Christmas Quicktake...

Okay that title is SSSSOOOOO not accurate. This is actually Christmas in a TON of pictures and a few tidbits, but we have been on permanent Christmas vacation since Dec. 23. I am gonna share a few highlights.

Santa comes to our house on the night of Dec. 23. At this point the boys are still young enough to not know the days on a calendar, so it still works. This is Walker putting out the cookies he made on Santa's plate. I LOVELOVELOVE this cookie plate Sandy got me. It will be used every Christmas going forward!



Walker was so pleased with all that Santa left...

But the biggest hit was the rollercoaster. Here's Con getting some serious speed!

The biggest problem was getting them to take turns. Here they are about to go down together.

This is Mama and Papa (Lon's Grandparents). I love them beyond words! They come over Christmas to see the boys get their Santa gifts, along with Nana and Jerry, and Uncle Paul. I make breakfast and then we all watch the boys tear into their gifts.

My camera was on the fritz, so I didn't get too many good pictures, but Santa left me a Wii Fit and Nana and Jerry got me a new bike for my get fit plan in '09. I must have been REALLY GOOD!

The rest of Christmas Eve I pack and get ready for TN. Christmas Eve night we go to Mama and Papa's to exchange gifts with Lon's side of the family. This year the boys were really into opening.

Walker was tired of opening, so he sat with Uncle Paul and Nana and read his new dinosaur book.

We immediately go home, unload the gifts, and reload our luggage and head to TN for our Christmas with my side of the family. This is the mess in my den that I have to look forward to when we get home...

Connor in his pjs eating Nonnie's homemade strawberry jam. This is how he likes start his mornings at Nonnie and Pop's, with a sugar high.

Nonnie cooks a big lunch and that is when all of us eat and exchange gifts. Cooking obviously takes a little longer with this little guy around.

Uncle Brett had ACL surgery last week, so we were glad he was able to hobble to Mom's. Needless to say, he was king for the day.

I really want the boys to learn the importance of giving and community, so Mom, Britt, Connor and I headed to a nursing home with some gifts for some residents. Mom thought of this and called ahead to get the names of people that don't really get visitors. This ended up being such a blessing.
Connor was a real hit. Somehow they all wanted to give him stuff.

This little lady wanted a present and we didn't have an extra one, so Connor gave her his Santa hat. She was thrilled.

I could have included so many more pictures here, but I know this post is long enough already. I have never seen people so thankful for a little human contact. When we hugged them they would cry and were just so thankful. This is something I plan on doing every year going forward.

When we got back to Nonnie and Pop's house it was time to open gifts. Poor Wewe didn't have a chance. The boys were tearing into her stuff left and right. She still probably doesn't know what all she got!

So one tradition we have, is every year I take the boys to the Dollar Tree and let them pick out everyone a gift. This is becoming something we all look forward to. Here is Uncle Richard in his Red hairpiece Connor got him.


Pop loved his bling bling necklace Walker got him. Walker was so excited when he saw it. He said, "Poppy will LOVE this!" Sure enough he did. Too bad it broke before poker night.
Britt loved her orange hair. I think it brought back her UT cheerleader days.
Uncle Brett seems to have liked Britt's hairpiece more than his princess stamps. I just don't understand it HAHA!

Lon got a "Holiday 5-pack". The joke was lost on me since I seem to be the only person in the known world to have not seen the Heineken commercial.

Britt loved the boys Crazy Car.

At the end of the day we were all exausted. Of course the boys snotty noses and coughs have returned. We always travel the next day to see my Mom's side of the family outside Nashville, but between the coughing, Mom's dryer going out, and sheer exhaustion, we decided not to travel for the weekend and to stay put instead. I hate we missed out on the fun that I'm sure everyone had, but I just don't think it would have been do-able. We are gonna make it to Nashville next month when we can stay longer than 24 hours.

Since Lon had to return to work, we are just hanging out at Nonnie and Pop's until the NEW YEAR. I have been spending the time relaxing and catching up with old girlfriends from High School. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas holiday, and I will begin blogging regularly again in the new year. I have LOTS of resolutions, as per usual!

