I played Fortnite, played at Anthony's home and Mommy took Anthony and me to Bouncy Bears.  The most fun was playing at Bouncy Bears.

Today was the same as yesterday.

We were happy with the outcome of the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans football games.  I think both teams are still in the running for the Super Bowl.  

I stayed home all day.  I didn't want to play outside.  Mostly I played Fortnight or I when I was told to take a break I played on my phone.

OU #4 played Alabama #1 tonight.  I know Morgan is happy with the 45 to 34 score.  Morgan goes to school at Alabama.   Mommy's family was rooting for OU.  They said, Oh well, try again next year.  Lisa, Danny, Austin, and Elizabeth went to the game.  I need to find out if Morgan went.

I came home early this morning.   I asked Barbara to help me hook up my PlayStation.  Against her better judgement, she said she would, BUT I had to read a lot during the rest of my school holiday.  We sat on my bed and read the first sixteen pages of Moonwalk, a story about the Apollo 12 flight to the moon.  The spacecraft landing on the moon July 20, 1969.  I was curious as to if any of the three astronauts were still alive.  We googled them.  Neil Armstrong died in 2012.  They other two men are still alive.  We also noticed that all three of them were born in 1930.  I thought that was interesting.

We hooked up my game, but I have been informed if I get mad at the game and start throwing things the game will be turned off.

We had a little excitement.  Mommy came home for lunch and she smelled natural gas when she came inside.  We called the gas company.  Then GGM, Barbara, and I sat on a bench in Brad's front yard until the gas company arrived.  Brad invited us inside but we needed to be able to see the gas guys.  He brought us a blanket. The gas company worker found a leak in one of our heaters.  He turned the gas off to that heater so all is safe.  Grandma is getting someone to come fix the heater.
  

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!

                Merry Christmas, Baby Catherine!

Santa came to Mimz home!   These are some outside skates that I wear over my own shoes.  I practiced using them in Mimz' home.  I think it will be easier to skate outside where I will have more room.

I got a unicycle but it developed a glitch during the put together phase.  I received clothes and some more hoodies.  Hope I can not lose these. 

 Opening gifts at Mimz' home.

Papa and Grandma invited Mommy, GGM, and Barbara to come up to their home to have a simple Christmas dinner.  They prepared a turkey and dressing casserole using leftover turkey from Thanksgiving.  There were no football games on television today so they watched the cooking TV channel.  Papa slow cooked some pork for 16 hours and shared with GGM and Barbara and one of his neighbors.   They said it was delicious!  

When I do get home I will find some big presents with my name on them.  I can't wait!

*****As is the norm now.... we get behind on posting pictures on the blog.  Well, as of today, we have gotten it up to date.  In the past two weeks, we have posted lots of pictures from November and December.   As usual, we are sorry and can only hope that we do better in the new year......   Merry Christmas!**************

Mason's sports Christmas tree

We went to Uncle Scott's home this afternoon.  We went to an early mass around 3:30pm. 

Picture of Peggy, Aunt Jill's mom; Mimz and me.

This is the nativity scne in Grandma and Papa's front yard.  They have received many compliments on it and their Christmas outside decorations.

Barbara and GGM drove around our neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Papa went somewhere to get some kalachis for us to eat for breakfast.
We left Bridget's home around 10:20am and got home about 1:20pm.  The traffic was a little heavy in San Antonio but after we got out of town it was clear sailing. 

Brandon knocked on the door to see if I could play a couple times while I was gone. I didn't go outside to play at all today.  I played Fortnite or played on my phone.  I think my adults are not pleased with my change in activities.

My dad came to get me around 8:15pm.  This starts my holiday time with him.

Papa, Grandma, and Andy arrived at my home at 7:30am to pick up Mommy and me so we could drive to San Antonio to spend the day with Bridget and her family to have our Laplante Christmas.  Kristan, AK, and Bradley came from her parents home to be with us.  

Barbara was not here, so Mommy took pictures.  Anna Kate, Catherine, and me.

Anna Kate has been enjoying hiding in boxes lately, so she got me to hide and then surprise everyone.

The two girl cousins dressed alike: Anna Kate and Catherine.

