Away in a Manger

This is the cutest thing I've ever seen. And I never exaggerate. I stole this from my friend Jessie's site. After all, Christmas is for sharing. I just wanted to share it with all of you. If you have kids, show it to them!

Yearly Wrangling of the Children: Christmas Picture Outtakes

Parties for Hosting, Marshmallows for Toasting and Caroling out in the Snow

Saturday Jay and our friend Beau Powers raked the entire yard, bagging close to 30(?) Bags O'Leaves for our friendly trash guy to collect. We celebrated with a backyard bonfire, of the sticks and twigs and some leftover firewood from last year. Beau was obviously a highly successful and celebrated Boy Scout- he had a nice blaze going in just a few minutes. We roasted some marshmallows, sipped hot cocoa, and enjoyed the cold evening with a friend. Beau's family is out of town and we missed them!

Dear little Harry Boy clutched a (unroasted) marshmallow in his hand for about an hour and a half. He nibbled one little nibble out of it, but obviously liked holding the fellow more than eating it, so he kept it until bath time when we released it back into the wild.

As for the the party hosting and caroling out in the snow...we are hosting my whole family for Christmas(!!) and we have seen some flurries and a light dusting, but we're still waiting for the big one, and dreaming of a White Christmas!

Deck the Halls

We got our beautiful tree up last week. The kids were so excited and I love seeing how they can be more involved as they grow older. Mac was the champion "ordament" hanger. He was so intent on it and when we were done he kept asking for more. I've noticed since we finished the tree, each day the arrangement of ornaments changes. One reason for this is that Harry likes to bring me choice ornaments and talk about them. So I have to re-hang these. Plus I suspect that Ruth and Mac have done some rearranging on their own. For this reason, alot of the ornaments have slowly migrated upward, out of reach.

Sissy and Harry- Harry who fell in love with the step-ladder and tried to dance on it and ignore our voices calling him down.

The Yearly Wrangling of Ye Olde Light Strands.

Harry and the Step-ladder.

Mac's preferred hanging method- on the furtherest needle on the very edge of the branch.

Tree skirt= twirly skirt for ballet-inclined daughter. So sweet.

War Eagle!

Family Flying Fun

Well, we survived the TSA screenings and scannings and baggage fees and had uneventful travel to Alabama and back. The kids loved it, especially take-off and the complimentary beverage service including bags of peanuts.

Like father, like son. Sleepyheads.

Momma Don't Take my Kodachrome

Got a new camera! Loving it, but there's a lot to learn. Here are some of my firsts...


blurry, darn it

i like this mossy tree

secret garden in Montgomery

sweet little Alli

One of my first shots- I love the lack of delay compared to my old camera, and the crispness of the pictures. Katie bar the door- we're gonna need a new computer to hold all these pictures!

Thanksgiving in Dixie

Our original plans for Thanksgiving fell all apart, but it turned out that we were able to fly to Montgomery to celebrate with Jay's family. We even got to travel to Mobile to see Uncle Greg and Aunt Kelli, who couldn't travel because of pre-term labor. This means fun with the cousins!

Alli, Ruth, Mac, Jackson, and Harry

Brother time

Fun at a park in Old Alabama Town in Montgomery, with JuJu and PawPaw (not pictured)

More brother time

We got to visit Maggie

JuJu and Mac

We had so much fun with JuJu and PawPaw- it rained alot, but we had a few beautiful days to get outside and run around. PawPaw indulged my craving for some soul-food, including catfish and fried green tomatoes. They took us shoe shopping for the kids and hosted a fun tea party and a movie night. We're so thankful for a great trip down to the Southland!