Living, Loving, Learning

Arrrggghhhhh!! I just had a few more photos from the Christmas holiday that I wanted to post. Griffin is REALLY into dressing up (always pirate, ninja or knight) and he had Gran and MorMor sailing the high seas with him. And I had to post pictures of the hats the Amors made for the kids. I just LOVE handmade gifts....hmmmm wonder why! ;) And I had to put one last photo of Lucy and what probably was her favorite part of the holidays....cookies (you have to read that in the Cookie Monster voice!)

It was so fun to see Lucy's excitement this year, as this whole Christmas "thing" was finally coming together for her. Oh...I see....this is what brother was talking about. We had a wonderfully relaxed and magical day. The kids started with stockings, the adults with mimosas. We were all donning our new Christmas pj's....and yes, you don't have to make fun of me behind my back, you can do it to my face, I totally am asking for it. I did buy Scottie dog pj's to match my daughters (I hang my head in shame of the cheesiness.....but we looked so cute! ;) ) Besides opening a mountain of presents, we fit in lots of giggles and cuddles, and of course, lots of great food. We started opening presents about 8:30 and I think the last one was opened about 6 pm...it was quite a day. Thankfully we had no where we had to be so if the kids wanted to stop and play with every toy as it was opened, it was no problem. We were soooo thankful that Bruce was with us for ...

Like last year, we drove down to Nashville on Christmas Eve and met up with my Dad, Vicky and Alexis (who they had just picked up from the airport) at the Grand Ol' Opry Hotel. It is soooo beautiful, wonderfully decorated, plus warm and humid for the plants. I really can't imagine a better place to have lunch on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, Bruce was on call so he was not able to come with us. The kids were very into the fountains and fish this year. We had a wonderful lunch together. We were so happy to see everyone. Griffin and Dad spent most of the lunch playing with his brand new, and very first Transformer. Look out boy toys, here we come!! Dad and Vicky also gave our family a wii!!!! That was the most exciting to me, but Griffin didn't quite understand what it was at that point. Lucy was very happy to play with her new babydoll and flirt with the waiter. We took a relaxing boat ride around one of the atrium's...we actually had the whole boat to ourselves. Thi...

I am going to take the next week to "unplug" and really focus my energy on these precious days with my family. So from our family to yours, we wish you a very magical Christmas. Peace and Big Love to you Friends!!! Christi

I had the best time at Griffin's class's Christmas party!! AND, I actually remembered to take some pictures. They made these adorable shirts; the head is his footprint, the antlers his handprints. They had a gift exchange and here he is showing his teacher, Ms. Jaclyn, the dinosour egg that he was given. She was super excited for him, knowing what a dino fan he is. This is Griffin with his good friend and seatmate D'Nija. And here are his best school buddies, Logan and Brandon. OK so this was the EXTREMELY best part. Griffin was the star reader this week which means he got to read a story in front of the class (I believe he was the only the third able to do it thus far). He had practiced all week at school and I was so super happy when the teacher told me she had saved it for the end of the day so I could see him do it. His classmates sat so quiet and listened while he read each word, with many needing to be sounded out. Adorable!!! Then he would show them the p...

I know I am biased but I am thinking these little faces are sooooooo gorgeous! Lucy is wearing a Scottish kilt that has been handed down to us. Again, maybe my Mom can post a comment about the history of this kilt but I think it was something she wore as a little girl. Griffin LOVED seeing Santa. I think he surprised Santa with his friendly greeting! "I want gorilla mountain and a camera, a real one, and the underwater shark attack, and the playmobil octopus and the star wars volcano and a hot wheels truck and new computer games and some new books and..." Santa, did you get all that?? Yeah, Lucy was not going withing 2 feet of him without a candy cane bribe, which she grabbed and ran away with. We went back for a second year to the local State Park that hosted Santa in their gorgeous lodge. What a wonderful experience for the kids. They hung out with Santa for 15 minutes without any other kids being around and I got to reconnect with a new friend who works at the pa...

I have been enjoying looking at homes decorated for Christmas on blogs and thought maybe you would enjoy seeing my house. Of course, we have to keep it dog and kid friendly. I know I've posted pictures of our tree before. I do it pretty much the same every year, just adding new ornaments. At 6 new ornaments a year, it's good we have room for a BIG tree! This is the opposite corner of our dining room. It is my tribute to a warm climate Christmas! We love listening to our reggae and steel drum Christmas music! The fireplace mantel is my favorite "decorating" spot in the house! This is our Christmas treasures shelf, nice and high. The light up ceramic tree was my Grandma's and I have loved it since I was little. I can remember being small and liking to rearrange the pattern of glass ornaments. The Santa and Ms. Claus are from my Mom and are so comforting, another thing I loved as a child. Not sure where they came from, maybe you can comment on that, Mom...

Well, Hello Friends! Sorry for the delay in posting...we've been busy down here in 'Tucky. Last week we were lucky enough to host 8 people 1 day, 6 people 3 days, 5 people 1 day and 3 people 3 days...all these days being in a row. We LOVED every minute of it (well, almost every minute...explanantion later.) We feel so lucky and so loved that our family would choose to make the trip to spend the holidays with us. Our new house seems to be built for this type of entertaining and everyone seemed to settle in quickly. It felt wonderful to wake up in our own bed on Christmas morning (something we have NEVER experienced together as we always traveled over the holidays previously.) I will post more pictures after I upload them. Griffin enjoyed having all his favorite people around....poor Gran and MorMor, they don't get a moment of peace during Griff's waking hours. For those of you who haven't spent time around him, Griffin is a FOCUSED kid. When one of his favorite peopl...

Griffin at the Henry Ford Museum last week. The presents are wrapped, the clothes are washed and packed, the cookies are baked, the Christmas parties are attended, the Christmas tree is starting to drop its needles... we are finally ready for Christmas!!!! The last few weeks since Thanksgiving have been NUTS - to those of you who have e-mails in my inbox, I promise before 07 I will reply!!! This Christmas more than those in the past, I have felt the push that I am sure most Mamas are familiar with. I feel the need and strain to be "Super Mama" all year long but especially during this time of year. I want Griffin to have so many warm memories of holiday traditions but maybe I have picked too many traditions to commit to. I was discussing this feeling with the grocery clerk at the mega-market at 12 am after I got out of work last week and was just getting the time to buy some groceries. She made a worthy point-- she bets that Super Woman wouldn't feel so super if she had a...

Yea, time to bring a huge, fragrant, messy, beautiful tree in the house. Having a live tree is my FAVORITE thing about the Christmas season. If I could, I would have a St. Pats tree decorated with Guiness cans and pint glasses and boughs of shamrocks, a 4th of July tree covered in many colored ribbons and and bursting with those funky fiber optic lights , or a fall tree wired with gords and Indian corn and raffia. Alas, once a year is all I get and so I make the most of it. For the second year in a row we went to a local outreach center for the homeless that sells trees as a fundraiser. They have a decent selection and you walk away feeling good about your purchasing habits...and the price, unbeatable! This year Griffin was all about helping pick out a "big one" and enjoyed watching it ride home from under the moon roof. He just cannot understand why we don't always have a tree strapped to the top of the car. I pulled out all the decorations and Christmas music and it onl...