By this point my faithful blog readers know that my posts have come few and far between. I am not exactly sure why I cannot seem to find the time to sit down at the computer and compose a few cohesive thoughts, but for some reason some other person or event always seems to become a priority. The funny thing is that I thought my time was limited when the babies were little, but I had no idea! I received a very precious Christmas gift from my sweet hubby that reminded me how important it is to take the time to capture and record our family memories. He had a book made out of the first year of our family blog. This required a lot of time and covert operations on his part since I am pretty much the nosiest person on the planet, and we share a computer. But, somehow he pulled it off, and I have a beautiful hard back book that records our family members right before Micah was born in 2008 through December of 2009. It was such a thoughtful and meaningful gift, and it also made me realize how few blog posts I have put up in the last year. So, I am resolving to put up one every 2 weeks in 2013! Wish me luck!
Christmas 2012
The weeks before we get out for Christmas break are some of the busiest, yet most memorable days of the holiday season. I am posting a few highlights.
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| I took a Girl's Trip to visit the candlelight Christmas tour at the Biltmore and Ashville during one of the weekends in December. There was a lot of uncontrolled laughter, shopping and eating that happened during this trip. |
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| Micah is a wiseman in the Christmas performance at his school. |
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SS Christmas Party- These are just a few of the kids represented by the families in our
SS class at church. This was a fun night for kids and grownups. |
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Madeleine and Micah enjoyed a Faculty/Staff kid Christmas party at my school.
We had goodies and then Santa came and brought a book for every kid!
This year Madeleine and I started off Christmas break with our new tradition of going to the Nutcracker ballet together on the Friday evening that we got out of school. We made it a girl's night event, and met Joni and Anna for supper prior to the show. It was so much fun to get dressed up and go out together. I love my sweet girl so much, and our
Nutcracker memories are something I will always treasure.
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| Madeleine and Anna posing at the Koger Center |
Madeleine and Micah spent a few days with Mimi and Granddaddy to give Mama and Daddy some time to catch our breath at the beginning of the break. We spent a lot of time running errands together, eating out, snuggling on the couch and watching shows late into the night. I discovered the PBS show, Downton Abbey, over the break and watched Season 1 and Season 2 in a week's time. It was a ridiculous indulgence, but I soaked up EVERY minute! Justin and I are very spoiled when our breaks come around because we get to spend a lot of leisurely time together. It was awesome!
We spent 3 nights in Greenville at Grandma Jones' home. During our visit we shopped, slept, watched television and ate a lot of good food. On Christmas Eve all of the family arrived. Poor little Shepard had a tonsillectomy earlier in the week and his recovery did not go well at all. Being around his cousins seemed to cheer him up a bit, and he even took a bite of Madeleine's delectable cake pops that she made with her new machine. (Thanks Uncle Matt!) We opened presents on the afternoon of Christmas Eve and then headed home, so we could wake up in our own house on Christmas morning.
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| Who knew that Slinkie the elf would be up to such mischief at Grandma's house? |
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| Madeleine left a special angel at Papa's grave. |
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| Christmas at Grandma Jones' Home |
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| Cousins sharing the love! |
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| Matt and Justin babysat the meat...so delicious! |
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| Madeleine gives Grandma some love for her new blue coat! |
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| Shelley was loving the Scrabble coasters, and I was loving her wish list! |
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| Tux and Shiloh got matching teddy bear sweaters. |
By Christmas afternoon we were on the road again headed to Florence to visit with my family. Mama had a delicious meal prepared for us that evening. We stuffed our faces! One of my sister's good friends comes over every year with her husband on Christmas Eve. This has become a tradition. This year's visit was extra special because she brought her brand new baby boy, Maddox. We all got a little baby lovin' while he was around. I should be good to go for another 6-8 months.
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| Mama was soaking up the baby snuggles. |
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| Micah has been wanting a LeapPad for a LONG time...thanks Mimi and Granddaddy! |
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| Madeleine is a LEGO master. This will keep her quiet and busy for a few hours! |
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| Uncle Justin read a French picture book to our two year old niece, Cailin. She just turned 2 in November, but this kid amazes me. I could not believe how she sat and listened to every word, and even asked questions that showed she understood what was happening in the story. It made this reading teacher's heart beam to see her in action. |
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| This boy loves his dog, and this dog really love his boy. We are so thankful for the gift of Shiloh to our family. Even though he just joined us this summer, it feels like he has been with us forever. |
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| Granddaddy had a very tough year. It was such a blessing to celebrate another Christmas together. |
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| Madeleine and Cailin played dress up. Could this be any cuter? |
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| Uncle Michael is a human playground. The kids had so much fun playing with him while we took down Mimi's Christmas decorations outdoors. |
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| How cute is my sister and her hubby? I took this picture, so I will brag! |
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| I could eat her! |
