Christmas 2015

We had another wonderful Christmas this year- although I was worried that we wouldn't because of sickness.  Olivia started running a fever on the last day of school before Christmas break.  We visited the doctor's office where she tested positive for strep.  We started on antibiotics, but after six long days with little improvement, we decided that this needed to be looked at again.  We ended up with a five hour trip to the emergency room where a chest x-ray showed that Olivia had pnemonia.  She got a shot in the tail and a prescription for a stronger antibiotic.  Fortunately, she was well enough to attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church.

After the church service we headed to my parents' house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner.  Nick and Cassie had just brought James home from the hospital, so obviously they couldn't make it home for Christmas.  We did Facetime them and we all oohed and aahed over that precious little baby.  Everyone received so many nice gifts, but the gift of the night was Mama's new cell phone.  This is really a gift for us all- her old one is a total piece of junk.  Hopefully now we will be able to get a hold of her.

Around 2 a.m. Santa paid a visit to our home, and around 2:30 Brian and I were woken up by our children telling us that Santa had come.  The kids were told to go back to bed for a little bit and that after a rest they could get up and play with their toys.  At 3:30 they were up again, and Brian had to go order them back to bed for a second time.  This time they actually went back to sleep and ended up sleeping until almost 11:00.



The kids received so many nice things.  After opening all of our gifts, we made our way to Granny Buie's house for a delicious Christmas lunch.  We were all exhausted by the end of the day.  We had such a blessed Christmas with our family this year.

A Nephew!

 It's babypalooza in our family!  On Dec. 11th, my first nephew- James Samuel was born to my sister Cassie and bro-in-law Nick.  He weighed 6 lb 12 oz and was 22 inches long.  He has a head full of hair.  Everyone is so excited about his arrival!  He was born in Atlanta, so I haven't had a chance to meet him yet.  I cannot wait to get up there and hold that little stinker.  Owen and Olivia are also anxious to meet their "boy" cousin.

In more baby news, my cousin Jessica had her baby- Riley Quinn- four days before James was born.  RQ also weighed 6 lb 12 oz.  I have gotten to meet Riley Quinn and she is a sweetie.  Two new babies to love- this is such a happy time for our family.

Christmas Musical

 The kids sang their favorite carols with the Children's Choir at the annual Christmas performance last weekend.  This year both kids had a solo- Owen sang a verse of "Away in a Manger" and Olivia had a verse of "Deck the Halls".  As always, the kids did a great job and were rewarded by a "surprise" visit from Santa.  We enjoyed this evening of  entertainment, fun, and fellowship.

O Christmas Tree

 We continued our Christmas tradition of adding our "travel" ornaments to our tree.  The kids had two new ornaments to add this year- one from Disney World and the other from Universal Studios.  We have gotten to the point where Brian and I don't even put our ornaments on the tree anymore because there's not a lot of room left once the kids finish putting their decorations on.

Tech Fair

Olivia participated in the local technology fair this year in the category of "multimedia production".  Her project was titled "My Paris Room" and was a PowerPoint about how she wants to re-decorate her bedroom.  I am so proud of the work that she put into her project.  In addition to working on the project at home she also went to her teacher's room during lunch for a couple of weeks to work on it at school.  During the competition, the students had to go back and make their presentation on their own- parents were not even allowed in the room with the judges.  Her hard work paid off, and she placed second and qualified to move on to the region competition in January.

Christmas Parade

 Our children's group at church sponsored a float in the city Christmas parade this year.  It was somewhat of a last-minute decision, but it came out well.  The kids and I went up to the church the day before the parade to help decorate.  During the parade, Olivia and Owen sat in as Mary and Joseph on the float.  I walked beside the float with two other kids to supervise them as they passed out candy canes to children watching the parade.  All of the kids had a great time and enjoyed spreading the Christmas message.