Christmas in SC

 

We traveled the Simpsonville, SC to do Christmas with Dave's family today.  We left shortly after church and arrived in time to make our pizza and throw it in the oven.  Thanks to Preston's suggestion, we opted for an Italian meal with each family making their own pizza . . . and had salad and lasagna too.  It was delicious and so much better than the normal ham. :)

We enjoyed a fun day with family before heading back to Charlotte . . . where Savannah was overjoyed to see how amazing her gift from Grammy & Papa was.  

Christmas Day with Family

We were so excited to be home for Christmas Day and know that family was coming!!  Of course, we started the morning with Santa's gifts downstairs.

And then made our way upstairs for family gifts after Savannah finished the cinnamon rolls and popped them in the oven.  It was so much fun seeing the excitement from not only receiving gifts but also in the giving!  

Dave and I went for a run and left this beauty to work on napkin folding and to finish icing the cinnamon rolls for a yummy breakfast treat when we got back.

We worked hard on getting our meal ready and before we knew it the Page family was here!

The kid table

What a JOY to have everyone together in my living room on  Christmas Day!!

It was loud and messy, but there was much laughter and JOY on Christmas Day!!!

I had to capture this moment for Savannah . . "HA! I told you, people!  You laughed, but I was right!" She won the game guessing the amount of money Papaw had in the jar and got to have it all!  It was close to $100 and she guessed $76 because of seeing the sign on the coinstar machine at Harris Teeter.  So she got to laugh all the way to the bank!

Another one of her dessert creations

Family picture

 We are so blessed and so thankful to be able to celebrate Christ's birth with family . . all happy and healthy! What a super fun-filled day in Charlotte.

Christmas Eve Traditions

We were excited to be home on Christmas Eve again this year.  After doing a little work and finalizing some Christmas details and present wrapping we headed to church for the candlelight service.  We had planned to pick up our normal Chili's afterward for dinner, but discovered that they closed early . . . so we made alternate plans and picked it up before church!  We may have been cutting it close to get into the worship center and had to share 3 seats for the 4 of us, but it was wonderful as usual.  We headed home, heated up Chili's, and then began prepping Christmas day food.  It was a family affair and super fun to all work together while listening to Christmas music.  Now come on Santa!

 

Staycation Day 2 ~ Hawksnest

Today's adventure was snow tubing!  We had such a great experience ziplining at Hawksnest we decided to try them for tubing too . .. and were a bit disappinted.  First of all, the weather was cold and SUPER windy.  Like the kind of wind that blows man-made snow in your face and stings windy.  Plus the first run we made was quite dizzying to us all.  We just spun in circles instead of going straight down super fast like the ones we have done in the past.  BUT, we eventually found the more narrow slopes and made the best of a very long drive to the mountains.  

Hot chocolate afterward seemed to make it all better too . . . and of course, there was some shopping in downtown Boone and Macado's for dinner that was totally worth the trip!  All in all it was a fun day, but we definitely will stick to smaller mom-and-pop snow tubing next time.

Staycation Day 1 ~ Waxhaw Escape

We had started to plan a trip to Vegas for Christmas break. . and then found out that surgery was needed and the date was not set.  So instead of trying to book and rebook plane tickets (while being open for any available surgery date), we opted for Dave to take a few days off of work and do some fun activities in and around the area locally throughout the kids' break.  Today was our first fun-filled day!  It started it off with a  great gym class actually AT the gym!  Then the kids had their check-ups at the dentist and finally, we were able to head to a local place to do a breakout room adventure. We made it out in under an hour with only a few clues.  Then we headed to the outlets to do some leisurely shopping . . and topped off our day with yummy Coldstone for dessert.  It was a super fun day and we all enjoyed time together as a family.

Crutches Reversal

 

Now Preston is the one being able to help the kid on crutches!  I love that his ELA teacher took the time to snap and send this picture to me today.  Poor Hill has SIX weeks on crutches . . . that makes Preston's two weeks sound like a picnic.

Crutches be Gone

 

For TWO solid weeks this kid has used crutches non-stop, well other than scooting up and down the stairs in the house.  He honestly has done it with much grace and very little complaining, but today we were so excited to return to the surgeon to get the stitches removed and get rid of the crutches!  Or so we thought . . . 

We were ALL super sad to find out he still needed to be on crutches for a couple more days.UGH! :(  Apparently, without the stitches, the skin still needs some time to heal, pressure-free.  So back to carpool and crutches for two more days it was.  Thankfully there were kids in the neighborhood willing to help out with his backpack so for two days I drove 5 boys to school (two of which were on crutches).  Talk about carpool back up when I arrived LOL

But shortly after the two days, he was ready to go, and off to Cotillion with Savannah he went, crutches free.  He still isn't cleared to run and jump but oh how thankful we are to be rid of crutches!!!  We are also thankful that pathology came back clear so no more mole issues on the foot for Preston. :)