Old Friends

Gosh golly, I am swapped with things to do today. I thought that I had everything ready, but alas, there was still plenty of "last minute" things to do. It will all be worth it tomorrow when Christmas is officially here for the next 5 days.

One of my favorite things about Christmas is gathering with people you love and care about. I can not wait to get to Mississippi and wrap my arms around all of our family. I can't wait to sit on porches of different family members and breath in fresh Mississippi air, because I swear it does something good for my body and soul. I can't wait to watch my babes play with all their cousins that they simply adore. I just can't wait.

And because I'm a lucky girl, I got to jump start my feast of love with some of our Nearest and Dearest this past week.
This was our first group of friends when we first moved to Dallas. They pretty much rock our world.

And this is "Gigi", London's Godmother and one of the most beautiful woman I know, inside and out.

My heart is already filled with happiness. Its going to overflow in the next week. I can't wait!

Seeing Santa and Jammie day

I took the kids to see Santa at the mall yesterday. I drove past two other malls to get the this specific mall because we love their Santa and have used him since we've lived in Texas. He is so nice and looks so much like the real deal. The whole day went beautifully and the kids had a grand ole time. I was so excited because I was able to get two really great shot of the kids with Santa, and I also bought 1 5x7 from the Santa people. We stopped and took some pictures in front of the huge tree in the mall, and there must have been some Christmas magic in the air because I swear I got at least 5 shots of BOTH kids looking and smiling at the camera... AT THE SAME TIME (magic, I'm telling you!). I even got some great shots of each of them individually.

What? I should share those pictures here with you? Oh, I would LOVE too. But I freakin deleted them all before I could download 'em to my computer. I'm not kidding. I'm sick over it. And to top it all off, the Santa picture I bought at the mall came out of the envelope with a big ole yellow mark right on Santa's face. Really. Sick. Although, if that's what ales me the most, I do feel blessed.

So here are a few from last week that I never did upload.

Even one from Jammie day at Dylan's school. It was this past Friday and he was SO stinkin excited to wear his jammies to school, that you would have thought we were going on vacation. Speeking of which, I have some packing to do.

Christmas Pageant 2010: A Journey to Bethlehem

My boy has always been a brilliant actor. He has been creating and preforming plays for years now. His stage is usually our living room, his bedroom, outside in the yard, or the playground and his audience is normally his family and friends. Last night though, my boy took his skills to a real stage. And he was... brilliant. Seriously, he was such a good little actor last night in the roll of The Inn Keeper.

Turns out I'm a totally stage mom right down to mouthing the words of his lines as he says them. Its cool though.

After his oscar-worthy preformance (Can you tell I'm one proud Momma?) he took the stage with the Children's Choir, and turns out his a double thread because he rocked that song! I mean he just tilted his little head back and sang his heart out. It was the cutest thing ever.

I mean, I will laugh everytime I think about this for the next few months... it was THAT cute and funny.

After the show everyone told Dylan how well he did. I know that when I was a kid I would get crazy shy when a grown up gave me a compliment, but my little guy is so cool and calm about it. He just gives a big smile and says "Thanks!"

This was Dyl's first big part in a program, and he could not have done any better. We are so proud of our little Star. We think London will follow right in her big brother's foot steps!

Dylan's School Christmas Party

School Christmas Program 2010

The kindergarten class put on their annual Christmas pageant on this morning, and lucky for me... I have a kindergartner, so I got to go! I love, love, love holiday programs, they just melt my heart. And my boy melts my heart. Put the together and I'm a puddle of gooshiness.

I was a big bummed when they came out because Dylan was in the back row and I couldn't get any good pictures of him, but I could see him just fine so I couldn't complain too much. He was a little rockstar on that back row! But then, to my delighted surprise the back row and front row flipped around so that my boy (and all the other cuties on his row) was on the front! And as much as he rocked it in the back, he BROUGHT it in the front row. I think he knew that people were watching him, now that he was front and center.

They sang Feliz Navidad and I can not even begin to tell you how darn cute he was. He was SO into the song, especially the line "from the bottom of my heart" when he would grab his little chest and furry his sweet little brows... puddle, I'm telling you. It was so stinkin cute and really so funny!

As so very cute as this program was, I can not wait until Sunday when he is in our church's Christmas program! More to come on that soon!

Christmasy Things

Like many others around the globe, Christmas is my very favorite time of the year. I love the warm-coziness that it brings, I love the happy memories that tag along, and I love the traditions new and old that belong to it. And lucky for me, the Christmas season is in full swing here at the Hilburn House.

We have watched a handful of Christmas films already, enjoyed plenty of cups of hot coco in our snowman mugs, decked the halls, and even had our first Christmas party this past weekend.

One tradition that we began this year was Elf on the Shelf. He magically arrived on our door step the night of Thanksgiving with a book that told us all about him. He watched the kids all day long and then flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa while they sleep at night. Every morning he is somewhere new and the kids love running to find him. We named our Elf Peppermint. He'll be coming back for years and years to come!

I have lots of fun Christmas activities planned for us, and we kicked them off on Monday night when we took the kids to see A Journey to Bethlehem, which is a live nativity scene that you walk through. It was very cool and I think it really brought to life the story of Jesus's birth for Dylan. I was a bit worried that London would get frightened by the Roman Soldiers, but she is one brave cookie, just like her brother, and she loved the whole thing.

We will go back next year for sure.

There are a ton of Christmas events and projects on the horizon for Dylan at his school. The first of many was his assignment to make a Christmas Stocking. They gave up a pattern and left to rest up to our imagination. Dylan's stocking is "Kindergarten" themed, and I thought it turned out very cute! I can't wait to walk Dylan into school later this week and see what everyone else came up with!

Tonight, Dylan has choir practice for the Christmas musical. With all this Christmas (how many times do you think that word has been typed by now!?) stuff going on right now, I feel like we might turn into Elf! And I love it. I think we would make cute little elf!

Thanksgiving 2010

I don't know what has come over me, but I have but only four pictures to share from out Thanksgiving this year. Usually I'm a crazy "momaratsy", taking pictures left and right, but this year... a dinky four. I barely remembered to get a family shot. Ugh. Oh well, I'll do better next year, promise.

Our thanksgiving was lovely, even if it was virtually pictureless. It was the same as it always is; big breakfast at home, watch the Macy's parade while we get ready, lunch at my brothers, flipping through blackfriday adds, and video games. Like they say, "If its not broken, don't fix it!" I love our Thanksgivings.

We ate leftovers for days and days. Well, I ate them for days and days. Daniel and the kids had them twice and then were done with them. Daniel is one-time-only-for-leftovers kind of guy, and it seems the kids take after him.

As always, my heart was full of happiness and thankfulness for all that we have.

Happy Holidays, ya'll!