Holiday Festivities

We were quite busy during the first 2 weeks of December. After Lauren got out of preschool, finished her tennis lessons, and was on break from gymnastics, the last 2 weeks went by nice and slow.

She had a fun little performance at her church school. She is hilarious. Seriously hilarious. With Lauren, you just never know how she's going to do. She really hammed it up last year with her singing and dancing. She did fantastic at her dance recital last May. This year? Not so much. She got mad over something so she stood there, had an evil look on her face, and had no part of the performance. She later told me she was angry because she couldn't come sit with me. I can only imagine how age 16 will go. On the bright side, she sure was cute and posed for pictures in her precious outfit for me.

Her sweet friend, Meredith.

 

Lauren has been taking tennis at a nice tennis club here in town. I played in middle school. I loved it and one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't continue playing. Sports are pretty competitive here at the big private schools so I figured we would start young and see if she liked it. She loves it. It's such a nice club and Ive really enjoyed getting to know the other parents. She's on break now but starts back up next week. We went to pay for her lessons yesterday and she had a mini meltdown that she couldn't play. The club put on a nice event for the kids in December. They had Santa come, they made pancakes, the kids colored, made reindeer food, etc. It was so nice. She really does love Santa, promise. She gets super duper shy around him. Connor was amazed.

We ventured over to Rock City. It's my most favorite holiday tradition here in beautiful Chattanooga. The lights are beautiful and it's so fun. Lauren enjoyed making a gingerbread cookie. Lots of icing = totally Lauren.

Little L made her first build a bear. We celebrated a great school semester with her first trip there. Best thing ever! I wish we could go all the time. It was so much fun. Poor Connor dude. He'll get his chance soon.

 Visits to the carousel downtown. We know this place well. It's close to home, only $1, and so fun. Connor took his first ride.

There is a Christmas parade downtown Chattanooga. We've been a little spoiled by the Disney parades. I'm not sure we'll be back for this one. We saw some interesting folks downtown. But hey, Lauren waved and waved like Mickey was coming next. Sweet girl.

Connor is like "what is the world is this? There's no lights, music, or fun characters."

Posing...as always.

 

Gigi's cupcakes. The fabulous 12 minis that are in the holiday box. Delicious and pretty.

We ventured over to the Electric Power Board's awesome Christmas windows after the parade. They are so so awesome every single year.

 

 

If you are local, read up. This is a little hidden gem we found this year. So ya'll know how you can cross the mountain we live on and end up in the valley? There is a beautiful house that was recently built down there. The husband inherited quite a bit of money and they've build this house with a massive garage. Not like a typical garage, like this huge huge work garage with multiple doors, buildings, etc. They have 78 trees. Seriously. They are all set up in these rooms. It's gorgeous. When you finish touring, they have hot chocolate and it's wonderful. It's free as well. Go next year. It's amazing.

 

And lastly, I spent the month of December getting Christmas bows out of Connor's mouth. The boy loved the tree :)

Ho Ho Ho

Well it looks like I have about a month of catch up to do on the blog. I don't like getting too far behind as this my family's scrapbook so be prepared for lots of posts back to back.

Our Christmas was so nice and low key. I don't do stress so I prefer everything to be easy. I don't get into the whole stressful holiday drama. We stay home on Christmas morning so Lauren (and soon Connor) can experience the magic of Santa coming to our home. My parents are only 3 hours away so it's an easy drive up for them.

On Christmas Eve, our family plus my parents went to our new church up on Signal Mountain. It's huge and they have a wonderful Christmas Eve service. We went to the 5pm children's performance. The 2nd graders put on a wonderful presentation of the Christmas Story. At the end of the service, all of the kids in the audience took either a monetary donation or canned good to baby Jesus to donate to a local organization here in town. We got to the church a little before 5 and it was a packed house. We had to sit on the side pews and we couldn't see a thing. The music was wonderful though :) The candlelight service was that night at 11pm but we chose to stay in.

The tradition on my side of the family is to have a nice prime rib dinner on Christmas Eve. We had it at lunch because of going to church. My dad made a delicious prime rib with au jus, baked potatoes, green beans, and rolls. Delicious.

This is a picture that someone posted on facebook of the candlelight service. So beautiful. 

Good morning, Connor! He was the last to wake up. Sweet boy sleeps until almost 10. He loves his dark room with his music.

Christmas morning was nice and slow. We are not morning people. Sometimes I wish I was but I'm just not. When I get up early, I enjoy it after I'm awake but it's the getting up that's hard. Our Santa excitement started around 9ish. Santa really pulled through this year. Lauren has been asking for a Princess bike with a "holder thing" for sweet forever. A "holder thing" is a carriage on the front to hold baby Cinderella. My mom, aka Santa, really delivered! With Todd traveling all the time, it's pretty hard for me to escape to a store, get a bike, hide it in the car, etc all solo. Connor got the Little People airport set and he really enjoys eating the people currently.

  We made sausage biscuits and gravy around 11am. We planned on having it for breakfast but we were just a little lazy and had brunch instead. My kind of morning :)

Lauren couldn't wait to give my mom and dad their annual Shutterfly calendars. That is the one requested gift every single year. 

My dad's favorite gift: Reindeer beer. Keepin it classy.

I attempted to get some photos of the kids in front of the tree with their matching jammies. Connor is a man on a mission. He doesn't sit still.....ever.

 

We ended Jesus's birthday with a fantastic dinner. Todd fried a turkey, dad made ham, mom and I made sweet potato casserole, dressing, and gravy. Connor then helped with the dishes.