Christmas Morning

The week leading up to Christmas ...

Tyler and Annagrace made Melbas (Grandma Welch's secret candy recipe). I attended the cookie and ornament exchange at Corinne Holton's home.
We waited patiently . . . to seeSanta Claus!!!
On Christmas Sunday, we got all dressed up and went to Pine Mountain to go to Church with Grandmother and Granddaddy.
Then she got undressed to do some more baking
and eat some Granddaddy cookies aka Oreos. Chuck, Cindy, and their kids got here late Sunday night. So, we went to Grandmother's on Monday to play with the kids and do some baking for Christmas Eve. Grandmother had made matching aprons for all of the girls.

Meanwhile, Chuck cooked up some lunch on the grill. We went back to Grandmother's on Tuesday. The girls decorated a new tea set and when they were finished they enjoyed . . . A Ladies Tea Party (with one Gentleman)

Everyone was very Lady-like

well almost everyone.

She got just a little bit wet.

After changing clothes, we headed home excited to be returning the next day for the CHRISTMAS EVE festivities!

Actually, I had to go to work. But thanks to a wonderful Charge Nurse, Kathy, and other RNs that love me, I was able to leave by midnight so I could get some rest to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for our very busy Christmas Eve.

Santa Claus CAME to town

More to come soon. . .

A thought . . .

I have been meaning to blog about this and share it with you, but just haven't had the time to actually sit down and type it out.
Unconditional LOVE - this is a hard thing for me. I admit - I'm pretty judgemental. First impressions stick with me and I form opinions and assume things way too soon about people. A few weeks ago, I was slowing down for a red light and noticed a homeless man with a sign "will work for food" near the light. I immediately reached for the lock button but feared I was too close to him already and he would hear the clicking of the locks. Not wanting to be rude, I didn't push the button (but kept my finger in place, ready for action). When we came to a complete stop he was right outside our window. I was feeling very nervous and scared. I kept looking at him out of the corner of my eye. If he even budged - I was locking the doors!! And right in the middle of my mental dilemma between being rude and safety, Annagrace looked out the window, saw the man, grinned from ear to ear, waved with excitement and said "HEY!" It stopped me dead in my tracks. Who was I to judge this man, he had done nothing to make me frightened of him. I assumed because of his dirty appearance that he would try to harm us.
The moment brought me to tears.
I rolled down the window and handed the man all of the cash in my wallet.
Annagrace didn't care what he looked like, where he came from, why he was there. He was just . . . there and she was happy to see him.

Hand-me-down

I am so excited that Annagrace is old enough for me to pass down my table and chairs set. I spent many hours at this little table as a child - coloring, drawing, and eating pretend meals with all of my cabbage patch children.

She couldn't have been more excited. She loves sitting at the table like a big girl and coloring with Mommy. I can't wait to see what Santa brings her. I have a feeling it will make this little table EVEN more fun!!

M-I-C-K-E-Y

She absolutly LOVED it!! We had fun too - dancing, singing, and acting like five year olds.

Ward Christmas Breakfast

We started off the day with our Ward Christmas Breakfast with Santa.

The kids did some cute crafts while getting to know their new primary teachers for next year.

Then everyone sang the 12 days of Christmas in family groups.Waiting for Santa ...
SHE DIDN'T CRY THIS YEAR!!!!She didn't really know if she could trust him and didn't want to talk to him. I was just happy we didn't have any tears.

Fantasy in Lights

We really enjoyed the lights this year. Annagrace has gotten so big and so smart. She would get so excited about each display and had to name everything she saw - frog, flower, Tinkerbell (the fairies), turtle, teddy bear, soldier, snowflake . . .

Some Recent Photo Shoots

The Shells

The Cummings

Wow, where do I start

It has been a LONG time since I blogged last, I've been a really bad blog keeper lately. With the holidays and working = no free time for me. BUT, here goes - one month in one post!!

Thanksgiving!!

We celebrated at the Chapman's (our tradition). The food was yummy and the company was great. We played a couple of rounds of bingo then headed outside to play with the neighbor's horses and run/walk off some of our food.

We discovered Annagrace loves Red-Velvet Cake

(a true southerner - hehe)

And who doesn't love "horsies" and high flying. Feeding the horsie was another issue. Annagrace was excited and wanted to hold the carrot. But, when the horse came over to actually take a bite, her smile started to look a little more like worried than happy.

Cousin Conner

Then last week, we tried to do a fun creative photo shoot with Annagrace for this year's Christmas card. Unfortunately it gets dark WAY too early and they didn't turn out so great. But, she still looks adorable so I thought I would share ...

We also attended Caden's Birthday party last week. We had fun feeding the ducks (throwing bread AT them), collecting sticks (and poking me in the eye in the process), and of courseCAKE

But, little Miss did not dive right in like the boys. She politely took the decorative stick out of the cupcake and used it as a spoon to eat tiny bites of icing. While the boys tore trough 2 or 3 cupcakes a piece, she barely ate half of the icing on ONE.