Friday, December 22, 2017

On Friday, Mama had the day off from work. Mama, Chase and Nanaw went to the Train House to see the magnificent train display. Unfortunately, Miss Linda was sick, and they didn't get to see her. Miss Lynn couldn't tell Nanaw what is wrong with Miss Linda but she asked Nanaw to keep her in her prayers. The Train House had new scavenger hunt pages, and Mama, Chase and Nanaw had fun finding all the things on them. Chase did a really good job and was very excited about the scavenger hunt -- he loves scavenger hunts. Mama got him a scavenger hunt game for Christmas that he's really going to like. The train display was better than ever, with a lot of new houses and trains. On Friday evening. Mama, Daddy and Chase went to Aunt Becca's and Uncle Stan's house for their Christmas celebration. Chase got two wonderful games from them for Christmas: Googley Eyes and Operations Minions.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

On Thursday morning, Chase and Nanaw went to visit Mama and her boss, Ann, at work. It was very exciting seeing Mama's desk all decorated for Christmas. Chase was immediately fascinated with the crash dummies Mama had on her desk. Chase played with them and had so much fun. Mama promised to bring them home so he could play with them again. Mama, Ann, Chase and Nanaw went to the fancy café at Mama's work for lunch. They have an enormous selection of food. Mama, Ann and Chase all had pizza. Nanaw had Caesar salad and fruit -- it was all yummy. Nanaw took Chase's picture in front of a huge Christmas tree in the Wells café. Mama brought home the two crash dummies from work and got out the two that she had at home. Chase had a wonderful time playing with them. In the evening, Mama, Daddy, Chase and Nanaw went for a drive around Columbia looking at the Christmas lights and had a wonderful time. The Christmas tree light drive around has become an annual tradition.

Happy Birthday, Chase -- Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Wednesday was Chase's 6th birthday. The day finally arrived. Chase has been doing a countdown for weeks now. Mama took the day off so she took Chase to school. At 12:30, Mama and Nanaw took Chase's birthday cupcakes to his class. For about an hour, Mama and Nanaw had a wonderful fun time helping the boys and girls make a zebra headband, make Christmas cars and color a Nativity scene. When they were done with the activities, everybody went out on the playground and sat on the curb by the statue of Mary and had their cupcakes. It was really cute. For dinner, they went to their usual Chase birthday dinner place: Steak n Shake. Mama thought they were going to Chuck E Cheese next, but Chase changed his mind and wanted to go home and open the presents from Nanaw. He had already opened his presents from Mama and Daddy. He got a huge box of crayons and markers, a Perfection game, a Simon musical game, Ninja Turtle figures, a parakeet in a cage that records messages, Power Ranger, a spelling puzzle, and bird house to build and paint. After all the presents were opened, Mama served ice cream cake that was really yummy.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Chase is incredibly excited about his birthday, even more excited than about Christmas. When he got to Nanaw's house on Tuesday morning, he played with his kitchen and the new kitchen things he bought at Dollar Tree on Monday. The little plastic bowl for his toy mixer was missing, and Nanaw said they would have to find it. Chase opened the oven of the kitchen and then sang the announcement music because the bowl was in the oven. What a kid! Nanaw went grocery shopping and bought an 18-pound Mr. Tom Turkey for Christmas dinner -- small enough that she could lift it into the refrigerator -- not like the 24 pound Thanksgiving turkey that everybody had to help her with. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, Mrs. Herrmann told her how excited he was about his birthday tomorrow. On the way home from school, Chase fell asleep in the car. When they got home, Nanaw took him into Pawpaw's room. He laid down on the bed and fell back asleep. Sidney Crosby the Cat jumped up on the bed, curled up next to Chase, and fell asleep. It was very cute. When Nanaw took Chase home, Mama wasn't there. She was at her hair appointment. Daddy said he and Chase were going to the bowling team's Christmas party and that Chase would be playing video games.

Monday, December 18, 2017

Chase is so excited about his birthday. He keeps counting the days till Wednesday, December 20. At Nanaw's house before school, he had fun watching Sidney Crosby the Cat playing with Cranky Crane on the train table (aka the coffee table.) After school, Chase and Nanaw went to Schnuck's to get a My Schnuck's card for Mama so she can donate money to Chase's school when she buys groceries. Next, they went to Dollar Tree -- they haven't been there for awhile. Chase picked out a birthday present for Tee Tee (a red rubber lobster) and a Christmas present for Tee Tee (a game). Nanaw is going to wrap them for Chase. For himself, he selected a frying pan set, plastic fruit and plastic utensils (Nanaw doesn't understand those selections). Then, they went to the library. Chase was very excited to see that there was a scavenger hunt in the children's room. There was a little plastic card with pictures on it. Then, scattered throughout the children's room were matching pictures for the children to find. Chase found all of them and took his card to the main desk and got a candy cane. From the "bending machine" as he calls it, he got a pack of animal crackers again. When Nanaw took Chase home, Theresa was there with presents for him: an R2D2 bank, a BB8, a Dark Vader shirt and another Star Wars shirt (they may be pajama tops -- Nanaw isn't sure).

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Mama says Chase went to church with Daddy today, then spent a lot of time playing with Roblox on his tablet. She says Daddy and Chase also went outside to play for awhile. Nanaw came over for dinner -- delicious homemade onion soup with floating bread and cheese -- yummy. After dinner, Mama, Chase and Nanaw played his new Mario Monopoly Gamer game. They were having lots of fun until Mama asked Chase for two of his coins. He got mad about that and flipped the game board over, effectively ruining the game. Mama sent Chase to his room, and then went in to have a talk with him about the proper way to play games. After a while, Chase came out of his room, and he and Daddy went downstairs to play ball. Nanaw had some of Chase's birthday cake and drumstick ice cream. Chase took a bath but Nanaw got her bye-bye kiss first. The first picture below is one that Mama posted on Facebook of her, Jackson and Chase in Santa hats.

Saturday, December 16, 2017

On Saturday, Mama, Daddy and Chase went out to Grandma Pat's in Wentzville for a double celebration: Chase's 6th birthday party and a visit from Uncle Tim, Daddy's brother, from Arkansas. For his birthday, Chase got a Mario Monopoly game Grandma Pat. On Saturday evening, Nanaw, Chase and Jackson played the game and it's really interesting and a lot different from the regular Monopoly game. Jackson and his mom and dad came to visit and to celebrate Christmas together. For dinner, they had Papa Murphy's pizza and salad. The boys made their own, and it was cute to watch. Chase and Jackson play really well together. Besides Monopoly, they played with Chase's action figures and their new Christmas presents. Chase got Santa jammies, a Don't Break the Ice game, and five, really cool Star War figures. Chase's birthday cake was super: a Ninja Turtle cake with a Ninja Turtle candle Mama bought on Amazon. There were two kinds of ice cream: cookie dough and drumstick. Later in the evening, Jackson and Chase were downstairs dancing to pop music from Mama's Just Dance DVD. They did a really good job dancing and were wonderful to watch. On her way out, Nanaw noticed that Jen had antlers on her car; she took a picture and texted it to Mama.