Christmas at Pops’ and Mimi’s: day 2

On day 2, we did a little baking and more visiting with family!

I meant for us to bake a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day, but somehow it slipped my mind.  So I packed up the cake mix, icing and candles and brought them with us to Georgia.  Russell enjoyed this project.

Jesus had a Funfetti birthday cake As we couldn’t put 2,000 candles on the cake, we opted for 5.  Uncle Jef lit the candles while Russell tried to burn himself on them (not pictured!)

“Happy birthday, dear Jesus, happy birthday to You!”

Aunt Jane (my mom’s sister) came to visit for a couple hours!

More presents!  These ones were from Uncle Jef and his girlfriend Sejal, and Aunt Jane and her family.  These children are so blessed to have so much!

The boys men inspecting the new cars while the kids play:

Day 2 of our vacation was a great day at Pops and Mimi’s house!  I ended the day with a few photos of their tree:

1) Christmas tree light bokeh – easy to achieve using MF:

2) Shot wide open, overexposed per the meter, slow SS:

3) Similar to #2 but a close up.  I love this one because it’s a pretty Nativity ornament.  “Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in!”

Christmas at Pops’ and Mimi’s: day 1

We left bright and early Monday morning to go to Pops and Mimi’s house – in our BRAND NEW (to us) minivan, which I love! (Well, as much as anyone can love a minivan!) This was also Meredith’s first time in her big-girl car seat – what is happening to my baby?

The drive was okay. There were some rough times, as we expected. But we kept Russell mostly entertained with DVDs (another parenting thing I swore I’d never do – DVDs in the car) and Meredith was able to sleep a little.

We pulled in to my parents’ house around 2:30 pm – way past naptime and Russell doesn’t sleep in the car, but he’s at the age where a late nap isn’t the end of the world. So we made it even later by visiting and opening Uncle Jon’s presents!

After nap snack – this girl would much rather feed herself now than eat baby food!

Day 1 was pretty uneventful - just recuperating from the long drive. Day 2 coming up next :)

Christmas!

Christmas day was very low-key.  We popped my family’s traditional strata in the oven to cook while opening presents, and in the afternoon we packed for Pops’ and Mimi’s (my parents) house, where we stayed the 26th through the 29th.  So on Christmas, we enjoyed a quiet day - time with the four of us in the morning, and with Paw Paw and Kacki in the afternoon.

Stockings from Santa!

(The goldfish were in Russell’s stocking – she loves his stuff.)

And here they are with some of their presents from us:

Sophie the Giraffe.  I couldn’t wait to give her this; Meredith is very picky about what she wants to chew on, but she needed some teethers she would use since her first tooth is finally in, and I think others will be close behind!

Russell’s car city is a big hit!

Meredith’s first purse – it includes a mirror, key, fake dollars – super cute

I love spending this time and making memories with my husband and children, having fun together and celebrating Emmanuel!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a big, busy day for us!  Paw Paw, Kacki, and Nannie came over around 11 and we all visited for a bit (in between preparing our big lunch):

Sooo much good food for lunch.  Kacki brought the ham, pineapple cheddar casserole, broccoli casserole, and lemon pie, and I made strawberry salad, corn pie (my Mama Addie’s recipe), rolls, and fudge.  Yum!

After the kids’ naps, we went to the 4 pm Christmas Eve service at church.  We came home and took a few photos of the kids in their nice Christmas outfits.  I could not get a pic of them together for the life of me – Meredith would start crawling away immediately when I put her next to Russell!

Then the kids opened TONS (and I mean tons) of presents from Paw Paw and Kacki and Nannie.

Russell with his first present of the year – a dump truck from Nannie!  He loves it!

Meredith was much more impressed with the wrapping than her baby doll – typical – but she did decide later that she enjoyed chewing on the baby’s feet.

More presents.

We so appreciate all the presents, and the kids just loved them.  And more than that, we loved spending all day with family, eating an awesome meal and enjoying each other’s company.  Most of all, we know – and Russell is understanding too – that Jesus is Who we celebrate at Christmas.  We pray to have a faith like Mary’s in Luke 1:38 when she said, “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be unto me as you have said.”

Favorite Christmas photo

This is my favorite photo from our family Christmas this year.  It perfectly captures Russell and his complete excitement and anticipation.  You see, whenever Russell is abnormally nervous, shy, excited, or anticipating something, he puts his hand to his eye (as in this photo) and you can just see all his emotions on his little face.  I love that I captured this quirk of his.  (He was opening the movie Mater’s Tall Tales – which he now loves.)

Preschool Christmas Program

Russell’s preschool held their Christmas program today!  I just love things like this – so sweet to see all the children dressed as shepherds and donkeys, ringing handbells and dancing and singing.  Jason, Meredith and I, and Grandmother too, all came to see Russell’s stage debut. 

Russell’s class dressed as angels:

All week, he’s been walking carefully around the house, saying “fly like an angel” – so cute.  Now of course, when the time came for them to fly in to the gym (the program was held in the church gym), I don’t think one two-year-old tried to fly.  And Russell was the only one who made a break for Mommy!  But he was happy and wasn’t upset about going back to stand with his class.

They processed around the gym and landed in front of the Christmas tree.

Two-year-old chaos!

Ballerinas and angels and donkeys, oh my!

Russell did so well during the show.  He sat very still.  After the show was over, all the kids went back down to their classes to wait for their parents.  Well, when we got down to Russell’s class, he was very upset.  His teacher told us he broke down when they had to leave the gym because he wanted to get down and go to us.  Poor kid! 

Jason got some good video of the program so after we edit it, I’ll post that too.  Altogether, I think Russell’s first performance was a success!

Playgroup Christmas Party

Our regular playgroup had our 2nd annual Christmas party/book exchange today – so much fun!

We were the last ones to arrive (not shocking – I used to always be on time/early everywhere…well, that ended when I had children because now I’m on their timetable.)  Everyone sat down for a snack when we came in.

And Meredith sat down with her sippy cup

There was a little time for play before opening presents.

I got a cute picture of Cole!

Baby Micah is the newest in the playgroup at 8 weeks old – he is Joshua’s baby brother (not his sissy, like Russell thought!  Russell thinks every baby is a “sissy!”)

Time to open presents!  We number all the gifts, then each parent picks a number, and your child gets that present.  We sit the big kids down on the couch for a few pics (this is a total Mommy shot, not pro-worthy, but sometimes it’s enough just to get a photo.  L to R: Eliza, Cole, Lily, Joshua, Russell):

Then they get to open their present!  Russell’s book is about baby animals going to bed.  It’s very cute; we read it before his nap today and he liked it, so thanks, Heather!

Meredith had a great time, per usual.  She was getting into everything and had no fear.  She’s going to be our Miss Curious and Miss Independent – quite different from her Mr. Cautious brother.

Just 9 days until Christmas!