Extended Christmas

After the Grammy and Granddad left, we got to continue the holiday festivities with Aunt Lacey, Uncle JT, Jay and Charlotte when they drove up from Georgia to come visit for the week. They made it in safely, despite the 5 inches of snow, and got to experience a winter wonderland in the cold "north."

We had a belated Christmas gift exchange with all the Sanford related family members and the kids did great opening more gifts. Eliza was particularly taken with Hayden's new backpack. She liked to try it on, walk around with it, insist on having it taken off and then ask to put it back on again.
Unrelated to gift giving and receiving, she also enjoyed trying on Jay's big boots that had been brought along so he could play in the snow. As you can see in the picture, Jay let her borrow them, but kept a careful eye on her.

Dinner was assorted heavy hors d'oeuvres and everyone had fun munching and opening presents. Charlotte got passed around for some good baby snuggling. She wasn't quite ready to join the fray of walking, running, etc but she sure took everything in!

The kids were in such good moods at our second "Christmas," they even tolerated some group photo taking with the grandparents.

The next day, everyone came over for playtime - mainly playtime in the snow! Everyone had a great time sledding down our (very) little slope in the backyard. Jay was a little hesitant at first, but really got into it once he got to go with Daddy several times. Blizzard, despite her usual lazy lump of jello demeanor, resumed her puppyhood practice of chasing after each and every sled ride. Even Charlotte got a turn on the sled! Can you spot her in the last picture?!

Hayden and Eliza, being from Pennsylvania so that snow is old news, quit the sledding early on and took on the role of observers in their kid-sized lawn chairs.

For the Harrison family's last night in town, we gathered once again at Grandma and Poppop's for dinner. The kids were cute (doesn't Charlotte have a great smile?!), music was played, and more group photos were taken. Even the three family dogs were documented in a photograph. Please note the bump on Eliza's head (a common occurrence these days); she felt the need to demonstrate her face planting abilities for her relatives.

Christmas Tales

We got to celebrate Christmas at our own house for the first time ever with lots of grandparent love. Grammy and Granddad came to stay with us. Plus, with Grandma and Poppop in town, we got to share the holidays with them as well. We started off the celebration by heading to the mall to go see Santa. After waiting in line for an hour and a half (not as bad as it seems since we really only had to leave one person in line with the stroller at a time and we all took turns wandering around), it was finally our turn. Eliza, who had been in a good mood the WHOLE time waiting, and had waved to Santa from a distance, absolutely FREAKED out when placed on his lap. We let her scream for about a minute before scooping her up away from the strange bearded man. Hayden, meanwhile, did great talking to Santa and smiling for pictures.

Once we had guests in the house, I set out my tray of Christmas cookies I'd been working on all December. For some reason, I wanted to have my own plate of cookies to set out for guests for the holidays, even though we didn't have all that many guests! That meant lots of cookies for us to eat! (There are still some in the freezer now.) Plus Grammy helped Hayden make her special sugar cookies for Santa. Note the non-traditional, Hayden-requested pink icing for the decorating!

We also hosted Christmas Eve dinner (baked ziti with local sausage! Yum!) for us, Grammy, Granddad, Grandma and Poppop after all going to the children's service at church. Prior to church, there were plenty of pictures since we had the girls all dressed up in their holiday finery. The girls with us, the girls with Grammy and Granddad. And then we tried just to have the two girls in front of the tree but that ended up with Eliza sprawled on the floor so we just did them separately.


This last one was taken after dinner when I told Hayden I wanted to take a cute picture of her in her fancy dress. She then posed in her "cute" pose, that was awfully cute (and funny) but didn't really show her dress! Oh well.
Then Hayden helped write a note to Santa and set out cookies for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer. Can you read what she had me write down for Santa? She signed it with an H and an E for her and Eliza.
After the kids were down, I made chocolate lava cakes with sugared raspberries for dessert! Delicious!

