Happy New Year! Warning... PDA Ahead!

Happy New Year! Countdown and Champaigne.... at 9:00... as if we were in Buenos Aires.
Shannon and Shanan- aka, The Shans

Girl's Picture: Shereda and Cathy (Shannon's mom) celebrated with us as well.

Guys Picture: Daddy Steve and Benny (Shannon's dad) joined in the fun. Do you like Steve's party pose?

Carter was excited to celebrate with us from the couch... feeling a bit tired.

Caleb snoozed through the whole celebration. Maybe we should do it at 8:00 next year!

James Family Christmas

Caleb, Carter, Cole, and Mason all posing in their Christmas PJs. Thanks, Kim!
Siblings picture; Stewart feeling all the love from Steve and Shanan!

The next Kenny G? Well, Carter really loved his 2 new instruments. Caleb got an electric drum set to keep Carter in tempo.

My sister, my friend... so cliche, I know. But I do love my little Shanan!

Cole on his big boy stool. So proud!

Carter got a whirly riding toy... a little hard to figure out, but lots of fun to ride!

Caleb and Carter both got walking cups. Caleb caught on right away. Don't you remember having these as kids?

Shereda is making Shanan a beautiful throw with bible verses. It still needs to be quilted, so it has to be returned.

Oh, Surprise! I get one too!

Mason with Aunt JJ! The sweetest baby. Looks natural, huh?

My subtle reminder to the James family that we have 4 Baylor graduates. Not everything is about the University of Texas.... contrary to my father-in-law's beliefs.

Sic'Em Bears!

And, yes, Shanan is most excited about her new china... the plastic BU cups.

Doesn't everyone want a Steinbach Yoda Nutcracker for Christmas?? Only one guy I know had this on his Christmas list!

There SHE is! Her name is Tally. This was number one on my wish list! A great bag to carry my bible study, choir music, or just a day bag to keep anything. Coach also has a matching umbrella, day planner, and scarf... but I would never go that far!

We all got matching Shuffles from the Shans.

There IT is! The BIG ONE! The thing only his mother would buy him. The "don't even think about asking me to buy this for you" gift. Over 5000 pieces. It'll take months, if not the entire year to build. It's the Millenium Falcon. I'm sure all you Star Wars fans know this ship well. Han Solo and Chewbaka fly this ship. Do you see the 16+ on the box. Good thing he's 32 years old! Everyone will have to come visit the man-cave once this is assembled. Exciting, isn't it? If you don't think so, then just ask your 8 year old son.

Grandpa's surprise gift! Shereda happened upon this 2 days before Christmas when her sister called her from New Braunfels saying they were unloading a truck at Circut City. We have had a great time playing this together as a family! It will take it's new home at the lake next week.

Shereda's surprise gift! A new bike with a fat seat! Sounds heavenly, huh? Apparently she's been riding Shanan's bike for a while, which is 16 years old.

A final gift for the grandsons... they all got matching cosmo cars. I even tried them. Lots of fun! Come to our cul-de-sac anytime to try the out.

One of my favorite shots... baby Mason and Caleb hugging!

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Morning

Christmas celebration #4. Christmas morning! The boys were so excited to come downstairs to see what Santa brought. Their list was short, so that let us be a bit more creative!
Caleb wanted a pirate ship and Carter wanted a firetruck. They both wanted the Ratatouille game for the Gameboy and Leapster. Santa delivered all 4 items. We get credit for all the other gifts. We decided to get big boy toys for them.... nothing Leapster or educational in the least. Just toys. It was a whole new shopping experience for me!

Here they are unwrapping their Legos. We got them City Legos. Caleb shook the box and knew immediately he was opening Legos.

Not sure who is more excited about this Star Wars ship...

Carter is just happy with cars.... Matchbox, Hot Wheels, or from the movie "Cars" He doesn't care- as long as he can push them around.

Caleb got a kids Sudoku book in his stocking. My dad and I are huge Sudoku fans. Caleb caught on quickly and has solved at least 20 so far.

Here they are with their stockings. I cross stitched them. I started making Carter's even before I was pregnant with him. It's one of my few crafty claims. The boys loved opening stocking stuffers. My stocking was filled with gift cards.... hmmmm.... I really like my Santa.

Carter got all the cars from "Cars." Here is has lined them up so we could all admire. Once we were finished unwrapping, we watched a movie together. Any guesses on what we watched??? That's right, "Cars"

Although Christmas seems centered around the kids, Steve and I made out nicely as well. His big gift from me is the Eiffel Tower Lego. He can't wait to get started on that. My big gift from him is a Nintendo DS Lite. Yes, I did ask for it. I want to increase my intelligence with Brain Power 2. When I took the Brain Age test I came out to 80 years old, so it looks like I need a lot of training on the DS.