 Grandma and her four grandchildren: Anna Kate, Mason, Catherine, and Bradley.

About an hour after we arrived we decided it was time to open presents.  Anna Kate truly loved this time.  She was so happy with every gift she got, hugging each and every gift.  Mommy and I gave her several small gifts and there were all her favorites.  Her very favorite was a Barbie Mermaid doll.  She carried that doll with her all day and it was the only gift she took with her when she went back to her other grandparents home.  Grandma and Papa are going to take all of Andy's families gifts back to Houston with us.

I mostly got gift cards or cash from Grammy and Bubba, Lisa, Dan, and Tim, Bridget, and Andy's family.  My gift from Papa and Grandma was money for my college fund.  Papa and Grandma bought me some leggings with a big flame that goes up to my knees.  I put them on immediately.  Mommy bought me a zippered gray jacket that I also put on immediately.  Mommy gave me three books and three board games.  She has her fingers crossed that I will read them and will play the board games.      

Just as we were finishing opening our Christmas gifts, the pizzas we ordered arrived.  Since the living room was filled with presents and wrapping paper, we ate in the kitchen and breakfast room.  Grandma, AK, Bradley, and I sat at the table and everyone else stood around the kitchen.  We were all hungry and the pizza was delicious. 

The guys and the kids all went outside to toss around my football.  That was great fun.

Papa had as much fun rolling in the yard as the kids did.  
We all played Left, Right, Center.  Andy was the big winner.

Shortly after midnight we went to bed.  This was a fun day even without Fortnite.

Today was the first day of my holiday vacation.  I didn't go outside ... well, I don't think I went outside. 

I played Fortnite until my controller quit working in the early afternoon, then I watched Fortnite stuff on my phone.  Anthony came over for a couple of hours and we hung out.
Barbara tried to interest me in doing something like going outside and finding someone to play with or working a puzzle, or read, play a game or helping with some chore around the house.  I wasn't interested.  

Thursday, Dec 20, 2018

The last day of school before the holiday starts is today.   I didn't take my backpack and I wore my Santa hat the entire school day.   School got out at 12:45pm.  

I played Fortnite with Anthony, Jay, and other of my neighbors this afternoon.  There were at their homes and I was at mine.  I didn't want to go outside even though it was a perfect day for being outside.

 Today was our class Christmas party.  Actually the entire third grade had one party in the cafeteria from 8:30 to 9:15am.

I wanted to wear my ugly Christmas shirt and Santa hat.  I took a second shirt to change shirts after the party was over.   Mommy came for most of the party.  She had to leave before the middle school band played a few Christmas songs.


I brought home a gingerbread man ornament that I made in art class.  It accidentally got broken in my backpack. 

GGM and Barbara babysat Anna Kate and Bradley today.  They both say they are very sweet and well-behaved children. 


Mimz came to pick me up at 4pm for baseball practice at 5pm.  I had a good practice. 

I was to busy playing Fortnite last night to listen when Mommy was talking to me about what pajamas I wanted to wear to school this morning.  This morning I didn't like the ones she had picked out so I changed my outfit three times before I decided on some baseball pajamas.  That meant I had to run to catch the bus.  I made it with no seconds to spare.

 

I wore a red shirt and white shorts to school to join in on the Happy Holidays program.
Some kids wore red and white, lots of kids didn't.  

After school I only agreed to eat a snack because we had Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  I ate quickly and ran to Braxton's to play.  I was to be home at 5:30am.  I was 15 minutes late.  I sure don't like it getting dark so early. 

I played Fortnite and would not do anything else all evening.  I'm afraid there will be a consequence for this.   I don't expect to find my Playstation in my mom's room when I get home from school.

No spelling words this week since it is a short week.  School gets out at noon on Thursday for the holidays.

I played Fortnite most of the day.  I did go out to play with friends, but I didn't stay outside very long before they left and I came back inside to play Fortnite. 

My team had a baseball clinic this afternoon at 3pm.  I did well pitching.  

Papa and Grandma were at my home this morning to visit and help us clean up the garage.  Papa is going to build us some new shelves to help us have a nice place to put our tools and things. 

