Christmas Day

Christmas morning at the Hammer house brought lots of squeals and excitement!  Watching Grady and Vera see what Santa brought with utter elation brings back so many memories of Christmas mornings with my sisters when I was little!  They are so funny and get so very excited over everything in sight!  I love it and wouldn't trade seeing those sweet little faces/smiles for anything!

Some of Santa's gifts were wrapped and stamped with the North Pole seal, just like last year! 

We had Christmas Day lunch at Susan and Jon's house this year.  Will was so cute in his Christmas outfit!  I just love this kid so much!

 This was too funny not to get a picture of!  Guess having little kids simply wears a guy out!

We went to Grana and Pops' house for Christmas Night Supper and Grady and V. enjoyed getting to hang out with Samantha and Gavin as usual!

 

Hope yours was merry, too!  :)

Christmas Eve

This was the first Christmas Eve in my entire life that I have not been to Yazoo City and spent it with my parents and sisters.  Since Jenny and Eric were here earlier, we did not do our normal Fulton Family Christmas Eve thing...  Mom and I talked about it and it was kind of nice to have a little "break" between what we normally do on Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day's celebrations.  So anyway, I kind of enjoyed our quiet little day around the house...just the four of us!

 

We made cookies for Santa  (Disclaimer...I am definitely not Susan, nor can I even attempt to be.  Poor kids.  When Vera is a little older, maybe I can try a little more advancements in the cookie baking department, but for now, when you have a 4 year old who just wants to slap it on there, and a 1 year old who wants to eat everything in sight, you do slice-and-bakes...  well, not even that...it's more like "drop-the-cubes" HA!  Oh well, Santa eats anything, I hear!!!)

 And then we REALLY got fancy...we added red and green m&m's to the tops!  Whoo Hoo!

 Then we had to sprinkle our front and back lawns with reindeer food.  I have made this stuff every year since I began teaching...  but this year, I lucked up and one of Vera's little friends at school gave her some.  I didn't even have to make it!  Whoo hoo again!

 

 We wrote our letters to Santa.  So lovely that my son decided to change his list and ask for things I'd never heard him mention EVER wanting.  Hmmm...  Guess we are going to have to write those letters a little bit earlier next year and tell him that he has to stick to what he says.  ha.

Here they are putting out those fancy-shmancy cookies we made for St. Nick... 

 

"Cookie!  Eat?"
"No, Vera...those are for Santa.  You've already brushed your teeth."

...the stockings were hung by the chimney with care

in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there!

 More to come soon on Christmas Day fun!!!

Christmas In Yazoo

Jenny and Eric had to fly back to Idaho on Monday, so we had an early Christmas gathering on Sunday at Mom and Dad's house.  It was SO good to all be together for this special time.  We've come to realize that it really doesn't matter where we are or when we are celebrating, but just that we can all be together. 

 

Here's the attempted photo shoot with the three little ones after church...  Hard to get all three looking at the camera at the same time AND with a smile...

 This is the cutest little man I have ever seen!  He is SO sweet, despite what his mom and dad say about him!  Love this little grin!

 Grady LOVES Baby Will and is just so sweet to him!  They are going to be buddies!

 About to start opening presents... 

 DID SOMEBODY SAY WE CAN OPEN NOW??!!!??!?!?

 Little "mama" and her new baby and stroller from Jenny and Eric...

 After opening all of his gifts in three seconds flat, Grady proceeded to "help" everyone else with their gifts as well!  ha.

We gave Pete an MSU beach umbrella so that every Bulldog fan who passes him on the beach will stop to talk football with him/shout out "Hail State"/etc.  and make his day!  Of course when Grady and he opened it in the house, Uncle Jon warned us that that would be bad luck and we had to remind Uncle Jon that we are STATE FANS and that is just inevitable.  We don't need an umbrella to give us bad luck.  ha.

 Since Will couldn't open his gifts, V. and Grady were happy to help!

 Thanks Uncle Jon and Aunt Sue for helping put together the doll house...  Guess you won't be getting any of these at your house, huh?

 Playing "Pop the Pig"...

 Ahhhhh, MAAAAAAGIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Vera's best friend

These pictures melt my heart.  Grady has always loved Maggie.  But Vera is infatuated with her!  She wants to hug her constantly.  When we are at home, she calls Maggie on her pretend phone to talk to her.  When we are at Mom and Dad's, she follows her around everywhere.  Maggie is the absolute sweetest dog in the universe and doesn't mind one bit that V. is ALL OVER HER!  She is so patient with her and just sits there and lets her do whatever.  I have never seen a kid so taken with a dog!  Love it! Sweet Maggie is getting older and is slowing down SO much and I fear that we may not have much time left to spend with her!  LOVE these pictures!