Christmas 2011

Well, we have been so busy here getting ready for Christmas, getting ready for New Year's Eve, and just spending time with loved ones, that we haven't had a spare moment to blog.  As G spends way too much time in the tub getting "prune hands," I will post what we've been up to.

Let's begin with Chip's school Christmas party.

Each student in his class had a stocking filled by his classmates, and a story that he had written imagining himself as a reindeer.

One of the holiday centers was to decorate (and eat!) a gingerbread man.

The "Room Moms" did a great job providing the kids with lots of fun activities during their holiday party.

In this center, he created an ornament using a class picture.

Here is an adorable snowman ornament that he created in another center.  This bag carried all of his crafts and served as a checklist for all of the centers.

Next came the Christmas party for my knitting group, The Paulding Purlers, at my friend Stephanie's house.  Although this photo shows them while they were drying and before I sewed in the ends, here are the two projects I finished for that night.  On the left is a square that I knit for a blanket we made for a little girl undergoing cancer treatment.  It's a pattern of tumbling blocks.  On the right are the mittens I knit for my Secret Santa project.  I used the Aethelwyne pattern from Knitting New Mittens And Gloves.

When I turned into Stephanie's neighborhood, I found myself driving behind Santa and one of his elves riding in the back of a very well-decorated pickup truck playing Christmas music.  It was a magical moment, with a distinctive Georgia flair.

The weekend before Christmas, we cut down our own Christmas tree at the same tree farm we visit each year.

We saw the perfect tree right away and didn't even need to look around.

We really enjoy visiting the tree farm each year.

Once the tree goes up, we can put our lights on and take the photo that we enclose in our Christmas cards. 

Christmas week was a full and happy time of preparation and celebration.

The boys and Lily spent some quality time together to exchange Christmas gifts and play.

Our darling did a really great job decorating the tree.

He was so cute in his Santa hat and is quite the expert at ornament placement.

 We were all so excited for Christmas to arrive, and finally it was Christmas Eve.

At the 8pm bilingual Christmas Eve Mass this year, I played in the handbell choir.

Here is G sprinkling reindeer food in the front yard.  He also spread some on the back deck.  It has oats for the reindeer to eat and some sparkles that glint in the moonlight to help guide the reindeer to our house.

We worked very hard to make delicious chocolate chip cookies for Santa.  When we had visited him in Marietta Square, G had asked him, and he had said that those are his favorite kind of cookie.  Here is Chipdip leaving cookies and milk for Santa.

On Christmas morning, Chip was so excited to open all of the presents that Santa had brought him.

He found lots of great goodies in his stocking.

Even while looking at the pile of presents that Santa brought, he was content to cuddle with his mouse named Huxley from his elf named Pajamas; the Lego Star Wars knit cap from his stocking, and his picture with his little cousin Jackson.

Christmas night, we opened presents from Bunnut, Papa Nick, and their dog Zozie.  They sent Chip and Daddy hot cocoa mix.  Yum!

Here are two happy campers on Christmas night.

 After Christmas day, it was time to play.

Chip got up about an hour before we did on December 27th.  In that time, he opened the new Lego kit (The Battle of Naboo) that he had bought with his own money the night before, put it all together, and played with it for a little bit.  He truly is gifted.

Here is a scene he had set up.  I started to ask him why they were all leaning forward, but thenI realized that they were running into battle.  He explained that they were all having a battle.  The legs on the very left are all that remain of a very unlucky droid.  Notice the group just below the Wampa who all have their lightsabers drawn toward each other.

We were particularly impressed with the way he had mounted Boba Fett so that he is flying with his jet pack.

 We were so blessed this year, because not only was Laura home for New Year's, and Nancy and Ciara drove down to stay with us (while Mark and Nathan went on to the Gator Bowl), but Vera and Bill decided to fly down, as well.

Ciara models the froggy apron I made her for Christmas.  I think she rocks the look!

 Time for the party!  Every other year, we have rung in the new year quietly, at home.  This year, we stayed at home but threw a party.  After what was quite a difficult year, we were ready to celebrate.

BFFs.

Notice the necklace he gave me for Christmas.  It's by local artist Ashley Buchanen, and it's called "Relationship."  I wear it with the man closer to my heart.

Partygoers Ciara and Nancy.

Partygoers Russ and Lori.

Partygoers Lindsay and Danielle.

Partygoers Jen and Jack.

Me and my sister Laura.

Mad Matt.

Make some noise, Lindsay!

Jennifer and Matt decided to drop by after midnight.  We are so "street."

So there you have it.  It has been a really, really special holiday season.  Lots of fun, lots of stress but lots of joy, and lots of love.  We really hope that your new year is filled with fun, joy, and love, too.  And just to sum it all up, here's that photo again:

Georgia On Ice

It's cold here.  Like, really, really cold.

Happy Toothday!

Chipdip lost his first tooth today.  He has been looking forward to this for a long time, and as soon as it happened, he called everyone we could think of to share the news.  We sure hope the tooth fairy visits tonight!

Actually, Mommy is a little ambivalent about this.  I want to hang on to every moment of G's childhood, and this little step toward adulthood is difficult for me to take.  It's only because of G's joy that I am able to focus on the positive and swallow my sentimentality.

And now, the story.  It happened, as all things seem to happen, while I was in the bathroom.  Matt saw this:

and let me know that I had better get out in a hurry.  We were going to have tacos for dinner, so we knew that the tooth would need to come out before G started crunching any shells.  Matt just reached in and pulled it out.  You can see for yourself:

Here are the before (30 October 2010) and after (today, 5 December 2010) photos of Chip's beautiful smile:

He keeps saying, "I can't believe I lost my tooth today!"  Looks like someone will be asking Santa for a new front tooth!

Zip-A-Dee Doo Dah

We finally went on our ziplining adventure today that we bought over the summer through Groupon.  It was something we have wanted to do for a very long time, and we weren't disappointed.  Here is a photo log of our day.

Laura had said that when we turn off the main road, it would look like we were being led into a trap.  When we turned onto this dirt road, we knew we were going the right way.

This abandoned mill is barely standing, but still beautiful.

It is a really nice property - 137 acres - with a beautiful lodge with games to play while you wait.  Matthew beat me in foosball, 10-3.

We were raring to go.

Matty looking at the platform from which we zipped.

Here he comes!

We wanted to go as fast as possible.

It was impossible to cross the bridge without grabbing the wires, but it wasn't scary with all the ropes to lean into.

This is the highest platform at 70 feet above the ground.

Here I am on the longest zipline of the course.  It was about 750 feet long.

Here comes Matt.  Notice that you can hear the wire "singing" long before you can see him.

I was so excited to pose for the camera, I forgot to brake and came in fast and twisted.  We thought it was funny, how confident we were by then.

We had to rappel straight down from this platform.  Here is Matt, who is safely on the ground.  The only scary part was swinging out over the edge; from our rock climbing experience, we were used to rappelling down.

We got to race each other on the last zipline.

Matt was winning as soon as we started.

Right after this photo was taken, I decided that since I was losing, I would go ahead and slide with my legs up in the air.  Do you see our reflections in the water?