Noel in Aiken 2012--Christmas Fun, Eve, Morning, Everything...

Even though sometimes it seems like more work for us parents....there is something special about loading up the family and heading to Grandma's house at Christmas time!!  Back when I was a kid it was usually through snow in a mini-van all the way to Buffalo New York!  Definitely good memories being stuck on the side of the road in a ditch of snow waiting to get towed, while Todd and I sang Christmas songs or maybe some Phil Collins in the back of a mini-van.  :)  So it was fun journeying to Grandma's--with a bit less excitement this time(sunshine and a wee 4 hours)-- with my own kids!!  And every Grandma and Grandpa is so happy to have their grand-babies in their own abode ready to dote and dollop.  I mean---they do need their fix!  And us parents get to relax a little bit too!  

 The first morning we arrived we decided to go out to brunch after church at the Wilcox Hotel!  Historic hotels with big fireplaces always give me the warm and fuzzies.

A pic with Grandma and Grandpa and the colorful cat.

We always make a stop at Hopeland Gardens at Christmas in Aiken.

Its perfect to bundle up and walk through the trails seeing all the lights.

And Uncle Todd made it to town...high fives for that!

This makes me laugh.  I had to grab my camera when I saw Todd reading books to the kids while Langley attempted to play beauty shop with him.  Like it doesn't even phase him.  He is a great Uncle and the kids love his sense of humor and company!  He doesn't get much time to himself around us!

And they loved their Grandpa time...

 and Grandma time...

...and loved spending time at the playground down the street.

Loved seeing everyone partake in cookie decorating!  Way to go boys!

our tasty family...

Yay...it was finally Christmas Eve!!  

I remember taking pictures as a kid before Christmas Eve church every year.  And we are still doing it!  Maybe this is because on Christmas day we like to sit in our PJ's all day?  

But the real reason for the pictures this year, was THE Christmas sweater debut!!!  Woo hoo!  :)  Greg's mom worked very hard hand knitting Greg this special custom 'ugly christmas sweater'...he loves it!  I thought he might actually cry when she gave it to him.  :)   Even has his name 'Greg' on one sleeve with 'Ho Ho Ho',  'Arnold' on the back, and complete with the American flag on the shoulder!  Matches well with his plaid Christmas pants.  :)  I have a feeling I might see this the next 50 years!  Thank you Deanna!  Will definitely make our holidays brighter every year to come!

We had a very nice children's christmas eve service at my parents church.  We all got a bag of goodies in which we got to pretend to be all the parts of the manger scene through out the story.  Such a cute service and the kids loved being part of the story!

 When we got home, it looked like our elf 'Crackle' left some new Christmas jammies!  Or maybe was it Grandma?? 

 There were still a few things that had to be done to get ready for Santa!

Peppermint Ice Cream for dessert.  He meant business.

Feeding the reindeer with Uncle Todd.  Nice toss!  And, oh did Langley inspect the grass the next day.

 Leaving the key for Santa.  This key was passed on by my aunt and uncle as a gift, and it always comes in handy when we are in a house without a chimney.  We do like to make it easier for Santa! Along with milk, cookies, carrots.

We read the 'story of Christmas' and 'the Night before Christmas'.

 Now we are ready for bed!!!  And too excited to sleep.  But actually they were out!

 I love the anticipation of Christmas morning.  We had the doorway from the kids rooms blocked all off with chairs so they were trapped in their rooms. ;)  And they had to sit patiently waiting until we gave them the final GO!  It is just a parents duty to make their kids suffer on Christmas morning for a few minutes while they make sure their teeth are brushed and that the coffee is ready?  Patience is a virtue.

 And then they were off!  Oh Happy Day!

 Santa brought Mason a train table and Langley a doll house.  They were surprised!  

 Langley gave a big grin for My Little Pony's she had asked Santa for this year.

 Langley with her new doll named Abby from Grandma.  Abby didn't leave her side.

 Mason loved his new Dolphin.  I know it is a little odd, but this is his favorite animal!  I think our visit to Sea World won him over.

What a big boy I am now with my own luggage!  Ready for the airplane!

 Sorting his military planes with Grandpa.

A surfer girl from her surfer dad.

 And we all loved that mason played with this pink squirrel for about an hour, along with a plastic piece of trash which he called its surfboard.  :))   Who needs trains??

Happy Birthday to Jesus!!!!  A great Christmas day remembering how lucky we all are!  I loved being able to escape to see Les Miserables on the day after Christmas.  Such an amazing story and a wonderful picture of God's amazing grace poured over us again and again.  I cried my eyes as I sat between my husband and my brother!?  Funny.  But definitely tears of joy!  

