Our 2012 Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, Santa brought to Sydney... a big ol' box in blue wrapping.

Somehow, he managed to sneak it into my home office and frantically wrapped it before Sydney got home from gymnastics. I closed the door just as she was coming upstairs and intercepted her with some lame distraction to get her re-routed to her room to change out of her leotard. A few hours later, she wandered into my office and let out a "HOLY SMOKE!" I pretended not to notice the box and said: "What? What's the matter?" She excited asked: "LOOK AT THAT! WAS SANTA HERE?" I was "quite startled" at the sight of the large present in the office and wandered out loud how it got there. It must have been Santa but how did her get into the room without a chimney? He probably squeezed through the air vent.

We dragged the present downstairs to set it by the Christmas tree. It was juuuuuuust a little too big to fit under the tree. "What could it be?" Sydney wondered. "I bet it's a doll house." And she couldn't wait to find out.

On the second day of Christmas, Santa brought to Sydney a Monster High High School set ... play thingy. I'm not exactly sure what it is. It's a play set for her dolls, I suppose. Who knew she was into such ghoulish things.

All and all, she had a bunch of presents. Santa treated very well. She was such a happy girl when it was all set and done. As it turned out, what was in the giant box was not a doll house but rather...

a kitchen. She was thrilled. But that was not even the best part. Unbeknownst to me, she had asked her mom for a certain kind of doll. Her friend, Emma, has one and Sydney sure wanted one as well. She had left at least 2 notes to Santa asking for it. I guess Santa heard her and decided that she was so high on the nice list that she deserved it.

Sydney got her American Girl doll. Man, oh, man. I've been complaining about how ridiculously expensive those things are and how glad I was she was not into them. I guess I was wrong.

Did anyone notice the glasses? Yup, Sydney got her glasses a few weeks ago and was trying to get used to wearing them. Needless to say her doll, promptly named Emily, came with glasses and some other accessories. Poor house, here we come.

There has been no mention of presents for Tracie or me. Not so fast, Tracie did not have a present under the tree but it was coming. She ruined the surprise by asking me outright to get an iPhone 5. It was arriving the day after Christmas. I didn't want to lie so I glared at her and said yes, it was on its way. Oh well.

As for me, Tracie got me some of the coolest stuff. I got a new Baylor phone case, a new pair of suede shoes and some new winter clothes. Love it!

I must say that we are very fortunate. It was a great Christmas. We all got what we wanted and, for once, we didn't go anywhere and spent time at home. We got our first chance to put up the Christmas tree and decorations in 3 years. And for once, we had a family photo at home in front of our own tree.

Merry Christmas to all. Hope everyone had a safe and lovely time as we did.

I'm a Little Gymnast, Short and Stout

I'm bad. I know it. Uh huh! Uh huh!

Sydney was very hesitant when we told her last May that we were signing her up for the competition level 3 team at the recommendation of her instructor. She was worried that she would not enjoy having to practice hard and taking gymnastics more seriously. In a way, she was right. She really didn't have as much fun as she did last year. But she was learning new skills. And that was important to us. She was having to train for 2.5 hours every Tuesday and Thursday as opposed to just 1 hour for two days. And she was going to learn to be part of a team. Gasp!

And then came time for her mock meet in December. She was not so sure she was ready. She was getting burnt out. She wasn't doing an hour of handstands every night and cartwheels all over the bedroom like she was before moving to Level 3. We ordered her team leotard and uniform. They finally arrived the week before the meet. Once she put them on, she was golden. She loved having the uniform and looking rather official.

It was hard to see in the picture but the back of her jacket said WORLD in glitter, which was the name of her gym.

She had to slick her hair back into a tight ponytail so that she could do her tumbling and flips without her hair exploding all over. She was ready!

If nothing else, Sydney was looking good! Let's see how she does in the coming months of competition. I got my fingers crossed. No matter what, I was so, so proud of my little gymnast.

And This Was Panama City Beach

Three days of pure bliss and enjoyment. We drove down Thursday night to Panama City Beach near the end of September. We had a 3-night reservation at a condo unit beachfront. We arrived almost at midnight, not knowing what to expect as this was a new rental for us from a friend of Tracie. Much to our delight, the place was FANTASTIC. It was a spacious 3br/3ba unit on the 6th floor right on the beach and tastefully decorated. We were off to a great start.

We were treated to 3 days of sun and warmth. We couldn't have asked for more, although we were a little worried that it might start to get a little cool being so close to October. But nope, we were wrong. Thank goodness.

And so...the next morning started with lounging on the beach. We had 2 chairs reserved. Sydney was off to explore sandcastle building and ended up creating a hermit crab zoo. The place was crawling with hermit crabs in shells of all shapes and sizes. Other kids joined in to coral as many crabs as they could find to place in Sydney's zoo and also to start their own copycat zoo. One kid even found a real, honest to goodness, blue crab and placed in in Sydney's zoo. After a few hours, we decided to let the crab go. It was cruel to leave it in the hot sun. So we took it out in a pail and chucked it into the surf.

It was nothing but fun in the sun. It was spectacular weather, to say the least. Sydney loved the sand and the surf. We swam in the salty water for hours. We even tried to snorkel a few times but Sydney found nothing good to keep, except for an eensy, beensy tiny sand dollar. She was ecstatic to have found the sand dollar. But unfortunately, she broke it when she tried to dry it with a beach towel. She was so very sad. We ended up going to the surf shop and bought a sand dollar for a souvenir.

At the end of the day, we retired to the condo and watched the sun set from our balcony. Ahhhhh, now this is the life! We are definitely doing this again! (tomorrow)