Christmas in Georgia

We traveled to Marietta for the day to spend Christmas with Grammy and Papa.  It was a LONG day of driving, but it was good to see family we haven't seen in quite some time!

 

Gingerbread Lane with Dad!

Savannah's favorite gingerbread creation was the UNC bell tower.

We started a tradition with the Marion family years ago of going to the Ballantyne Resort to see the gingerbread houses.  Unfortunately, they moved, and now we have to continue it on our own . . . but this year we had a special guest with Dave tagging along!  The display has decreased quite a bit, but it's still a fun adventure to do each year.  

 

Christmas Eve/Day Celebrations

After a crazy day of work, and grabbing our annual Chili's dinner (to reheat), we made it to the 6pm Christmas Eve service tonight.  We all sort of agreed Chili's is not our fav anymore, so we may have to switch restaurants next year, but we will still continue the tradition of take out after church.

Christmas morning was a festive flurry!  We started with Santa gifts and home made breakfast.

Savannah was in charge of breakfast and had two handy helpers.  I used this time to squeeze in a run before the onslaught of calories! 

After breakfast, we moved upstairs to open a few more gifts before we had to get ready for my family.

It was fun and chaotic as usual, but a fantastic day!  Dad, Mark, Denny and his family all came for lunch.  We had Italian including pizza, lasagna, salad, and bread.  It was fabulous to have everyone here.  This year, Madison won Pawpaw's coin jar with her original, well thought out guess of $123.45. 

It was such a fun day with family!

After our family headed back, we finished opening our gifts to and from each other.  Preston was thrilled with all of the stuff for his car . . . so it didn't take long for him to head outside and start working on the car.  It was clearly unseasonably warm this year as we were all dressed in short sleeves.

We took a walk as a family and called it a day.  Our hearts were so full after time spent with ones we love celebrating the birth of Christ!

Lunch at the Club

The kids both wanted to go to Costco to look for something fun to buy with Dave's gift card and have lunch. LOL  Soooo, when there isn't a huge list of requests for break, and they REALLY want to go to Costco two days before Christmas, you sort of have to agree.  It was insane as expected, but we parked in the shopping center next door and walked over so it wasn't so bad.  

We enjoyed samples, walked the aisles, and ended with lunch for the kids at the club cafe.  Sometimes, it's just the little things that mean the most. :)

The Nutcracker Ballet

One of Savannah's bucket list items for winter break was to see the Nutcracker uptown.  We had checked for tickets a few times, but it seemed that there were only super expensive ones left . . . until she realized that they offer student ticket discounts two hours before show time in person!!!  We made a call and found out that they had over 100 available, so our girls night out was planned.  We arrived before showtime and Savannah was able to get two student tickets for like half price.  Then we had plenty of time to knock off another thing on her list, Optimist Hall.  We were able to get her a new pin for her backpack and grab dinner before heading back to the show.

It was such a fun night of just hanging with Savannah!  The show was okay (super long), but the time with my girl was priceless!

Lots of "Indoor" Track & Outdoor Soccer

Preston is staying insanely busy with school track and club soccer.  Here is a glimpse of the competitions, but the hours he pours into everyday school track practice AND three days a week of club practice is almost too much to even think about.

To kick off the indoor track season, Preston was invited to run at a JDL event (only for the faster kids, as you have to have a qualifying time) on 12/13.  It was shockingly at an indoor track in Winston Salem!  The boys went and had a fun morning while I attended a ladies only Christmas party at Ms. Debbie's.

There was a club soccer game in SC that Dave took Preston to play in on Sunday, 12/14.

The next "indoor" event was not exactly indoors, or as fancy, but we were excited that Savannah was able to attend her first track meet to watch her brother run here in Charlotte on 12/16. Preston ran both the 55m and 300m.

Then, he had one final track event before Christmas break on Saturday, 12/20, here in Charlotte. Apparently, between all our phones and with us all being at the event, I still have no pictures of this one!  Never the less, let's just say this kid is due a much needed BREAK!!!

A Terrifying Encounter with Fire

Savannah came home from UNC for break this afternoon . . . and as she was pulling into the driveway I was putting out the luminaries for the annual neighborhood Festival of Lights. Little did I know how the next few hours would go!  It was a super windy day and there was something inside of me that said this could be dangerous, but I made sure our luminaries were clear of the dry Bermuda grass and almost in the road.  I mean, the neighborhood has done this for years and there has never been a problem.  

Our neighbor texted a little later saying to be careful as one of their luminaries fell over and caught a small patch of their grass on fire!  I was a little concerned, but again knew ours were well out of the way of the grass so I just texted her when we left for the pizza party and asked her to keep an eye out.  We came back and still no worries, so we settled in for a family game of cards.  As we were playing, I smelled something burning . . and it was when I got to the front door and everything was glowing orange that I knew we had a problem.  I opened the door and our entire front lawn was on FIRE! 

After that was pretty much a blur.  I was running around yelling commands.  Preston, please come help (he was on the phone with a friend studying for a German test), Savannah, call 911, Dave, find a hose!  We had literally just winterized the outdoor faucets and hoses before going to the block party. I ran around with a frying pan of water, thinking that would helpful, and was screaming for help.  Before I knew it the neighbors had come with fire extinguishers and Preston was practically in the middle of the fire using our extinguishers and it was finally out!  It was one of the most terrifying events I can remember. As the fire department pulled up, I completely lost it.  I remember just standing in the front yard (only in my socks) just sobbing . . so so thankful the Lord spared our house!

The firemen encouraged us to wet down the yard to make sure nothing relit, which we did, but it was sort of a restless night worrying that it could burn again.  Many, many lessons were learned tonight.  First, never again will we do real luminaries.  Dry dormant grass, wind, and fire do not mix well.  Second, we need more fire extinguishers as they really don't last very long at all.  Third, we have amazing neighbors and I have a well-trained son who doesn't panic in a pinch.  Lastly, who knew that fire could be good for the soil?! Apparently, this spring we will have super green grass.  But this is not the recommended method for obtaining greener grass!