Christmas Eve Eve...

I had taken time during my Christmas break to go to Florida so it meant that a lot of my presents didn't get wrapped until a few days before Christmas. I did have it all organized, at least, and so Adam and Jessi volunteered to wrap while I cooked for the first day of family time..Christmas Eve, Eve... I like to color coordinate the wrapping paper and ribbons for each family that we visit. It makes it easy to gather them together for the day and so gifts don't get left behind and you don't have to spend time reading all the tags.. you just take all the gifts wrapped in blue with green ribbon, for example... Adam wrapped and tied the bows and Jessi made the "tags" from plastic red Christmas ornaments...they turned out really cute!!

We spent Christmas Eve Eve at Dad and Denise's house... I thought this picture was cute..all of the kids sat at this table...including my big kid, Adam ....Ha!! The boys in this house are clearly outnumbered as you can see here.... "girls rule, boys drool" sorry, boys, I just had to say that!!

There was a little drama this night.... Becca had asked to go that morning with Bryce to ice skate. Adam and I left out early that morning to do some errands and Becca didn't end up leaving until almost lunch time for her date that we had understood would start much earlier... when I called her around 2:00 that afternoon to see if she could bring me my debit card to the Ulta store (I figured she would be right around the corner since she was in Ashley Park with Bryce..right?!?) she said "mom, I am not in Ashley Park so I can't bring you the debit card".. so I said, "well, where are you then?" she said.."I am far, far, away..." so I said, "what do you mean? far far away..you are supposed to be ice skating in Ashley Park..really "far far away?!?" how old are you...four?" so after many back and fourths, she finally asked Bryce's mom who I found out the whole family was there..thankfully...they were in Alpharetta to ice skate... so then she realized that she could not be back in time for her Granddad's house.... I was not too happy with her for being late to my dad's house...hence the crying... but it was all good after a few minutes and we were back to hugs and kisses... got to love having teenagers... "far far away"... you can't make up material that good... out of the mouth of my Pooh Bear...

Nat and Bridget ..... "say cheese!"

A picture with Granny and the grand kids.... she is always so proud to give them their cards with money in it...very sweet!!!

Adam and I sat on the couch and had so much fun watching Preston!! He was so excited over everything he opened!! He jumped for joy and was filled with the spirit!! I ended up with picture after picture of Preston and hardly no pictures of the adults... not even one picture of Denise and the one of me and dad, his eyes are shut... so you will just have to know that they were there, but Preston definitely stole the show for me and Adam... God love him!!

Here are the ones responsible for him.....

We played a game called, "dirty Santa" for the kids gifts and another round for the adults.. we had to bring a gift from home that wasn't bought and I being the teacher, kinda took over...Adam got much joy out of seeing his wife go into "teacher mode" while I had all of the adults pick a card and I explained the rules of the game... so he took a picture... so I am a just a wee bit bossy...so what...

Adam got a role of toilet paper with a snickers bar in the role part ...looked like a piece of doo doo!! Ha!! The real funny part it that Becca and Adam really were happy with the gift.... Adam insisted that you can really use toilet paper and he loves snickers bars..and he had fun using his finger to act as if the "doo doo" was pushing out the end.. Becca and Adam they have the same humor and got a lot of fun from it... Becca, always encouraging him like that and vice versa.. and as you can see... Adam sharing his snicker's bar really cheered up pooh bear!!

Denise bought all of the girls new travel bags and overnight bags ...they were sooo cute!!! They were really happy with them...score!!

Here is Caroline with her new baby..and she is running from Preston who got a new pistol for Christmas ...she was very concerned for her baby's safety!!

Preston and his new pistol... he was armed and dangerous.... again, Adam had so much fun with him!!

A good time was had by all... the food was good, the company was great, and having the little ones around really added to Christmas....Christmas Eve Eve was wonderful!!!

Christmas Eve.....

Christmas Eve was a really good day... Adam had to go to work, so we had managed to clean and finish wrapping after getting home from Dad's and Denise's the night before...so there was nothing for me to do on Christmas Eve except enjoy my day at home with my girls and any visitors that might come to help make the day even better.... we spent the day in our pajamas and taking time to just hang out together... Avril and Marjie came over and had coffee and hang out(sorry didn't get a picture) and then Janet and KiKi came over and visited and picked up Madison who had spent the night... it was so good to see Janet... and a bonus to have KiKi too... cute picture of the girls with her!!! I am glad that even though Natalie and Janet have gone in different directions, Janet and I will always be friends and Madison will always be my niece!!

