Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas 2010! We had a great Christmas - William's 4th and Madison's 2nd! Gramma Lossie came over to celebrate with us. William now believes in Santa more than ever since the merry old elf made his dream come true! He got a Thomas the Train train table, track and all of his favorite trains! He also got a scooter, some legos, new movies (Toy Story, 101 Dalmations, Beauty & The Beast & Cinderalla) and a pottery barn kids chair! Madison LOVED her baby dolls, stroller and doll bed, the movie she'll share with brother and her pottery barn kids chair! After overwhelming the kids with WAYYY too many gifts last year, we decided to do what we saw in a magazine article - we got each child 3 gifts since William is 3 years old! According to the article - you should get young children their age in gifts. We uppped it to three for Madi as well since one seemed a little skimpy!!! The kids have been playing with their gifts non-stop so it's a happy house! Daddy loves his Big Green Egg and Mommy loves her new boots, purse and big o cooking pot! A great Christmas for everyone - and Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

Magical Nights of Lights

With the intent to add a little more merriness and brightness to our holiday - we piled in the Yukon with our neighbors and headed up to Lake Lanier to see the Magical Nights of Lights at Lake Lanier Islands. We learned we could squeeze three carseats for three tots - three and under across the back of the Yukon and loaded up William 3, Madison 18 months and Kendall 21 months. Brian and Jeff sat in the front and Jill and I prepared ourselves for a long winter's drive in the 3rd Row Back. Less than 10 miles into the trip - we realized we forgot Kendall's beloved "Baby" and soon wondered how Magical the Nights of Lights would be for the tots!

Finally arriving with our half off depot coupon in hand - we headed straight for Santa's Village so the tots could run. We took a free ride on the train and bypassed the other overpriced rides escaping the gift store with only one 89 cent cookie for William.

Now onto the main attraction - the nights! I don't know what I was expecting- but it was certainly not this! Seven miles of driving with blinking light displays in various Christmas forms - animals - spongebob - castles - you get the picture! Then all of a sudden we heard such a clatter - a tiny tot screaming - the lights just didn't matter! How many miles did we have to go? How much screaming - can more car endure? One tot, two tot, three tot - no more - they were all screaming - so much for the light show! Then as fast as it started they started to fade - one by one - off, off and away. To dreamland they went - one by one - as we pulled into our driveway - the evening done!

Wee Wee Wee all the way home!

Not being from around these parts, riding the Pink Pig is about as foreign to me as cooking collards used to be - but just like I love collard greens now, I guess I'll soon love the Pink Pig too! On our way through Buckhead today, we thought the tot-some would have a squealing good time and took our first spin on the Pig. We picked up Uncle Bob and headed over to Lenox. First we had to wait in line for almost 30 minutes for the OPPORTUNITY to purchase pig tix. The kids were soon entertained by a light up square on the floor and Madi took the opportunity to show the mall she thinks she can dance but unfortunately no talent scouts agreed. After getting our tickets, we waited in another line, our stroller now banned, for another 30-40 minutes thankfully escaping the Pig filled gift shop with no take-home pork. With the vintage pig cage that once flew over the toy section at downtown Riches now retired for a safer train on a grounded track, we boarded - me and the Mad in the front car and William and Uncle Bob behind us. As they strapped us in for the ride of our lives, William started to cry - would this be wee wee wee all the way I wondered - but tears soon disappeared as the pig made it's way around the track. It was kinda like a scaled down version of Disney's It's a Small World - only full of pigs! Our 2 minute ride over. The hour wait behind us. We'll be back again next year - or when pigs really do fly if I had the final word!