We had a family and fun-filled Christmas. I'm going to keep it brief and let the pictures do the talking.
Nana came down the weekend before Christmas, so we did more fun activities around town and at home.
had a much needed date night
Then, Z came to the office with me the Monday of Christmas week. He was happy school was out!
Nick's vacation started on Tuesday, but I had to go to work (boo!). Wednesday, I finalized my preparations for Christmas Eve and we started preparing some of the food for Christmas Eve dinner. We had a welcome break from preparations when my sweet friend (shout out Michelle) came over and brought the kids some goodies and us a present (a selfie stick, which was used to take all of the following pictures! (So fun!))
Christmas Eve was at my house, and it was a (chaotic) blast!
Christmas morning was really great! Nana and Tata and Nunna and Jido made sure the kids had everything they could want and then some! They were so excited, and we had a wonderful rest of the day relaxing, eating leftovers, and playing with their new toys.
After I went to the gym and the grocery store Wednesday, I didn't leave the house again until Sunday afternoon, when we took a family library and grocery trip! It was fabulous, and I can't wait to do it again this week. Amen!
Last week, Z and Lu both had their class parties and Lu had her dance party. Nick and I ended up making it to both of their school parties! I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it to Z's, but it turned out I was able to, and I was so happy!
I actually got to his school a little early and watched him and his friends "playing" on the playground (it looked more like tackling/wrestling to me, but I digress). For the party, they had a special snack, did a little craft, and then played sight word bingo. It was super cute!
We spotted Z's artwork on the way out.
If I were a snowman at night, I would.... have a snowball fight, play a football game, and sled down a hill doing cannon balls, and karate kicks. I mean, how cute is that?!
Thursday afternoon was Lu's party, and they were doing a little program, Christmas songs with jingle bells and maracas and such. We'd talked about it several times and sang all the songs in the car. I just knew she was going to delight us with her singing, and then I walked in, and then she started crying, and then she never stopped. The.Whole.Time.
Not exactly what I had in mind.
She was sitting there in the front for the first two songs, then her teacher got her to sit next to her, but it didn't help. As soon as the torcherous (apparently that's not a word) singing was over, she was happy as a clam, ate all her pizza and cookies and acted silly, laughing and having a good ol time. She was like a different child. #itainteasybeingthree
Nana came into town Thursday evening, so she and I got to go to Lu's dance party on Friday. Needless to say, I was worried about how she'd "perform" after the school party debacle, but once she got past some initial jitters about going in, she had a great half class, then we got to go in for the performance, and she was awesome (mom bias). She was dancing, cheesing, waving. I was so proud!
After the performance, they had a special snack, and sister was serious about her snack.
After dance, we walked around Homewood and ended up at O'Carr's for lunch. It was a beautiful day, and we had a perfect girl's morning out! It more than made up for the lackluster performance the day before.
This past weekend was great and really relaxing. It also unintentionally became a weekend full of dance for Lu and me.
Friday Lu had her usual ballet class in the morning, but before ballet, I had to take my car in to the dealer. Even though we'd just had breakfast, Lu was "hungry!" so she enjoyed an apple while we waited.
We still had a little time before ballet, and it was on our way, so we stopped by Trader Joe's, and it went much better this time.
Even Lu said, "I didn't drop or break anything today!"
Saturday night, we went to a dance performance at her dance studio. It was mostly tweens performing. They did a little ballet and tap, but also some modern dance and the drama students did a few monologues and a skit (as Lu called them "telling stories").
She really loved it! Each performance was short enough to keep her attention and the whole thing lasted an hour! She came home and re-enacted some of the dance performances and the skit, which needless to say, was entertaining.
Back in the Fall when I signed Lu up for ballet, my friend and I talked about taking our girls to the Nutcracker, so we had our little girls day on Sunday. I was so proud of Lu, she sat quietly for about 2/3 of the show and loved it! (The other 1/3 was okay, but she started getting a little antsy). Every time the curtain would close or a scene would end, she'd ask "Are we going to watch it still?"
When we were leaving, we turned around and there was the cast coming out for a meet and greet and pictures!
I was really impressed with the quality of the show, and we enjoyed our bonding time with our girls.
