Christmas with the Barbours

And finally, home to eat dinner with the Barbours. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Morn

With gifts from Mom and Dad and gifts from Bebe and Granddaddy, Christmas morn was such a whirlwind of paper, bows and toys. Laurie is much like me in her gift opening technique, open, play for 10 minutes, open next gift. So it took us a long time to open all our gifts!

Cozy Coupe

Santa had 1 toy to put together on Christmas Eve. He wasn't to thrilled, but I thought he got it done fairly handily. Anyway, it was worth it, before we had even begun to open gifts, Anna Fair spied it, toddled straight over, climbed in, and hasn't gotten out since. Now if she could just keep big sister out!

Christmas Eve

We woke up on Christmas eve and began packing to head to Natchez for Christmas. I think this may be our last Christmas to be away from our home on Christmas morn. For one thing, that was a lot of packing, for another, that was a lot of packing. We took a family shot with our tree and presents, went to visit with Hoo Hoo and finally headed south.

Barbour Christmas at Governor's

Lots to catch up on, so hold onto your seats! Governor Barbour always hosts a family Christmas party. It was a huge hit with the little people this year as they had a space jump for their grandson. Hopped up on cake and jumping, Laurie tore through the place. In Fair's handmade dresses no less.

Early

Christmas came early for Bb & granddaddy.

Playdate with Friends

We had a few of Laurie's buddies over today. Or as Meg said, we had a Christmas party. I love having her buddies over, it makes my heart smile to see her play sweetly with her little friends. And they played so well today. I hope they all sleep hard tonight!

Christmas with the Governor

Santa came to see Governor Barbour today and I managed to wrangle the girls to see him. I wish I could have gotten more photos, but as I was holding some child most of the time, it didn't happen. But I still wanted to post this (blurry) MSU bulldog photo for our commodore and rebel relatives. Go Bulldogs!

Christmas at the Zoo

We were looking for something fun and Christmasy to do on Saturday, so we headed to the zoo! Santa was also there for a visit, as well as his furry rabbit friend, Harvey. There was a bit of a chill in the air, but it was fun to see some of the animals frolicking in the cooler weather, while others were hunkering down to stay warm.

Mommy's Little Helper

Laurie has been super interested in helping me cook these days. And I love it. I have sweet memories of helping my mother bake. It is crucial to use recipes that have easy steps. Mashing bananas for banana bread - excellent. Rolling out the dough for Christmas cookies - disastrous.

What Makes Me Smile

Someone finally using our fireplace.

















These ornaments, handmade by our own Laurie.

















This sweet little ornament, one of my favorites, that Laurie told me in this video, was a little girl holding toilet paper.



















When Anna Fair makes a liar out of Santa.

Santa: See, your little sister likes Santa.
Anna Fair: WAAAH!

Reptile lessons from Laurie.

Everybody is asleep in the manger.

Dancing, Singing Disney Princess on Ice

Laurie and I attended the Disney on Ice show yesterday with some of our sweet friends. We met at Rachel's before for doughnuts and to carpool together. The girls were precious frolicking along in their costumes.

They had a meet and greet with a real live princess beforehand. Laurie was mesmerized. I don't know how long she could have stood at her feet and stare up at Cinderella. (And what a job Cinderella has to stand and pose for hundreds of photos up there on her pedestal) The show was something else. Laurie loved it and sat quite still for the full 2 hour performance. If the princesses had all come out together and twirled in their dresses for the entire show, she would have been quite pleased. When the princesses left the stage for the princes to perform, all she asked was, "Where the princess go?" According to Laurie, Princess Aurora is by far the best.

Christmas Fest 2010

We attended Christmas Fest 2010 at the Natural Science Museum tonight. Genevieve and Liddy came with us. It truly is the more, the merrier. We saw and did it all, nativity, Santa, dancing, puppets, story time, Christmas trees, tattoos. And top it all off with a cookie, the girls should sleep well tonight!

And as to the Santa question, Anna Fair could have cared less and Laurie was excited to see him right up till I asked if she would sit in his lap. Then she turned possessed and flipped her lid several times. But don't Genevieve and Liddy look sweet with him?

Welcome to Toddlerhood!

Since Thanksgiving, Anna Fair has been doing more toddling than crawling. I would have appreciated it if she had been toddling during thanksgiving while at hunting camp and not putting her hands all over the dirty floor, but whatever. It's been a while since Laurie really toddled and I sure missed it. She has said goodbye to babyhood and hello to toddlerhood!

(waddling from side to side, arms held up for balance) toddle, toddle, pause to balance, toddle toddle, squat on floor, toddle, toddle, fall, and repeat

with thumb firmly in mouth and bubby in hand.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Will's birthday always falls on the first weekend in December, which is typically a very busy time. This year was no different. Sunday night, in our jammies, we ate our cake and sang happy birthday to Daddy. Maybe we'll start celebrating his half birthday instead. Happy birthday, Will, we love you!

Reindeer Shirt

Laurie made this reindeer shirt in school last week. She is so very, very proud of it. When you combine the footprint face and handprint antlers with her little joyful face, it's so stinking cute I can't stand it. After looking at this picture, I may have to go kiss her on the face right now.

Trimming the Tree

We put up our tree this week. Laurie was beyond excited about it. She helped us pick out the perfect tree. Nothing doing, but the minute we had it in the house, we had to put the star on. Though we figured out why she was so thrilled about the tree, she began opening up presents. Fortunately, none of them were actually her presents. Poor kid, she was so disappointed. Though I think the fun of decorating the tree helped her hurt feelings. She put an ornament on, Anna Fair pulled it off. The bottom third of our tree is barren. But the top looks beautifully decorated! Yeah, Christmas season has arrived at our house!