The Days After Christmas......

 Summer enjoyed her Christmas in Puerto Rico with Sabrina and Rayne!
I love the photos she sent to me!

And I love this sweet Rayne-Roo!!!

Isn't this just the most precious picture?

They have all had so much fun.

Christmas photos with Santa look a little different this year!

I love this one!! (And the other one, too!)

Very clever!

These happy faces make my heart sing!

Summer will be staying on in Puerto Rico for anothe month or two and I am just thrilled for her!

Here's Chandy and her Bella on Christmas morning in Snyder, Texas!

We did not get to make a December visit as we had planned but Chandy is so good to send us pics and texts and keep us in the loop.

I wish everyone could meet Chandy! 

She is the most fun and charming young lady and she will make you laugh and smile.

I love her voice!

When she sends videos to us, she doesn't realize that sometimes my favorite part is just hearing her chuckle as she's filming.

Louis Dean was determined to finish the new deck in time for my Christmas present - and he did!

In the days after Christmas, I set about putting the house back to rights and he put the steps in since the new deck is slightly higher than the old one....due to the height of the sump pump underneath  it!

We all know what a fan Louis Dean is of Gorilla Glue.

Can you spot the drips where he added some on the steps??

Fortunately, once it's dried you can chip that excess right off.

Not that he's done that yet! 

I took myself to Home Depot on Sunday afternoon to get some pansies to pretty it all up.

Turns out they had after Christmas LIGHTS on sale!!!

YES!

I bought up enough to last me all 2021 with half of them being LED!!

On Saturday afternoon, I had hit up a few stores looking for after Christmas sales.

I have been wanting a red spread for our bedroom and I found this one at Tuesday Morning for just $17! I'm going to use it through the month of February. It's just so cheery!

I also found a pair of nice looking comfy - or fairly comfy - shoes.

Since my toe surgeries, I have not been able to wear pretty shoes.

Both of my big toes are made of titanium and my right toe is forever popped up a bit so that makes finding shoes that are pretty AND comfortable next to impossible.

I wore these when I went shopping on Sunday and discovered they are not comfortable for very long!

But I can wear them to church and that makes me happy.

I really miss wearing pretty shoes.

I made a meal of Chinese stirfry using Amber's recipe for Sunday night supper and Louis Dean gave it a thumbs up. Can you tell he's been spray painting??

I just love this pretty picture of Samantha in the Christmas tree!

By Monday night (the 28th) I had the house all cleaned up and was ready to welcome the Bell Squad on Tuesday afternoon! Amber brought them over around 3:00 and they stayed with us until 8:00 on New Year's Eve. We had the best time!!

I had the appetizer table all ready for when they arrived!

 Cheese and crackers, olives and veggie bars.

They nibbled on that while the Texas shaped chicken tenders and a tray of oven roasted veggies baked.

They had a late breakfast so this was their late lunch!

Right after the dishes were done, we loaded up in the car and drove over to Kimmy and June's to deliver some pinto beans and some other goodies.

This was a memorable occasion!

It was THE very first time EVER that I had all four of them in my car at the same time.

8 years old and in the third grade and finally out of their car seats!

We were all so excited!

We visited Kimmy and June from afar with our masks on.

They have a green porchlight so that's why we are a bit 'green!'

While they all took showers (and I can't believe how self sufficient they are!) I made Rice Pilaf with shredded rotisserie chicken for our supper.

We carried our bowls into the den and ate while we watched one of my favorite movies!

I just love this one. We were all having a pleasant evening when Kailey came back from taking her bowl to the kitchen to tell us the cats were outside!

They are such curious little critters!!!

This was a pic I took of them on Saturday and, oh, how they love to look outside.

Was it any wonder they grabbed the chance to actually BE outside!!

The back French doors had not closed well enough so they escaped.

Kailey quickly captured Samantha but that Tabitha gave me a run for my money!

We were all spread out in the back yard - which is a big jumble of debris - and none of us could get her!

I finally sent all the kids in the house and then I stayed out by the gazebo to see if she would come back. By this time Louis Dean had come out - even though he says he will NOT chase cats!!

And he didn't. He just sat in the gazebo and, sure enough, Tabitha sashayed along in front of him.

Still, she would not be caught. It was starting to drizzle by this time and I was really tired!

I was finally able to get ahold of her when she got distracted chasing a moth.

We were all worn out now so we turned the movie off and said we would finish it the next day!

9:00 and everyone went to bed - except Louis Dean and he stayed up watching Gunsmokes.

By 10:00 the girls were asleep in the guest room and I had showered and was going to bed myself!

As it turns out, Harrison likes to sleep in the big chaise chair in the living room.

He could hear the TV so he slipped on into the den and watched back to back episodes of Gunsmoke with his granddad. Perfect!

Harrison was still asleep when the girls and I were getting our coffee.

A little coffee and a lot of milk.....and some Hershey's chocolate syrup.

