12.26

It was another warm December day the day after Christmas and we enjoyed being outside for a while. I LOVED riding around in my new wagon!

Great Grandmother Marion brought her sister, Sarah, over after they went to the beauty parlor for a quick visit.

I still enjoy swinging on Mimi and Doc's back porch. Everyone else likes it because it keeps me confined, at least for a few minutes.

After eating Mexican food and yummy cheese dip for dinner and after Luke went to sleep, the rest of the gang decided to play some games. It was Liz, mom, and mimi against Jeremy and Kyle {Doc was on call :(  } and the girls SMOKED them TWICE. It was great. At about 1:15, we decided to play bananagram (a new game jeremy got from Santa). It is kind of like Scrabble with a twist. We all decided to head to bed some time after 2am! SO much FUN!

12.25

Waiting on the stairs to see what Santa brought....

Running to see what Santa had brought....

Wow, an Elmo Live AND a radio flyer wagon. What more could a little boy want?

This Christmas truly was the Christmas of Elmo! Check out my Elmo slippers below. And just think that Daddy said before was born that I would NEVER have any Elmo stuff! Boy was he wrong! Haha!

Aunt Liz and Uncle Kyle gave me this cool tool bench! 

The big boys got race cars and I got a hold of one and could make it go around and around in circles. Man, was this a great Christmas or what?

The big kids went in together to get Mom and Dad a GPS this Christmas! I think Mimi and Doc really liked it!

Mimi and Doc gave the Greats a round trip plane ticket to Irvington to come up and see our home town in the Spring before we head back south for good! We can't wait. It will be two trips to look forward to!

We had the traditional Christmas dinner with turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, spinach Madeline, and green bean casserole. It was delicious! What another WONDERFUL Christmas!

12.24

Jeremy and I met Paddy, Doc, and Michael at Picklefish for some yummy white chicken pizza , while Mom stayed at the house so that Luke could get a nap. 
At 5pm we went to the Candlelight service at Spring Hill and since Luke's cold was in full swing, Mimi stayed home with him so that the little ones in the nursery could be spared the germs. PS. You won't see anyone you know in this pic, b/c I "borrowed" this off the internet b/c I didn't have my camera in church, not that I would have taken a picture even if I had it with me. There was a serious rain storm when we left for church, but I was so happy that we went b/c the candlelight service is one of my very favorite services to attend.
After church, it was on t0 Laurie and Randy's house (Uncle Jeff and Aunt Janet's sister and her husband) for some Christmas Eve gumbo, shrimp, oysters, and other dips and snacks. Mimi left around 9 with the baby, so that he could get in bed for Santa. Jeremy, Doc, and I left around 11:30, so that we could get a good nights rest for Christmas morning, while Paddy, Liz and Kyle stayed at the party until the wee hours of the morning playing guitars, singing, and hanging out on the awesome back porch!

12.22 and 12.23

(Sorry about the lack of pictures, I didn't do too well these two days picture wise!)

Monday 12.22 we met Liz, Kyle and Dad at the French Market Cafe for some gumbo and  beignets and split up to do some last minute shopping. We had a WONDERFUL home cooked country meal at Grandmother Marion's that night and opened up some gifts with Dad's side of the fam. GM gave all the grand kids this nifty saran wrap holder, but I didn't get a picture of it  :(  As soon as Liz and I saw them we started screaming and jumping up and down. 

Tuesday 12.23 we met Lizzy at the Red Brick for lunch and went to the Adam's annual Christmas party. It is always so much fun getting to catch up with people from Spring Hill! 

12.20 and 12.21

Dad, Kyle, Jeremy and Paddy high tailed it straight from the air port to Steel wood to do some quail hunting with Fred and Michael. Me, Lizzy, Mom and Luke went home to hang out until dinner time. Grandmother Marion (Luke's GREAT grandmother) came over to baby sit and we went out to meet the boys at Steel wood. The food was really good, but the company was even better! We LOVE the Roes. We were SO happy to finally be in Mobile! (Yep, mom's eyes are closed...Big shocker there, haha!)

Lukie went to the nursery at Spring Hill while the rest of us were at the church service. He went right in with out a wimper. He LOVES other kids. However, he did NOT enjoy the Santa at the Country Club! 

After church, we went to the Country Club Sunday brunch buffet with the Greats and Aunt Susan. 

After lunch, we went home and helped Mimi finish decorating her Christmas tree. We were all shocked at how much Luke left the ornaments alone. His favorite thing was wearing the jingle bells around his neck. Aunt Susan came over that night to keep Luke while we went to Ruth's Chris for dinner (yes, most of what we did centered around where we were getting our next meal!)

Christmas week Day by Day...12.19

Since we were gone for 10 days, the only way for me to get everything in is to take each day and do the major highlights. We thought that since we were going to be in Mobile for such a long time that we would be able to sit back an relax a little....WRONG! We started the week off running and never looked back. Now that we are home, I need another week to recuperate! 

Ok, so let's take a trip back in time to Friday the 19th. I will try to keep this story as short a possible....It started snowing at about 10am on the day we were supposed to leave. Our plane left at 3pm. No big deal it snows here all the time, right?....WRONG. By the time I left work at 12:00, there was already 4 inches on the ground. We packed up our little car with 3 pieces of luggage, 3 carry ons, a stroller, and a car seat, a 19th month old, and 3 adults and headed to La Guardia. NOPE, when we were half way there, I thought I should check the flight on my phone...CANCELLED......WHAT???  Yep, it was a HUGE snow storm and the roads were awful...NO FLIGHTS were going out today! SO, we turned around to head back home. Jeremy, Paddy and I were all on our phones and they were telling me that we couldn't leave until SUNDAY! NO WAY...long story short we ended up getting a flight out of Hartford, CT at 6am Saturday morning. Because we were going home, there was NO food in the house, so along with all the luggage, we head to Stop and Shop for a night's worth of supplies. We get home and check Hartford's weather and call our friends who live in West Hartford. They said that the roads were pretty bad, but we were welcome to stay with them so we would be closer to the air port for our EARLY flight the next morning. So RE-pack car, give the neighbors our groceries that we JUST bought, and head to CT. But wait.....there is a blizzard remember...at least 8-10 inches were on the ground already?....so, the drive that would normally take 1.5 hours took over 3! Get to Mark and Michelle's, put Luke to bed, sleep 3 hours, wake Luke up, head BACK to the air port, wait in the FREEZING cold at curbside check in because in door line was WAY to long, find out Paddy doesn't have a ticket and may have to stay in CT, leave Paddy in CRAZY long line after being skipped by a huge jerk (that's a whole other story in and of itself), get stopped at Security because infant in arms is not on ticket, BARELY get to the plane, frantically talk to the gate guy about brother who says there is NO WAY he will get on this flight, walk down plank to plane in tears to leave brother to wait in CT for who knows how long, turn around as the airplane doors are closing to see PADDY made it to the flight! RELIEF, EXCITEMENT, EXHAUSTION! WHEW! It makes me tired just writing about it, but we made it to Mobile by lunch time on Saturday!...Let the festivities BEGIN!...(more posts to come!)

Goodbye NY...Hello Mobile!

We are supposed to get 6-12 inches of snow tonight/ tomorrow just in time for us to be leaving to go home for the week! I hope and pray that our flight doesn't get too delayed and that we are still able to make it home tomorrow night. This is a shot of our backyard last February. Hopefully, we won't wake up to this tomorrow! I will be out of the blogging world for a week and a half and I am SO excited to be in Mobile for Christmas this year!!! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!