Well once again I have waited over two months to update my blog...do I hear a New Years Resolution in the Making......For the sake of documentation I am still blogging about everything we did in December so for some of you it might be a little boring...Sorry.
Christmas is definitely my favorite time of the year. I get an extra bounce in my step when I hear Christmas music. Yes..I am one of those people that tunes their radio to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving and doesn't change the station until after Christmas. I think I like the fact that I know every word to every song so I can belt out every tune in the car. I love to sing in the car...poor Addie...she has to listen...although she is learning to do the same!
Addie had a blast decorating the tree this year. We actually decorated it two times. When we pulled up to Lowe's to get our tree Addie asked me "Is this the tree farm?". Ha...We had just finished reading a Curious George Christmas book and George bought his tree at a farm...maybe one day. Well we got all of our decorations out, including the 4 strands of lights, and only one of the strands worked. So..we went to Target to buy more lights. We came home and of course someone, not naming any names, bought the wrong kind of lights. I bought the lights with white wire, not green. That would have looked a little weird on the tree...don't ya think? So Addie was getting pretty antsy at this point to put the decorations on the tree. I was able, however, to convince her to get back in her coat, back in her hat, back in the car, back in the car seat and go back to Target with me back in the cold. So after my fabulous convincing job to go get more lights.......the car wouldn't start. Ha..my battery was dead so there was no going to Target and no getting more lights. I think Addie might have heard a distinct "bad" word come out of my mouth at that point. She was so "glass half full" about it though. She said " Momma...we can still decorate the tree...it's OK". And you know...she was right and we had a blast....with only one strand of lights on the tree!
Once again, notice the tree only has one string of lights at the very bottom. Addie didn't care one bit so why should I?!
So the next day Addie helped me un-decorate the tree and we put the rest of the lights on the tree. Then we started decorating it for the second time. It took us a couple of days to finally get it decorated. After the first two crashes and "oops..I'm sorry momma", I realized that I needed to buy some ornaments that were not so breakable!
We quickly learned that Addie needs to open all things wrapped in tissue paper on the floor...so they have less distance to fall!
Santa let one of his elves come to our house early this year! Last year Addie had a little Christmas tree in her room. One night after Christmas an elf from Santa's work shop took the tree while we were sleeping and left us a really sweet note. The elf took the tree back to the North Pole to fix all the broken lights and promised they would bring it back this Christmas. Addie woke up one morning after Thanksgiving and her little tree was back in her room with new ornaments and a really cool book underneath... "Elf on the Shelf" . If you haven't heard of this tradition it is pretty cool. Addie quickly named our elf "Tootsie"! I loved it. Tootsie stayed with us until Christmas Eve. When Santa came to Ya Ya and Granddad's house she hitched a ride back with him to the North Pole. Hopefully she'll come back and see us next year!!
I wanted to do something a little different with our Christmas presents this year. Not really something fancy....just more original. I decided to let Addie help me decorate the presents this year. This is the before picture......
And the after picture. I put the names on the packages and Addie had a great time putting all the other stickers on the packages. At first I was thinking we could paint the packages but then I thought about paint chipping all over my parent's house and changed the idea to stickers instead....No mess to clean up! Addie would say "oh...there is a space there...we need more stickers". She really got into it.
Addie came home from school on December 14th with a 103 fever. Strep Throat! On Wednesday we did nothing but lay around and watch movies. It is the only way I can get her to sit still and relax...watch a movie or two or three. The weather started getting really bad Wednesday night and all day Thursday. The temperatures were in the teens and the roads were a sheet of ice. Schools were closed and I was happy to stay home with Addie so I didn't have to fight traffic. By Thursday Addie was feeling a lot better so we decided to make cookies.
I gave Addie the star cookie cutter....so I knew not to eat any star cookies. Ha....her dough was a little browner than the rest when we were done...
She LOVED the flour and how it would billow in the air after throwing a handful of dough on the table.....
I just love her cute little hands!
The next two pictures show how Addie lost interest........She would roll the dough....and perfectly put her star on the cookie sheet....after 4 cookies she realized this was hard work......
and just plopped the rest of her dough on the cookie sheet in one huge blob...I convinced her to make a few more cookies because more cookies...means more sprinkles!
I turned around for one quick second and the whole jar of red sprinkles was gone when I turned back around!
A few rules about cooking with children....
1. You can't worry about a mess because it is going to happen whether you worry about it or not and
2. Don't clean up until you are COMPLETELY done...otherwise you are just putting the cart before the horse!
We follow those rules and we have found that getting dirty and making a mess is actually pretty FUN!
