'Tis the Season

as you can see, our elf on the shelf has arrived.  haha...well, maybe not on a shelf, more like top bunk.  

the arrival of our elf each year on Thanksgiving night starts our season of holiday cheer.  we get out the decorations, we bake the cookies, we take the Christmas card photos...so much fun packed into one month! 

the kids really have the hang of this picture thing now.  we can knock out our pictures in about 15 minutes since they know the drill!  here's my favorites...but if you got our card, you already know that!

the kids love helping in the kitchen and were so excited to make the peanut butter kiss cookies this year!

our elf, shoshee, had some fun new hiding places this year. 

as usual, toby outdid himself on the outside.  our house is quite the attraction in our neighborhood and whenever the inflatables go up, we always see the neighbors walking down with their kids and taking pictures with the inflatables.  so fun. 

see, that shoshee, had a nice view from the card holder on this day.  

our tree went up later than usual this year, but boy, was it fun.  after we decorated it, we had hot cocoa and watched a Christmas movie. 

both kids helped put our angel on the top of the tree. 

gianna got a little boost from poppa...😆

ain't she purty?

our new kitchen color scheme made me want a few new items for the countertops this year. 

this was my favorite though...our little hot cocoa station.  ignore those cute kids with santa, we hadn't gone to see the big man yet, so we kept those cuties in there until we could fill it with our own pic.

the kids did a great job on the gingerbread house this year...as usual. 

fun with snapchat filters...

finally!  we got to visit santa and the kids were able to ask him for what was on the top of their wish list...

roman's class had a Christmas party and we got to supply the snack.  so, rice Christmas trees it is!  (when ro was little, he used to call rice krispie treats  rice Christmas trees, so this came full circle for me)

the kids did wonderful in their Christmas program at school, but it is always hard to get a good picture. 

gianna's class sang twinkle, twinkle, Christmas star.

our shepherd arrives!

and raises his arms to praise Jesus!

toby and i went to palmetto bluff to celebrate our friends' birthdays and i just thought this tree was so cool looking at night...

and we posed in front of their very fancy tree. 

i love this time of year and was so grateful that we got to do all the fun things that make it so special! 

Meet In The Middle

colleen had a great idea to have a girls weekend, where we meet in the middle...so, we chose raleigh, nc...which actually tends to be a little further for my northern girls, but i'm happy they are okay with that.  i picked gianna up from school soon after it let out and we got on the road.  i was scheduled to take a pretty big test the following weekend, so i wanted to do some studying on the drive (audiobook), so i made sure that gianna had snacks, her ipad and her headphones.  that seems to be the perfect combination to get her to be quiet.  as anybody who is around her for any length of time knows, that is a feat in itself.  

so, she's all set...let's hit the road!

this was after daylight savings time, so it got dark around 5:30 and before i knew it, we were out of south carolina and my girl was snoozing hard!

but, when we arrived around 8pm, she woke right up, excited to see mommom, nana, aunt colleen, lilah and ady.  this was the weekend after her birthday, so she got to open her presents from nana. 

and nana had a surprise in the car for her, so off they went...skipping through the parking lot.

what!?!  a new bike!

after a good night's rest, we headed to the mall to see if we could find a certain jolly old man.

we found a nice play area for the girls while we waited to see if the big man would make an appearance.

mommom and the girls took a ride around the mall in the train. 

and they got to go for a spin on the carousel. 

we found him!  lilah was a bit hesitant to talk to him and get close to him, but she warmed up and they all got to tell him what was on their wish list. 

this little stinker wouldn't let me take her picture, but i caught her...isn't she a goof?

nana convinced gianna to get her ears pierced, so here she was, getting ready.

right before the piercing...

...and right after!

but, she didn't cry for long...this was about 3 minutes later.  she was super happy with her new sparkly ears. 

and was showing them off again at dinner time. 

we had a nice evening spent rolling around target...

and then got to watch some cartoons before bedtime. 

the next morning, we went to a few more stores before we had to say goodbye.  i love these two girlies...they are only 6 months apart, but lilah's got a few inches to go to catch up...

 

we can't wait to see the girls again in about 10 days!!!