Cookies, Cocoa, and Camels

Kim or Matt driving to Tallahassee alone: 7 hours
Random Cates family trip to Tallahassee: 8.5 hours
Our 2007 Christmas trip back home from Tallahassee: 10 hours *PRICELESS*

We had a nice time in Tallahassee with Matt's family. The weather was chilly, and the kids had a lot of playtime outdoors (until Uncle Todd convinced Ethan that there were snakes in the play area-yeah, thanks Turd.) Christmastime in Tallahassee is really beautiful. Tallahassee is beautiful anytime of the year, but it is especially beautiful during the holidays. Yes, our trip took way too long coming home, but we made it safely. Here are some pictures from our trip:


On our way to church on Sunday, we couldn't help but see the big sign advertising the church's "Night Before Christmas" service. The sign said cookies, cocoa and camels. It didn't exactly say it like that, but that's my interpretation of it. There was one camel and lots of cookies.


The new additions to our toy family: Raggedy Ann and Andy that Matt's mom made for the kids. So cute! (Although Matt and his dad weren't sure why the boy needed a doll. Who cares? Andy is adorable!)


Grandma Rosie (age 91!) still going strong and posing with the great-grandchildren.


The Brothers Cates and their lovely wives


Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids


See Susie! The flashlights were a hit! I even tried it on...


Look at Kenzie striking a pose. And Ethan is doing his best imitation of a ninja.


Decorating the tree with Grandma and Grandpa


Cates Family Picture


Two Christmas monkeys


We got a puppy for Christmas! NOT!!! Patches belongs to Caitlin and Duncan.


The Cates cousins together again after one crazy week during the summer.

Jingle Bell Jog

And they're off! The kids at Mack's school had their annual Jingle Bell Jog today. Everyone donned their jingle bells and tennis shoes and waited anxiously for the run to begin. They dismissed one grade level at a time starting with fifth grade, and it was a little weird seeing the big kids take off running. If I was their teacher, I'd be afraid they would deliberately miss the first turn around the cones and keep running. (But maybe that wouldn't be so bad for certain students to run away.) It finally came time for the little kindegartners to dash away and that's exactly what they did.

A bit of a slow start...


There she goes! Future track star??


Santa Paws even showed up.

Speaking of dashing away, we're packing up the sleigh and heading for Tallahassee this afternoon. We hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Mack's Holiday Program

The kindegarten classes held their Holiday Program at school today. It was so cute! Mackenzie kept telling me that they were singing the Dreidel song and Light the Candles song. I thought maybe we had enrolled her in the local David Posnack center until I got to the school and saw the program. All the other classes were singing holly jolly Christmas songs and her class was singing the only 2 Hanukkah songs.

All the kids were adorable. In one class all the kids wore reindeer antlers.



In another class all the kids wore Santa hats.



My kid's class wore giant paper dreidels around their necks!



What the heck? I was distracted from their cute little performance because I couldn't stop thinking about Flava Flav. (Google him. Then you'll understand.)



On a serious note, they did a very nice job. She was very excited about being in the program and they even had their Christmas party in class today too. It was a super fun day in kindegarten! "Today was the best day ever!" ~Mackenzie

Santa on a Firetruck...again

Another neighborhood event! We had a Christmas party with our neighbor friends last night, and guess what! Santa showed up on a fire truck! (Sound familiar?) Yes, he showed up last year too and the year before that. The kids were so excited to see him, and he even had presents for each of them! While we waited for him we enjoyed games such as Pin the Nose on Rudolph, Make the Daddies into Christmas Trees, and Dress up. Loads of Christmas fun!

The White Stuff

The unthinkable has happened. Well, not really. We paid $2 for each kid to roll around in a giant snowcone (i.e.-crushed ice = South Florida's version of snow). They were so excited! We went with our neighbors and all the kids were decked out with their mittens and such. It was quite warm (wow! what a surprise!) and they all chucked their sweatshirts, mittens, hats,etc. aside and rolled up their pants so they could run around comfortably while we waited in a 30 minute line to get to the giant snow cone/"snow". No, seriously. The city put on a nice event because while we waited in line they had a number of tables set up for the kids to play games, make crafts, take pictures with Frosty the very hot man in a very heavy costume, etc. All kidding aside, we had a nice time. Rudolph the very hot man in a very heavy costume even showed up while the kids were playing in the giant snowcone!

A Night at The Nutcracker

Matt and Kenzie went out on a "date" Sunday afternoon. They went to see the Nutcracker. Last year she and I went together to see my cousin perform. She performed again this year, as she does every year, and she stole the show! I wish I could've been there to see it, but Matt and Kenzie had a nice time together. So cute!

Busy Elves

We were busy elves this weekend. I had promised Mack that we would make and decorate cookies so Friday night we started by making the dough. Saturday after gymnastics we cut them out, baked them and decorated them. Needless to say, we were lying around that evening with bellies full of cookies. When I was teaching Matt and I used to get together with some of our teacher friends and use this recipe to bake cookies. It usually took all evening and we would get home close to midnight with tins full of cookies. Here is the recipe:

Christmas Butter Cookies

1 lb. butter
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup brown sugar
5 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs. Add flour and soda slowly. Add vanilla. Refrigerate overnight. Roll out, cut and bake at 350 degrees for about 7 minutes.

Frost with powdered sugar frosting.

Frosting: 1 cup powdered sugar, 1-2 tbsp. milk, vanilla and food coloring

After the bakery closed, we went outside to sell lemonade with the neighbors. They made $3.25. Not too shabby considering they opened shop at sunset... All those 24 hour Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts- Watch out! You might have some competition. teehee

A Magical Night

We surprised the kids with a trip to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party last weekend. But to make the event even more magical, we went with our dear friends, the Rosses. I'm not quite sure how Matt and I were able to keep our big traps shut for over a month, but we did. We met them at their house where Amy made a coffee cake shaped like Mickey Mouse's head. The kids weren't quite sure whether to believe us when we told them where we were going, and Samuel made sure to ask Amy and Chris most of the way to Orlando if it was a joke. Some of my favorite highlights from the trip:


See Samuel's face? He couldn't quite wrap his brain around what we had just announced to them. But when he was sure we weren't joking, he was so excited!!


Serious racers at Lego Land. The kids loved playing with the legos and making their own cars to race. We almost couldn't pull Ethan and Matt away. (He kept dragging us into the store to show us another awesome Star Wars lego statue. Might this be an item on Matt's list for Santa??)


Ethan hard at work.


The stroller rental was free and was a neat perk had Amy and Chris' stroller not been snatched a couple of times throughout the night.


I couldn't get over how absolutely gorgeous the castle looked. It looked like it was encrusted with diamonds! Nobody puts on a party like Disney!


We saw lots of characters in the parade that night. What's a visit to Disney without seeing M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E??


The kids sat right next to the street where the parade went by, and they got lots of waves and James even got a hand shake from one of the dwarfs!! (And, not to mention, a wave from Cinderella! You go James!!)

Along with these things, we enjoyed the hot cocoa and yummy cookies. We walked through a minor blizzard on Main Street, and we didn't wait for more than 5-10 minutes for each ride. The parade made me feel like a 6 year old again, and the kids were so excited to be at Disney World with some of their best friends. It was a priceless time with each other.