Christmas Eve at Gigi and Papa's

 As per usual, we went to Gigi and Papa's following the Christmas Eve candlelight service at the church.  Brian's dad and Barb had arrived by that time so they, along with Melanie, joined us at my parent's house.  There was a delicious meal of spaghetti and BBQ.  We had a wonderful time eating and talking.

This was the first time that James has been home for Christmas, so that made the evening extra special.  James is never lacking for attention.

 Julianna was very excited to get Moana dress up clothes.

 All of the kids received personalized mugs from Aunt Cassie and Uncle Nick.

 Olivia has already worn her UK shirt twice.

 Brian and I got monogrammed fishing shirts for all of the girls.

 Sam was excited to receive the annual bag of rice from his sisters.  This year it was brown rice- we're really mixing it up.

 All of the kids were interested in Aunt Hannah's Santa Tracker app.  It was late by the time that we finished opening gifts, so we went home shortly thereafter to get ready for Santa's visit.

Swamp Lights with Granny Mel

This year we had the pleasure of hosting Brian's whole family for Christmas at our house.  Granny Mel was the first to arrive in town, so we decided to take a trip out to the swamp park to see the lights.  It's been six or seven years since the kids and I had been to see the lights at in the swamp, and they have added a lot since we were last there.  We took a train ride through the woods which were lighted for the season.  They also had a Santa Claus and live musician on the grounds for visitors to enjoy.  Many of the exhibits were open.  Of course, we had to get the requisite picture with "Ole Roy" the stuffed gator.  We had a nice time at the park.  This was a great way to kick off the Christmas weekend.

New Ornaments

We continue our tradition of getting a Christmas ornament as a souvenir whenever we travel and then adding these ornaments to our tree at Christmas time.  It's always so much fun to break out our travel ornaments and remember the good times that we've had as a family.  Ornaments added this year include some from Knobel's Amusement Resort, Mount Vernon, Chincoteague Island, Silver Dollar City (Branson), King Island Amusement Park, St. Louis, and the Georgia Aquarium.  The tree is so full of the kids' ornaments that Brian and I don't even take ours out of the box anymore.

Church Christmas Activities

Christmas is always such a busy time, and many of our annual activities are tied in to our church.  One of the first things that we did in this Christmas season was to help decorate the sanctuary.  I helped with the hanging of the greens, and the kids assisted with the Chrismon tree.  The whole church looked so beautiful.

The kids' Blast program has a monthly service project.  During the month of December, they collected canned food items to donate to the food bank.  They stacked the collected products so that they made the shape of a Christmas Tree. 

One of the most time-consuming activities was preparing for the annual children's Christmas program.  Each year the children sing various Christmas carols.  After singing these carols for several years, I can say that my kids know all of the standards well.  Both kids had a solo this year.  Olivia did a verse of "I'm Getting Nothing for Christmas" and Owen had a verse of "We Three Kings".  All of the kids did well.

 As usual, Santa made an appearance following the program.  I don't think that we have many "Santa" years left.  After we left the church this year, the kids said, "Mama, I think Santa was Mr. Bill".  It was.

In other church Christmas news, I attended my small group Christmas party.  I usually don't attend Christmas parties, but this was fun.  We drove over to Saint Simon's and had dinner at Crabdaddy's .  A great time was had by all.

 In other Christmas party news, the kids were invited to the annual Christmas party given by their Blast teacher.  It was great fun and included watching Christmas classics on an outdoor movie screen and a snowball fight (with fake snowballs, obviously).  Things got real when the moms took on the kids.  It was an epic battle.

We love our church family, and were happy to be able to participate in so many events with them during the holiday season.

The Nutcracker

 We recently traveled to Jacksonville with some friends of ours to see the Florida Ballet's production of The Nutcracker.  We enjoyed the show.  This was our first experience with seeing a ballet, and it was a successful one.

 Since we were in Jacksonville anyway, we decided to do the Jax Illuminations drive-through Christmas light show.  This is a mile of lights that are timed to music.  It wasn't terribly expensive, and they gave you free hot chocolate to enjoy as you drove through.  The kids really enjoyed this.

 Seeing the Jacksonville lights just put us in the mood for more lights.  So, on the way home we detoured to Hortense to view the Lewis family light show.  This family has a major set-up at their house that they open to the public for free.  This placed was packed!  I don't think that we could have fit another thing into our day, and we were exhausted when we got back to the house.

Train to Plains

 Owen's WINGS field trip this year was a train trip on the SAM short-line railroad from Cordele to Plains, Ga.  Plains is a small town whose claim-to-fame is that it is the home of President Jimmy Carter.  Owen was chaperoned by his Papa, and these two had a great time.  They were served a light lunch on the train, and there was even a visit from Santa.

 Once in Plains, the group toured the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and then walked around downtown Plains.  They were able to see some things, but my dad said that they didn't really have enough time to see everything because the lay-over wasn't long enough.  Owen's souvenir from the trip was one of those fake cans that you and a plastic snake jumps out at you.  The can was made to look like a can of peanuts (because Plains is famous for producing peanuts). Owen played with his toy all the way home (and tried to trick us over and over again once he got home).  It was a nice trip.

Christmas Parade

 We had a great time at the annual Christmas parade.  Daddy parked a truck at our usual spot, and we all met up to view the parade together.  Cassie and Nick were in town, so James was even able to come.  There was a band, several floats, and other parade participants who wished us all a Merry Christmas.  One of the highlights was the delegation from the high school- featuring Buddy the Elf (Kelly).  Another highlight was Olaf from Frozen.  He walked over to our group and greeted Julianna personally.  She loved that.  As always, the parade ended with Santa.

 After the parade, the Christmas in the Park event began.  We were parked right beside the park, so we decided to walk over and check it out.  The had a live nativity, an area with fake snow that the kids cold play in, different rides for the kids, a meet-and-greet with Santa, and a couple of bands that entertained the crowd. We had plans to go out to Gigi's for chili, so we didn't stay long but we did enjoy walking through and checking everything out.