The next morning was so fun with Hayden and Eliza. Eliza got a ride-on horse from Santa which she immediately climbed on. Hayden got a mixer that was promptly used to mix up various smoothies (chicken smoothie anyone?) for breakfast. When Grandma and Poppop arrived, we started in on the stockings. Hayden had a great time opening up each item and exclaiming over it, including the chocolate teddy grahams seen here. Eliza didn't quite get opening presents, but she did like seeing what was inside each package, like these snazzy sunglasses! Santa made good choices for stocking stuffers!

After a yummy Christmas breakfast (including a minor Christmas miracle - a flavorful cantaloupe!), we opened some more presents. Eliza and Hayden each got a doll from us and both were very excited. Hayden promptly named hers "brown-eyed girl" and welcomed her into her doll family. Eliza grabbed hers and cuddled it as soon as we got it out of the box. Two successful presents even if it didn't solve the "that's MY doll" feuding in the house. The girls made it through most of the presents in good spirits. Eliza did get a little tired towards the end and cuddled with her blanket on the floor.


For Christmas dinner all of us went over to my parents' house and had a wonderful time. I introduced Hayden to the joy of sitting in front of a roaring fire. Notice that her baby is seated on the edge, away from the heat. :) Hayden even liked laying down on her back after sitting in front of the fire. I'm glad she can appreciate the true pleasures of life!

And though we didn't have a white Christmas, we did have a white day-after-Christmas. We awoke to a winter wonderland of 5 inches of snow! Quite the feat for North Carolina. Enough snow that poor Granddad got to do some shoveling for us (I bet he wasn't expecting that when he came south for Christmas).


There was even sledding and snowman construction. We had joked about whether we should move our sled south with us and it's lucky we decided to bring them along!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

A few days late, but still with enthusiastic holiday vigor....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

and of course two traditional holiday photos.

1.) Screaming toddler in Santa's lap

2.) Family by the tree

Hope your holidays were merry and bright. Have a Happy New Year!

'Tis the season!

We've been having fun getting ready for the holidays this year. Because we are in a new house, all the little holiday preparations really help the place feel like home. I've been making cookies like crazy (8 kinds and counting...) and we've put up all kinds of decorations - a big Christmas tree, lots of lights, advent calendars, etc. The girls are both really into the advent calendars this year. Hayden is a pro at finding the right door to open - a good way to learn her numbers. And Eliza got to do her first chance to do an advent calendar this year!

Our wall o' advent calendars, right inside our front door.
Eliza got the stool and brought it over all by herself so she could check out the calendars.

We also have several nativity sets around that the girls play with. I like that Hayden is calling them "activity" sets this year. They do provide some activity!

Mother Nature has been helping us get in the holiday spirit too. Despite moving south to get away from cold weather, we've had TWO snowfalls this month! For the first one, it started on the way home from a visit with my grandma. That route home just happens to go by the Christmas tree farm, so we spontaneously decided to stop, in the snow, to pick out our Christmas tree. So festive to pick out a tree in the snow, and so unusual to be able to do so in North Carolina! I think we picked a good one.
Back at home, with the tree, the snow came down enough to stick on the grass and cars. The girls enjoyed checking out the snow a little later in the afternoon. Our new house looks pretty in the snow!

The second round of snow was more ice than snow, and got Hayden's school canceled. She missed her Christmas party! She didn't seem to mind too much, and again, the girls had fun exploring the wintry world. They liked making footprints on the pavement. Notice Eliza's boots. Ironically they were bought for Hayden for PA winters, but she refused to wear them. So Eliza gets to wear them in NC!!

We have also worn festive outfits, like these matching holiday jackets Grammy sent.

Now Christmas is almost here. The tree is up and decorated. The lights are up outside. (This was harder than you think since the outdoor outlet was dead. We had to get an electrician to come check it out. And then we had to adjust our light collection to a display for the new house!) I think we're ready! Merry Christmas!