Bo really enjoyed the velvety pillows that I had put out on the porch... he just couldn't resist them... he knew he wasn't supposed to be on them ...but they were soft and cuddly... I snapped this picture quick because as soon as I did, he jumped down like he was Innocent...sweet boy...

This is a picture of my ginormous ornament I got back in the summer ... it was part of the Festival of Trees in Atlanta put on by Scottish Right Hospital. They decided to sell out and put on the Festival any longer... and to my delight, one of their storage units was right her in Newnan... I got this wonderful ornament for only 35 bucks... Jessi (my little designer) suggested it looked like a bird cage and so we put my red bird that Nat had given me to remind me of Grandmother on it... it looked really good and it was a great way to remember my Grandmother who was sorely missed all through the season!!

my tree with the gifts all wrapped... this is the second year with our artificial tree and I doubt I will ever go back to the live tree... I never thought I would like a fake tree...but it really does simplify things so much!! I love decorating it... I spend hours getting all the ornaments and berries and all just the way I want them...but it something that I enjoy... so it is worth it to me..

And the stocking were hung by the wood stove with care.... when Jessi was little she would make sure that the stove doors were cracked just a little so Santa could magically make himself down through that small pipe, into the wood heater and then not have any trouble with the doors. Putting out my Christmas decorations brought on an unexpected and overwhelming spark of emotions because I realized that my grandmother had her hand in so many of the things that I put out each year... my stocking she crocheted for me and has my name and the date on the back, "1973" it is worn and has holes... she also crocheted one for each of the girls. She also hand painted a porcelain village and it goes on and on... so I definitely felt her near!!

As to add a bit of humor to this Santa place setting... instead of a milk glass by the cookie plate, there lies a martini glass...

This is the village.... it the story of scrooge in "Christmas Carol" .... the details on the little people and the houses are really awesome. She just decided to take a class in painting on porcelain and I was the lucky one who she gave her village to!!

I usually put out a separate tree that displays all of the ornaments that the girls have made me since they were in daycare all the way up... but this year, I displayed them on this cute red ladder made for ornaments that I bought at the same place I got my huge ornament... the ladder was a steal...like 5 bucks!! I lit it up underneath and it turned out really cute...and took up a lot less space!!

The girls decorate a themed tree in their bedrooms each year. A tradition ever since we have lived in this house... Jessi's theme this year was Penguins!! They put the gifts that they buy their teachers, coaches, and friends under it... her tree turned out really cute!!

Becca had a "Becca tree"... it also turned out really cute...she put off decorating it so long, I just went on in their and decorated it myself and surprised her with it.. we got a great deal on some of the cutest "shoe ornaments" that matched "purse ornaments" at Nordstrom...they were sparkly ... definitely a "Becca tree"

Christmas Eve night, we headed over to Grandma and Papa's house for our family night!! The elves had left the children with their pajamas which is a Westbrook tradition. Here they are modeling their new pajamas!!

A new tradition that was started last year was the mystery gift. Avril and Terry wrap up on gift in a really really big box and a type out everyone's names on a big tag. It gets put up under the tree many many days before Christmas. The kids like to come over to Grandma's as much as possible on days leading up to Christmas to check this mystery gift to see whose names have been marked off and whose name are still on it. Everyone's names including adults are on the gift.... about 5 names are left on it right up until Christmas eve and then Terry builds up the excitement by periodically during our evening of eating and visiting by striking off a name... the kids go crazy over this....it is really a fun!!

At last..... the gift is for Emily... she is literally screaming and jumping for joy!!! She was so excited.... if this doesn't convince you that kids are what make Christmas, nothing will!! By now the smiles on everyone's faces tells you that Christmas is here!!

Beth and Marjie... the twins... I discovered this year when I was putting together an album of Christmas pictures that I hardly had any pictures of Marjie... she usually has to work and comes in late for the festivities... she was off early this year and I made sure to get a shot or two... they are both so photogenic!!