Weekend Recap...

The weekend was super busy, but a lot of fun. I think the best way to share it with you is by letting the pictures tell the story.

Let's start with the Festival of Lights on Friday night. Absolutely spectacular. I have to say, I have a good camera, but I don't think any camera can do these lights justice.

They have a carousel, which is always a big hit with the boys. Mama was Walker's riding partner. Connor and I with the Dalmation.

For those of you not from here, the bridge in Charleston is famous. It used to be called the Cooper River Bridge, but it is now called the Ravenel Bridge. Anyway, I could not catch it on film, but this light display shows the silhouette of the old bridge turning into the new bridge (which is shown.) The lights are also on the bank of a pond so at night this is spectacular.
This poinsettia thing was huge.

Sand sculpture of Santa's village. This is South Carolina's answer to an ice sculpture!
You can't really tell it, but the trees behind us have colored buttons, and the color of the lights is determined by the color of the button you push. This amazed the boys!
This is Rainbow Row in lights. There were so many more I wish I could share, but like I said before, I did a bad job with the camera so will spare you.

Saturday we had Nana's Christmas party, and we had to make sugar cookies and a couple of dips. We also made those Poppyseed Ham Rolls, and they were delish! The dips went over well, but the ham rolls were the biggest hit. (Click Here for the recipe.)

Here are the sugar cookies Walkie made.
He really got into the sprinkles.

He was so proud and he and his pj's were covered in flour!

Do you recognize Santa? Luckily the boys didn't!

The party was a lot of fun. Sandy's parties always are, but on the way to the car Walker tripped and fell in the driveway. He was barefooted so he skinned his knees, elbows and one toe pretty bad. Walker is a rather dramatic child, so all day Sunday we nursed his injuries. Look and tell me this is not a hoot...
This is Walker's hurt toe wrapped in a bandage, in a wet washcloth, in a sock. Whatever works I guess!

Sunday I crafted all day, in an attempt to finish my Christmas gifts. My wonderful husband watched the boys, and here are a few of the things I made that I can show you. The rest will have to wait until after Christmas since the other gifts are for people that read the blog.

Lon's family got the biggest kick out of the elf yourself video, so I decided to make them some ornaments with the pictures on them. They turned out really cute and were not that hard to make, just a little time consuming.

This is one for Aunt Dora Mae who is actually Lon's great aunt. This amazed her. She had "no idea computers could do such things!"

This is what they looked like on the back.

I made this one for Sandy, and it has all of her family on it. It is actually sewn so she can hang it on a doorknob, or it is small enough to put on the tree if she wanted to.


This one is for Lon's Grandparents. It says "Our Greatest Blessings call us Mama and Papa." She decorates with a lot of blue and khaki, so this should be right up her alley.

I LOVED how this pillow tured out for Lon's Uncle and his girlfriend. They have a beach house and we all love to use it. It has flip flops all over it and it says "You never know how many friends you have until you buy a house at the beach."

As you can see we had a fun and productive weekend. I hope you did too!

Busy, Busy Bees!

As I'm sure it is with most families, we have kicked it into high gear around here. Operation Christmas is in full swing! I have been crafting, shopping, baking and wrapping (as in gifts, not the hip-hop rapping, but that might make the crafting and baking even more entertaining...) for the past couple of days. The problem with this is, that I can't really show you what I've been up to because the people I've been crafting for read this blog. I can show you a sock monkey or two, and promise you that on Dec. 26, there will be a serious post with lots of pictures.
This is Miss Priss, she is going to my Mom. I'm not sure who she is going to, but her tutu doubles as a hairbow, and if you can't tell she is very prissy!

These 2 are brothers. Silly and Willy. I made these for Lon's Grandma to give to 2 of the youngest Great Nephews. I'm not sure who is getting Silly and who is getting Willy, but I am sure they are gonna love 'em!

