Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We got home late last night from our trip to TX to see our families.

We went to my family first in Kilgore. The first day my Grandpa was able to check out of rehab for the day to come over. He recently broke his hip and was in rehab for that. He is doing great though! We also got to see all of our nieces and nephews since my sisters Katherine and Kristina were there with their families. It was so nice to all be back together!

We had a Christmas on Sunday since Michael and I wouldn't be there on Christmas Day. We had a great time exchanging gifts followed by a yummy meal! It was so wonderful to just spend time together talking, laughing, playing games, and eating. ;) My mom is doing great. She's had two chemo sessions now and continues to have a great attitude through it all - she is definitely an inspiration to us all! My dad and Michael also had boy time where the tinkered with stuff in the shop, split some wood, etc. Two peas in a pod! :) It was also fun to just spend time playing with the kids. They're at such fun ages. We played hide and go seek, swung on the swing set, played babies (where I was given the role of Grandma/Grocery Store Cashier. And it's fun that Grace & Annie are really girly now - I was putting on my makeup before church and they climbed up on the bed with me wanting to help and wanting to know how in the world an eyelash curler works.          I also had 3 little helpers when it came time to making my Christmas cookies.  I try to do fun Aunt stuff like sneak them some sips of my 7-up but to my surprise they all 3 turned around and yelled "Hey MOMMY!  Aunt Kyla gave me some of her sprite!!!!!!!!!"     Tattle tales.    hahaha

Sunday night, us girls headed to Palestine with the kids for the Polar Express train!   It's modeled after the book and movie.   The TX State Railroad train picks you up and takes you on a 30 min train ride to the "North Pole" where Santa boards the train.   They serve all the kids hot chocolate and cookies while they read the story...it's just too cute.   All the kids wear their pajamas - we had a blast!

Tuesday, we headed to Temple to spend the rest of the week with Michael's family. We ran some last minute shopping errands and ending up seeing a few relatives and one of Michael's friends that is back home from Australia. I've come to realize Temple is a very small world! :) Michael got to go to the pecan orchard with his dad to help with a few things and then Faith made some homemade kolaches while I cracked pecans all day so that we could bring some home with us. (it's pecan harvest time in the Zajicek household!)

We went to Christmas Eve mass since our nephew Micah was playing one of the shephards. Then we went to dinner at this restaurant on the lake, followed by Christmas light viewing. We even saw some snow flurries that day - so we considered that our white Christmas.

We had our Christmas with Michael's family on Saturday. It was great to see his grandparents as well as the rest of hte fmaily and our 3 nephews. We gave Micah a Bakugan toy that he wanted, so he explained it all to me. I tried my best to listen to what he was saying but I got caught up in admiring just how excited a cute little blonde haired 7 year old can get over a little magnetic ball that flaps open into a creepy creature.

We finally made it home at 1am last night. We were 1 1/2 hours late due to 2 delayed flights, but luckily we made it safe. Enjoy Christmas pics!

Me and Mom!

The girls and me with Grandpa (the strap is used in his rehab treatment to help him learn how to walk with his walker)

Christmas gifts!

Here comes the "Polar Express"

Arriving at the "North Pole" - they were so excited! That's where Santa got on board the train.

Fun times on the train

The kids with Santa!

Michael cracking pecans

Ready for Mass on Christmas Eve

Noah, me, Michael, Micah and Kristopher

Michael's parents with Gma/Gpa Springer

Hanging out with the family

Our new 11.2 inches of snow we came back to!