Christmas Eve

All dressed and ready to go to the Christmas Eve service at Mamoo's church.  The service was great - exactly 30 minutes start to finish.  It was a live nativity with scripture readings.  My favorite part was We Three Kings when each king sang a solo and then was joined by the congregation.

McIver loves the Santa ornament that Grandma Janet gave him.

Making the reindeer food so Santa can find our house.

After church, Mamoo, GranGran and GranDaddy came over to our house for a visit.  We had been invited to a drop-in in our neighborhood so they didn't stay long.  Mamoo just loves Tex and welcomed him on to the sofa with her.

We had a good time at the drop-in, hosted by our neighbor's mom who lives just around the corner.   We were able to meet some more neighbors and the kids had a chance to play with Harry and Kate (we had not seen them all last week).  The only problem occurred when it was time to go.  I noticed McIver's cup and asked what he had been drinking - he laughed very manically and pronounced that he had had 4 (FOUR!) cups of Coke.  Surprisingly, once we got home, dressed for bed and read How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Twas the Night Before Christmas, he settled down pretty easily.  (Or maybe it was the threat that Santa wouldn't come in if anyone was awake!)

Christmas in Macon

We had just one night at home to unpack and repack for our trip to Macon.  We weren't in too big of a rush which was nice considering all of the activity of the weekend.  Nanoo & Pop had big plans for us while we were in Macon - dinner out one night at a (tasty!) Mexican restaurant, Christmas dinner, Pop's office party and Will & me 'crashing' their supper club.  Will spent part of one day with the children while I took Grandma Janet clothes shopping.  They tried out the children's museum in Macon and were very underwhelmed.  It's hard to beat the Children's Museum of Houston and EdVenture here in Columbia.  Will also took McIver to the golf course for a quick round. McIver came home telling all kinds of stories about how well he did.

Will took advantage of his free time by building a huge fire in Pop's outside fireplace and turning on whatever sporting event he could find on ESPN.  (Truth be told, we also watched some Fox News and discussed how to fix the healthcare system; much to Olivia's dismay, we did NOT watch Nickelodean or the Disney Channel.)  We loved sitting by the pool and listening to the waterfall combined with the crackling of the fire.

Meet Pepper - This is the dog that Nanoo and Cacoo rescued from the pound about 5 years ago when Cacoo requested dog/cat food instead of gifts for her 12th birthday party.  Pepper is part Australian Shepherd and was NOT a fan of Tex.  All he wanted to do was play, but she's just a tad too skittish for such a small puppy.  She was also jealous that Tex could still fit through the cat door and go in and out at his discretion while she had to sit and wait for someone to let her in.

Had a quick visit with Grandma Myrtle on Tuesday afternoon.  She gave McIver a set of walkie talkies that have been so much fun.  He and Olivia played with them all over Nanoo & Pop's woodsy backyard.

One little elf just couldn't wait to get into those packages under Nanoo's tree.

Grandma Janet sported one of her new outfits when she joined us for Christmas dinner.

Olivia helped Nanoo set up the snow village before Pop's office came over for their party.  I had a picture of Nanoo, but she was in her PJs and would not appreciate y'all seeing that.  Olivia also helped vaccuum, sweep and get the rest of the house ready for the 60+ people who came for the party.

We stopped in Augusta for a quick visit with Ashley and Mark on our way back to Columbia on Christmas Eve.  Helen Randall was asleep so we missed seeing her.

Pony & Pizza Party

Tupp's mom, Bonnie, and several of her girlfriends invite their children and grandchildren out to Bonnie's house for a Christmas party.  This was their 4th year.  Bonnie was kind enough to invite us to join them this year.  So, we left Myrtle Beach and went straight to Bonnie's house.  Tex was in dog heaven because there were so many dogs for him to play with.

The kids ate pizza and then played outside, mostly in the hammock, until it was time to get the ponies saddled up.  A set of twin brothers was there - one of them is in Olivia's class at school so it didn't take her long to find someone to play with.

