Christmas with a TCU Twist

Creating holiday traditions or even having a fun holiday trip anywhere with my brood of a 2, 4 and 5 year old is dicey these days.  It can be the most fun ever which renews your Christmas spirit.  But more likely than not it can be a colossal disaster which leaves you wondering why you ever left the house and causes you to say loudly things like “Don’t make me tell Santa about your behavior”!

We went into today, 0/3 in our holiday pursuits.  We went and looked at lights in Deerfield and there was arguing from the minute we left and we ended up cutting the exploration of the awesome neighborhood way short.  We attended the Plano Holiday Parade last weekend and there was so much arguing and screaming about who got to sit in the wagon on the walk there and back that it left me more than a little bit of a Grinch.  Last weekend, we also took the kids to experience “Bethlehem Revisited” in Waxahachie, TX.  They recreate the historic city and the nativity story and help you imagine what Mary and Joseph experienced the night of Christ’s birth.  Okay, so maybe that was a little over their heads, but there were real camels and lots of other live animals everywhere for crying out loud.  SOOOO COOL. Again, so much crying and unhappiness.  I left very disillusioned about my kids being able to grasp anything other than “IT’S ALL ABOUT ME ALL THE TIME”.  I began to get dramatic with Sean about how we have screwed up our kids and wondered where we went wrong.

Fast forward a week to an event I’d been looking forward to for over a month…it was the TCU Alumni Holiday Event in Dallas.  It fell right in the middle of nap time so I knew again, I was setting myself up for disaster, but signed up regardless because it involved Santa and gingerbread houses.  It should be a slam dunk.

And I am sooooo happy to report that with 10 days left til Christmas, the tide is turning and maybe just maybe there is hope for some Murphy Christmas spirit afterall.

We headed to Royal Oaks country club and the kids were very impressed with the shrubbery in the shape of the initials of the club.

After a quick stop by Santa’s workshop, we got busy right away building an incredible TCU Gingerbread house.

Our before product:

EVERYTHING was edible, so have no doubt all the kids sampled just about everything that went on the house.  This was the first time I had actually made a gingerbread house so I’m assuming that is just these things go down.  It was so fun to see the kids have so many ideas on what would work where.  TCU also supplied some awesome supplies so I feel like we were set up for success.

Our finished product with its two main architects:

After all the hard work was done, it was time to relax with Santa.  Each kid took a turn and had a few words for our favorite guy in red.  Part of me wished Santa had worn a purple Santa suit for the TCU event, but it probably would have just confused all the kids.  But it would have been the coolest ever.

Bauer had no qualms about jumping up on stage to visit Santa.  He told him about the golden engine, car track and angry birds everything on his list.

Bree was so excited to see Santa and then promptly forgot how to speak.  We had to remind her of everything on her list!

Bennett was pretty much over Santa before we even asked him if he wanted to talk to him.  But we got a cute little smile out of him in the end :)

Family pic:

They had these really cute sparkly purple Santa hats on the registration table…I couldn’t help but put them on me and my kids!

I wanted to ask Santa if he would give me a potty trained 4 year old named Bauer for Christmas.  But I realize, even he can’t work miracles :)

Couldn’t resist getting a few cute pics of the boys!  They looked so grown up in their button down shirts and khaki pants!

And lastly, the triumphant parents who will take this victory and call it a Christmas season.  Well, we may still try for Northpark trains.  Because what would be the fun in leaving well enough alone.  Merry Christmas everyone!

About juco

The Murphy Clan is onto year 4 of this parenting adventure. We are happy to keep sharing some our proudest and silliest moments with all our family and friends. We hope you enjoy our new format!
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