Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas everyone. We trust you had a blessed celebration of Jesus' birth!

It was a fun and busy Christmas season for us. We had a lot of fun with plenty of parties and celebration. We hosted one Christmas party and attended five others in the course of two weeks.

Landon had his first ever Christmas program (at his pre-K). Here he is with his two teachers, Miss Miller and Mrs. Osborn. (Note that he tucked in his sweater because he was so proud of his new-to-him belt and wanted everyone to see he was wearing it.)



And this is him before the program with his "best friend," Peyton and, of course, with his mommy...




And our little performer seemed to really enjoy putting on a performance.



We hosted our Christmas party for the church class we co-teach, First5, and it included a white elephant gift exchange. As usual, the gag gifts ranged from the terrible re-gift to the hilarious to the provocative. Photos were taken of each couple in front of the Christmas tree, including us...



Kathryn's older sister, Karen, and her family spent a few days with us around Christmas during their move from Austin, TX to San Diego. Our boys were at least as excited to have their dog, Bear, with us as they were to have their cousins, aunt, and uncle.

Our church had a Christmas program with trucked-in snow hills for sledding, horse-drawn hay rides, and lots of games and food. We also attended Christmas eve services with Karen and her family. At one point we had four lit candles in the hands of four children ranging from 4-10 years old. Luckily it was only for one song and then they were put out before any fires broke out.

Christmas morning brought much excitement, though not enough excitement to affect our boys' sleep. We finally broke down and woke them up at about 8:30 a.m. when there were no signs of movement! They enjoyed all their gifts with the big hits seeming to be their NASCAR driver shirts, legos vehicles, remote controlled dogs, electric racetrack, and going to the store with Grandma and her cash! On hand for Christmas in addition to our immediate family, were Rick's mom, Kathryn's mom, Kathryn's two sisters, Karen and Kerry, and Karen's family Lee, Elizabeth, and Jonathan. And of course their dog, Bear! Here are a few scenes from Christmas morning:

Landon

Keaton

Hudson

All 3



With Aunt Kerry


Aunt Kerry also organized a "Noodle Hockey" showdown using the pool "noodle" toys as hockey sticks and a ball instead of a puck between our family and Kathryn's sister's family. Well into the game there was a collision between Kathryn's brother-in-law, Lee, and his eight-year old son, Jonathan. Unfortunately the crown of Jonathan's head hit Lee right on the bone above his eye which split his skin open. It was only about one inch but Rick took Lee to Mayo and gave him three stitches. Not exactly the picture we had for the ending of the first ever Noodle Hockey challenge. The important thing was that our Gray family won!

Latest Gray Family Update

For those of you seeing this on Facebook, you can see this in it's original form at our blog here.

It's been way too long since our last family update. So plenty of catching up to do...

The boys had a lot of fun the rest of the summer. We did lots of swimming in the pool and even had a slip and slide set up in the back yard a lot. Here they are in their matching "I Went to Michigan Shirts."



Being home together all summer resulted in nothing but joyful playing together, never any fighting or stealing of each other's toys (ya right!)



One of our neighborhood churches had a fun day for children that we went to. They had fire trucks and police cars. Hudson and Landon got to spray a fire hose. They had blow-up bouncers and water slides as well as a petting zoo. Hudson and Landon also went on little horseback rides (we couldn't talk Keaton into it)...



Kathryn had the boys on a program of one new adventure every week this summer. They went to the Phoenix Children's museum, the Arizona Science Center, the Railroad Park, and of course the Phoenix Zoo...



In August, Hudson started school back up in the first grade. He likes his first grade teacher, Miss Schweikert. At the end of school last year, Kathryn asked Hudson if he preferred any particular first grade teacher and he said Miss Schweikert. But when asked why he wanted her for his teacher, he just shrugged and said, "I don't know." When Kathryn went to the parent teacher meeting before the school year started, however, she found that among the first grade teachers were two women in their 40's and one young, single, blonde: Miss Schweikert. We still don't know for sure that he picked her because he thought she was pretty, but it sure seems suspicious. He's done great in first grade and has started taking his book-writing to a new level - his last two books were fully illustrated and at least 25 pages each (Dog and Bear Become Friends and The Little Panda). Here's Hudson on his first day of school this year...



Landon started pre-K this year at La Casa de Cristo preschool. We've long said "Wait 'till they get a load of Landon..." and it's been true. Landon is Mr. Social and arives at the school campus and walks through greeting all the children around: "Hey, Peyton, how's it goin' today?" He loves pre-K and is doing very well; here he is on his first day of school...



And Keaton is growing like a weed. He's really starting to talk a lot more and put together longer sentences. He's quite a joker and likes to say strange things followed by "I tease!" Of course with his brothers at school, he gets away with more things with Mommy like having big lolly-pops...



Hudson turned seven in September and we had a fun birthday party. He had several friends to Chuck E Cheeses for pizza, cake, and games. He enjoyed the party and opening presents later at home...






In October, it was announced that Rick is being inducted into the Otsego County (MI) Sports Hall of Fame (article here). The induction ceremony will be in February 2010.

Halloween brought lots of fun. Hudson dressed up as a surgeon, Landon as Buzz Lightyear, and Keaton as a Michigan State basketball player (but on the actual Halloween night it was too cold for shorts and a tank top - even in Arizona). We spent the night at a neighborhood church's Harvest Festival where there were lots of games, bouncers, and candy. Here's the family there...



Landon also had a harvest festival at school and they went to a local farm. Here he is in his farmer outfit for school...



Keaton has taken over Hudson's first PowerWheels jeep and turns out to be a good driver. One day he decided to wear his bicycle helmet to go for a drive...



Hudson's school had a pajama and sleeping bag movie night (Monsters versus Aliens) a few weeks ago. Hudson, Landon, and Kathryn had a good time...



As most of you know, Hudson is very into cars. Over the past year he and Landon have gotten very into NASCAR racing. They watch races on DVR and have their favorite drivers. Hudson can even name many of the crew chiefs for the major drivers' teams. So in November, Rick took Hudson and Landon to Phoenix International Raceway for the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500. They took their earplugs and braved the crowds. They sat on the "Hillside" where you bring your own chairs and sit on an elevated area overlooking the track.

The crowd was great with so many people excited to see young boys at the race and trying to make their experience a good one. There were no obnoxious people or drunks as Rick had worried might be the case. And as a bonus, Landon's favorite driver finished first and Hudson's favorite driver finished second!



By about mile 300 of the race, Landon fell fast asleep! Amazing with how noisy it was...



We're all looking forward to Christmas and are thankful for all God's blessings. We appreciate those that have been praying for Rick's sister Bonnie. She received her stem-cell transplant for her Leukemia and is doing very well. They had planned to keep her near the cancer center for 50-100 days but she was able to go home by day 52. So far no problems with graft versus host disease so we're very thankful.

Merry Christmas to all of you and we'll certainly post Christmas pictures in December.