Thank you for a wonderful Christmas in Aiken!  Loved all the fun times, the yummy food, the egg nog, playing tickets to trains, being elves in the garage,  kids marching to the playground singing 'teamwork' with their sticks, wearing sheep ears at church, mason's horrible dinner manners, watching wizard of oz, christmas vacation, and everything else...goodtimes had by all!

Christmas Pinnin', Craftin', and Cookin' :)

To pin or not to pin?!?  I guess you could say I am a pinterest junkie, although I feel like it comes in spurts for me.  I believe that whoever invented it is genius and love that you can have a place to organize your ideas--or should i say other peoples ideas?  Seeing all the pins before you gets your creative juices flowing and your inner martha/teacher/decorator/world traveler/workout buff/style diva/clean eater starts running wild!!.....you have all this motivation---i can do this!...yes i can!!   But then reality hits....how do i have the time to relish all these ideas....and I could really do without all these ideas in my head?!  Because once there in my head, I want to do them...which sometimes can be more complicated than I think, leaving me running from store to store or in the middle of a flop craft or unfinished project....all for a PIN!   Most of my pins sit lonely on the boards for at least a year before I have a chance to think about them...so when i do finally get to it, I feel like I have accomplished this huge task....the rush is kind of addicting...and maybe this is what brings us back to pininng.  It is fun...and I guess these pins usually do enrich our lives in some way!    Nothing like stolen creativity put into action.  So here is what we have been up to this Christmas...

Langley took these chocolate covered marshmallow rudolph pops to her friends at school.  We made them last year too, and so far they haven't failed us.  They have a red hot nose and mini chocolate chip eyes.  I love the cute labels and printables you can find on pinterest---I love free!  I just had to add the kids names.  

I wanted to try and do better at getting the kids involved with their gifts this year.  Langley loves to be apart too and Mason loves to follow.  We made rosemary mint sugar scrub this year for their teachers.  This was an easy one for them to help with, because it was just mixing up a bunch of salt, sugar, grape seed oil, and scent.  So easy!  I was kind of in a bind for the scent and used something random from Micheals--OK.  Next year if I do again I will buy a better essential oil that smells a bit better.  A friend of mine gave me a handmade sugar scrub last year, and I was surprised how much I loved it, so that made me want to look more into making it.  

These little rudolph cupcakes Mason took to share with his class at preschool for his birthday celebration!  So easy---Walmart's help with the mini chocolate cupcakes--then I added the mini vanilla wafers, pretzels, red hot nose and mini chocolate chip eyes.  

We had a Christmas playdate at our house with some special friends and mommas.  We made candy cane play dough for our our little friends.  And more of the scrub for the momma's.  Langley got a hang of the twisting, but definitely lost steam after a few of them. :)  I had never made homemade playdough before--I actually have always said that I would never do it!  It turned out that it wasn't too hard and didn't take that much time.  Took a lot of food coloring for the red, and one recipe made heaps.  We put glitter in it and peppermint scent to make it more festive and candy cane-ish.  I ended up using my kitchen aid mixer which made it much easier.  I can't believe how much nicer it keeps than store bought.  It is really soft and easy to work with and doesn't seem to dry out as easily.  May do it again to just have around the house for play....if i find the time? :)


I had a friend post recently 'Crafting makes me snap at my kids!'.  I just cracked up, because I think this is so true sometimes, and it totally made me laugh--and reminded me of this day.  I thought this manger scene gingerbread house was adorable and loved that it was something that could get us talking about the true meaning of Christmas. It was a bit harder than I thought!  The grahm crackers were tricky to balance with the frosting as glue and sticking the gum drops together with the toothpicks was tricky.  Langley did pretty good with the sheep and loved doing the hair for the disciples with the fruit roll ups.  Mason was just melting down the entire time, because he wanted nothing to do with 'crafting' and couldn't get past that eating 99 gum drops was probably enough. ;)  Love him!!!

It was cute in the end.  Yet after a few days the grahm crackers started losing shape from all the humidity in the air.  Baby Jesus almost got a crash.

Mason and Langley working on some helicopter cookies to take to the Squadron Christmas party.  Or maybe I should say playing in the flour!

We made my fav childhood Chirstmas cookie--Cherry Dainties!  These cookie exchanges are dangerous.  Love Mason in his snow white apron.  :)   I think Langley loved making these as much as I used to.  There is something about rolling dough in a ball, dipping in egg white, and rolling in almonds, topped with a cherry that is fun for kids!  Its the assembly line.

And this was our last minute gifts for the Grandma's for Christmas from the kids.  In fact one Grandma has yet to receive it, because it didn't make their package in time.  Surprise!  But will come her way soon.  :))  It has Langley's foot and Mason's hands--my sweet-ums.

Cheers to pinning!!!  Or to not!!!  :)  We will see how long this lasts.  I want to know what you have done.  Don't be secret Pinners.  That is not cool.  ;)

For Unto Us a King is Born!