My baseball team had a wonderful Christmas party at the Lininger's home.   They have a lovely large home.  All the boys played upstairs and the parents visited downstairs.  They had big trays of food, meats and cheese, veggies, pasta's and all kinds of goodies.

All the boys brought our bathing suits and played outside in the hot tub for about an hour.  
We each were to bring a $10 gift.  My gift was two packs of baseball cards.  We had a gift exchange.  It went something like this:  The first boy picked out a gift.  The second boy could steal that gift or pick another one. And so on.  My gift was the favorite gift and it was stolen a few times.  That made me feel good.

Everyone wore an ugly Christmas sweater/shirt.  My shirt was by far the best.  They all thought it was store-bought and they were impressed that my mother made it by hot gluing stuff on the shirt.  

The adult conversation lead to them talking about the rodeo.  My mom told them about my Mutton Busting experience.  She showed them three pictures of me and they were really impressed:
 Before

 During

 After with trophy and belt buckle
  The party started at 6:30pm and we got home at 11pm.  Like I said it was lots of fun and I didn't want to leave.



  

Today we were to wear elf ears or reindeer antler, or something like that.  I wore Santa antlers.  We try to make do with what we have.  It is too expensive to buy something new to wear maybe only one time. 

Nothing much happened at school today.  We had our spelling test and I did fine.

I jumped off the school bus to find GGM waiting for me.  I went inside and asked Barbara how her foot was feeling.  She said it's better every day.  I don't think I wrote about her foot.  She had minor surgery on her hammertoe/bunion on Wednesday  She can walk on it if she uses a walker but it is still sore and achy.  Not real pain that requires a pain pill.

Barbara has been staying downstairs with GGM so GGM could wait on her, but now that it is Friday evening, she has moved upstairs to her own bed.  Now Mommy and I can get her anything she needs.

I couldn't find anyone to play with, so I came home and played in my room, until Anthony said he could play.  I went over to his house to play.

  

 Today we were to wear a Christmas shirt.  Mimz bought me one that is very appropriate for me.  It said:  "Santa, I can explain!"  I spend the night at Mimz' home.  She brought me home to catch the bus.

After school I played with Braxton, Matthew, and Alyssa.

I was asleep by 9pm.

Wednesday Dec 12, 2018

Today was Family Photo Day at school.  We were all to wear a red and black flannel shirt or a solid red or solid white shirt.  I wore a red and black flannel shirt.  The sleeves were a bit short so Mommy rolled up the sleeves.  That solved that problem.

We went to the library to take this Christmas class picture.

GGM and Barbara babysat Bradley at my home today.

He was outside waiting for my bus.  He was a little shy about seeing me, but he got over it in a minute.

I played with him while I ate spaghetti and then a bowl of cereal before I ran off to play with my friends.   I shouldn't have but I skipped my baseball practice.  I promised I would willingly go next Wednesday.  Baseball season is over, but we still plan to have baseball clinics on some Wednesdays until the season starts again.

I brought home my third grade class picture today.  
Barbara met Mimz at Sprouts so I could go spend the night with Mimz and my dad.  When I got there I ate, took and shower, and went straight to bed.  I was asleep before 9pm.

Today we were to wear something Grinch green.  I wore the only green shirt I have.  It was the shirt I wore to our Dance Party last year.

Nothing interesting happened at school.  I jumped off the bus not wanting a snack and ready to play.  I played with Braxton and Matthew, at both of their houses.

I wanted cereal for dinner, but was told I had to eat spaghetti first, then if I wanted more, I could have cereal.  I ate spaghetti and then ate cereal.

I did my math word problems, in fact I did the two problems I had for Wednesday and Thursday also.  I would not study my spelling, so I went to my room.  I was only in there about 15 minutes before I fell asleep at 8:15pm.

  

Monday  December 10

While Mimz was driving me home to catch the school bus, I fell asleep.   As usual I didn’t want to wear long pants, but I finally agreed to wear leggings with shorts

We have another week of fun planned at school.

We got a new spelling words and I chose to spell all of them instead of just ten.

After school I ate a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  Yea!  We have only had Fiber One for the past several days.  I like it but I prefer the sugary cereal.

