Christmastime Fun

Here's a Christmas "hello" to Grandma and Grandpa Wood from the Naples Pier:

It was about 80 degrees and Madison loved swimming in the water. Parker loved putting sand in everyone's bags and hair, and chasing the seagulls. Allison was thrilled that Carl (Sarah's cousin's husband) was there to help build a sandcastle and willing to be partially buried in the sand.

The girls were super-excited to be allowed to sleep in the living room with the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. They truly expected to see Santa. Madison is curled up on the couch on the right side of the photo and Allison is sprawled out on the floor on the pink sleeping bag in the center of the photo. (Fortunately, this year there were no 3 a.m. wake-up calls with them letting their parents know that they heard Santa's sleigh bells!)

Parker was thrilled with all the trucks and cars he received. He and his family members were very interested in the track with the motorized cars!

Madison received (amongst a million other things) a Swimming Puppy. She had been saying that she wanted "that" to every commercial that had a toy on it for a month before Christmas, so it was a little difficult to tell what she really, really wanted this year. Sarah was up at school a few days before the break and saw in the hall that all the students in her class had written and page and drawn a picture of the one thing that they really wanted for Christmas. Madison's paper mentioned a "Swimming Puppy." Guess that Sarah really wasn't finished shopping for Christmas when she found herself in a packed parking lot of Wal-Mart to purchase this item...which gave Madison great "glee"!

We have great footage on the video camera of Allison being told by dad that he'd set up a Wii before he left for Iraq. She was also very excited about her crafts, including a weaving loom which she's already started. It's funny how a $250 present (plus $50 games!) gets the same reaction as a $5 craft...lots of fun!