Christmas and New Year

*-+Happy New Year to all! I like the idea of the new year, not necessarily the idea of a new start but just the calm that is after the Christmas season but still having time off ;)

Here is a little about our month of December, holiday décor in home and what's to come in the new year...

December started with a trip to the tree lot for a little dinky tree for the girls ornaments on the loft. They liked it and I missed having a real tree for the past several years. We also had a snow weekend the next weekend. It didn't stick around but it was beautiful while it was coming down.

After we decorated...
             
                      
  
                 
 

  

John and I got to go to the ACC game in Charlotte...at least we saw them win that game.

We traveled to NC for my cousin Roxie's wedding and to celebrate Christmas with my family. It was a privilege to be a bridesmaid in the wedding party and to also have Christmas with my parents, aunt, uncle, brother, sister in law, grandma and little nephew!

The next weekend was already Christmas. We drove to see some special light displays here in Greenville and the girls met Santa for the first time. We just said Hi and took a picture, no reason to even bother trying to sit in the lap! Evie's babbling when she saw the lights was so stinkin cute. I'm so glad I got a video!

On Christmas Eve Eve (yes you read that right) we went to celebrate with John's parents, brother in law and sister. We had a great meal and of course fun with presents.

Christmas Eve was spent at church twice, once for service and once for Christmas Eve service. WE got such a treat at the 10:00 AM service when the choir, pianist, 3 violinist and 1 cellist played Handel's "Messiah". It was incredible.  That night I cooked my first festive meal for my own family and light candles and had a nicer than normal meal together.

Christmas Day came and so did Santa ;) After we opened Santa gifts and ate the traditional cinnamon rolls, we changed and went to JoJo's to see all our aunts, uncles and cousins. I ended up going and it worked out well. ( I was on call with work but never got called! yay!)

As we get into 2018, we look forward to another year with our family, having fun, taking trips, helping, serving and I will be going back to school. I said "never again" after nursing school but here we are. I start at Clemson University on Thursday to become a family nurse practitioner. Here's to hoping the next 2 years go smoothly as possible! I'm going part time at work, full time in school to get it over with ASAP ;) There are several reasons for this but mainly of course for my family.

Here's to productive, happy year!

Fall in review

I'm hoping to not make this form of blogging the new normal, but you know life is very engaging and at the end of the day (i.e. after kids are in bed, most chores done) shutting my brain off sounds a lot better than doing anything productive. The fall season has happened quickly it seems like so much and many other things but Fall is such a special time. Even more so now that we have little Evie's birthday in November. Since I managed to post another story earlier, let's go ahead today and be productive with another!

October

At the beginning of the month we took our 4th annual trip to Dollywood. Normally you may recall we'd go in April, but this year everyone got crazy an decided to go in October. It was fun, hot and super crowded. Ellie had a blast riding her little rides and Evie even got to join in which was too stinking cute. It was a nice time, Evie screamed for a solid hour on the way home telling us about it : )

 

The next day we celebrated John's grandma (JoJo)'s 91st birthday. Cousins, aunts and uncles galore!

Our little curious monkey turned 11 months. What a mover and shaker we have here. She is so so cute and funny. She's super smiley mostly but when she's not...she's not. lol. She and Ellie are little more interactive but there is plenty of room to grow there.

John and I took a little trip....see previous post :)

I took the girls to our beloved pumpkin patch one day when I got off work early. It was a most glorious day and so quiet there! Amen!

At trunk-or-treat I hosted a fun, little charity event at our church for the kids to play games and raise donations for a food bank. The girls dresses as a cupcake and  troll-clearly homemade but they still looked cute. Success all around!!

On Halloween we went trick or treating in the neighborhood. Ellie requested to be Anna from Frozen again and Evie was a good sport as Olaf the snowman...snowbaby.

November

At the beginning of the month Evie turned 1 year old. We had a lovely little party with family. It was a "woodland" themed party and I think it's safe to say she had a blast. We loved having our family here to celebrate our special Evie girl.

Annual leaf clearing around our wooded home.

November was spent mostly at home, just where we needed to be :)

We did travel to NC for Thanksgiving and finally got to meet baby Reid. What a sweet little boy. It's great to be an aunt. We all also got a kick out of how gigantic Evie looked compared to Reid at 2 1/2 months old. They all be good friends one day...

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we took Ellie to see Frozen on Ice which was probably the highlight of her life thus far. It was really good and we all enjoyed it. Besides, it was nice to spent some special time with our oldest gal .

Hopefully we'll see you with a classic December in Review, not skipping the whole winter! Merry Christmas until then. I'm about to enjoy some cocoa and maybe even a fire on this snowy...yes you read right... SNOWY Friday evening!