I said I would be playing at Alyssa’s, or Julian’s or Brandon’s and I would call if I went any place else.  Well, I forgot to call when I went over to Matthew’s to play.  When Mommy tried calling me three times to say come home, I didn’t hear my phone ring.  They went to several homes to try to find me.   About the time Barbara decided to try Matthew’s home, was the same time I saw my mom had called and I called her.   They were ready to call the police.  I better not do that again.

I didn’t have my Play Station and couldn’t play on my phone, so I watched Chicago Fire on TV.  I had already seen it at Mimz’ home last week.

Saturday  Dec. 8

It rained a bunch yesterday and during the night, but we still had two baseball games this morning at 8am and noon.  We were playing on Astro Turf so that helped it not be very very muddy.

It was cold so only Mimz, Daddy, and Mommy came to my games.  Barbara didn’t want to sit out in the cold for hours.  I played left field.  I hit a couple of foul balls and walked a couple of times.  I made it all the way around the bases two times. We won this game 13-4!

The second game we lost badly.  They had a really good pitcher.  I had several foul tips but didn’t get a good hit.

December 9.
The Heisman Trophy was awarded tonight.  My family was pleased when the OU quaraterback won it easily.  Now comes another big test.  Will OU be able to win in the Orange Bowl over #1 Alabama?   On any given day......

I knew my spelling words pretty good last night. This morning I had a hard time spelling a couple of them.  I'll study them again before our spelling test.  Instead of picking out only ten words, Mrs. Gardner said we could pick out as many words as we wanted.  I choose all of them.  All spelling words on this weeks list have a double O in them, like: choose, soot, raccoon, typhoon.

Mr Mark took Alyssa, Cole, and me to Dad's and Donuts this morning.

In just three months, I have damaged my daily folder pretty badly, so we made me a new one.  Hope it lasts longer than three months.

This was a special day for me.  Grandma asked Mommy if I could get out of school to come to Sonja's property to watch the Bush 41 Funeral train pass by.   I wanted to and Mommy thought it would be a good idea.  I was watching a part of of our country's history being made.

It's hard to see, but I am standing in front of the flags at my school.  They are flying at half-staff to honor President Bush.  

My early dismissal was at 10:30am. 

Barbara stopped to get me a meatball and cheese Subway sandwich before she picked me up from school. 

 We went to Grandma's office, on Sonja's property.  They have horses, lots of chickens, and two emus.  

The emus hang out around Grandma office.  

We parked 40 feet from the train track.  I stayed in the car and watched my phone until close to time for the train to come.   I ate my entire sandwich, chips, and two cookies. 

They had a tent set up by our car since it was raining.  Sonja's daughters were there and several of their friends were there. 

It quit raining about 30 minutes before the train came by.    I had to practice a lot of patience. 

Grandma and I were standing the required 25 feet from the track.  Many people got up closer even though the police had told them to stay back.  We had read that the train would be going 30 miles an hour, but we think it was going much faster than that since it whizzed by. I think the entire ten cars were past us in less than 30 seconds.   We took both video and still pictures.  Here are our pictures:

If you zoom in on this picture you can barely see a guard standing at the head of the coffin.
These two pictures were on-line (not taken by us):

 Mimz went to see this event over near her home.   My parents both had to work or they both would have been out watching this event.  

After the train went by, we drove to Grandma's office and waited about 40 minutes to give the traffic a chance to thin out.  Well, traffic was still bad.  Policemen were directing traffic.  It took us about 40 minutes to drive the four miles home. 

I hooked up my Play Station and downloaded the new version of Fortnite.  I had to leave for baseball practice before it was finished downloading.  I practiced my spelling words and I could spell them all.

On the drive to baseball, Uncle Scott called me.  We talked eleven minutes.  We talked about my seeing the funeral train, and a lot about my sports.  I agreed to send him a picture of President Bush's coffin taken as it passed by me.  I was not in the picture.

Mommy came straight from work to my practice so after a few minutes of watching practice Barbara left and Mommy stayed with me and brought me home.

At home, I ate dinner, practiced my spelling words, and then played Fortnite.