Toy Soldiers

This Christmas, I got to experience some different traditions other than my own. One of them was Chris' Nativity Calendar from his childhood. There is a Christmas tree with 25 little gold rings attached to it. For each day from December 1st to Christmas Day, the child gets to take that particular day's present off of its ring. I have seen these calendars before, but I have only seen ones that had pockets where the gifts were hidden until you got to open that day's present.

Chris used this as a kid, and now he filled it with presents for TJ. So cool!

TJ had a great time with his Nana and Grandpa that were in town from Tennessee...

Two of the funniest presents that TJ got from Santa on Christmas morning were a bottle of ketchup and a bottle of ranch dressing! He loves both of them and always gets excited when he gets his very own bottle of each. So easy to please at that age!!

He got some really cool toys, including this PlayDoh kitchen set. He also got a crayon maker, where you throw your old whittled down crayons and they get mashed into new crayons! I want to be a kid again!!!

TJ got a police set for Christmas, so he and Chris were playing 'cops' and doing some SWAT team 'missions' - just like on my favorite show '24'!! Here are some outtakes from their police adventures - I have to wonder which one is the kid!

Lookin' tough......

Is TJ throwing gang signs?!

Wow - that's a hot look, Chris!

Tough guys......

And here's Maggie, playing with a new toy from my Mom.....

Kharma trying to play (and lick) TJ and Chris' Mom!