Merry Christmas! December 25, 2016

On Christmas Day, Chase, Mama and Daddy went to aunt Becca's and Uncle Stan's house in the morning to exchange presents. They in the afternoon they went out to Wentzville to have Christmas dinner with Grandma Pat and the rest of Daddy's family. On Christmas evening, Nanaw went over to Chase's house to see all his presents from Santa. He got Play Dough town, Thomas the Train's Sky High Bridge Jump, four board games, including Chutes and Ladders and Finding Dory. He also got a Spiderman action figure, a big wheels truck, kinetic sand, Marble Run, Karaoke Radio, and lots and lots more. Nanaw took pictures of her kitties with their Christmas stocking and Chase in his new Batman robe and Batman jammies. Mama posted a special montage of three pictures on Facebook of Chase at Christmas time wearing extremely similar Santa jammies. As a special treat, Mama and Nanaw had vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, whipped cream and pecans. Chase had orange ice cream with whipped cream. Daddy declined. The last picture below was posted to Facebook by both Mama and Aunt Becca -- it's Chase and Noelle two years ago.

Merry Christmas Eve! Saturday, December 24, 2016

Mama came over to Nanaw's house while Chase and Daddy went to 5 o'clock Mass on Christmas Eve. Mama and Nanaw went to Schnucks to get the ingredients for fruit salad, and everybody started arriving for Christmas Eve dinner before they got back to Nanaw's house. For dinner, they had delicious Kentucky Fried Chicken (or KFC as it's now known). Chase was so excited about his Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage from Nanaw. Chase and Daddy spent a lot of the evening in Chase's room with Daddy putting together the garage. There were 14 around the table -- JJ, Jon-Jon and Kaylynn, the grandkids' significant others, weren't there. Cheyenne and Sam came for the celebration and had a great time. Charlie was downstairs and Taylor was hiding under Nanaw's bed. Chase got a Mousetrap game from Uncle Mike, and he wanted to play it right away but Mama said he had to wait till later. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration. Unfortunately, Nanaw forgot to take any pictures -- so Aunt Becky sent her one of Cheyenne in a Santa hat, and Mama sent Nanaw a picture of Chase in his Santa pajamas at home on Christmas Eve just before he fell sound asleep.

Friday, December 23, 2016

On Friday, Chase had two adventures: going to the Train House and having Jackson come over to his house in the evening for a combination celebration in honor of Chase's birthday and Christmas. Chase and Nanaw planned to go to the 10:30 a.m. Creation Station session at the Train House but it was sold out. So they decided to just watch the train display instead of going to the Creation Station. But first, they went in to say hello to Miss Linda. She was very happy to see them and thanked Nanaw for her holiday card and the picture of Chase. Miss Linda told Nanaw that she'd sent a card to her and wrote her a message so Nanaw is looking forward to getting that. While Chase and Nanaw were watching the trains, one of the train engineer volunteers took them "behind the scenes" to see how the trains work. Chase was very excited about that and got to see lots of trains and controls. On the way home, Chase and Nanaw took a detour to Baptist Church Road to see an outdoor Bumble decoration that a friend of Nanaw's told her about. In the evening, Nanaw joined Chase, Mama, Daddy, Jackson, Aunt Jen and Uncle Joe for the combination birthday / Christmas celebration. Mama fixed chicken in the crockpot, and Chase had a wonderful hockey Blues birthday cake. Nanaw played downstairs with the boys, and Aunt Jen put together downstairs the Star Wars tent that Uncle Will-Bill gave Chase for his birthday. Everybody had a wonderful time.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Thursday's adventure was another trip to the Magic House (even thought they'd gone there on Tuesday with Mama for Chase's birthday. It was the first time Chase and Nanaw have gone to the Magic House in twice in the same week. First thing in the morning, Nanaw asked Chase what he wanted to do that day. She told him they would do whatever he wanted to do, and he chose the Magic House. Before they left, Chase and Nanaw played with the toy Chase brought along with him to Nanaw's house -- the new Play Dough toy he got for his birthday. The toy, called Play Dough Crazy Cuts has doll heads who have Play Dough hair. At the Magic House, their first stop, of course, was the tech room -- whose official name is Future Play. Their favorite lady wasn't there but fortunately they saw her in the rock area later. Chase had a great time in Future Play making airplanes and houses for the wall. He also played for awhile with the musical balls. He also played with Legos in the craft area, and then went to the vet with his stuffed Chase and "treated" him. He played in the grocery store and checked out lots of groceries. He played in the water works, and then he and Nanaw went upstairs to the pizza place. Chase also shook hands with his buddy, one of the snowmen.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Today was a very exciting day for Chase. First, he took Ninja Turtle cupcakes for his birthday celebration with his class. Mama took the day off work, and she carried the cupcakes into the school; Nanaw went along to get Chase into school. After they took Chase and the cupcakes to school, Mama and Nanaw went to Rural King so Mama could get a gift card for Daddy for Christmas. She also got a McDonald's gift card for Chase to give to Daddy. In the afternoon, Mama and Nanaw went back to school for Chase's Nativity play. They sat with Brady's mom and grandma and sister Emma. The play was absolutely wonderful and everyone was so cute. There was a stable and three inns (Days Inn, Holiday Inn and Comfort Inn. Chase was innkeeper #2 at the Holiday Inn. He said his lines beautifully. One of the teachers held a microphone in front of each performer as they said their lines, so you could hear them. After the play, cookies and hot cocoa were served. Chase and Brady and a bunch of other children ran around the gym for a really long time. When Chase, Mama and Nanaw got home, Chase wanted to do the "three options." Mama had told him he had three options for activities after school: 1. his new Play Dough Crazy Cuts where doll heads have Play Dough hair; 2 painting the wooden nutcracker; 3. Figuring out the new codeapillar. Nanaw stayed for options 1 and 2 but left before option 3.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Happy 5th Birthday to the greatest bug in the world. Mama, Chase and Nanaw had a day filled with adventures for Chase's 5th birthday. First, they went to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, something that's become an annual tradition on Chase's birthday. Next, they went to see the Christmas display at Handyman Hardware, where Mama bought Nanaw a flashlight for Christmas. Next, they went to Burlington where Mama bought herself some sweaters and a winter coat. Then they did the big adventure of the day: going to the Magic House. They spent two hours there, playing in all the areas that Chase loves most. He enjoyed showing Mama all his favorites, and he had a great time serving as her tour guide. For lunch, they went to the "tunnel McDonald's next to Telegraph Road Walmart. Before dinner, Chase had a great time opening his birthday presents. He got a Kindle Fire from Daddy with lots of apps and games installed. He got a mini train racetrack from Mama. Nanaw gave Chase a Codeapillar and a huge Batman / Superman toy. Daddy, Mama, Chase and Nanaw went to Steak and Shake for dinner.