Christmas Morning

This was the year of our little man's first bicycle (with helmet) and our little lady's pink kitchen.

We've had mostly windy, nasty, or way too cold weather since Christmas Day, so we can't wait until it clears up for some outdoor riding days, but until then, we'd love to high five Santa for the kitchen because it has proven to keep both kids busy for a long time.

Christmas 2014 In Summary

Like everyone else, we had a full December. And the time I would normally spend blogging about it went to watching the Gilmore Girls while the kids napped. True confession right there.

Per my 4th year of parenting MO, I waited longer than I could have to take the kids to see Santa. I wrote a little about that here, but below I've included what I think is my favorite Santa picture of all time. If you've never taken the kids to see the NorthPark Center Santa, in 2012 I gave more details about the process of getting a number and standing in line. It hasn't changed since then.


Could they be having more opposite experiences?

My parents took us on a carriage ride through the Christmas lights out of Highland Park Village. It's really magical. My dad had to go out of town for work unexpectedly after our reservation was made, so that's why he's not there. Here was our experience last year. We had supper at Mi Cocina and bundled up under the blankets for almost an hour ride.

Jack was a shepherd in his school Christmas program. He sang and tried not to smile for my pictures the entire time.


This last pic was taken on Christmas Eve in our church Welcome Center before I had to carry Annabelle out of the service after screaming during O Holy Night, then again during the next soloist. This was also before we let Jack blow out the candle, which he did so well that he also sent all the melted wax flying onto his and Brad's pants and shoes. As I was googling "how do I get wax out of clothes" on the way home Christmas eve, I laughed it off/consoled myself thinking that this is probably the biggest night of the year for those search terms.

Weekending

Another Christmas weekend has come and gone. This one was full of holiday fun, and I'm dragging! Today I'm linking up for the first time with B Loved Boston for her Weekending series.

Friday we headed east to see Santa at Northpark Center. I've posted about it in years past, but the Santa there is just so wonderful and great with the kids. There were children's choirs and great decorations, and it's just a lot of fun. Tomorrow I'll be posting our official Santa pic with the details of how that went down.

Checking out the ducks and turtles	The calm before the Santa storm

Friday evening, after some awesome post-Santa naps for everyone including me, after Dad got home we decided to take our chances with Sundance Square here in Fort Worth. We ate at Uno's and then walked around the square. It's absolutely magical all lit up for the season, and even more so with the live jazz band playing Christmas music Friday night.

The mural at the base of the big tree	Family selfie

Saturday we all slept in (that means we were up by 7), then had a lazy morning. We drove to Corsicana in the late afternoon to catch the Living Christmas Tree at First Baptist. My mom sang in the tree this year, and the kids loved it. They were quiet and even still during parts of it! After a quick supper, we changed the kids into their pajamas for an easy move from carseat to bed when we finally got home around 11:30.

After church on Sunday, we all came home for naps after such a late night. Later I wrapped gifts with "help" and made lists of everything I have to do this week. We have supper club on Friday night, we're hosting a Christmas party for our Sunday school class on Saturday evening, and my in-laws are coming to celebrate Christmas with us Sunday afternoon through Tuesday. I've got backing and cleaning to get moving on, plus those last few Christmas gifts to track down.

I'm sure your to-do list is as long as mine. Here's to getting it done with our Christmas cheer still in one piece!

Christmas Prep: Matching Pajamas

For two years in a row now, I've been late purchasing my kids Christmas pajamas. This means that the cutesy two-piece button-down monogrammed sets requiring pre-order in September are long gone.

Luckily, last year as I was searching for kids' classic Christmas pajamas, I came across this great affordable option by Little Me. If you've been kicking yourself for not ordering earlier too, maybe this will help.


I can't believe how much they've grown in a year.

Girls Ruffle Two Piece | Boys Two Piece
As Macy's runs out of sizes, Belk also carries these as well as a super cute matching gown. I still worry about Annabelle getting cold at night, so I'm not quite ready for the adorable ruffled nightgown. While I love the idea and hope I can keep up the matching cozy pajamas for as long as they'll let me, matching pajamas don't hold a candle to the importance of the coming of the Savior. I'm excited to celebrate this season with my sweeties!

There are affiliate links in this post. Thanks for reading my blog!

Christmas Finale 2013

One more post and I'll be done with Christmas 2013. Maybe!

