We have had a GREAT time celebrating Christmas this year! It all started with Whitney's Christmas concert, followed by a visit from Grandma Debbie and Papa Butch, fun times with friends, a couple nights with our house packed to the gills with family and friends and laughter and wrapping paper, a Christmas morning with smiles and more laughter and, of course, all the yummy food along the way! Its been a great month, and I have the pics to prove it!!
Whitney's school Christmas concert was fabulous :) And by "fabulous", I mean: her school plans the concert in shifts. So all the parents and grandparents and proud family members of Whitney's classmates were invited to the chapel to see the class perform their 5 songs. Then we were dismissed, and the three year old class had their turn, allowing those parents, grandparents, etc to file into the chapel as we piled out to tell our kiddies how wonderful they were. Thirty-minutes, in and out? Fabulous. Dont get me wrong...i look forward to years of cute, funny pageants and shows and recitals. But Whitney is two...along with 10 other two year olds on stage....spotlights blazing, microphones in place, and the attention spans of gnats. Cute, for SURE. But, whats that quote from Bill Cosby? About "nailing Jell-O to a tree"?? Yeah. That.
I also felt bad because I didnt put Whitney in the "traditional" Christmas dress for her concert. All the other little girls were in red, green, velvet/velour, etc. while Whitney was in a pink gingham aline dress that I appliqued a palm tree on, with gifts and Christmas lights. Perhaps it wouldve been more appropriate if it was Christmas colors, and thankfully Whitney is still young enough that she doesnt care when I dress her "wrong". :)
Whitney knows all the words to all the songs her class practiced for the show. I know this, as she sang them on repeat and non-stop for the past several weeks. However, on stage with her friends, seeing parents in the audience? There was very little singing.
Although I did have several people tell me that this was their favorite moment of the night.....our sweet girl dancing with her friend :)
It was a lot of fun and we went out to dinner with my parents, GG, and Eric's dad and his girlfriend, Martha. It was so nice to have family members in the audience for our girl :)
After the Christmas concert, our holiday preparations at home seemed to kick into high gear, many thanks to my fabulous husband. We had each contributed to a running To Do List of things we wanted done before Christmas. Eric tackled the last project on the list: hanging all the pictures I had gathered for a new picture wall at the front door:
I really like how it turned out, and like that it pulls peoples' eyes to the left when they walk in our front door, instead of allowing them to stare into the Romper Room Day Care play room that has taken over our former dining room.
Last Saturday, 12/17, Eric's mom and stepdad came to visit us for Christmas. It was another brief visit, but we got to spend some quality time together as a family and it allowed Whitney a great opportunity to hang out with her cousins, whom she adores!
Dean is a VERY popular kid in this house. I would hire him if I could. He and Whitney get along great and he is soooo nice to her! He plays whatever she wants and helps her clean up, learn the rules, and flex her imagination muscles. She wakes up talking about him and goes to bed asking when she'll see him again. Dean slept over one night last week, and Whitney was in heaven!
Whitney, I suspect like most 2 year olds, loves blowing out candles. She was excited to get a little help from her Papa Butch :)
It was so nice to have Debbie's mom/memaw and dad/grandaddy join us for dinner Saturday evening! I know Memaw is happy that Whitney has outgrown her "stranger danger" phase, and is ready to give hugs and high fives on a regular basis with very little coaxing :)
We finally accomplished an attempt at a family picture :) Its not as fancy as the last family pic we took on the beach in 2009, but it will work until the Spring when we are all together again :)
Whitney is excited to spend the money from her Grandma Debbie and Papa Butch after Santa visits!
LOVE that Whitney is pretty awesome about saying "Thank You" this year :) And hugs are frequent :)
After Eric's mom and StepDad left for home, we headed over to some friends' house to watch some football and eat yummy chili. We were shocked to get out of the car and see Whitney's best friend, Faith, wearing the same exact dress Whitney had picked out that morning! Great minds think alike, Ladies! :)
And once again, we cant get enough of the lights at Hollywood Studios. We headed down to the park with Christine, Matt, Connor, and Christine's mom for some Christmas lights, popcorn, and fun with friends! Connor has been nice enough to pass down SOOOO many of his baby clothes to our Grady James! A Pack n Play (i think they mustve used it once?), a ton of clothes, a breast pump (saving me $300, easily!), a blue car like Whitney's pink/purple one, and even a Mickey Mouse bike! We are sooo grateful and could never thank them enough! Seeing all these baby/little boy items makes this holiday season even MORE exciting! :)
I cant believe we'll have a baby here next Christmas!
All of my pics are uploaded and weeded through, so I just have to upload them to blogger and keep the days straight in my head, and I'll be back with more Christmas fun and pics :)
No comments:
Post a Comment