Grandma and Papa take their turn opening their gifts.... and they admire Adam's great wrapping job...

Amanda and Andrew..... how sweet....

now that's a good picture of Micheal... my girls somehow talked him into this picture...love this picture!! poor boy....

Even though Adam was working, they let him off for about an hour... I was really feeling sad, to be honest...cause I missed him being there so so much... it was nice to have him at least for a little while...

Okay I nabbed this shot because it just cracked me up!! They kids got so many awesome toys that night and here is Ben playing with the box!! Becca was doing it too!! All those toys and playing with a permanent marker and the box...crack me up!!

We get home from Grandma's house and mom came over to spend the night. Becca and Jessi set out cookies that had made for Santa and opted for milk instead of making Santa a martini...looks like Santa somehow already drank the milk...hmmmm....

true to form, my girls always leave Santa a note..this one was to let Santa know that since Adam wasn't going to be there until 8:00 in the morning, to please put a sheet over the gifts so they could wait until their Daddy got home to see what Santa had left them... very sweet and thoughtful!!

Nighty Night... tomorrow is Christmas!!

Christmas Day...Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Day is finally here.... Adam came home and took the sheet off what Santa had left the girls and took a picture before they were even up... looks like Santa thought that the girls have been good this year!!

We all cuddle up together for this shot.... and I am actually smiling before I had my coffee...a true Christmas Miracle... don't we all look super cute in our jamies... I actually have had these Christmas Pajamas for years and wear them year round..and for one day of the year they are actually in season...

This was my favorite gift... the girls made me and Adam a great big Christmas card with pictures of the four of us together.... loved it!!

All Adam asked for ..for Christmas was World Peace...so we gave it to him....

We also opened a few gifts from each other.... Becca got some new Ed Hardy threads and Jessi got her very on Chi... they were two very happy girls...

Jessi tried out her new potable amp that she got from Santa and some thing that makes effects...

Avril and Terry come over for some breakfast and to see what the girls got from Santa... a tradition that we all enjoy .....

Granddad and Denise also stop by..... yep, a tradition....

Bryce comes over to exchange gifts with Becca... and the boy came drove over in his pajamas... he fit right in, I guess, because we stayed in our pajamas for half the day ourselves... what are you doing to do....

Janet stops back by later on that evening to bring Madison over because we are exchanging gifts with my sister and my mom tonight.... so I nab one more great picture of all of girls in front of the tree.... awe...

This was the one gift that I was the most excited about..... my sister had shared with me how she remembered this Santa sitting on Grandmother's television every Christmas for every Christmas that we had been alive.. and it always had these special life savor suckers in it....she even bought me some and gave them to me at Thanksgiving with my bird... so it just so happened that mom had gotten the Santa when Grandmother had died...so we kept it a secret and wrapped it up for Natalie..... Nat even teared up when she opened it... it was really special... something money can't buy... my Grandmother had painted it and it had her signature and date on the bottom..... I love Christmas!!

Our family didn't get to have Thanksgiving together, so Natalie cooked an entire Christmas dinner for us!! She tried to make it as close as she could to "Grandmother's cooking" and she succeeded!! It was so delicious.... turkey, dressing, greens, congealed salad, sweet potato pies and sweet potato casserole.. and on and on... it was soooo goood!!

YUMMY!!!! Natalie is such a good cook!!!!

Girls, girls, everywhere!!

Where did Adam go?....poor thing....all tuckered out.... he is always so outnumbered...bless him...Merry Christmas, Adam... sweet dreams...

Christmas Time at the Beach!!

Every year for my entire life, I have gone to see my Grandmother who has lived in the same house in Hartsville, South Carolina. Even though, I have never lived in the town, my momma always said when we would visit that we were "going home" so me and then my girls carried on that phrase so "going to Grandmother's house" was "going home for Christmas"... since September, my Grandmother now resides with Jesus, so there was "no going home for Christmas" for me and the girls.... I knew that this year would be sad and there would be a void since that is just part of the season....so... I came up with a great plan.... my great aunt, Aunt Mary Lee (my grandmother's sister) who lives in Ormond Beach, FL would be a great getaway. It was something to look forward to and Aunt Mary Lee has always loved us to come (we visited a couple of years before and we were due an Aunt Mary Lee trip) and has been wanting me to get my mom down there too for years... so me, my girls, and mom headed down to Florida for a long weekend trip!!

