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.

Christmas with the Mashburns

We spent Thursday evening with the Mashburns, our neighbors, for dinner and our gift exchange.  Harry and Kate had celebrated their Christmas Eve birthday that day so gifts were everywhere.

We made them eat dinner before they could open any gifts.

"Can we open presents now, puh-leeeeeeeaaaasssseee?"

McIver loves the Nerf sword.

It didn't take long for the girls to break open the paper dolls.

The puppies played the WHOLE time we were together ... until they crashed!

Nanoo's Visit

Nanoo came to Columbia last week to see McIver's first stage performance as The Innkeeper in the Kindergarten Christmas play.  He had been very disappointed because he wanted to be a little drummer boy.  Once I convinced him it was better to be THE Innkeeper, he embraced his role and took it very seriously.

Introducing Nanoo to Skippyjohn Jones, perhaps one of the funniest picture books every written.

McIver as the Innkeeper telling Mary & Joseph there's 'no room' (waving his arms very somberly) in the Inn during the final performance.

After the final performance, showing me his moves.

Update on Tex

Tex became part of our family on November 18, one month ago today.  This is what he looked like curled up in Olivia's lap.  He wasn't sure where he was and he was lonely.  He was the first puppy to leave his littler so I can't even imagine how scared he must have been.

Here he is now!  He already weighs more than 11 lbs.  He is sleeping well in his crate (downstairs!) and uses the dog door to go outside to go potty in the dog run.  In the morning when I first let him out, he does his business, then heads back inside, sticks his head in his crate to grab his dragon and carries it upstairs.  He loves to curl up in bed (after about 10 minutes of getting settled) with Will while I take my shower.  Our bed is super high off the ground, though, so it won't be long before he's too big for me to lift onto the bed.

He still loves to play soccer.  But now he's bigger than the soccer ball.

What he really loves to do more than anything is play with Skittles, our neighbors' dog.  Here he is trying to sneak through the barrier that we had to put up between our fence.  Of course, Skittles is just old enough that he comes over and knocks the wood down in one swipe so this only works when Tex is the only one trying to play.

Houston the Elf

Houston left a note for the children telling them that Santa had heard about our ski trip in January.  Santa sent some new ski clothes for the trip.

Houston hid way up high in the pantry one morning.  Our little sleep-heads didn't even notice him until they got home from school.  (We were not compensated in any way by Kellogs of General Mills!)

McIver set up the video camera the night that Houston was in the pantry so we could catch him flying on video.  It totally worked!!  I'll try to post the video later.

One night Houston was too tired to fly all the way back to the North Pole.  So, he slept in the guest bedroom and watched "Santa Tracker" on AT&T all night long.

Busy Sunday

We had a crazy-busy Sunday.  Olivia had a friend spend the night last night.  Will was on call so it was up to me to get everyone up, fed and dressed for church this morning.  We made it, on time, and left straight from there to go to the Brunch with Santa at the club.  I was not on my game this morning and forgot to pack my camera for the day.  I did manage to get one picture of Olivia with Santa on my phone.  McIver is having a hard time deciding what he wants for Christmas so he wasn't all that interested in talking to Santa.  He finally thanked him for the ski clothes that he sent with Houston the Elf a few nights ago.

After brunch, Olivia went to see Twas the Night Before Christmas, S. Claws with some friends from school.  A little boy in her class 'won' an afternoon with Mrs. Bryan, the Lower School Music teacher.  He was able to invite 5 friends to join them for the play and then an early dinner at Moe's afterward.

McIver went to a drop-off cookie decorating party.  I felt bad for the hosts whose house was full of 6 year old boys and 9 year old girls.  Several other folks were staying for the duration so I didn't feel compelled to stay and help out.  It would have been nice if the weather had been more cooperative, but McIver came home in all different clothes because his clothes got so wet on the trampoline.  It seems that a good time was had by all.

Once everyone got home from their various activities, Will rolled out the cookie dough for our annual cookie making event.  Harry and Kate came over from next door to join the fun for a little while.

Olivia helping to roll the dough.

We didn't make quite as many as last year since we weren't having a party.  We'll probably start that up again next year.

The boys went to town on their cookies.

Olivia and Kate spent a little more time on their cookies.

These gingerbread men got a little wide in the oven.  We laughed that they might need to sign up for next season's Biggest Loser, our new favorite show to watch together.

We finally got everyone settled down from their respective sugar highs and piled on Olivia's sofa to read.  (I pack up all of our Christmas books with the decorations so the books seem new all over again each year.)  I chose The Christmas Day Kitten which is one of my absolute favorites.  I got a little teary-eyed, though, because the story is so sweet and reminded me of Murphy.

Houston the Elf

Houston made another appearance this morning - roasting marshmallows with Barbie and GI Joe.  Houston heard me talking about the Stricklins' elf, Jessie, who recently had a marshmallow roasting party with Holiday Barbie and Optimus Prime.  Olivia and McIver thought this was just hilarious - and helped themselves to a few marshmallows for breakfast.  I'm sure their teachers are thrilled with Houston!

