Myrtle Beach Anniversary Trip

Our very fancy, very tasty shrimp and grits dinner at Tommy Bahamas


View of the pier from a not-so-tasty restaurant


Cute little fountain outside of our condo


Our condo


Our 5th Anniversary dinner--I must say that we each look to be about 5 years old in this picture :-)

More Christmas Pictures

Christmas Day Pictures and Video

Christmas Eve Pictures

Whoa, Santa, Whoa!

We are having a fabulous time on our Christmas vacation, and I have finally found my way through the mess that is my house to my computer, which has been very lonely here since we have been out of town with no internet access. Our festivities started on Christmas Eve with a fun lunch with the Grant family (my mom's side) at The Brickery. It was a circus with all of the babies, and Sarah was her bouncy self, wanting to run all over the place and eat little. We spent the afternoon at my parents' house where Sarah decided not to nap but to run all over with her new doll stroller instead. That girl has some ENERGY! She also opened her Elmo Live that afternoon that my parents gave her. She is so spoiled...I think she really likes the Elmo but she is a little bit unsure about his "liveliness," I think. I love how he falls over and asks for help getting up :-) We took my parents, brother, and sister with us to the Christmas Eve service at church, and then we all went back to their house for a quick dinner. By the time we got home, it was past Sarah's bedtime, and we rushed her to bed so Santa could come.

Santa brought way way way too much, and I will have to have a word with him next year :-) He brought Sarah a kitchen set with some play food, a baby doll with a car seat, and a wagon. She loves the wagon and keeps telling us "car ride." Santa brought daddy some clothes and an I-tunes card, and he brought me a jewelry armoire that I can't wait to fill up! I have been telling Jeremy and Santa for months that I had seriously grown out of my small jewelry box. Among our other favorite gifts from our very generous families are Jeremy's new black coat, my new camera that actually went the whole vacation without the battery running down, and our new clock from a special store in Gatlinburg.

Mid-way through Christmas morning, we left all of our goodies in the floor of the den, loaded up the car, and headed to Greenville to spend Christmas with Jeremy's parents, brother, and sister-in-law. We had such a nice time spending time with them and of course, opening too many presents and eating too much food. We didn't have any drama on our trip, but Joseph and Alecia's transmission went out in Virginia (they live in Ohio), but they managed to drive the car to Greenville anyway. They got to have an extended and expensive stay in Greenville while they pretty much got a new transmission in their car. On the 27th, Jeremy and I took a 2-day trip to Myrtle Beach to celebrate our 5th anniversary. I can't believe we've been married that LONG! Sarah stayed in Greenville with Mimi, PawPaw, Uncle Joseph, and Aunt Alecia, and all of us had a fabulous weekend. We finally got back home to Bethlehem late last night, and we're only beginning to put the house back together. I'll post lots of pictures as soon as I a) find my camera and b) figure out how to upload pictures from it.

Happy New Year!

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree at the Christmas Party FLOP...

Sarah in the cutest little Christmas dress that my mom made for my sister Rebecca many years ago...


All bundled up at Stone Mountain


Carriage ride at The Avenue


Showing off her Christmas grin


Trying to sit in the tiny basket...

We tried taking Sarah to Jeremy's choir Christmas party last Wednesday and it was a total disaster. First she wanted to run around in between people and around and around a house full of candles, which made me really paranoid. It was probably a funny sight to see Sarah running circles and me running them behind her :-) Then all of the running sent her into a major coughing spasm (she had been sick with a bad cold/cough). The coughing spasm made her upset and then she was just plain angry. When food started to fly, we decided it was time to call it a night and we headed home. We were only at the party 30 minutes. Oh, well-there's always next year (and I think we'll get a baby-sitter)!

My friend Leslie was asking me the other day if Sarah could carry on a conversation with us yet. Here's a cute one from this morning:

(Sarah and I are sitting on the couch, and Jeremy walks into the room)
Sarah: Daddy! Sit. (pats the couch next to her)
Daddy: Do you want me to sit here?
Sarah: OK. Here. Barney!

She has recently started telling us "ok." She will ask for more, we will say something like, "oh, you want more?", and then she will say "ok," as if we were the ones recommending "more" in the first place. It's very cute.

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and I'm sure many stories and pictures are coming next week!

More Christmas Memories in the Making

We had a great time at the Stone Mountain Christmas Celebration last Saturday--Personally, I thought it was much better than last year's trip (last year it was raining). As soon as we got there, we got on the waiting list for the real restaurant, and while we were waiting we got to take Sarah to the Snow Castle to decorate a cookie and we watched the parade--Santa stopped right in front of us and Sarah was mesmerized by the whole thing. Dinner was fabulous, warm, and peaceful with Sarah in her high chair. After dinner, Sarah saw her first "movie," The Polar Express 4-D show, and she was amazed (at least until it got a little scary and made her nervous...). We also saw a music show and rode the train (by then it was FREEZING, literally). At the end of the evening, right before event closed, we got to see the Snow Queen and it snowed all over the Christmas village. All in all, a wonderful night.

Today Sarah had her second go at visiting with Santa at our favorite little antiques mall, Happy's. I didn't make her sit in his lap by herself, but she was still very, very nervous. She did take candy from him with a smile, but when he offered her a beanie baby she kept telling him "no." Silly Sarah---don't you know that you shouldn't say no to Santa when he gives you a present?

Santa!

We had a lovely, cold, rainy afternoon visiting Santa at The Avenue in Snellville. Thankfully, Santa moved indoors, and due to the weather, there was no one else there waiting to see him, so Sarah got him all to herself. She was so TERRIFIED of poor Santa. We got the classic screaming picture, and then a nice picture of our family with Santa (although Sarah is still pretty pouty). The people there were so nice and took lots of pictures for us. Her mood changed when we left the store and hopped on a free carriage ride with horses (or "cows" that say "neigh" as Sarah referred to them...).