Klay Family: The Best Way To Spread Christmas Cheer is Singing Loud for All to Hear!

It's the most wonderful time of the year (they say)... this time of the year is fun, festive, and chaotic for our family. We attempted to drive to the cities for a kid's Christmas party at the country club. Needless to say, the snow layer we received was enough for Daddy's new car to act crazy on the interstate. We had to turn around 45 minutes into our drive. He was not happy, called the dealership to see what the deal was with his car and they recommended snow tires (for the bargain price of $1,000). He wants his truck back now.... Papa and Grandma Sharon, we are sorry we didn't make it to the party, but here is a picture of how handsome we looked. I even had my cowboy boots on.

Cooper LOVES to sing. He memorizes song lyrics and commercials. He can carry a tune and has just the cutest voice (with a bit of a rasp, thanks to his asthma). He was so excited for his music program at preschool. He told us about 100 times that he was going to sing LOUD so we could all hear him. He sang like a lark.

Mommy had an insert foot moment. Cooper is wearing the plaid shirt in the front row- the kid behind him kept grabbing his head and licking him like a dog. Maybe it was because they sang a song about dogs or maybe it was because that kid is "that kid" in his class. Mommy said aloud, "Who is that kid licking Cooper?!?!?" Well what do you know, his Mom was sitting next to her and said, "That's mine." "That" Mom was attempting to do mean faces and hand gestures at her child to make him stop. Mommy was ready to march up to the steps, but she chose to shut her mouth and let Cooper sing, which thankfully he did, wet hair and all.

Our video clips are lengthy from the program, so unfortunately we can't get them to upload. On the other hand, when we were on those dangerous icy roads attempting to get to the cities, Cooper wanted to sing a song. Mom attempted to video this and he wasn't having it. Funny how he suddenly becomes shy when a camera was on him!

Last year, Mom gave Dad this memo board so they could write sweet nothings to each other. It gets used from time to time. I found the stash of markers and made myself useful. I wrote this all by myself one morning (my fine motor, writing, and letter sounds have come so far this year!) and my parents loved it so much. They told me to never erase it (this will get Daddy off the hook for a while).

We do have a fun family and we have a super fun elf! David was found in our Keurig machine this past week, he ziplined across the living room, decorated our tree with our underwear and told Mommy to check her email- Santa had a message for us.

If you have never heard of the Portable North Pole- check it out. The video message was personalized from Santa to me and then Cooper. He talks to us, knows where we live, what we want for Christmas and then tells us either good or bad news. He saves that part for last so that we can sweat it out- we find out if we are on his good list or naughty list. Just look at these pictures and our faces.... can you guess which list we are on this year?

Yep, we are on his good list! Mom said it was probably a close call this year.

We are busy making gifts- this one we couldn't help but post... reinbeer for the director of Cooper's daycare center. He enjoys Leinie's (no wonder why) so we took Hoppin' Helles and turned them into cute reinbeers :) We stuck a pizza gift card in there too which means this guy just got the perfect "man gift."

Last up- our local park for their evening stroll (no cars were allowed to drive through the park for part of the night). Our park is awesome at Christmas! It is borderline tacky (OK)....there are zillions of lights, painted scenes, holiday music and since it was a special night, Santa, Mrs. Claus, candy canes, cocoa and cookies were there too!

Um, Cooper, what are you looking at? Cooper is enamored by the military/soldiers/war and woman right now. He insisted on a photo with this painted tribute. Mommy redirected Cooper and caught this more appropriate photo below.

In the gazebo, there is a huge, beautiful tree. I insisted on a photo inside of the gazebo since that is where I was baptized many years ago. Our church has summer worship in the park once a month, so I was lucky enough to have a special and beautiful place to get baptized. It has pretty much become MY baptism gazebo.