The boys kept themselves occupied with some errands and plenty of video games, and we did a lot of catching up around the house too. It was a productive and fun-filled weekend!
This weekend was super busy and super fun. Friday, we had ballet then I had a thousand errands to run, including going to Trader Joe's (a.k.a. the most fun grocery store around). I've always had good experiences at TJ's, but Friday turned a little rough when I let Miss Priss take over cart duty, stopped to take a picture (mom fail), and she knocked over a bag with a six pack of bottles of beer. It got really rough when the cashier and the beer buyer looked at me like I was a 2-bit criminal. #accidentshappenpeople
Of course, it was probably the fact that I was photographing her at the time of the incident, but it's not like it was a vintage bottle of Dom. It's Trader Joe's, it probably cost $3.49!
Anyway, I apologized and walked out to the parking lot, then another TJ employee approached my car, and I thought, really, they're going to turn this into a thing, but turned out she just wanted to help me with my cart. I apologized again for the incident (which she knew nothing about), and she was like, it's no big deal, happens all the time. That made me feel better, but dang, if I didn't love it so much, I'd consider not going back for a while after that. Who am I kidding? I'll be back, but maybe I'll just keep the phone in my purse next time.
Friday afternoon, my friend and her boys came over after school, and I picked up one of our other friend's son from Z's school too, so it turned into an impromptu play date. The weather was nice, and I got to visit too, so it was a win win!
Friday night was Nick's work holiday party, which turned out to be a lot of fun. It's always nice when you have an excuse to get a babysitter, dress up, go out and have adult conversation, even if it is just for a couple of hours!
Saturday, we headed to Gadsden to spend the day with our friends. The kids, while slightly rambunctious, had a great time, and we had fun visiting too!!
That night we went to Noccalula Falls to see their Christmas lights, and it was beautiful! There were so many lights, and it was a perfect night!
Before we went in, the kids did these bubble thingys. I was not sure about them, but they actually loved them!
We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner after the falls, and my children were being B-A-D, but it was still really fun. We drove home and all crashed!
Sunday, we worked around the house in the morning, hung up Christmas lights, then Lu had a birthday party to go to and Z had one too. Lu's was at Oak Mountain State Park and the majority of the party was spent chasing feeding goats and other farm animals.
We left a little early and met Nick and Z at his friend's birthday party. It was a football party at a park, and it was really cute to see him with his school friends.
He even scored a touchdown!
Sunday night, it seemed I had another thousand errands to run, so Nick bathed the kids while I grocery shopped and such. We settled down with some Publix fried chicken, watched some TV and all went to be early. It was a great weekend!
Day 4 was Saturday, and we were determined to make the most of the day! We started out by heading to the beach, which was beautiful!
First, we took more silly and sweet pictures.
The water was pretty cold. Z acclimated fast, but Miss Priss, not so much. We built sandcastles, then she had her 'moment,' but Baba came to rescue again, and she finally joined him and Z in the water.
After the beach, we hit the (heated covered) pool again, their favorite place!
I loved our little walks back from the pool.
We were pretty tired from our morning, so the kids took great naps, we worked on Holiday cards, and when they woke up, we were ready for some fun Christmas festivities!
Seaside was having a Christmas parade followed by a tree lighting ceremony and finally pictures with Santa in the amphitheater.
It's not the best picture of the kids, but I had to get a picture of the post office decorated for Christmas. So pretty!
They were excited to get some candy, even though it's hard to tell that by this picture.
Santa counted down to lighting the tree and carolers sang.
The line to meet Santa was quite long, but he was staying until 8, so we held off and walked around, visited one of the kids' favorite stores, Duckies, and checked out the lights around the square.
Lu loves this Melissa and Doug cake they have set up in Duckies. Santa may have been taking notes.
We considered eating there, but ultimately decided to walk back to the house to have dinner and come back to the amphitheater later for Santa. When we did, the line was much shorter. The kids loved seeing Santa!
After Santa, we finally got our snow cones. The line had been rather atrocious every other time we attempted. They were happy campers!
The day started at the beach and ended in Santa's lap, couldn't have been better!