I was very excited when we got out for a stretch on the trip and there were palm trees swaying in the breeze and it was warm, really warm!! and so I sang.... "Florida, when you need it bad, we've got it good, when you need it bad, come to Florida!!" the song is from one of their old commercial jingles that used to show on t.v....I sang it really loud and over and over for the duration of our stretch break...while I pumped gas, while I went potty, while we paid, etc. etc... totally embarassed my children....score!!!

The ride was long, but good. The girls caught up on their zzzz's (look closely and you can see Jessi's little head..) and mom and I caught up on what we had been up to lately.

When we arrived at Aunt Mary Lee's she had cooked a big meal and it was soooo good. It was a recipe that my grandmother had given her of this yummy chicken casserole that she would always make when the girls were home because they just love it.... that is one thing those two sisters have in common... they can both cook and enjoy it... too bad I didn't get that from them...ha!!

Aunt Mary Lee's daughters were there, Judy and Ann, when we arrived and we were so amazed at how warm it was for 7:00 at night... we sat outside in her garage and visited while Christmas music was in the background playing from behind this huge village she had out that is behind us in the picture... the village was just adorable....Christmas in 75 degree weather and wearing nothing but jeans and a t-shirt... I could so get used to that!!!

The next morning we took the scenic route to town right by the river and through a state park where there was a stretch of road that was a canopy of palm trees and then these beautiful marshes... we pulled over to take a few pictures.. I love this one of a little crane... he stopped and checked us out for a good 10 minutes....he was probably thinking..."darn, tourists..." The drive was sunny and peaceful and I wore a permanent smile on my face... I LOVE warm weather and the fact that we were driving along with the windows rolled down was more than I could handle... thank you, God, for Florida!!!!

After our scenic drive, we spent our afternoon in Harley Town... Ormond Beach has the biggest Harley store in the nation... and Daytona has a bike week in February...so we discovered that Ormond beach has two kinda people: Bikers and Old Folks.... there were a plenty of both everywhere we went that day. Aunt Mary Lee is alot different than her sister (my grandmother) - she is way more outgoing... when I get to be 84, I want to be just like Aunt Mary Lee - she is just the coolest... we had fun hanging out with her in Harley Town...

The Bikers get their own parking ..... if you are a people watcher like me, I strongly suggest you visit this Harley store - although there is not much variety, it provides much entertainment and I quite enjoyed our visit to the Harley store.... we were such posers and got many stares from the biker kind ourselves... we were the strange ones at this venue....

there are restaurants in Harley Land and we stayed for lunch and shakes..... I was pleased that they even served many healthy items for the healthy conscious biker and I settled for a veggie burger...

The shirts in the Harley store were pretty expensive so I wouldn't let the girls get a shirt "in" the store and instead we all bought a bargain biker week tank outside the store at one of the tented venues - I figured since we didn't pack enough short sleeves they would come in handy during the weekend..... when we left, Aunt Mary Lee said, "girls you don't want one of those overpriced Harley shirts..what you need is an Iron Horse shirt." I didn't know what that was and proceeded to drive us upon Aunt Mary Lee's direction.

When we arrived at the "Iron Horse", it turned out to be a rough biker bar saloon. At 2:00 in the afternoon, the bar had plenty of clientele and when we went in (of course Aunt Mary Lee decided to stay in the car) me and Becca and Jessi stuck out like sore thumbs... I told the girls to just walk in very confident that bikers could smell fear and walked right up the bartender and asked for a shirt... she guided us out back past this lovely decorated beer tree to a barn that sold a slew of merchandise.... this girls go a shirt and sweat pants....

the next day when her son, Alan, came over... he about fell out of his chair when he saw my girls walking around in their new threads...he said, "you let your girls go into Iron Horse and buy shirts?!?!?" that is when I explained that his 84 year old mother was responsible... good times!