Coming soon:  Video of Houston flying away from his most recent hiding spot.  McIver set up the Flip camera last night and turned it on.  It recorded for over an hour before the battery ran out.  Magically, though, it turned back on and caught Houston's feet as he flew from our bar area into the kitchen for his marshmallow roast.  (Olivia took the camera to school to show her friends today so I'll have to post the video later.)

Houston the Elf

He's baaaack!  Houston the Elf found our new house without any trouble.  He showed up on December 1 and has been finding some pretty good hiding spots in our new digs.

He was pretty easy to spot the first morning - on the ceiling fan in the kitchen.

He was diving for ornaments in the den one morning (I didn't get a picture of that).  We had gotten the Christmas tree up, but it wasn't decorated yet.  While the children were at school, he flew over to the window to watch us hang the ornaments.  Remember, we're not allowed to touch Houston, but we can talk to him and tell him when someone is being nice and maybe even give him some suggestions for Christmas gifts.

One morning, he brought doughnuts for breakfast - a usual no-no for a weekday.  Looks like he got into them before the children woke up.

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.

Barely getting by

This leaf caught my eye several days in a row as we pulled into our driveway.  It was the only leaf left on the tree and looked like it was holding of for dear life.  Lately, I feel like I can relate!

Miley Concert

We waited and waited and the day finally came for the Miley Cyrus concert, Olivia's 'big' birthday present.    Marina and Julia came down from Greenville to go with us.  These girls have been buddies since they were 8 weeks old.  (Marina and I didn't know it at the time, but we were next door to each other in the hospital - Julia's birthday is the day after Olivia's.)  They had their 1st, 2nd and 3rd birthdays together in Greenville.  So, this was a special treat for them to be able to celebrate their 8th birthdays together again now that we're back in South Carolina.

Olivia and I sent Will and McIver off to the Clemson vs. Carolina football game (didn't turn out so well for Clemson, but I think McIver had a good time hanging out with his dad).  Then we headed out to buy a little something special to wear to the concert.

Marina and Julia arrived about 3pm which gave the girls plenty of time to decorate the car.  (I'm still driving around with "Miley's #1 fan, Don't Walk Away, Party in the USA, Miley Rocks" and peace signs all over my windows!)

McIver and Will were home in time to take a picture of the four of us before we headed out to an early dinner at Hooligan's.

Doors opened at 5pm and we got there with plenty of time to spare... and shop for over-priced souvenirs.

They actually didn't do that bad at the souvenir stand - we caved and let them get the blinky Miley glowstick (at least it had Miley's concert tour logo printed on it, but next time we'll go to the Dollar Store and bring our own glow sticks!) and the back-stage pass (if only it really worked!)

While we waited for the show to start, Marina and I joined the Miley Cyrus 'mobile club' so that we could sent a text for the jumbotron.  Olivia told me to text "We're your #1 fans!!!  Olivia & Julia" and we all giggled and screamed when it appeared on the jumbotron.  (I'm just noticing as I type this that 'your' is misspelled - I assure you that my phone did that and I was just too distracted to notice!  How embarrassing!?)

Miley's brother's band, Metro Station, opened for Miley.  We were a bit taken aback by the greasy hair and nasty tattoos all over his neck and arms, but we hoped that the appearance kept the girls from listening too closely to the words of the songs.  Thankfully, they only played about 5 songs before it was time to reset the stage for Miley.

Our seats weren't too bad - we could see some of the behind-the-scenes action so that was pretty neat.  We couldn't see the whites of Miley's eyes, but could definitely see her and the dancers (way impressive).  Of course, Miley's trying to break out of the Disney mold, but Marina and I wished she had worn something other than leather panties during the entire concert.  Some of her dance moves were more suggestive than we would have liked, but probably no more so than what we saw when we were their age (hello, Michael Jackson with the hip thrusting!).

Miley sang most of our favorite songs - Breakout, Fly on the Wall, Party in the USA and others.  And, she also had a few tips of the hat to Michael Jackson, a little Boom Boom Pow and even I Love Rock & Roll (so nice that she played something the moms liked again!).

Clearly, the girls had a great time.  After what seemed like a sweet-forever trying to get out of the parking lot, we drove the girls oh-so-slowly through Five Points with the windows down so they could sing Party in the USA to all the Gamecock fans wandering the streets.

Marina and Julia spent the night and stayed for breakfast on Sunday morning.  Olivia had so much fun and was so glad to see her buddy again.  We'll definitely be seeing more of them now that we're so close.    We're hoping to get them together again during the holidays.

Thanksgiving 2009 in Murrells Inlet - Friday boat ride

We just had to get out in the boat one more time before heading back to Columbia.

Olivia at the wheel.

Tex loved, loved, loved the beach.  He just ran and sniffed everything.

Happy children in the sand.  Can't wait to get back this summer when we can stay longer and it will be warmer.

Great beach find!

Tex wasn't sure what to think about the waves that attacked him every time he took a sniff.

One happy boy on the beach!