The Elrod Update: December 2006

More Christmas Day Pictures

Matthew giving Uncle Phillip the present that he had bought for him at the school Holiday Store. It was a travel coffee mug for him to use in the plane.

Chris's mom (Meme) and the boys

Chris's best friend... aka "Uncle Dean"... and the boys. He brought Matthew a V-Cam Now (he can record 7 minute videos) and Grant a new bike:

Matthew with his new hiking stick

This was actually taken on Christmas Eve morning

My lil' pirate and his ship... the Black Pearl

You can't see it very well but, this is the hatchet that Uncle Phillip got Matthew

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Morning

When I was younger, I remember waking up early in the morning... okay, middle of the night... on Christmas day, going into my brother's room and waking my brother, Phillip. I'm sure I woke David Lee, too, but I don't remember him sneaking around with me and Phillip. We would come up the hall into the living room, take a peek at all the presents under the tree, go through our stockings and then put everything back in place just as it was. Couldn't have any tell-tale signs that we had been sneaking around, although I'm sure my parents knew. This year was the first year that there was sneaking around at our house. You would think that the older child would wake the younger and get him to go look under the tree. Nope... not here. About 3 AM in the morning, Matthew crawled in bed with us and told us that Grant had woke him and was in the living room. I got up and found Grant sitting in the dark in front of the tree with his new flashlight shining on the presents. He had woke up, came in the living room and scoped out everything, then went back and woke up Matthew. Matthew says that he didn't take a look around before coming and tattling on Grant but I'm not so sure about that. I put them back in bed and told them not to get up again until I woke them in the morning. I decided to sleep on the couch for the few hours left before dawn so that I could catch any little feet that might come back for a second peek. About 5:30, Matthew ran through the living room to our room. I got up and told him he had to wait until at least 6 o'clock. I reminded him that he and Grant could not come out of the room until they heard the Christmas music playing. That would be their cue that it was okay to come in the living room. You see, my mother did the same with me and my siblings. We had to wait in our rooms until we heard the Christmas music and then we knew we could rush down the hall and begin opening presents. This is the boys right after they heard the music:

The boys always look in their stockings before opening presents. Santa fills them with little treats, toys, and candy:

Then we move on to the presents. Santa's presents always come first because they are not wrapped. This year, Matthew got a new pellet gun and camouflaged wading boots from Santa. Grant got the Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl ship and a new camouflaged toy gun.

(sorry you have to tilt your head to see this... I thought I had corrected it in my photo program)

Next come the presents from Mommy & Daddy and others:

Uncle Phillip and Matthew

The Aftermath

We hope each of you had a great Christmas Day surrounded by friends, family, or both. May God bless you all in the New Year!!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

When we got home from the Elrod party it was time for the boys to go to bed so that Santa could be making his way to our house. First, though, we had to leave cookies and milk for Santa and Grant had to sprinkle the Reindeer Food in the driveway. We chose to leave Santa a variety of cookies including chocolate chip, candy cane, Kolacky, and Spritz. He also prefers 2% milk. ;) Here are the boys leaving the cookies:

The chocolate chip cookies were still baking in the oven at this point.

Here is Grant with his bag of Reindeer food and out in the driveway sprinkling it around:

Then it was time to climb into bed while visions of sugarplums (or presents!) danced in their heads:

Mommy stayed up really late so that she could take a picture of all the wonderful things that Santa left under the tree and in their stockings:

And so we slept and waited until Christmas morning...

Oops Again!

I'm still trying to figure out how to post several posts at once and have them end up in the right order. Again... scroll down and then read up.

Christmas Eve--Part 2

This year at the Elrod party we decided to play Dirty Santa. The girls each brought a girl's gift and the guys brought a guy's gift. We then drew numbers and either picked a new present out of the pile or "stole" a gift that had already been opened. I ended up "stealing" a $25 gift card to O'Charley's from my mother-in-law. That was lunch on Tuesday... Thanks, Susie!! :) Chris ended up with some little emergency kit items and Phillip got a meat grinder. We had a good laugh about that one... HA!!

Phillip and his meat grinder

Matthew bought Papaw a Nascar notepad set from the Holiday Store at school. He used his own money to buy gifts for several people this year. Here are Papaw and Matthew with his gift:

The rest of the pictures are just random pictures from the evening....

Me and my sister-in-law, Jessica

Jackie, Matthew, Chris and Grant

Susie, Jackie, Matthew, Chris, Me, and Grant (who was tired of having his picture taken... obvious?? heehee)

Christmas Eve

Since Christmas Eve day fell on a Sunday, we went to church together that morning as usual. We were joined by my brother, Phillip, who was visiting for the weekend. We took a few pictures that morning before church:

After church we ate lunch at Atlanta Bread Company and then came home to do a bit more baking. Phillip made another batch or two of Spritz cookies and I made sausage balls for our get together later that evening. About 4 o'clock we went to Chris's dad's house in Southaven (about 10 minutes away). Phillip came with us and fit right in with the rest of the gang. After munching on appetizers and then dinner, we let the 4 cousins open their presents. Mamaw handed out presents one at a time so that we could see what each kid got instead of just seeing a flurry of wrapping paper being tossed in the air.

L-R: Hagan, Matthew, Grant, & Austin

More on the rest of the evening in the next post...

Oops!

Somehow those posts wound up backwards! Start at the bottom and read up for the correct order! :)

Baking Christmas Goodies--The End

At the end of the day we had made 3 kinds of cookies, chocolate covered peanut butter patties, fudge, chocolate covered cherries, peppermint bark, Magic Cookie bars, chocolate covered pretzels, orange-nut balls, mint chocolate covered Oreos, truffles, Turtles, and pecan logs. Here are some of the things we made:

We had a long but fun day of baking, sampling and visiting. I can't wait until next year!!

Baking Christmas Goodies--The Middle

Mother always made Spritz cookies... and her mother always made them, too. They're a family favorite and we made plenty! Uncle Phillip pressed the cookies out into shapes and the boys decorated with lots of sprinkles.