Merry Christmas, we survived

I certainly hope all our friends and family had a very blessed and happy Christmas. I always miss our family so much during this time of year.


As for us TX Rumfelts, we survived another holiday season. When I was little I remember our Christmas Eve tradition was going over to my grandparents house and having homemade southern chicken and dumplings and then opening Christmas presents from them. They always made a really big deal about it for the kids and we all sat in a circle and took turns. Those are special memories for me, but hard to carry on out here by ourselves. I have been thinking for years what I want our night before Christmas traditions to be and finally figured it out. Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner will be homemade TX tamales (not made by me - there is another story there). After attending Christmas Eve church service we will make a fire in the fireplace, put on a Christmas movie, have a holiday cocktail (eggnog or such), and read Eli a Christmas story before bed. Sounds so nice. Well...that may be just a future fantasy.


Here was the reality of our Christmas Eve this year. I started feeling like I was coming down with the flu during the course of the day on Tuesday. I woke up Wednesday (Christmas Eve) at 5:00 a.m. and started to get ready to go to the bakery. I was already late really, the bakers had been there since 3:00 a.m. (again). Eli woke up at 5:30 - which is not normal - crying that his nose was stuffy. I gave him some Robitussin and hoped that he would settle back to sleep...he didn't. The babysitter arrived at the house around 7:00 a.m. and, as Aaron and I began to leave, Eli started crying that he wanted to go with us. Aaron and I left the house and I was feeling sick and depressed.

We went to the bakery and worked our fannies off from 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. It took four Theraflus for me to get through the day. (On the bright side we had a great day sales-wise.) Eli was waiting for us at our church b/c his babysitter works in the nursery there. We wanted to attend the 6:30 service and the best thing would have been to leave Eli in the nursery and pick him up when the service was over. I missed him so much, though, (we had not seen him all day!) and I decided to let him come up to service and sit with us. He was so tired, I really thought he might sit between us and fall asleep Ha! He was in that overtired crazy state. He was lying on the pews, jumping on the kneel rail thingy, talking loud, whatever he could do to embarrass us.

One funny thing happened after we had taken him up with us for communion (and a blessing for him). He did not want to leave the alter....he kept saying he wanted to go back up there. We were telling him no, we had to go back to our seats. After some back and forth arguing he exclaims, "I am so mad at you!" and started stomping dramatically towards the other end of the church. He was wearing boots and the floor of our church is stone so the sound was echoing with every stomp. He blew past our pew and kept on going, going, going. Aaron and I looked at each other like, "what the heck is he doing?" Then he stormed into the broom/water heater closet that is located at the very back of the church. I guess he thought it was an exit and that he was going to storm out of the church. Aaron and I could not help but start laughing. It was the kind of laughing that you try to hold back b/c you realize it is not appropriate which makes you want to laugh even more.

After church we rode around looking at some of the Christmas lights and decorations. We got home and I promptly tried to get our tired boy to bed. I even lay down beside him hoping he would go to sleep faster. When I opened my eyes I was lying on top of the bed still wearing my buttoned winter coat. Eli was fast asleep and it was 11:30 p.m. I missed Christmas Eve entirely! What a bummer.

Christmas was nice, though. We all enjoyed being home as a family, and not working. I have heard Eli say more times than I can count over the past few days that he is "so happy". He is big on expressing his emotions right now. I think he has been so happy that we have been spending time together. I am so happy, too.

Making Cupcakes

Working the whisk. You go, Eli.

Serious business.

Okay, I got the hang of it.

Scooping into baking cups.

Instead of leaving cookies for Santa, Eli and I made cupcakes. We "cheated" and made the box kind since those are faster, but we did make our own cream cheese frosting. Not that it matters, right? We were just having fun. We also had on our matching cow print aprons.

Pancakes with Santa

Well, I am just a "little bit" late getting these pictures posted. What can I say? It has been that kind of month! We went to the Ft. Worth Club Pancakes with Santa brunch. It has become an annual event for us.

Yes, Eli is too old for smock. I couldn't help myself. I saw the writing on the wall that my baby is growing up and grabbed at my last opportunity. I bought the biggest size they made (4 yrs) and they looked like high waters on him!!

Our friends Sarah, Matt, and Anna Grace went with us and we are so happy they did.

My sweet friend, Sarah. (She and Matt are expecting #2!) She was a trooper and not feeling so great that morning. We had fun anyway.

Oh Holy Night

This is my absolute favorite Christmas song of all time. If I concentrate on the words...it makes me cry everytime.

This ia a pretty darn good version. If anyone else knows of an artist that has a good one please let me know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt0VfiFxtHo


(P.S. I don't know how to find a link that isn't clipped to a video. My friend Theresa will have to school me!)

Eli Update

I have been so excited this week because Eli is moving up to the "big kid" classroom at school!

We have had kind of a sad time at his school the past couple months because several of our teachers and many families left to go to a new school. Not thinking it was a good time for our family to make such a big transition right around the holidays we decided to hang tight and see what happened with our school once the dust settled. It has been surprisingly okay....all of us are getting spoiled with the smaller class sizes which I know won't last. The teacher they hired to replace Eli's former teacher has been great to us. She has really spent time with Eli helping him to become potty trained, and she has spent a lot of effort encouraging him to broaden his horizons and work on different things. He is prone to work on the same thing every single day.

Last week at our parent teacher conference I expressed my desire for Eli to go ahead and move up. Aaron and I feel like he has to be bored with the work in his current room and is really missing out on some good learning opportunities at the next level. The very next week we received a one page letter explaining that Eli would begin transitioning to move up the very next week, it outlined exactly how the transition process will work, and when we would be contacted by our new teachers. We have never received any formal communication before regarding a classroom transition and I was very impressed actually.

Eli was scheduled to spend 2 hours in his new room beginning this past Monday. I was so excited for some reason I could not even stand it. After Eli went into his new room I stood outside and peeked in the window. They were having "line time" which is their time to come together as a class (with their teachers) and sing songs, ask questions, talk about their weekend or whatever else they want to discuss. Most of their day is spent in independent work time so "line time" is great for the whole group and I loved watching them in action.

Yesterday I went to school for a parent teacher meeting with his new teachers. Again, I was so thrilled after talking with them that I just wanted to stand and watch the class a little bit before I left. Ughhhh...HUGE mistake! Eli saw me (I did not mean for him to), and began crying hysterically that he wanted his mommy. He wouldn't quit crying in time and had to fore go his new class opportunity for the day. I could have kicked myself. I look forward to hearing about his day today and hope he did better!

Silent Night

This is a shout out to my mom who loves Alan Jackson! I tried to put this song as my background music for the blog this month, but don't know what I am doing and couldn't make it work.

Click link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsfDq9R2clg

Big Daddy and Sarita

This is my grandfather ("Big Daddy" aka "Bibbi" by the younger generations). He and my Meme just got a new dog (already) named Sarita! They are debating on calling her "Sari" or "Rita" so we look forward to seeing what they decide fits. Sarita's former owner became ill and was unable to care for her any longer and she was returned to the breeder (who just happens to be my Meme's dear friend). She thought Sarita would be perfect for my grandparents and she is right. From what I can tell by this photo both Sarita and Big D look pretty darn happy...I think Sarita is smiling! I am so happy Meme and Big D have a good dog again....has it been 34 years or so since Gigi ???

They will have so much fun togther! I miss you guys so much...please give Sarita girl a smooch from me!!!