Cookies and Christmas-Time

Grandma Casto used to make dozens upon dozens of Christmas cookies - starting in early December and baking every weekend until the Big Day. She'd freeze them - and we'd pull them out of the freezer slowly starting Christmas Eve and they'd last well into January. After Grandma passed away - Kayleigh decided she wanted to do it and we have every year since then. This year - Kayleigh and Paige started with the Snickerdoodles - trying really hard to bake them and keep up with what Daddy was sneaking in to eat behind their backs!! Grandma used to have the same problem with Grandpa too!


Meanwhile - While sneaking snicker-doodles, Daddy was burning the kids their very own Christmas CDs with all their favorites. Little did he know that Paige and Chase would play the Hippo song (I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas) over and over and over! Also on the CD are old favorites like Rudolph, Frosty, and Must Be Santa. Daddy acted like it was a tough job, but we all know that anything to allow him to play with music and burn his own CDs makes him a Happy Camper!!

Chase is really loving Andy being in our family! He is learning to be more affectionate. This is a huge leap for Chase and a tough challenge he's had with the autism. We're very glad we added Andy to the family! Chase loves to take him outside and throw tennis balls to him - he's not a big fan of the balls coming back to him all slobbery though. We always end up with about 10 tennis balls in the grass when it's all over!

Once again - no pictures of Devin. We've threatened him with taking a picture in the middle of the night when he's drooling in his sleep though! So - maybe we'll get some soon. He's loving track season and doing well in school. Being a freshmen this year, he's staying busy with sports, homework, and "hanging with his peeps"!!

We are continually blessed with wonderful kids who are living life to the fullest.

Happy Holidays!!