Christmas at the Tractor's

My family up and flew to the Bible Conference in Burbank, CA this year. We decided to stay home. The memory of a violent stomach flu was still pressed firmly into our minds. So, the week before Christmas the kids and I packed up and spent a night and a couple of days back in Gig Harbor. We wanted to exchange Christmas gifts with Grandpa and Grandma before they left...but also, we had to vacate the house because...wait for it...there were guys coming to put texture on the walls! Yes! All the wallpaper is down--even the painted over stuff(thanks to Tadd, not me). And now the non-textured walls have texture. We wanted it done before Tadd had time off for Christmas and New Year's so that he could use some of those days to paint the drywall primer over the texture. We also have started painting the ceilings. The whole house basically "needs" to be painted. It's not a true need, really just our preference. As soon as we can get the ceilings done and the primer on we can move on to the hardest task--choosing colors. The kids rooms are our first target. We'd like to get them officially moved into their own rooms. But, back to Christmas at the Tractor's... Here is Ezra opening a package of Legos. Between his birthday and Christmas he has amassed quite the collection of Legos. I'm pretty excited about that. It brings back many childhood memories for me. Also, it really keeps him busy for long periods of time. And they are creative and spatial. We are going to try to make Legos a toy for only in his room so that Nora isn't always choking on them. Not that anything ever stays where it is supposed to around here.
What did Caroline get???? Ah! An Easy Bake Oven. And excited doesn't even begin to describe her feelings.

As per typical of a 10-monther, Nora needed nothing more than a fun ribbon to make her Christmas a dream come true. But, there was a gift under that ribbon.
Grandpa and Grandma opened their gifts too..
And Nora found her Baby Glow Worm.
Grandpa put on a pretty good show of being surprised by his tie picked out by the kids. The surprise was somewhat ruined when Caroline started handing out wrapped gifts and said "And here's your tie, Grandpa."
Little Missy also got this swim suit.

Those are some happy kids.
We had to break out the Easy Bake Oven right away, of course. Uncle Brett set to work putting together the Legos--he's very good at that in case anyone else needs a Lego-assembler.
Each cookie took 10 minutes to bake and 10 minutes in the "cooling chamber" before she could decorate them with frosting and bright pink sprinkles.
She was very patient and sat their for the whole batch of 4 cookies. She was also generous, giving away the first cookie to Ezra and the 3rd and 4th to Grandpa and Uncle Brett.

Thanks for a fun Christmas Grandpa and Grandma Tractor. Their gift to Tadd and I will be posted about later. It's super exciting. Even more so than Legos or even an Easy Bake Oven : )