Second Christmas in Highlands

"Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts." -Janice Maeditere

The morning after Christmas we headed to Highlands, NC, to spend a few days with David's family.  We had a good trip and not too much traffic.  David's birthday is the day after Christmas, and so I was excited to get up there so we could celebrate!

On our first day there, we opened presents!  Joseph was very happy to find some candy in his stocking...

And one of his favorite gifts was "Rootbeer," a stuffed puppy dog!  He took naps with Rootbeer the rest of the trip...

That night we celebrated my hubby's birthday with a super yummy cake made by my sister-in-law, Lindsay!  Happy 32nd Birthday, babe!

We had a lot of fun during our 4 days there!  We ate some yummy food, did some walking, and spent a lot of time with family, including a whole afternoon with my 3 nephews which was so much fun!!!  It's a delight to see four precious little boys playing together!!!

Here are a few other random pictures from our trip.  Thankful that we got to spend some good quality time with the other side of our family this holiday season!!!

Christmas Day 2013

"I think it's important not to grow up too fast.  I'm 26 now, and I still can't wait for Christmas Day.  The inner seven-year-old isn't buried too deeply in me."  -Laura Haddock

Christmas was great this year!  David and I got up early and opened our presents from each other, then my parents came over so we could all watch Joseph open his presents.  He had a ball sitting in his Daddy's lap while checking out his new gifts!

One of the presents that we were most excited for Santa to give to Joseph was a large, stuffed, brown bear (which we have very originally named "Brown Bear" lol).  Joseph loves stuffed animals, so we knew he would love his new friend!

Great-Mimi gave Joseph a really cool sled for Christmas, and while he checked out the seating Brown Bear peeked in to see what he was up to!

Here I am reading a book we bought for Joseph.  It is called "I love you more" and is about the sweet relationship between a mommy and a son.  I almost cry every time I read it to him!

Great-Mimi lets Joseph share some of her sausage roll up for breakfast...

Closer to lunchtime, my Dad's cousins, Ray and Jan, came to join us for our big Christmas meal.  They live in Chapel Hill and join us for almost every Christmas Day.  Their 3 grow kids, Casey, Ben, and Sydney, went to Rome for Christmas this year!  We missed the three of them, but I'm sure they had fun!  My mom and I cooked our Christmas meal (we eat our big meal at lunch) for everyone and things went very smoothly.  Afterwards we all had fun sitting around and visiting a little while as Joseph continued to explore his new loot.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas Day!  More coming tomorrow of our "2nd Christmas" in Highlands!

Casville Christmas Lights 2013

"The little lights aren't twinkling, Clark."
"I know, Art, and thanks for noticing."
-Christmas Vacation

For the second year in a row, we went to the Paschal Farm Christmas Lights in Casville, NC.  The Paschals are a family that own a big farm up about 45 minutes NE of Greensboro in Caswell County.  It is very rural and, even as a city-girl, I find it to be very pretty.  Every year the family puts up over 1 million Christmas lights on their farm!  Visitors can get out and walk through and, on many nights (such as this Friday night that we went), it is PACKED!  It is amazing and truly a sight to see.  Last year we went when Joseph was really teeny and it was soooooooooooooooo cold.  This year was better, Joseph was bigger (we put him in the stroller for this instead of the Boba so he could get the full view of the lights) and the weather was perfect - cold enough to be Christmas-y, but not so cold that we froze.  My parents went with us, and on our way up we stopped at Country Kitchen off of Hicone Road (near Gibsonville) to eat dinner.  Love that place!  David and I used to eat there in our dating days, and I have very fond memories!  Here are some pictures of our light-looking adventure:

Pre-Christmas Fun

"Santa Claus is coming to town..."

We did a lot of fun pre-Christmas activities this year - too many to name, really.  But I thought I'd hit just a couple of them for the blog.

We went to the live nativity at the Lutheran Church of Our Father on Groometown Road here in Greensboro.  So much fun!  They had a live camel out front, and Joseph had a ball watching him.  My parents also kept Joseph outside while David and I ran into get some treats (the church members made free cookies and hot chocolate to hand out).  The hot chocolate tasted good because it was SUPER cold out that night.  Great activity and a great ministry!  (Oh, and I just realized that a lot of recent blog posts have featured me in my workout clothes.  David and I have started a new running and fitness routine and so I'm in workout clothes a lot.  Didn't want anyone to think I just didn't want to go to the trouble of wearing real clothes!)

The other fun activity I wanted to mention was Joseph's first Santa experience.  We went to the second birthday party of the daughter of some dear friends of ours and, since she was a December baby, Santa made an appearance!  Joseph isn't super big on strangers, so he didn't really like it when we plopped him on Santa's lap.  I tried sitting next to him, but that didn't work either, he just reached for me and for his daddy the whole time. Finally, we settled with him sitting on my lap and with me sitting next to Santa...

I love the days leading up to Christmas!!!

A Cold Day at the Park and Some Birthday Parties

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy." -Anton Chekhov

Earlier this month, we spent a Sunday afternoon at the park in the Sunset Hills neighborhood.  It was really cold out, but Joseph has gotten to where he LOVES to swing, so we decided to bundle him up and let him play for a bit...

And, another thing I've discovered that you can do while babywearing is EASILY swing with your child.  Joseph, in the Boba, had a ball swinging with mama!  So fun!

Another fun December fact is that Joseph's two best buddies were born in December and thus just celebrated their first birthdays!  YAY for near-Christmas babies!!!

James' party came first.  I know James' mommy from our church.  She has become one of my closest friends.  We live .8 miles from each other, and she is a stay-at-home mommy like me.  We share largely the same parenting style and philosophies (breastfeeding, cloth diapering, babywearing, natural living, etc etc), and it's so fun to have her nearby to hang out with so often.  We usually hang out or go walking together (and bring the boys, of course), at least once a week.  She is a sweetheart and I'm so blessed to have her friendship.  Joseph gets to spend a lot of time with James so they are good friends.  I'm so glad they are getting to grow up together!  It was awesome to celebrate this little guy turning 1!!!  (I hope Jessica didn't mind me sharing a few pics from her blog on here as well)

A few of the mommies from our playgroup plus a few more, all of us with our little ones!

Men at work.

Joseph and the birthday boy!

 The birthday party of Samuel, Joseph's other best buddy, came about the next weekend.  Samuel's mommy Heather is my best friend (other than my hubby of course).  We met about 8 years ago now in the singles group at Calvary, before we both found the loves of our life and married them (she was, of course, my maid of honor!).  She has been there for me through so many things, and it's an honor to be her friend.  Joseph will grow up to know her as "Aunt Heather" and Samuel as one of his earliest and closest friends.  So thankful for them and so glad we got to help Samuel celebrate!

Sweet Samuel loved smashing into his cake...

And opening presents!

Very thankful for the lives of these two sweet little guys and their wonderful mommies!!!