Louis Dean and I read the Bible together every morning and, in honor of the quads being here, instead of reading in Ezekial, I chose Proverbs 30. As in the 30th of December. Then we all read aloud from a Christmas book....each child choosing one from my collection.

One of the activities they did that morning was gather up all the Christmas cards we've received this year, count them and then separate them according to theme. They had a stack of Santas, of nativity scenes, of angels, family photo ones, and such. We received more family photo cards than any other. Next was the red cardinal or dove. I forget what came in third - I think it was the nativity scene.

I have them all in a bag placed in my Bible basket. Each morning I take the card in front and we read it out loud and pray for the one who sent it. Then I turn it right side out and place it in the back. We received nearly 100 cards so each sender will be prayed for at least three times this year.

The kids entertain themselves very well!!

I just put out some oranges and a tin of cloves and they did the rest.

Logan made 2021 on her orange.

Trystan put her initials on one and Kailey made a pretty design.

The kids had a good time Wednesday.

Once again, we all piled in the car and made a run to Tom Thumb for tea party things for the next day.

It was a tradition for me to leave snacks out for them in the mornings when they spend the night.

I didn't  think I had snackies they would like so I didn't leave anything out for them - and they noticed that! First, they said, "Meemaw, I'm sorry you had a bad night."

?????

They thought I had not felt well or that they had not been good was why I hadn't left them with special snacks.

When I explained that I didn't have anything to put out - Kailey immediately flung open the pantry door and proceeded to point out a box of vanilla wafers, a package of shortbread cookies, and then suggested I could use those for the next morning! I also had pretzels and Texas Trash!

It touched my heart that they do not want to give up any of the little rituals we have developed over the years. So, YES! We made a run at the grocery store!

The cats got out another THREE times that day and I was so happy to get them inside their kennels Wednesday night! All the late nights of Christmas week had caught up with us and, again, the girls and I were all in bed by 9:00 and sleep by 10:00. Except for Harrison, but I wouldn't dream of preventing him from spending some extra stolen hours with his granddad!

Before I went sound asleep, I got up and set out a box of donuts - three different kinds - along with some fancy things I had bought and a note to find yogurt cups in the fridge.

I woke up to some happy campers on New Year's Eve morning!!

And it was a COLD one, too!!!

Since the girls get such a kick out of having coffee with me - I decided to take it up a notch with frothed milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar!

I had the fire laid and ready to light!

The temps were to drop steadily throughout the day and they did!

Amber nor Mike drink coffee and I heard the kids say, "We are going to miss our caffeine! It really helps us wake up!!" I seriously doubt there's enough caffeine in their greatly diluted cup of 'coffee' but it was fun to hear them talk!

Harrison doesn't like coffee but he's a big fan of chocolate milk!

After reading Proverbs 31 - and this time we passed the Bible and we would each read two verses, pass the Bible to the next person and keep going around - it was time for our outloud reading.

Logan had read half of A Child's Christmas at St. Nicolas Circle so she finished the second half.

It's a beautiful book featuring the paintings of Thomas Kinkade.

Kailey read some more of The Christmas House which describes the different rooms and people in the house. Trystan and Harrison both read from a collection of Christmas poems. 

Then it was Granddad's turn!

Louis Dean reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas was so precious.

It is his favorite!

When he was a school teacher, he put on plays based on this book.

He knows it by heart and he is quick to point out that his plays were done long before the book gained such fame and movies and TV specials were made from it.

I love it!!!

Now it is New Year's Eve afternoon and the kids will be going home that evening.

So - it's time for a Tea Party!

I had thought they might have outgrown them but they assured me they have not!

They even hunted for the Tea Party Game we used to play where you would spin the needle and try to collect all the things required for a good tea party!

Napkins, plate, cups and saucers, tea cakes, tea cookies, tea sandwiches, fruit, and utensils.

Sadly, I really did believe they had outgrown that one. It was designed for three year olds and up.

I didn't realize how far UP they would go!! 

So we prepared for our High Tea - with it serving the purpose for lunch as well.

Harrison had the idea to dip pretzels and strawberries in white chocolate.

Another successful tea party!

They asked me how long we have been doing them and it's been just about all their life!

They were 18 months old when I did the very first one - if they were that old.

This is from 2014 when they were two years old and I know we started before that!

Harrison did a great job with these and they took what they didn't eat home with them.

Making more tea party memories!

Our last activity was making masks.

This is our reality so we sorted through the fabrics and each girl made one.

Logan and Trystan both used the same design.

There was one last Chase Tabitha adventure!

She escaped for a total of six times!!

Our time together simply went by way too fast.

A mere 53  hours but they were chock full of all kinds of wonderful moments.

Then, just like that, the house was quiet and we were alone.

I prowled through the rooms looking for items they may have left behind and only came up with one face masks that was under a chair.

They are really growing up!