Santa Visit

Today we went to Lenox to visit Santa.  This is the same Santa since Elizabeth's first visit.  They changed the background this year, but I still think he such a sweet Santa.  

At first I thought Caroline might warm up to him.  At least enough for me to sneak out of the picture.

Not so much.

She wouldn't even look at him.

Elizabeth hugged him when she was Caroline's age too.  She's my hugger.

Option 1 

Option 2.  We went with this one.

Usually while we're there, we ride the Pink Pig.  There was an almost 2 hour wait, so we decided to skip it and try again later.  Elizabeth was not happy with this decision. 

By the time we got to dinner, she was over it and both girls were pretty much delirious.  Too much excitement for one day!

2009

2010

Flashback Friday



Elizabeth in December 2010



This Chirstmas Season

There are parts of this holiday season that have been kind of tough this year.  

 Caroline has been pretty sick this week with croup (again) and now a nasty cold.  Bert is still on the job search.  Bert's Grandmother (who Caroline is named after) passed away last Friday.  And then, Bert's dad had emergency bypass surgery this Wednesday.   

Whenever I get discouraged or sad over these things, I try to see everything through the eyes of my little girls. They have a way of helping me keep things in perspective.

 

Even though Caroline's been sick, she's continued to be the sweetest baby.  She just wants extra hugs and lovin which I am happy to give her.  Elizabeth has been extra sweet to her too.

As a parent, I want to give my kids so much and sometimes I focus too much on the "stuff" under the Christmas tree.  This year I've had to keep myself "in check" which is hard for an overindulger like myself. 

I am so glad they don't have any worldly expectations of what they will get on Christmas morning.  We go visit Santa and continue to ask Elizabeth what she wants for Christmas.  Sometimes I think by prompting her we are instilling a sense of entitlement.  That somehow she deserves or can behave in ways to make her deserve those presents.  I'm not really sure what the answer is without completely deserting the worldly concept of Christmas.  But I'm almost glad that our current situation is forcing me to focus on the gift of Christmas that has already been freely given to us. 

Breakfast with Santa

This past weekend was Breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus at our clubhouse.  From the moment we walked in, Caroline had a death grip on her daddy.  There was no way he could pry himself from her death grip to even get a screaming Santa picture (which I love)!  Santa quickly demanded that Bert sit on his lap with her.  I couldn't stop laughing about that, but Bert did not see the humor in it.  I'm just glad Mrs. Claus didn't ask me to sit on her lap!

The girls were both very comfortable once they got their stockings and breakfast.

With all the chaos the first go around, Elizabeth didn't get a chance to tell Santa what she wanted.  So she sat on his lap again.  This is what I love about the low pressure atmosphere of Breakfast with Santa.

Elizabeth has consistently asked for three things this year.  A teddy bear.  A car.  And a boat.  Keep dreamin' sister!

We realized that when Elizabeth gets nervous, she can't keep her hands off of her face.  Silly girl.

The same Santa and Mrs. Claus last year. 

Of course as soon as we left the clubhouse, Caroline relaxed and was ready to play.

Since we were all dressed up and nowhere to go, we ran some errands and ended up at Home Depot.  The girls had so much participating in the kid workshop.  They built their very own miniature toolboxes. 

Elizabeth felt so independent being able to hammer and paint it all by herself. 

Their daddy was proud of his little girls' hard work.

Jammin' in the Car

This is a picture I took of the girls on our way home from Memphis over Thanksgiving. They are both great travelers and love "jammin" in the car to pass the time.

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Stockings are hung by the chimney with care...

I love the extra week we have this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  An extra week to enjoy the decorations.  This is my favorite spot every night.  After putting the kids to bed, we sit on the couch and enjoy the fire (even though it's been unseasonably warm).  It makes it so cozy, especially with a cup of hot cider (which is my other obsession right now)!

We moved our train tree to the dining room this year.  I love that you can see it from outside and it welcomes us when we walk through the front door.  I'm also glad we put the girls' tree in the upstairs hallway where we can see it from the living room too.  Everywhere we look, it's Christmas!

Everyone that knows me, knows I love a real tree.  We got a great deal this year on an 11 foot tree.  LOVE!  I especially love the wreath I made from the scraps.  Not because it's necessarily cute, but because it smells soooooo good.  Just standing on the front porch, you can smell the real furs.

My decorations are simple.  I frame each year's Christmas cards and Santa visits.  I have no idea where I will find space to place year after year, but my plan is to just keep documenting our family's Christmases together.

We decided to do a little more on the outside this year.  We added the light-up train (Bert couldn't believe I allowed this) and the house lights.  I really wanted the outline of the house, but our peaks are REALLY high.  So this will work for this year, but we are stepping it up next year!

The best part of all was decorating with my favorite little elves.  Neither were very excited about getting our tree from Home Depot (we usually go to the tree farm), but they both were happy while we hung the ornaments blasting the Christmas music. 

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http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/2012/12/2012-christmas-tour-of-homes.html

SEC Watch Party

We are not Georgia or Alabama fans, but we LOVE SEC football.  So we had a Championship watch party tonight.  Which of course, ended with the kids roasting marshmallows around the fire (since it felt like September).  Luke and Elizabeth were little cuddle bugs insisting on sharing a chair.  Just for the record, this WILL NOT be okay when they are 13!