After the movie, my parents left for the airport. They decided to spend their holiday week in Savannah... they've never been and my dad is hoping to run into his favorite celebrity- Paula Deen. Yes, most dad's watch ESPN. My dad watches The Food Network. So, once my parents left we headed out and spent Christmas day with Steve, Shereda, and Stewart. The Shans don't fly in until the 27th so we have to wait until then to have Christmas #5. It's fun to spread out the holiday.

Granny's Christmas

Every December 23 we have Granny's Christmas. Same traditional food, Santa visits, and the wild gift exchange. Here are some pictures from that night.

All dressed up for Christmas dinner. Carter refuses to smile.

Andy & Emily with Kayla and Caroline.


2 of my cousins... Emily (left) is at KU and plays for the women's tennis team. Go Jayhawks! Leah just finished serving 2 years with the Baptist Missions board in Florida.


Christy is married to my cousin, Joel, who she is talking to on the phone. He is a pilot in the US Air Force and is stationed in Qatar right now. He flies lots of missions and serves our country proudly. We all can't wait for him to get home in a couple of weeks!



After dinner, my aunt pulled out bells for all the great grandchildren. 13 of the 15 were there and they all sang and rang their bells to "Jingle Bells"- you can only imagine the noise level! Carter especially loved this- he kept requesting that we go faster and faster. You can see the pure joy on his face.

Santa comes to visit each year. Carter was the first to jump in his lap. It should feel like a comfortable space because that's my dad. :-)

He asked for a firetruck. Caleb asked Santa for a pirate ship and Ratatouille game for his GameBoy.

Steve was having a nice bonding moment with our niece, Caroline, when she was forced to have a seat on Santa's lap. 3 of the kids totally freaked out and she was one of them. You can see the death grip she has on Steve's arm. If she only knew it was her Papa that was actually holding her.

The Touchdown Dance

The Cloverland Bowl

So, we had our first annual Cloverland Bowl. Cloverland is the name of the farm that my Granny and parents live on. This is where my dad and his 3 siblings grew up. It's set along the Brazos river just outside of Waco between China Spring and Bosqueville.

There was a challenge among family members to have a flag football game. We had participants ranging in age of 9 to 61. The teams were green and gold (of course... see, we have 24 family members that are graduates of Baylor.) We had cones marking the field and solid family friendly rules of playing flag football. You may all be looking for me in the picture, but you won't find me. I was on my 4th day of antibiotics and had no desire to worsen things. I did however stand as the line judge so everyone could find the line of scrimmage easily. Steve is on the back row on the left. There were still several who did not participate. Some took pictures, video, kept up with the 9 little ones not playing, and ran the concession stand.

There's my dad in the gray sweatshirt doing the coin toss. The weather was great and the injuries were minimal. I don't remember who won. Lots of touchdowns back and forth. Steve made a great reception in the endzone and pulled out 4 different touchdown dances for us all to see. Oh, it was fun!

Christmas with Mamaw & Papaw

Here's my mom's parents- Dovie and Wilburn Winkelmann... doesn't get more German than that! They are with their great grandchildren. They've been married 58 years. She worked for JCPenney her whole life and he worked for 7-Up. Now they are retired and living in China Spring... just half way between my parents and the president.

We had our Christmas celebration on a busy night. The Cowboys played- notice Papaw wearing his Jessica Simpson mask- and China Spring was playing at Texas Stadium for the 3A state championship. One game on the TV and the other on the radio. Cowboys won! YEAH! But sadly, the Cougars lost by a touchdown.

We still had a great time visiting, eating, and opening gifts.

The Candy Store

This is a long standing tradition in the Gorham family. My great aunt and uncle set up "the candy store" for us when we come to visit them. Aunt Ruth takes us into her hallway where she has various glass dishes and bowls filled with different candies. Each child gets a bag and then she opens each jar one at a time.... so you can take one of whatever you like. There was a debate among us all as to how long we've been doing this, but I can't remember a time when we didn't do it... so it's been at least 30 years. Now, I took this picture after the kids came through so you'll have to use your imaginations as to how full each jar initially was.

We showed up at the same time as my cousin's kids, so there were 8 going to the candy store at once. Lots of little hands reaching in to grab before the last piece was gone.

Here's one of newest family members... Lyvi. Jason and Lela adopted her from China last fall. She got right in the mix of things and held her own.

Sorry all the shots are from the back, but the kids were not interested in me in the least... It's all about Aunt Ruth and the candy store!