The morning of Christmas Eve, we made cookies for Santa. We did this growing up on Christmas Eve each year, and it's a tradition that I'm loving to keep with my own family. I know many of you probably do the same.


After lunch, then naps, we headed on over to our church's candlelight service. There is no nursery--the children attend as well. They did great, and I love that we all were in worship together to celebrate.


We went home and had supper before opening our gifts from one another. Woody from Toy Story was a gift from Annabelle. This was my very first stealth Christmas purchase. I grabbed it the week before school let out for the holidays at the Disney Store while the kids and I were out shopping without Jack noticing, with the help of a great salesgirl. I felt like a super parent that day. That's also Annabelle's first baby doll, from Mom and Dad.



And now someone is ready for some spring golf!

After laying out cookies and Dr. Pepper for Santa, we tucked the under 3 crowd into bed and got busy. (At the time this pic was taken, Annabelle had already gone to sleep on me!)


The next morning, we were up before the children which never happens on a non-work day. I think it confused Jack, but as soon as he saw his "four-wheeler like Granddaddy's," he got over it! Santa even brought him an Aggie winter hat to keep his ears warm while he rode it.

Little Sister got a Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair, a Fisher-Price stroller/walker for her new baby, and that fabulous vanity I posted about earlier. She is so sweet!


It was a wonderful Christmas for all!

2013 Christmas Season Lookback

My heart has been so full this Christmas season. With Jack old enough to understand a little of celebrating the Savior come to set his people free, our sweet baby girl's first Christmas, plus extra days to spend stuck at home together with the great ice storm, it's been a wonderful Christmas to write into the Gentry family annals.

The second week of December, we met up with my family in Dallas for dinner at Mi Cocina in Highland Park Village and a carriage ride through the Highland Park Christmas lights. It was a chilly night, but we bundled up tight and had just a wonderful time snuggled in together. If you've never done the Highland Park lights before, they are stunning, especially when you start off from HPV, which is stunning in its simple but complex, white light wrapped trees.

I hope I can always remember what Jack sounded like this year each time he said, "Look at all the Christmas lights!" like he had never seen them before. The wonder of a child.


Jack's class at preschool was old enough to participate in their Christmas program. It was a simple but sweet presentation of the nativity, complete with angels, Mary, Joseph, a baby doll Jesus, the shepherds, some kings, and a whole flock of 2 year olds sheep.


As a family, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights one evening the week before Christmas, which is something Mr. G and I always did before we had kids, usually on a special Christmas date night where we open our gifts together before we left to be with one of our families for Christmas eve. Now it's our desire to be home on Christmas eve/morning with our little immediate family, so our Christmas date will take on a new look. This year it was a weekend away to celebrate the anniversary of our first date a decade ago.


My sweeties in their Christmas pj's.
The internet brings us so many fun and unique ideas for children's activities during the Christmas season that it can be a little daunting and/or make you feel like a slacker for not having some amazing pinnable experiences. Don't let yourself fall into the lie that your holidays have to be something out of a magazine. Family traditions are important, and some of the best traditions (like tucking into carseats for a late drive around the neighborhood Christmas lights) aren't pinnable ones. I think this can apply to any holiday, even the Hallmark ones.

I, for one, am praying on behalf of moms everywhere that no one markets a Cupid on a Shelf in 2014.

Official Santa Visit of 2013

Before 2013 closes out, I'm updating with a few of our Christmas happenings. We spent a fun day over in Dallas at NorthPark where we saw the real Santa and did some of the last of our Christmas shopping.

Mr. G had some things to wrap up at work before a long break, and our time to see Santa was limited, so it was just the kiddos and me. They were both so good the entire time. Annabelle got a little fussy as I was tying her bonnet on, but I explained to her that accessories are just part of being a girl. Today's bonnet is a pair of uncomfortable high heels during a 10 hour work day two decades in the future.


NorthPark has a great system where you pick up a number, and that determines your place in line to see Santa. They start handing them out at 9 am. Apparently the day we were there, husbands/dads had started lining up at 7 am to get an early number. When we got there at 9:30 am, we got a number that was estimated to be for approximately 7 pm later that day. Thankfully, we were able to standby and scoot in right after lunch. Surprisingly, it was probably the fastest we've seen Santa.

Santa spent a few minutes with Jack, asking if and what kind of cookies we might make him. Jack told him that he wanted a "four-wheeler like Granddaddy's" for Christmas. No tears, only a little apprehension as we walked up.


