After Christmas, you play with Christmas presents. Jake and Claire got a trampoline from Santa Claus.
I have enjoyed playing on it with them, but it is wearing, especially the way they play!

 Bill gave me a water color set, which I wanted after taking a 3 hour class in Pagosa Springs last fall.

Here is my first effort, unfinished, and needing some serious guidance!

 

Bill's son Jeff had a birthday (Christmas Eve actually), but we enjoyed the cupcakes at Bill's house.

 

My friend Debbie had her 60th BDay, lunch out with gal pals.

  And Bill had a birthday in mid-January, I took him to Perry's for dinner,

 using another of my Christmas presents, a gift card from Mimi.

Mom visited Diane in Burnet, and visited the Longhorn Village, a CCRC retirement community in Austin.

She loved it, and is now waiting for an apartment to come available so she can move there.

It is very nice and attractive inside. 

The food is served restaurant style, and all the apartments have balconies.

 I kept Chloe/Precious, Mom's cat while she was in Burnet, but Chloe/Precious will be able to move to Longhorn Village with her!

 Mom listed her house for sale in early February, and it sold in a week!  She is now staying with me until a place in Longhorn Village is available.  Sooner rather than later, I hope, since I will be ready to list my house for sale in mid April (I hope!)

Another birthday, twins cousin Travis turned 5.  He wanted an airplane ride, so one Sunday we all met out at Hooks and the kids got plane rides.

 Travis had a great time, Allison rode with him along with mom and dad.  Each kid got a chance to sit up in front and "fly" the plane.

 Jeremy arrived with the twins, and I went up with Jeremy and Jake and Claire. 

 Jake got to fly the plane, sitting in Jeremy's lap.

 In the back seat, JanMa and Claire...

 ...and Jake.

 Claire got her turn as well.

John had a birthday too, 5th, and showed off missing teeth. 

 The weather has not been good in north Texas, so his party with bounce house has been put off till warmer weather.  I did enjoy a quick visit though when Bill and I went to see a model home in the Fort Worth area.

Since then, Bill and I have made another trip to Austin, looked at another model home, met a David Weekley rep at the Burnet property, and signed a contract to build.  More on that later!

Catching Up!

Gee I am way behind in my blog posts.  So here goes, Christmas 2013 to mid March, 2014, and a LOT has happened!

Dance recitals:  both Taylor and Claire were in dance recitals, separate dates fortunately, and separate locations, which is OK, I enjoy the drive to Dallas! First is Claire, taken after her recital, and when I gave her my carnations, she informed me she had received roses that morning from Mommy and Daddy. I never want to show up her parents :)

 Here is Taylor, taken before we went to the recital.  I failed in the flower delivery, but luckily Nana was there and she had flowers. Yay for grandmothers.

 Taylor wanted to show me her curls.

Jake and Claire came over one evening to open their Christmas presents. All the grandsons got the Planes DVD and a play set of several small Planes plane characters.

 I went out of the box for Claire, getting her a magnifying glass, hoping to spark her scientific curiousity!

 Mimi had gotten Claire a real porcelain tea set, which she loved!

 Claire and her Daddy playing tea party.

 I spent one afternoon with the twins, picking them up from school for lunch.  We ate a ChikFila and shared the peppermint shake after eating nuggets.  They LOVED the shake, who wouldn't? But the best part was drying their hands in the restroom afterwards, Jake especially loved that.

 They took toys Bill and I had bought for Toys for Tots. I did a lot of explaining that these were for poor children whose Mommies and Daddies couldn't buy them lots of presents. Claire explained to me that Santa Claus would bring the poor children lots of presents! So I told her we were helping Santa out. Then they put the toys into the barrel.

 Later we went to the Dollar Store and picked out presents for Mommy and Daddy. They got to wrap them, take them home and put them under the tree at their house. They liked that too.  Jake picked out a Christmas mug full of candy for his Daddy, Claire picked out some glittery lipstick for her Mommy! It was another explanation time about picking out presents they thought Mommy and Daddy would like to get, not what Jake and Claire would like to get.

We ended the day with a stop to see Christmas lights at Market Street in the Woodlands and dinner at Potbelly's. The kids loved running around the large Christmas tree, and seeing all the other lights by the mall. I think they were probably tired, I know I was!

Then at McKinney, John and Taylor opened presents from JanMa and Mimi.  Mimi was sick and couldn't make the trip, so I was solo this time. I like giving the kids their presents separately from the craziness of Christmas morning. It is more special and they know who the presents come from.

 Mimi had gotten John some Legos and I was amazed at how well he can follow the printed pictures and build the Lego thing.  We built an airplane, a truck, and something else.

 Taylor got a pair of glittery high heels from Mimi, which she wore around the house the rest of the day.

 Taylor's Barbie collection, I counted, I kid you not, 27 Barbie dolls.  A lot of those were from when her Mommy was a little girl.

Though I shared my Santa hat with Taylor and John, I didn't try make a photoshop pic of all 4 grandkids wearing the hat this year. I will just enjoy these pictures.

 

Christmas Eve at Jeremy and Jennifer's house, with twins, cousins Allison and Travis and their folks, and Mimi. Jennifer had lots of activities planned to keep the kids entertained, plus set a beautiful table and served a tasty dinner, topped off with peppermint ice cream.  A seasonal favorite of mine.

My most interesting present was from Jason, an Apple TV.  I have enjoyed watching Downton Abbey Season 1 on it, the music ITunes Radio, and even watching some YouTube videos.  Plus I have mirrored my IPad on it to show pictures to a group of people.  It is pretty cool, still just a Wow factor for me, but I suspect it will become a necessity, just like my Ipad and Iphone.