Christmas Parade

 The town Christmas Parade is one of the kids' favorite annual events.  This year it did not disappoint.  Among our favorite participants were the marching band, the float with the light up angel, and Santa on the fire truck.  The kids really enjoyed the parade (and  getting candy at the parade).

Christmas Musical

 The kids did a great job at the church Christmas musical this year.  They sang familiar carols and read some inspirational holiday messages.  Olivia and Natalie both had speaking parts- which they pulled off flawlessly.  Olivia read the M&M Christmas story and Owen turned the letter of a cut out M&M to go with what Olivia was reading.  Following the performance, we had finger foods and visited with a very special guest- Santa.

Signs of the Season

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Sanders' house.  The Christmas tree has been assembled, lit, and decorated.  As is our tradition, the kids added new ornaments from various places that we visited during the year.  The new pieces this year come from Cape May NJ, Stone Mountain GA, New Orleans, and Sesame Place.  

 

The kids have also created numerous holiday crafts- including these gingerbread houses that they made with their friends.  

And of course, with December comes the return of our elf Pickles.  Pickles has been quite the character this year.  One morning he was even picking a fight with Owen's Darth Vader doll.  Use the force, Pickles, use the force.

Reindeer Run

The kids and I participated in the YMCA's Reindeer Run 5k and 1 mile fun run this year.  The proceeds from this race benefit a summer camp for youth in our area.  Olivia and Owen were thrilled to learn that Ava and Claire were participating in the race with them.  Prior to the race some of the Y fitness instructors led the kids in a group stretching exercise.  Once everyone was good and loose, the race began.  The fun run consisted of four laps around a track.  Since there was no running on the road, the kids were allowed to complete the race without an adult running beside them.  I stood with Quincy, Mama, and Daddy at the start/finish line and cheered for each kid as they completed a lap.  Ava came in pretty quickly- followed by Claire.  Olivia was a little behind Claire, and Owen brought up the rear.  The kids each received a ribbon at the finish line.  The 5k followed the fun run.  Quincy and I both participated, and we both placed in our age groups.  My time was 25.08, which was better than I thought I'd do seeing as how humid the weather was.  The best news of all (for me) was that I won a door prize- a $25 gas card!

Owen's PTO Performance

The Kindergarten class at the kids' school gave a Thanksgiving performance at the last PTO meeting.  The kids sang four Thanksgiving songs.  Owen was so excited about the performance, and he did a good job of singing.  Above is a video of one of the songs.

Savannah Rock and Roll

 Quincy, Maura, and I ran the Savannah Rock and Roll Half Marathon in early November.  Race numbers could only be picked up the day before, so this had to be an overnight trip.  [Made possible by my  awesome mother-in-law who came and took care of the kids (much to their delight).]  We had such a good time in Savannah.  I met up with Q and Maura at the expo where we picked up our numbers and walked around a bit.  I always like looking around at the runner's expo because it's about the only place where you can find lots of really good running gear in one place.  After a delicious dinner at Macaroni Grill, we checked into our hotel room.  This may be dorky, but one of my favorite parts of racing is getting everything ready the night before.  It's kind of like Christmas.  I love this picture of all our gear.  We woke up really early the next morning (think 4:15) because we had to have our car parked at the start line by 5:30.  We made it to the start line in plenty of time to warm up, visit the restroom, etc.  Once the race actually began, everyone was pumped.  The course was great, and we all had good runs.  I finished in 1:58:04 - which is good for me.  I'm thrilled with anything under two hours.  This race is a keeper, and I'm glad that I had my running buddies with me this year.

A Halloween for Gamers

What can I say about Halloween except that I love it?  It is always so much fun to dress up and take the kids trick-or-treating.  For the last several years we have dressed to a particular "theme".  This year's theme was "Video Games".  I always enjoy seeing what people come up with, and this year's costumes were great.  Cassie and Quincy definitely took the cake with their "Tetris" costumes.  Thank goodness that our Uncle Mike was in town for the Walker Reunion.  He was the mastermind behind the construction of the Tetris blocks.  These two girls had several people stop them throughout the night wanting a picture.  The Sanders family all dressed as characters from Super Mario Bros.  Brian was Luigi, I was Mario, Olivia was Peach, and Owen was Toadstool.  My cousin Thomas participated as Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat.

As usual we met up at Granny Buie's for pictures and then we trick-or-treated in her neighborhood.  The Sanders, Quarnaccio, Murray, and Boyett kids were all present and ready to get some candy.  Before leaving we took this group photo.  What a festive bunch!  The kids ended up with tons of candy- my kids have still not finished off all of their Halloween goodies.