Annabelle's first Santa pic.
She was more like, "I'm not really sure what's happening here, but can we get this over with? I'd like to take my nap, please."

My childhood next door neighbor commented on Facebook: "The place where anxiety and politeness intersect. That is a Texas girl."

I love it so much!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day

Before I get started on Christmas Day, I have this one other pic from the 24th after we opened presents. We got Jack a 100 piece set of blocks which I think are his favorite gift of the year. This really captures how he feels about them. Almost every day since then, his first word of the morning (after mama) has been "bocks!" Who knew?

Certainly not the genius who ordered her child one hundred blocks for Christmas, which do not stay corralled in the same area.

He loves them. (I have to repeat this to myself.)


As I mentioned in my Christmas Eve post, we spent the night in our own beds before rising to see that Santa had visited us.

Santa must've read my mind because we were both all over the Melissa & Doug toys this year. He brought an M&D train set that Jack has had a ton of fun with, among other things.



We drove to Corsicana as soon as we were dressed for turkey and dressing at my Grannie and Pop's. In fact, both my grandmothers were there, as my Memaw spent Christmas with us too. Jack really cleaned up - everyone was so generous!
My mother couldn't resist these Carhartt overalls for him. Such a little man.
I think that is the only picture I took the rest of the day. Sad! While we were down there, it snowed in Fort Worth such that when we got home Wednesday evening, there was still quite a bit in our backyard. So we actually had a white Christmas!

Storytime and Pictures with Santa Claus

I am the mother who waited until the week before Christmas to take her child for a picture with Santa.

We simply didn't have a weekend where we had time to go see him before then. I would feel bad, except it really worked in our favor. We had plenty of time to talk about him, look at his picture, talk about what we would say to him, that he says, "Ho ho ho," and convince Jack that it was nothing to be scared of.

I had quite a few vacation days left since I worked all of Thanksgiving week, so I took the Tuesday off before Christmas for a family event and to see jolly old St. Nick!

On our way to see Santa!
(But mostly excited that mom jailbroke him from the stroller.)
Northpark in Dallas probably has the best looking Santa in DFW. They have a not so complicated number system where they hand out numbers for the line starting at 9 AM. Santa doesn't start posing for pics until 11 AM, but the line forms to get numbers at 8:30 AM. You heard me: 8:30 for an 11 AM start time. We got there at 9:15 and got number 79 in line.

Before pictures, Santa has storytime at 10:30. He had his dog do tricks and told some cute little stories about Christmas around the world. We made it through storytime with the help of some popcorn and a stop by Starbucks for an apple juice.

Santa and his puppy
As crazy as this sounds, we had somewhere to be and couldn't wait to be #79 in line, so we loaded up and headed out. We went back on Thursday night with Daddy (same clothes, just washed and starched) for supper and the money shot. There were a million people there, but we packed our patience and just enjoyed the holiday hustle and bustle.

Jack didn't cry, and said, "Hi Santa!" just like we practiced. When the flash started going off, he was like, "what the heck?!?" So that is the face in the pic.

Our 2012 picture with Santa Claus

Dinner at Bethlehem

I'm catching up on some of our holiday happenings while I have time to sit and relax on Christmas vacation!

One of the largest blessings God has given our family here in Fort Worth is the community of believers we have found through our local church. People often ask why I commute from Fort Worth to Dallas for work each day, and I share openly that our church is one of the main reasons. Within the past several years, the church has made one of its highest priorities to reach young families for the Lord, and God is blessing that ministry.

One area of focus is preschoolers, which of course is right in our wheelhouse these days. Our Jack is still very young, so there are many activities that are a little too old for us (I can't wait for him to start Mission Friends where they learn about missionaries all over the world), but our first big organized event to attend was the first Sunday evening in December--Dinner at Bethlehem.

Our fabulous preschooler minister and her wonderful staff organized an evening in Bethlehem, culminating with a dinner theater that absolutely captivated my little Jack. Before dinner there was a nativity with animals for petting (complete with some of our HS students walking around as angels, Mary, and Joseph.)


After we saw the animals, we went back inside where all the kiddos could get headdresses like what the shepherds would've worn and a manger for us to get our picture taken as a family. And Jack wanted exactly nothing to do with that, so we moved right along!

