Papo's Golf Cart

Since Lola and Papo live on the golf course at Sonterra, they have a golf cart that Papo takes me on whenever I'm in San Antonio. With all the grandkids in town, he took Reese, JP, and me around the course (after it closed, of course . . . ) and let us play at some of the stops. I'm not sure what he's going to do when Joseph and my baby sister are old enough to want to go with us; I guess they'll have to widen their garage and get another cart. That's what any loving grandparent would do.

At dusk everyday there are herds of deer that come out and graze on the south course. Daddy said that he saw around 75 of them and several of them were 10-point bucks. Good thing he didn't have his deer rifle with him.

Family Reunion

After Christmas (but during the "marathon") Nona's two sisters and their families came to Kyleigh and Mikinley's house in Colleyville for a reunion which we haven't had in several years. Actually, I had only met one of them previous to this day. Nona's older sister, Ann and her husband (James) came from Tyler. Their daughters Stacey (from Tyler) and Kristie (from Athens- no, not Greece) drove in with their families as well. Nona's younger sister, Debbie, traveled all the way Oregon and her son, Robert (from Tyler), came with his wife and four kids. It was great meeting everyone even though I can't recall all my "new" cousin's names. But since they're all much older/bigger than me, I do remember that none of them needed a mid-afternoon nap like me (although I decided to play in bed instead of sleep this time).

The whole clan

The Hoges

Christmas Marathon

Since we spent Christmas in San Antonio with Lola and Papo this year, we had an extended holiday season. On Monday the 22nd, the night before we left, I opened up my presents from my folks. Daddy thought that was strange but Mommy didn't want to have to travel with all my gifts down there and then bring them back home. She's a lot smarter than him (so she says).

On Wednesday the 24th, we went to the Petroff's Christmas Eve party which Mommy had been attending since she was a child. It has always been a tradition that after dinner Uncle Peter plays the piano (he's a physician by trade, but a pianist/composer by heart) and everyone sings Christmas carols. Unfortunately, Happy Birthday (my favorite) is not a holiday song that we could sing a million times. That was a late night for me (about 10:30) but I was really entertained by the music . . . and the pretty girls.For dinner on Christmas day, we went to my cousins' (Caleb and Jacob) house and saw my extended family again. I got some pretty cool gifts from everyone and of course wanted to play with each of them before unwrapping the next ones. It was another late night for me (around 11:00) but my hundreds of cousins (ok, a bit of an exaggeration) and new toys kept me occupied.

At Lola and Papo's, we didn't actually open up our gifts from Santa until the day after Christmas. Reese, JP, and baby Joseph didn't get in from Dallas until the early morning hours on the 25th and everyone was sick so they all slept in or rested in the morning, then we couldn't seem to coordinate all of our naps/meals/etc. with the whole group before we had to leave for Jacob and Caleb's house. Luckily, I was ok with waiting to up open up my gifts (probably because I had gone through so many already). I'm just glad that Santa knew I wasn't home for Christmas and dropped off my gifts at Lola and Papo's. I'm also thankful that he apparently overlooked most of my behaviors over the past year. That night we also celebrated Daddy's birthday a day early. I didn't get to bed until later than usual again (9:30), but not as late as the previous two evenings.We came back home on Saturday with Mommy's SUV literally packed full of our stuff (mostly my toys). My parents said that we'll be needing a bigger car to travel in once my sister arrives. I think that since Mommy's car is paid for, we should just keep it and leave the baby at home if she's going to take up that much room. I'm pretty smart like my mom.

Finally, we ended the season on New Year's Day at Nona and Papa's house since the Hoges weren't together on Christmas. My other cousins and I were super spoiled by the grandparents (as usual) and again left with a packed car. Mommy had brought my pjs because she knew that it would be yet another late night for me (only 9:15 this time).

I had a really busy and "profitable" Christmas this year, but I'm ready to get caught up on my sleep!