Addie was well enough to go back to school on Friday for her school Christmas party! We took Christmas cookies, not stars, to school for the party. Addie was very excited her Momma got to come and she was really cute when I got there. She yelled "MOMMA" and wanted to show me off to all of her friends. I know I have to enjoy, and not take these days for granted, because it will be only too soon when she wants me to drop her off at the corner and she'll walk the rest of the way to school....heaven forbid her friends see her with her mom.
The kids in Addie's class, about 17 of them, were so excited about Christmas and they could hardly keep themselves in their seats. I tried to just listen to the room and it was hilarious. I think every child was talking a mile a minute about a million things. I thank GOD for the patience Addie's teacher brings to work every day. She is an angel! We love Ms. Lorie.
Friday night, Dec 17, we went over to Kat Kat and "Cold's" house. We had yummy pizza and the kids played and played. I think they ran around the downstairs about 100 times. Needless to say Addie slept very well that night! Cole is sporting his fireman outfit in the picture below! Too cute.
I could not get them to sit still for a picture. After their bath they ran into Kat Kat's room and proceeded to tell us they wanted to read....It doesn't look like much reading is going on to me...
Saturday we were going to go to Stone Mountain for the day but it ended up being really rainy weather. We ended up going to a play about "The Lazy Elves" in Woodstock. It was a local show with local actors and we enjoyed it. Addie actually LOVED it and she got to see Santa afterwards so that is always a plus.
On Sunday we went to the Disney show "Mickey's Magic Show". Addie was very excited to wear her Ariel and Flounder dress!
We were able to see Mickey and Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy and a few princesses, Jasmine, Cinderella and Snow White. We also saw Alice in Wonderland and some other characters too! Magic was obviously the theme of the show. The picture below shows Addie waiting patiently for the show to start...I think this might have been juice box 2 out of 4 for the day.....
We had great seats! We were able to see the Magic show really well. Our favorite magic trick was when they sawed two women in half! Addie's mouth fell open in disbelief!
What is a weekend without McDonalds! OK...I know the food is bad for you but who cares..."I'm Lovin It"! and...we don't do it every weekend...I promise..... Plus..Addie loves the playground and the really tall pink slide!
We headed to Athens for Christmas on Wednesday December 22nd. Wednesday night Addie and Granddad stayed up and watched a movie and ate popcorn in front of the Christmas Tree. They opened up the pull out couch and had a slumber party! At first we weren't sure if Addie was ever going to fall asleep but she finally wound down around 9:30 (two hours past her bedtime)! For some reason I only captured pictures of Addie and her baby and Minnie..but none of Granddad... He was there I promise!
Christmas Eve we went to church and I can't believe I didn't get one picture of Addie dressed up in her pretty Christmas dress. Oh well....that memory will have to live in my head I guess!
Christmas Morning came all too quickly. The Belle and Beast castle (above) is what Addie kept asking Santa to bring her. She was a little worried that Santa might not be able to find us since we weren't at our house Christmas Eve....but Santa is so smart.....and he found us! His reindeer really did a number on that carrot we left for them too...wow! Santa Mouse ate almost all of the cheese and Santa ate ALL of the cookies!
Granddad doesn't look tired at all in this picture! We got up about 530am!
I love the picture below....It shows a little bit of how crazy Christmas morning is...the coffee that I wasn't quite able to finish....the purple and pink castle...a Black & Decker applicance...a sippy cup....a few presents piled on top of each other.....all we need is a bottle of tums...which might be in that picture somewhere....
In the picture above Addie has a mouthful of chocolate...and I think she is opening more chocolate....She was in bed by 630pm on Christmas night...She was exhausted! The picture below shows Addie playing with one of her new baby dolls. This one really feels like a big baby. It is so cool. Her Cousin John and Melissa sent her this from NC.
I was finally able to get a smile out of Addie (above) but the picture below is how she really felt about taking another picture....
Uncle Rod started...and finished this 1000 piece puzzle on December 26th! Rod and dad (my dad) stayed up until 1am finishing it. They let Addie put the final two pieces in the next morning. Addie said "look...we finished". Too cute!
It started snowing Christmas day..how beautiful! Addie got up the next day and we suited up and went out.....Are we having fun yet?!! Poor thing had on a TON of clothes. She was probably sweating I made her wear so many layers.
Addie and Uncle Rod made a snowman...and then Addie quickly smashed it over! It lasted about 15 minutes!
After we got home from Athens we still had snow in our back yard so we got to play a little more in the snow!
Well I am exhausted from writing this and I am sure, if you made it this far, that you are exhausted from reading this! December was a fabulous month! I can't wait for another great year with my little Addie, who isn't so little anymore, and my family and friends!
Happy New Year!
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