The Holidays are here!!!

As soon as Thanksgiving Day got here and our Elf (Connie) arrived, we have had a household full of Christmas and excitement! I love this time of year! It's funny b/c every year, I get so excited with the feelings of Christmas I had when I was little and I have this image in my head of what it is going to be like - perfect with parties, crafts, activities, visits to Santa, Pink Pig, Christmas lights, etc - and when you are a child, that is all stress-free. When you are a parent, you get to experience it all with your children, but there is more stress to make it happen - not so easy and carefree as when I was little, but still so much fun! (Plus, lots of fun adult parties to go to!)

So far, some of our highlights have been making a gingerbread house....

Going to see Santa arrive on the square and the Marietta tree lighting...


Dancing with our friends, the Lowery's, at the tree lighting...



Papa got to stand with Randy and Spiff on stage to welcome everyone to Marietta and countdown the tree lighting!
Ali did not want to go up on stage (even though she is obsessed with the stage any other time we are the square and no one is around!), so Rhodes went up with Mimi and Papa...here they are on stage, listening to Papa...
And here is Rhodes' moment of fame...counting down....
And the tree is lit! (although only half the tree lit up at first! :))
Family pic by the fully lit tree!
The rest of the weekend was a crazy one. I had a bad cold & felt miserable and Ryan went to the doctor and got a boot put on his leg for a very bad sprained ankle to start it off. (he has to wear the boot for 3 weeks and he is not loving it! :)) We skipped the Pilgrimage gala this year and headed out to dinner with friends, Ali had a spend the night party at Libby's, and we stayed up way too late. When we woke up on Saturday, I was a docent in the pilgrimage for most of the afternoon and came back to go to two parties on Saturday night while the girls had a fun, decorating playdate/spend the night party with Grandmommy and Granddaddy! (they were so excited!)

After teaching 3K Sunday school on Sunday, we headed up to the club for their annual Christmas brunch with Santa - it was so much fun, as always!


Then onto the annual Poston's Christmas party - Santa twice in one day! (Ali already noticed that he was not the same Santa and I had to tell her about the "helpers" that Santa sends down when he can't be everywhere at once! :) Can't get much past that girl!)


(In between our brunch and the Poston's party, Ali even headed to a little Christmas crafts daycamp that a friend of mine held and had a BLAST! I could not believe she was still going strong and able to do it all after spending two nights out and a very full weekend!!!) It was a fun, busy weekend and we have definitely made it to the craziness of December! Our decorations are completely up, I finished knocking out Christmas cards today (hope to get them in the mail this week) and wrapped a bunch of presents while Ali was at "camp" and I am hoping to spend the rest of the month enjoying every second (and probably not blogging), soaking the smiles, family, friends, parties, activities and everything in and not stressing too much...we'll see if that happens! Happy December everyone!!