From there, we went in for the dinner theater. The show was performed by teenagers in a fine arts program the church has for homeschool kids, and it was so spot on to share the message of the birth of the Savior to young children. We could not believe how well Jack paid attention! At one point one of the characters said, "Do you want to hear more songs?" And Jack shouted, "yes!" Cracks me up.

During supper.
What a wonderful way to teach our preschoolers about Jesus!

Christmas Eve 2012

For only the second time in our marriage, we spent Christmas Eve at home. Expecting a baby (9 weeks!), wanting to have Santa in our own home, and having worked some marathon days up to the Christmas holiday had/has us wanting to stick close.

So Christmas Eve, we got up and had a beautiful holiday breakfast of donuts from the local donut place. I was just not feeling like cooking a full breakfast that morning, and the boys in my family were great with it. The day was really relaxing and low key, which was just what we needed. Less time being busy, and more time thinking and celebrating the Savior's birth.

For the first time ever, Jack made cookies with me for Santa. Looking through the pictures afterward was seeing one of my best dreams come true. We love that boy so much, and I'm so blessed that God gave him to me.


(For the record, he knows the oven is hot and should stay away from it.)
Before the Candlelight service at church.
This was our first year to go to our church's candlelight service since we're usually out of town. Our Pastor calls it "the most beautiful place in Fort Worth on Christmas Eve." I have to agree with him. Everyone attends worship together (i.e. no nursery) so Jack came into the service with us. He did awesome, and when I told him it was time to stand and sing, he put his little fingers together and started into a very confident rendition of the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

{Adorable.}

After, we came home to eat and open some presents! Our supper consisted of fun holiday foods like party sandwiches, sausage balls, and cookies, then we headed to the Christmas tree where we opened presents from one another.

We figured Santa might like a nice, cold Dr. Pepper on his trip through Texas.
And then we tucked our little guy into his bed together for a good night's rest before Santa came!

Celebrate the Child Who is the Light

I hope you've had a wonderful celebration of the birth of the Savior. We have gathered with both sides of our families, we have worshipped in candlelight, the gifts are unwrapped, and now we are almost home.

I have slept late every day. I have stayed up late almost every night. We've watched every Harry Potter movie released, and Brad's been hunting nearly everyday. It has been peaceful. Now I am just fighting off a cold that I picked up from someone who shall remain nameless.

These photos are from Christmas Eve.


Brad (after opening his new hybrid golf club)

Drew swapping out his old pick guard with the new.
Santa also brought him a winning lotto scratch off.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Monday night was our annual Gentry family Christmas gift exchange. I probably should give it some clever name rather than GFCGE, but that can wait for another year, I suppose. By Gentry family, I mean Brad and me.

Our tradition is to go out for dinner, then come home and open presents, but this year, we decided it was way too cold. We'd rather just stay home until it warms up a little bit (which yay, it has.) But this girl wasn't about to mess up her kitchen, so I brought home dinner from Celebration, one of our favorite restaurants over in Big D, and dessert from Tart, one of my fave-o bakeries.

Imagine my delight to see in the midst of our presents that Santa had heard my whining about my broken camera and seen fit to bring us a new one. And it's exactly what we/I wanted--imagine that! That Santa--he's good.

P.S. At some point between my childhood and now, it appears that Santa has begun having the elves wrap the presents. Does he (or did he) do that at your house? On Christmas mornings of yore, Drew's and mine were laid out, unwrapped.

Christmas Weekend No. 3

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been intermittently taking vacation on Friday to use up my remaining days. This year I received a third week of vacation, and after rationing only two weeks for the past five years, it seems like I just had a whole lot of vacation days this year. No complaints from me--it has been lovely to have a day here and there of no expectation from anyone. That being said, I took Friday as a "me" day.

Friday evening, we left for Texarkana to have Christmas with Brad's family. (And when I say we left for Texarkana, we left a sparkling, spotless house. All gifts were wrapped. The laundry was completely done--even the special care stuff. Even the pile of clothes in the bedroom was conquered. Can you tell I am a wee bit proud of myself and my "me" day?)

Saturday half of Brad's family came to town for gift exchanging and lunch. Even Penny Lane got a present (from Brad's cousin, the veterinarian!) One gift I received was the Martha Stewart Cooking School book. On first glance it looks great--it teaches you "how to" do all sorts of things, like how to carve a turkey, roast a tenderloin, make a white sauce, etc. When I added it to my wish list I had no idea it had all the good information I'm seeing inside.

