Happy New Year's Eve! Thursday, December 31, 2015

On New Year's Eve morning, Nanaw went to Chase's house to stay with him while Mama went shopping and took Sam for a walk. Nanaw and Chase went to Walmart, and Nanaw bought Chase a Spiderman who shoots a web and a Lighning McQueen and Mater to stay at Nanaw's house. Mama gave Nanaw money to buy Chase a package of mini trains that contained a Thomas -- Mama wanted Chase's mini train collection to have a Thomas. In the evening, Nanaw went over to Chase's house to spend New Year's Eve there with Mama, Daddy, Chase and Uncle Will Bill. Aunt Becca and Uncle Stan stopped by to bring Christmas presents. Chase got a Star Wars sticker book and a Star Wars toy. Chase drank some of Nanaw's non-alcohol strawberry daiquiris and some of her no-alcohol champagne. He kept saying I want strawberry daiquiri and I want champagne -- it sounded very disturbing. Mama made lots of delicious party food: meatballs, Little Smokies, Rotel dip, rye bread pizzas and eggnog. Nanaw brought shrimp and Uncle Will bill brought chicken wings from Top Shooters (not Hooters because of traffic jams caused by the flooding. Nanaw got to give Chase his bath, and she was happy about that -- he's delightful playing in the bath tub. Chase went to bed about 10:30 (very ate for him) and Nanaw went home then -- he's always the main draw for Nanaw.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Mama had the day off from work, and she, Chase, and Nanaw had two adventures together. First, they went shopping at Walmart. To Chase's delight, Mama said it was a "toy day" at Walmart. Mama bought Chase a Thomas "Skiffer" boat and four miniature Thomas trains. Mama bought food for New Year's Eve. They're staying home and invited Nanaw and Will's Uncle Will Bill to join them. Nanaw is going to bring shrimp -- despite the fact that Mama despises any kind of seafood. On the way for their second adventure, they stopped at Schnucks (where Chase was happy to ride in the "car cart") to buy rye bread for the rye bread pizzas that Mama is making for New Year's Eve. She's also going to make meatballs, Little Smokies and Rotel dip. Uncle Will Bill is bringing wings from Hooters. Nanaw is looking forward to all the yummy food. The second adventure was having lunch with Mama's friend Becky from work and Becky's two children, Kole and Taylor. Kole is in sixth grade and Taylor is in third grade. Chase was so happy to have a boy and "gril" to play with. They had lunch at a restaurant called "The Office" in Red Bud, the town close to where Becky lives. Taylor and Chase sat next to each other and played with the toy cars and trains Chase brought with him. They also watched videos on the her iPod. Kole talked to them a bit but he was more interested in the adults' conversation. It was a fun day for everyone, but especially Chase.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Tuesday morning, Chase discovered one of his old toys, a racing car ramp. He gathered up 10 or so hot wheels cars and had a grand time racing them on the ramp. He had Nanaw racing the cars also, and they had fun playing together. Chase and Nanaw went to the Train House again for their last visit of the year to the train displays. The Creation Station sessions were all sold out so Chase and Nanaw spent all their time watching the trains. Chase got popcorn again and ate the whole thing, not sharing with Nanaw. They said good-bye to David, one of the volunteers who mans the displays and also works on the trains. He said he also drives the trolley during nice weather so maybe Chase and Nanaw will see him when they ride the trolley. Chase and Nanaw will miss the train displays. But they'll be back next year. Chase was excited about the evening's adventure: He and Mama were going to visit Auntie LaLa, and Chase would get to play with little Will, maybe in their fabulous attic that's filled with toys -- one of Chase's favorite places.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Chase and Nanaw had an important adventure on Monday -- they went to the Train House for the second to last time to see the train displays (they're planning to go again on Tuesday). The Train House starts taking down the displays Wednesday night. Chase watched the trains for a few minutes before going into the Creation Station to see Miss Linda and play with the train tables. Miss Linda was happy to see Chase and Nanaw and thanked Nanaw for the card and picture of Chase with Santa. She put together a packet of crafts for Chase to take home to do with Nanaw. Chase played with the train tables and took all the wooden blocks out of the cabinet. He and Nanaw built some towers and walls, and then Nanaw and Miss Linda put the blocks away. Chase and Nanaw also played with the magnetic truck pieces and put together some awesome-looking unusual trucks. After the Creation Station, Nanaw bought popcorn and Chase watched the trains for awhile longer. It was a wonderful visit to the Train House.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Chase had two family adventures on Sunday. First, he and Daddy went out to Grandma Pat's house in Wentzville to visit with Aunt Kate and Aunt Ginny who were here visiting from Tennessee. Then he and Daddy went to aunt Karen's house in Lake St. Louis to join Mama and Nanaw and the rest of the family for another Christmas celebration. Chase had a great time playing with his cousins Mila, Gabe and Sam. They had major light saber fights, and fortunately, no one got hurt. He got a really cool Storm Trooper costume (with a light saber) from Aunt Karen. He got a dinosaur from Aunt Joan and a superhero with a motorcycle from Mila and Gabe.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Nanaw went to visit Chase first thing on Saturday. They played with lots of his toys, including the Millennium Falcon, the pet taxi, and his little robots. They went downstairs and played with the train set that Nanaw bought for Chase two years ago. It was a lot of fun playing with it. Daddy had put it together again Saturday morning, and Chase had spent a lot of time playing with it. Mama and Nanaw went shopping at Hallmark because Mama wanted to buy this year's featured Christmas decoration. Unfortunately, Hallmark was sold out of them. Mama was disappointed but when they got back to Mama's house, she ordered it online from Amazon and was happy again. Chase was sitting in the "chair train" with Daddy, playing his YouTube Kids videos on Daddy's iPad. He loves those videos and would watch them forever if Daddy would let him.