christmas poem by abe

I Dreamed

by: abe tullis


I dreamed
I was a present
In Santa's hands
Waiting for him to drop me.

12 days of christmas

my dad has been doing the 12 days of christmas for my kids through the mail. my kids LOVE setting up his christmas village every year and so he has been sending a new village piece to them each day so they can create their own. boy have they had fun creating!!!

here's what we have so far:

somehow kai's soccer cake toppers (from his b-day cake) made it into the village.

a closer look....

someone getting hit by a bus....

the shoppers being held up....a defender blocking the holiday tractor hayride.

this is just what i found today. it changes daily!

thanks dad. i appreciate that you have tried to keep us connected through the holiday....amid the hustle and bustle it has reminded me how grateful i am for family and for the little things that make me laugh.

fancy candy

when kai has a daughter he told me he wants to name her Fancy Candy.

"then i can say, "no fancy candy for you, Fancy Candy."

thirteen years

dave...happy 13th wedding anniversary.

we really do make a good team.

I LOVE YOU!

more.

ps...i loved the midnight chocolates and rocks. better than mexico. thank you.

crazy fun!

dave's parents, sister and two kids came for our very full, fun weekend. we loved having them here and felt especially grateful that they made time to come right before christmas. they came to watch sadie and abe perform in the Nutcracker (and i did not take one picture!) it was such a positive thing for sadie and abe to be involved in and a really fun show. it made it much more special having family here for the occasion.
we also went to phoenix, watched abe play two soccer games, then rushed back for his last performance. abe played well then changed into his costume in the car on the way back to flagstaff, danced his little heart out...and by the end of it all was exhausted!we made a gingerbread house and exchanged christmas cousin gifts-- and played and played.

what a crazy full, fun weekend.

shoes

this post is not about the red shoes some man helped a child buy a mom for christmas....nope.

but these also caused me to tear up.
these are the shoes that abe's teacher told him he was not allowed to wear to school...ever again :)

what kind of a mom makes their child wear these shoes?? honestly, i bought these shoes three months ago and i didn't realize the holes were THAT big... he is a pretty active kid.

i am thankful for...

BINGO...

and BLACK-OUT!

every thanksgiving my parents play bingo with the grand kids. this is completely their kind of fun and a great tradition. even the teenagers love to earn christmas money through bingo and are good sports, well, slightly sarcastic sports. when someone gets bingo they pick one of my mom's hands from behind her back, one holding a chocolate dollar and one a real dollar. kai looked forward to bingo for weeks. he loves the numbers, the competition, cousins, the candy, the money, and mostly the grand prize for black-out. i am grateful i have an honest mom...except when it comes to bingo. i'm pretty sure she "helped" the last two years so kai would end up winning the black-out prize. he was thrilled!