While we had a nice trip, we did make a sad visit by the hospital to see his grandfather. Thursday night he was admitted due to some chest pain. He had an angiogram Monday morning, and the prognosis was not favorable. He will not be having surgery, and for now, he is comfortable and resting. We would be so blessed if you would pray with us for Mr. Gentry and the rest of our family during this time.

After church and a lot of Mexican food, we helped do some cleaning at the Gentry grandparents' home to help get it ready for Mr. Gentry to come home from the hospital (he and the Mrs. are nearing their 90s). We headed west around 4 to be back for the two day work week.

I could get used to the two day work week.

Christmas Weekend No. 1

Reflecting on everything we did this weekend, I would say it was incredibly busy, but every event was something I was super excited about, therefore, it was relatively relaxing one. Does that even make any sense?

Friday evening we started out with our Sunday school department's Christmas party. It was a fun time to catch up with friends--it seemed like we hadn't seen anyone in forever since we were out for Thanksgiving and the wedding the week prior to it.

Saturday was a wonderful day for sleeping late. I made breakfast, did some of the never-ending laundry, and picked up in the house before heading out for shopping. Let me pause for a moment to say that considering how bad traffic was on Saturday, I absolutely will be finalizing my Christmas shopping on the weekdays or online. I don't see the downturn in the economy with the number of people out and about.

That evening we dressed up and headed to downtown Dallas for my office Christmas party. It was fabulous, and I even won a prize in the raffle!

Finally on Sunday we spent the day at church. I help with pre-school choir on Wednesday nights, and their Christmas Cookie Theater performance was last night. They are SO cute and keep me stitches. They sang two songs, and then dressed up and acted out the nativity scene during two other songs. I can't decide what was more entertaining--when "Mary" looked up at me and asked "Will you carry the baby Jesus in? I'm TOO tired," or when we noticed that the "donkey" (yes we had a donkey costume) had gotten tired and decided to rest on the manger. They are absolutely precious. The hour I spend with them each Wednesday is one of the most hectic yet rewarding times I have all week.

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season!

Over the River...

Family Christmas Photo 2007
We've got a quick break between holiday happenings, so I thought I'd take the time to blog about what we've been up to.

We started our Christmas holiday in Corsicana with my family. Friday night my mom had most of the family up to the house on the hill for a fiesta. Saturday morning we got up and ran some last minute Christmas errands, like buying some Christmas presents (whoops) and getting our nails done, you know--the essentials. We picked up pizza at Cici's because we like it and went home to watch the Cowboys. During halftime, we opened our fabulous gifts from one another, which was so much fun!

Sunday night we drove over to Athens to see Santa's Wonderland, a family tradition. My favorite part of the entire land 'o lights would have to be the Lochness Monster (who knew ole Nessy celebrated the birth of Jesus?), a real live Grinch locked up in jail, and the random unidentifiable objects as you exit the park. The family consensus is that they must be Christmas light experiments gone bad. Or else they tried to simulate a giant amoeba. This year during the hour drive through the park, we played "guess the artist singing the Christmas song" (Dad got XM satellite radio from Santa), and I won y'all! I would say, "In your face, Brad," but then that wouldn't be very nice, would it?

Cold night at Santa's Wonderland
Santa and the Loch Ness Monster
Not too sure why ET needed to phone home at Santa's Wonderland

We left Christmas eve to see Brad's family and had a nice holiday with them, and now we're home. For 15 hours. Our NYC-bound flight leaves extremely early tomorrow, so I am in a rush to get the laundry and my packing done. New York, here we come!

From Our House to Yours...

Love,
The Gentrys

Not For Consumption

I am 27 years old and just made my first gingerbread house last week at Laura's gingerbread party. I'm pretty proud of it, and my family's tired of hearing about it, so now I'm bringing it to the blog...

Apples for Christmas

At this early stage of our marriage, we are still attempting to make it over the river and through the woods to both families at Christmastime. At the same time we like to celebrate Christmas between just the two of us so, every year we choose the best night of the week before we leave on the Christmas pilgrimage to celebrate Christmas. It's pretty much a Christmas date night. Due to other activities this week, tonight was that night!

After a fabulous fajita dinner for two at Los Vaqueros, we came home where our lovely tree greeted us in the window. And then, we exchanged presents. Brad got an iPod classic! Now that he's done with school, he has time for modern technology.

And as for me...well, I scored big time!

What could it be?
A MacBook!
My very own MacBook! Thank you Santa!