Aunt Mary Lee is one of those people who knows everybody and everything about them... not in a gossip sort of way... she just is a real people person... so wherever we went during the trip... she would go on about the person who lives in that house ...where they worked..who their children were...and how they were important in the community etc. etc... I found it quite endearing and refreshing. She has 5 children and 4 of them live within 20 minutes of her house. They all adore her and they breeze in and out like they lived there. I also found this quite refreshing and endearing as well. These are two of her grandchildren- sister & roommates and would be my 3rd cousins and it was the first time I had the opportunity to meet them. They were full of life... Amanda, the one in the green tank is a cop for Ormond Beach and she had some great stories she shared.....I also like that I got a good shot of her tree in this picture. I had not seen a tree with tinsel in a long time.. the ornaments were old too.... how sweet!!

Another 3rd cousin, Shalon.... she ended up spending most of the day with us and decided to attend a Christmas show with us the following day.... Aunt Mary Lee loves her grandchildren so much and I have heard so much about all of them, it was good to meet alot of them on this trip..

A Florida trip would not be complete without a night out for seafood. We ate outside by the river at "Aunt Catfish" - Christmas music played in the background... we drank out of mason jars and Becca had learned by this night not to order the sweet tea...she ordered Coke...it ain't Georgia sweet tea is it, Becca....the food was really good and we took time to walk out on their Pier and it was nice.... lots of grey headed clientele here...which made for a nice quiet evening...

Okay, I thought it was rather odd and random...with every dinner they served a Cinnamon roll right up next to your seafood platter in this very spot on your plate - right next to the cocktail sauce and hush puppies.... they were good too.... seafood with a side of Cinnamon roll... hmmmm

After dinner, we took the local paper and scoured the area for Christmas lights.....we found one little beach community that went all out... I loved the palm trees decorated in lights...how wonderful.... we spend hours driving around and this town loves Christmas - many houses go all out with lights!!!!!

The entire houses were lit up....we got out and walked around this neighborhood... it was such a pleasant night - riding around Florida with the windows rolled down listening to every Christmas tune known to man....

This house had their lights somehow connected to a local radio station and would blink and go on and off with the beat of the Christmas music...it was way way cool!!

On Sunday, we headed out for the beach!! Our biker tanks came in handy since it was sunny and 80 something degrees outside! We bought some Daytona Beach Santa hats to commemorate the afternoon.....

We enjoyed frolicking on the beach and Jessi played with the seagulls.....

We also had to invest in some new flip flops..red, of course.... we were not prepared for how warm it would be... it was the perfect day for a beach outing....

while the girls and Mee Mee did some shopping on the boardwalk... I spent that time reflecting and enjoyed my time on the beach...just sitting and having some quiet time..... life doesn't get better than spending December 21st with your feet in sand....

Mom and the girls came back from shopping and had bought some shorts..... the bathing suits were too pricey for just a few hours today....

The girls took advantage of the day and soaked up some rays....

Mom and I took a walk and took in the scenery.....

we came back to find the beach bunnies taking a nap so we decided to walk down the pier and go in a few gift shops and give them more time to relax....

the walk down the pier was nice and we had great views of the surfers and the shoreline....

"mom take my picture at the ocean with my santa hat on!!" God love the beach!!!!!

That afternoon we head on back and enjoy a show that Aunt Mary Lee suggested... a country music Daytona Opry show full of local talent.... it was nice.... my Aunt Mary Lee is a groupie of this set of performers and had me take pictures for her of all of the groups/soloists that sang... she again knew all about them and their families.... her face lit up while she watched the show...it really made my Christmas to take her!! This group was named the "firecracker five" and sang Christmas in acappella harmony.... too cute!!

I thought it interesting that the performers all performed in bare feet... some of the girl soloists wore beautiful Christmas gowns and all...but no shoes... Merry Christmas beach Opry style... so I had to get this shot..... ha!!!

On Monday, it was time to go and I hated to leave...but it was time. Luckily, we were on our best behavior and my Aunt Mary Lee loved having us and we made it our new tradition to come and see her twice a year just like I used to do with my Grandmother...once in the summer and once at Christmas time!! It was a little chillier outside on Monday, so we decided to not stop by the beach and just head on back....

"Girls stand by these pretty red flowers...." Merry Christmas from the BEACH!!!