McIver tried to get me to believe he was too tired to ride a pony.  He was totally faking!

It's not as easy as just putting on the saddle and taking off - first, you have to clean the pony.

I was really proud of Olivia for stepping up to get the job done.  She's going to camp this summer and I bet she chooses horseback as one of her activities now that she's been one of Bonnie's helpers.

The kids drew numbers to see who got to go first.  They were all very patient.  Olivia even got to go over the jump a few times.

McIver acted like he knew exactly what he was doing.  The kid has no fear, but he wouldn't listen to Bonnie when she tried to tell him which foot to put in the stirrup to climb up.  He almost ended up backwards on Candyman.

While the parents sat around, ate and visited, the grands took the kids upstairs to do some crafts.  That's my kind of party!

Breakfast with Santa

GranGran made a reservation for us at Croissants in Myrtle Beach to have Breakfast with Santa.  Amelia was all smiles until she realized Santa was coming.  When I tried to convince her to tell Santa that I would like new pajamas for Christmas, she told me, "When I grow up I'll be Santa Claus and I'll give you new pajamas."  In other words, you can either tell him yourself or wait until I'm a grown up because there's NO WAY I'm going to talk to that man!

Olivia and McIver didn't have any problem telling Santa what was on their Christmas list.

We almost had all the grands in the picture.  Amelia wasn't happy about being in it, but she was okay since Olivia was between her and Santa.  JuliAnna was not at all interested in getting that close to Santa.

The cookie case, however, was another story.  The cookies were too pretty to eat!

McIver FINALLY got to hold Baby Jenna (4 months old).  He loves that little baby girl!

Christmas in Myrtle Beach

Olivia loves to take the golf cart for a spin whenever we go to Myrtle Beach.  I'm finally getting more relaxed when she takes the wheel!  (But I'm still glad we have 8 more years to get used to the idea of hr driving a car.)

While Will and his brother played golf, I took the kids to the beach.  Ding-dang, it was COLD!!!  We were too nervous to let Tex off the leash.  (If you look closely, you can see that Olivia is holding Tex.)  He's big enough (and smart enough) now to make it hard for us to catch him if he decides to run off.  None of us could stand the cold for too long, though, so it probably wouldn't have been a problem.

We gave Amelia a new Nativity set to play with.  She lined up the shepherds and kings and had them all saying, "Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!"

Our last attempt at a golf cart ride was foiled by a flat tire.  I just love those happy faces!

Spann Christmas Dinner

Friday after school let out for the holidays, we went to Murrell's Inlet to have Christmas Dinner with Will's mom's side of the family.  Sammy, Ginny's brother, and his wife, Page hosted the big crowd and the food was delicious.   We were so glad to be able to be there to celebrate with that side of the family for the first time in several years.

McIver was able to keep the little ones entertained and laughing for a picture by sliding in front of them a la Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

We had a great time catching up with family that we had not seen in a while, or only saw very briefly during our visits from Texas.  We missed seeing Aunt Lou's children and their families, though, who weren't able to make the trip from Portland or Atlanta.

Will's cousin Catherine is a Piped Piper - she rolled around on the floor with Olivia and McIver and they loved every minute of it.  Even early in the evening, she was able to get big giggles from the little cousins.

Decking the Halls

Olivia found the perfect tree at the Farmers Market.

McIver picked up a broom at each of the stalls we went to and got to work sweeping up the limbs and needles.  One guy even tried to pay him.

Decorating a tree is not easy with a 10 week old puppy underfoot.

We're getting there...

Two of our helpers got a little lazy and decided to focus on keeping Tex out of the way.

We're ready for Christmas!!

Charlotte found an out-of-the-way spot to watch the action.

I know the picture's fuzzy, but Tex is just too cute to resist.  We can lock him out of the den where the live tree is, but this tree is in the living room.  I panicked every time he went that direction until I realized he just wanted to enjoy his chewy curled up under the tree.