We enjoyed the Christmas season with Leo before they left. Right after Thanksgiving was over, I started putting up a few Christmas decorations. On Dec. 3, we bought our Christmas tree and set it up a few days later. I'll never forget Leo coming home from school one day, and seeing the tree all lit up and him exclaiming, "That is so beautiful!" We also enjoyed looking at the houses that started decorating for Christmas. Fortunately, we had a house just two houses away with new neighbors who went all out for Christmas. Their house was so much fun to walk to and admire. One night we took Leo to see an especially decorated area of houses near to us. I let Guillermo and him off to walk around the cul-de-sac so Leo could see the lights better. I drove around and around until they were ready to get back in the car.
This was our tree
And our house all decorated outside.
And our house all decorated outside.
Christmas will still be going on for us because we will celebrate Christmas with them when they come back from Sweden. We have already taken out the real tree and put away most of the decorations. But we kept out one small little tree, the Christmas village is still up and we'll be ready for our after-Christmas Christmas celebration!
Meanwhile, after Fernando left, Guillermo and I drove to Tucson to spend Christmas with Rebeca and family! We left on the 19th and got there on the 20th.
When we were saying goodbye to Leo as they were leaving for the airport, he was in Abuelito's arms and one of the things he said was, "Don't forget to take Scotty's Christmas present". And then, in case we weren't understanding what he was saying, he walked over to the Christmas tree and picked up Scotty's present which he had wrapped and placed under there. He handed the present to Abuelito and said, "Here". We just thought that was so touching. So, here we are driving to Tucson and here's the present safely in the car.
And then safely under Scotty's Christmas tree.
Here are some things we did with Scotty before Christmas.
Made a ramshackle gingerbread house - but we sure had fun making it!
Visited a nursery to buy Christmas fairy garden items.
Amazing truck all decked out with lights in the Walmart parking lot. The guy who owned it said, "you should see it at night!"
Another day we took Scotty to the zoo and he wanted a picture taken with every single inflatable they had set up!
We always stop and sit on "Nana's Bench"/
Having fun on a turtle shell play structure.
"Take a picture of me hatching out of the blue egg!"
After the zoo we took a walk around the lake and then a picture of Scotty with this peacock sculpture.
Then it was time to celebrate Scotty's birthday on the 23rd.
He had a dinosaur-themed party. Here Guillermo and Rebeca are getting a volcano ready to erupt.
Then it was time to celebrate Scotty's birthday on the 23rd.
He had a dinosaur-themed party. Here Guillermo and Rebeca are getting a volcano ready to erupt.
Scotty riding his new birthday bike!
And trying out his new birthday trampoline!
We went back and forth before driving to Tucson about whether we should make the trip again. We had just come back from Tucson only about a month and a half before. But we really wanted to be there for Scotty's 5th birthday. We had thought we'd leave the day after his birthday so that Jason and Rebeca could have Christmas morning as a family with Scotty. But they convinced us that they wanted us there on Christmas. We are so grateful to them for that. Because as it turns out, getting to experience Christmas again through the eyes of a 5 year old was priceless. How we loved the sneaking around - whether it was shopping for gifts or wrapping presents with Scotty for Abuelito or Nana or Mommy or Daddy. Making cookies and decorating the gingerbread house and looking at Christmas lights on people's houses and getting caught up in the rush at the mall and having people over - - the whole thing was so much fun. Ha-ha, and I remember how parenting is SO much easier in the month of December! Thanks so much to Rebeca and Jason for letting us be a part of their Christmas and all the magic and wonder that came with it.
Here is a picture of Guillermo's brother and sisters who came over for Christmas Eve.
Cookies that Scotty decorated all by himself!
Ready for Christmas morning!
After a wonderful morning of unwrapping gifts, we left at noon headed back home. We stopped in El Paso and during the night it rained and got much colder. The next day we caught up with the leading edge of that storm somewhere around Fort Stockton. That storm had the most amazing cloud formations and they sure were dark. I'll never forget when we got past the storm and could see how menacing it looked in the rear view mirror. Then we noticed on the other side of the road a motorcycle rider pulling over to the side of the road. That storm was probably giving him a real cause for concern with how it was looking. We thought about him a few times later that day. Did he go on into it? Did he turn around and decide to ride it out at a rest area? Hopefully he did the latter because the winds and rain in the storm were very strong and went on for many many miles!
I don't remember where this picture was taken. For sure it was after Fort Stockton but close to the leading edge of the storm.
We experienced the storm again for the third time in San Antonio that night.
