in theory) and when the last one is opened they know that the next day is Christmas!

I started this tradition, partly in remembering when I was young and Gramma and Grampa Brown would send a box of small wrapped gifts from Florida. We would get to pick one each day and then open the rest on Christmas. I remembered how thrilled I was to get to open some early. How exciting it was to pick one out of the box hoping it was something good. I was always thrilled no matter what it was.

When my girls came along, Kathryn picked up this tradition and sends them the ten days.

Eva's Holiday Party at School.

 PJ's, hot chocolate, and The Polar Express...

Sounds like a great party to me!

 This is my Happy Birthday board from my class!

Misc. Christmas...

 Eva's school holiday party outfit!

 Picking out a Christmas Tree... Katie had a ball!

She grew up as an artificial tree kid.

Christmas Card picture.

Texas Sky

 The wonders of the Texas sky are well documented

in word and song.   However, sometimes I am still

taken in by it's beauty.  I shot these while driving

 home.  They do not do it justice.  It was breathtaking.

El's School "How-To Video Project"

 El had a school assignment to create a How-To Video.

She did a how to video on how to make Golden Velvet Cupcakes.

(yes... something went wrong and red velvet never materialized)

 These are some of the final attempts... it was getting late!

Christmas at Sea World

 Eva, El, Katie and I went to Sea World for the Christmas Shows.

Some shows are the same and some change for Christmas.

 The decorations are so fun!

 As you can see, we took several pictures!

 Winter Wonderland!

 A very Texas tree.

 Rides!  Eva rode this about 8 times... El was a good sport:)

Eva sings along and feeds the Dolphins!

Christmas is Coming...

In the mall one day I passed 

Build-A-Bear and saw Rudolph 

and Clarise!  I could not resist!

 I purchased them and took 

them home.  On this one day shy

of December, I took the girls to 

stuff their new friends.  Eva and El

had a great time... almost as much

fun as I had:)

p.s. all pictures were taken with my new iPhone 5!

iPhone 5

The time has come.  

I finally bought a smart phone.

It was time... my dumb phone 

was becoming a dinosaur, my contract 

was up.  Time to move to better service 

and a 21st century phone.  

El couldn't be happier!

Her service is with me so...

she gets an iPhone 5 too.

She has earned it.  Great girl,

wonderful sister, excellent student,

kind and loyal friend, extraordinary daughter!

Enjoy!

And the Hoidays are Here... Happy Thanksgiving!

 Thanksgiving is here!

Pocahontas tries a little treat! 

Such a beautiful day we had dinner by the pool...

It was perfect!

 Eva and Jimmy play poolside.

Cooking, nibbling, drinking, and goofing around...

 Delicious!

What a lovely afternoon.

After dinner these four are off to the UT game!

El took my ticket as she was still a bit jealous that

Eva had been to a game but she had not.

With this group... she came home with some

very interesting stories!

Vegetarian Turkey

(cake)

Eva is ready for the Holidays!

It did not take long after Halloween for 

Eva to decide it is time for the holidays!

 She came down decked out in red and white!

(and freckled)

Halloween Part Two

Katie is Rita Skeeter, El is Katniss Everdeen, and 

Eva is a Pygmy Puff!

This is the Harry Potter group...

 I am Ginny Weasley and Lelly is Dobby!

 A little spell work before we're off to 

collect our candy!

 Park here Gramma Pat!

 Katniss needs to earn her way to the candy!