Our Christmas Eve

This is the first year that Danny and I have had Christmas eve and morning with just us and the girls.  It was nice but we certainly missed having our parents there to share it with also.

On Christmas eve day, we went to see Santa Claus.  I can't decide if I want to make it a tradition of going to see Santa on Christmas eve or not.  We did this last year and it worked out great.  We waited for about 20-25 minutes, saw Santa and we were done.  This year, it didn't go so smoothly.  We arrived to later than I wanted to see Santa at the mall closest to us and by the time we got there (a little before 11:00 a.m.), the last person in sign had this little sign saying there were the last ones to see Santa before he took his lunch break and he wouldn't be back until 1:00 p.m.  Well, I was not going to try and entertain the children at the mall and wait two hours to see Santa.  So, we loaded up and went to another mall.  By the time we got there, it was 11:45 and the line for Santa was a mile long!

Being the sacrificing mom that I am (ha!), I stood in line while Danny too the girls for some lunch at the food court.  An hour and a half later, we get to see Santa!  Alexandra briefly sat on his lap before breaking out in a scream and Anna wanted to see him, but wasn't quite comfortable sitting on his lap and didn't even want to stand in front of him without me right there holding her hand....so we kicked Santa out of his throne chair and had our family picture taken with Santa at a safe distance away!

Aubrey told Santa she wanted a Barbie for Christmas so that's exactly what Anna told him she wanted as well.  I'm so glad my children don't have high expectations for Santa!  LOL!

After seeing Santa, we finiched up a little shopping and headed home (since our whole day was practically gone).  We decided we wouldn't go to Christmas eve services at church since we would have to take all three girls in by ourselves in big church....and have communion...and have lit candles to hold...it was too much!  That's sounds like a stressful disaster waiting to happen to me!

So we decided to have Chinese take-out for dinner and just have a relaxing night at home with the girls.  Daddy read the Christmas story and then we had Aubrey recite her story-telling version of the Christmas story, which was amazing very detailed and accurate!

We then wrote our letters for Santa...each girl had their own letter, even Alexandra!

Anna's letter.  I hope Santa can read Anna language!

We put our the Christmas cookies and milk....

Alexandra has one thing on her mind!

Anna is going to make sure that Alexandra know those cookies are for Santa!

and then the girls laid their heads down in eager anticipation of Santa coming to visit!

Cuddling with Santa Daddy before bed!

The Nutcracker!

Another tradition started last year with Danny's mom (YaYa) is to take Aubrey (and eventually the other girls once they are old enough) and I to the Nutcracker.  We go to a local performance, but one year when all the girls can go, we will plan a trip to see the Nutcracker at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta!

YaYa treated Aubrey and I to lunch and then we headed over to the performance.  Aubrey was so excited about going.  She literally has been talking about going since we went last Christmas.  Once again, Aubrey enjoyed it so much and is looking forward to going again next year!  I just love traditions!

On our way!

It's Christmas...Let the Traveling Begin!

I just love this picture of Alexandra so I thought I would put it at the top of this post!

Since we don't have any family in Florida with us, we end up doing quite a bit of traveling during Thanksgiving and Christmas.  This year we headed to Atlanta for the Vickery Christmas (Danny's extended family) and then to my parents the next weekend for the Pennington Christmas.  We had a wonderful time at each.  It's always so good to spend time with extended family that we don't get to see much...mostly once a year when we get together for Christmas!

The Vickery Family

The Vickery Clan!

The family with Danny's dad.  This picture was taken right before we left so we had already changed the girls into their pajamas in the hopes that they would sleep on our trip back to Dooly Co.

Danny and his dad.

The Wailes and Britt kids!  The best of cousins!

 The Pennington Family

The Pennington siblings with their spouses!

My Aunt Carol, Dad and Aunt Judy!  Love them!

The grand kids!  Yes, mine are ALWAYS the ones not cooperating with pictures!

Alexandra and I as we are opening gifts.

Aunt Carol and Aubrey.

My mom and Alexandra.  This is Alexandra's "Che-e-e-e-ese" face.  Lovely, isn't?

Cutting Down the Christmas Tree!

We started the tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree last year and it's always a fun time!  Since we had Thanksgiving with Danny's mom in Shellman's Bluff, we found a Christmas tree farm in Midway, Ga.  It was only about 30 minutes away from his mom and they had a good selection of trees.  It was an overcast day and although Danny wanted to walk the farm to find a tree, I suggested driving.  I'm glad I did.  About the time that Danny was loading the tree onto the Explorer, it started pouring!  I felt really bad for the people running back to the front of the farm, but with three kids, a dog and a tree, we had no room to offer a ride!

The girls posing in front of the tree we chose!

Since we found a tree we liked at the start of our adventure, we thought we should walk around just to make sure we didn't see another tree we liked better.

Daddy in action!

On the ride home....sweet sisters!  Alexandra went through a phase (a short one) where she liked for Aubrey to hold her hand when they were in the car!

Oh, My!

November 2010

This is what I get when Aubrey tells me she wants to dress herself and show me something special!  Wow!  There are just no words for this!

This is Aubrey with the Ariel she painted at the pottery store with her sweet friend Allison.  She is so proud that she painted this all by herself....well, maybe I helped fill in a few wholes with paint! 

A few pictures from Aubrey's playdate with Allison. (Sidenote:  Allison was Aubrey's very first friend!  Little do they know, but they were adorable little babies together in the Dove's room at St. Mark Ark.  They go way back!)

Aubrey and Allison loved their little play date and had lots of fun!

The girls are working very hard on their Ariels.  Yes, they both picked out the same thing to paint!

The finished product

The girls are so proud of their masterpieces!

Sweet, sweet friends!

Aubrey Sings in Big Church!

Aubrey started choir at church this year!  Most every time that Aubrey has been to big church with us it was to watch a children's musical.  When I broke the news to her that she would be in choir this year, she was so-o-o-o excited.  The first thing she wanted to know was if she would be singing in big church!  I told her after practicing her new songs, she would get to sing in big church, which excited her beyond belief!

On the first night of choir, she asked me if she was going to be singing in big church.  I told her not tonight, but after you practice your songs, then you will get to sing in big church.  Later that night when we were on the way home, I asked her about choir and she immediately started this melodramatic cry and told me that her teachers wouldn't let her go sing in big church!  I once again explained to her that she would have to learn and practice her new songs before she would sing in big church.

She loves choir, but I had a friend who was helping out in Aubrey's choir class and she told me that each week, Aubrey wouldn't sing and she just stood there holding her teacher's hand.  I asked Aubrey if she like choir and she told me she did.  I asked her if she wanted to keep going back to choir and she told me she did.  So, I told her that if she wanted to continue with choir she would need to start singing!  It's amazing to me how excited she is about choir each week, but when she gets in there, she doesn't sing. 

I was a littler nervous about how she would do singing in big church for the first time, but she did awesome!!!
October 2010

Aubrey's second performance in Big Church!
November 2010

Love that she gives me her thumbs up!

Aubrey with Peter and Issac!

Aubrey's Christmas Musical!
December 2010

My little angel!  She's just so beautiful!

Anna and Aubrey before the musical

Instead of Where's Waldo, this picture is titled, Where's Aubrey.   I couldn't get very close to get a picture and she was standing more towards the back, so my pictures of her actually singing didn't turn out so great!