The Holidays

Another year of Holidays have come and gone. We were hoping to spend Thanksgiving in St. Louis with Uncle Dave and Aunt Sheen but David had to work so we stayed in town. We celebrated at Tee and Uncle Ezra's house with everyone in the family. So much food....but you ate a lunchable. Typical Lathan!

With every year, Christmas becomes more and more magical. You were amazed by the christmas lights this year - If someone did not decorate their house with christmas lights, you would say "They are not in the christmas spirit - Santa Clause will not find their house." Good thing your Daddy is completely obsessed with Christmas lights so we certainly did not have to worry about Santa Clause finding our house...our house lights up the whole neighborhood. The lady across the street tells us that she does not need a porch light this time of year because of house ;) Every year we add more and more Christmas decorations too...enough is just never enough!

Boy did Santa Clause take care of you this year!!!! You have more toys than we have room for actually.... lots and lots of Hot Wheels tracks, lots of toys, even more toys, and even more Hot Wheels tracks. Good thing we have the room in our basement to set them all up. Uncle David had to work on Christmas so they were not going to make it back until the day after Christmas, so our Christmas Day was pretty relaxing. We woke up and opened Christmas presents at our house - It was such a wonderful morning to see the happiness in your eyes. You ran from your stocking to the presents, from the cookie plate to see if Santa had eaten them to the chimney door that Santa had left over when he came inside. You were amazed by all of the presents and everything that Christmas morning had brought. After our Christmas morning together, Tee, Uncle Ezra, the girls, and Poppy came over to our house for a Christmas brunch. Mama had made an overnight breakfast casserole and crock pot hot cocoa, Tee made biscuits and gravy, and Poppy brought huge cinnanom rolls. So much food. We sat around and ate, played Christmas bingo for lots of Christmas prizes that Poppy had bought and sang a lot of Christmas karaoke. Around 3:30 we went to Grandma Bye's house for the Rodriguez Christmas gift exchange. It was the first Christmas without Poppy's mom - Grandma Kathy - GG so it felt kind of strange not celebrating there but I know that she was with us in spirit...just like my mama, Poppy Tino, and Rocky and Macoy always are. We spent the night relaxing at home and playing with your millions of toys.

The next day, Uncle David and Aunt Sheena finally made it to town! We got to celebrate Christmas at Poppy's and holy moly....were you spoiled AGAIN! It is always so great to have the whole family together (plus our guardian angel, Ma.) You got so many super awesome gifts including a HotWheels Ultimate Garage to hold your million cars, the fastest remote controlled race car EVER, and these amazing shoes that light up. Poppy found them on the internet - They are not like the normal light up shoes that light up when you step down....these are crazy colored shoes that are always lit up and need to be charged through a USB cord. I can not even tell you the number of people that have stopped us and asked where your shoes came from. They are quite the hit!!!

Over the next week, we spent a lot of quality time with Uncle David and Aunt Sheena. We had not gotten to see them since August so we certainly took advantage of the time that they were here. Mama had two weeks off from work, so we had lots and lots of cuddle time, snuggle time, play time, and rest and relaxation.

We ended 2016 at Tee's house - We thought since it was a special night, you could stay up later than usual. I could not believe that you were not even tired come midnight!!!We came home right after midnight but you did not want to...you wanted to stay even longer. Party animal. 2016 was a good year...you started your second year of preschool, you learned so much and have excelled so much in school, you became very active in church including singing in the children's choir. I'm interested in seeing what 2017 brings for us! :)