In the mean time, I will show you what the boys cooked today for lunch. They love to "make recipes" as Walker says. Today they made pizza. It was one of those Chef Boyardee box mixes, but they really thought they were something. Walker making his "just so" ever so gently.

Connor takes a more aggressive "beat it to death" approach. The sauce and cheese part was a little messy, so I couldn't really take pics. Lon ate it for lunch, so it must have been pretty good.

I've turned Walker into quite the little barista (coffee-making expert). He is officially my little helper these days and wants to do EVERYTHING I do, including making coffee. Luckily he listens well, and since we make it on our Keurig, it is not really involving any hot water so the burn factor is zilch. (I felt this needed clarification because a 3 year old really has no business making coffee.)

Tonight we are going to the Festival of Lights on James Island. It is spectacular, and the boys really love it, so that should be a lot of fun.

Tomorrow is Nana's Christmas party, so "Santa" will be making an appearance, and we have lots of goodies to bake. Walker is making and decorating sugar cookies for the first time, so that should be fun. I'm anxious to see if the boys recognize him this year. They haven't so far, but he doesn't talk a whole lot other than the HOHOHO's.

Lon also has a football game this weekend, and we have to finish our shopping, so it should be pretty eventful. I'll get lots of good pics tonight and try to put them up for tomorrow. These lights really do top anything I've ever seen. Hope you have a great weekend!

Christmas Tour...

Welcome to my humble abode. The Christmas Season is in full swing and while I still have gifts to make and shopping to do, I just can't stand to miss a good party, so here I sit blogging while I should be doing so many other things! I don't feel too guilty though, because I am gonna attend 3 parties at once, and wear pajamas, and entertain my rowdy boys, all at the same time.

Here is who we are visiting today:

First up: Better late than never, we are gonna hop over to Boo Mama's 2008 Holiday Tour of Homes.

Next, we are gonna swing by A Soft Place to Land and visit with Kimba.
And last but not least, we are gonna stop by and see Julie.

Now on some of these parties we are gonna be considered fashionably late, but that too is okay in Blogland. Just another reason I love this place!

First up is the tree in the living/dining room. This tree is covered with every ornament I have collected over the past 10 years. I am very sentimental and putting this tree up is something I look forward to every year. Every single ornament has a special memory for me.

This ornament belonged to Lon's Great Grandma.

In the family room, I let the boys decorate a tree with colored lights and all ornaments of their choosing, hence the Diego, Pooh, etc.

My firplace is also in this room, so the garland ended up with colored lights too, but I have grown to love it.

This is my stocking, and one of my most prized posessions. It was made from one of my Great Great Grandmother's quilts (front) and my Great Grandmother's feed sacks (back.) My Great Aunts made them a few years back and I treasure it. (Man that was a lot of greats!)

The boys also have a tree in each of their rooms.

This is Connor's and still a work in progress. He loves it though!

This is Walker's. It is Lon's tree from when he was little. It has a funny shape, and has had some wear and tear over the years, but again, the sentimental value of it is priceless to me.


The real reason for the season... and as you can see in order to prevent Connor from eating Baby Jesus, I have had to leave his plastic strap on so he can not be removed from the manger.

This is where we put our Christmas cards. It is just a little "card tree", but the boys love opening the mail and putting the cards on it.

As you are leaving, you can see the outside of the house. I do icesicle lights, wreaths on the windows, and some miniature trees. We also do garland with white lights on our fence, but I could not get a decent picture, so this shot of a couple windows will have to do.

This is a close up of one of the wreaths. They have ornaments hung on them, and big red bows.
These are the 2 trees on the porch step.

This is my front porch looking out from my front door. We spend a lot of time putting up the stuff on the outside of the house, and truth be told I could live without most of it. It seems like there is always a strand of lights going out or something, but the kids love it and Lon's grandma helps me with it every year. Fighting with the lights has become a tradition of sorts, and man how I love a tradition!

I hope you enjoyed your visit! I loved having you in my home and sharing some of our Christmas decorations with you. Now the fun really starts, I get to go see what everyone else has done!!