Ralphie and Randy

December is here, and Christmas is next week. Can you believe it? I can't for several reasons. 1. Time has indeed flown way too quickly this year and 2. It's 80 degrees here. Sickening. Hot chocolate anyone?

We've had a busy few weeks since Thanksgiving. Jack has had two Christmas performances, we've taken a trip to NC, and we've made the most of every Christmas opportunity around.

Although it's currently 76 degrees outside right now, it was really cold here a few weeks ago. So cold that the boys actually needed their new coats (courtesy of Karen and Brad...THANK YOU!). After I took this picture I realized that I have given birth to the modern day Ralphie and Randy from the movie, The Christmas Story. You know, the Red Ryder BB Gun movie that plays nonstop on Christmas Eve? Jack (Ralphie) has the lisp and glasses thing going while Finn (Randy) is a bundled up munchkin who eats his food like a pig, too.






The other night "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" came on TV. The REAL Grinch cartoon, not the movie. Anyway, we let the boys stay up to watch it. Finn watched about as long as it took to take this picture, but Jack really enjoyed it. The day after this I happened to go through the boys' toys to pack up and give away a lot of their things. After Jack got up from his nap he went to the playroom and noticed a few things were missing. He looked at me and yelled, "The Grinch was here!" Sort of.
Along with the kids' parties and things, we've had our own adult events to go to as well. After returning home from John's office party the other night, the babysitter gave us a great report on the boys and said they went to bed so well. Then, we hear, "Hey, Mom! Hey, Dad!" coming from Jack's room. He had stayed up to give us a proper welcoming (which he often does). When John opened the door to let him out of his room, we found him looking like this. Somehow he had gotten ahold of a ball point pen, and somehow that pen got ahold of Jack's face. Our little Maori tribesman.

We attended the gingerbread (jeengabwed) house decorating fun at Hampton Lake the other night. Jack had more fun eating the house decorations than either of us had putting that thing together. It's so hard. If you ever make a gingerbread house from a kit, plan on needing about eight times the amount of icing that they give you. Our gingerbread home looked condemned with it's cracked roof, drooping walls and half eaten shingles. Jack was able to sit on Santa's lap while we were there. He got right to the point with Mr. Claus: "I want a racecar. I want it yellow. And that's all I want." Nuf said.

The Bluffton Christmas Parade did not disappoint. It was the typical mix of fun and freaky. You decide which category the lady below falls into. There were drill teams, a gazillion tow trucks, a strange pirate shrine club, some adorable elementary school bands, and a handful of other things that I cannot put to words. It was fun being there seeing all the families and hanging out my my three men.

Jack had an awesome time. We were reminded again about his gifting of encouragement. John and I would love to take credit for that, but we're convinced the Lord passed this down through his Poppy Johnny. Whenever another float, tow truck, person or group would pass by, Jack would wave and yell as loudly as possible, "Great job! You're doing a great job!!!" Don't get me wrong. He's your typical feisty little boy who slugs his younger brother and steals toys from the innocent, but the kid can really boost the ol' morale. And I LOVE that about him.

We packed the family up last weekend and headed to NC to visit my family for Christmas since we'll be holding the fort down here on the actual day. My Grandaddy and Grandmom treated us all to yet another amazing dinner at the Angus Barn. If you're ever in Raleigh, make sure you go and (close your eyes vegetarians) eat some cow! Even though there were 20+ of us this year, and it was hard to talk to everyone, it was so cool to be with our funny family and celebrate Christmas with a tradition that means a lot to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you! (I know you're reading this because you're our most loyal blog readers!)

Jackie was still at NCSU after finals, so she came along with us this year which was great! It was fun to see her as always. Jack and Finn just love their Aunt Jackie.


Finn was a complete maniac at the restaurant. There were cameras flashing everywhere and he started doing his thing. Whenever he sees a camera light up for a picture, this is the face you get. So we have this shot with about everyone at the table holding him. I did get a group shot, but the table was long and it was a dark picture and a lot of people were mid-filet bite, which is never very attractive. So just picture everyone in my family downing large slabs of beef and you'll pretty much get the picture.

Mama and Finny Finn Finn.

And what would a trip to NC be without inhaling a sizable amount of sweet tea? I've realized that grandparents can get away with a lot. They fall easily for the sugar snack lies and vegetable avoidance tactics. Multiply what grandparents get away with by 1 million and what you've got now is a great grandparent. My Gammy gave Jack and Finn more sweet than Bojangle's serves in an entire day. It was diluted, but it still had it's magical powers over them. And me. Her tea is BOSS! And so is everything that she makes and does.

Finn moved up in the sweet tea drinking ranks this trip by getting his own special cup. Last time he just had a sip. This time, he saw that cup and just knew that something amazing was going into it. It was like a little sippy cup bong of sorts. John and I looked at each other when we saw it and, not having any personal experience with said items, we were pretty sure it looked like something questionable. So you'll be happy to know that I just googled 'bong' and indeed, this cup does resemble one. Oh dear. Like I said, great grandparents can do no wrong.

We were able to do a lot of fun things while we were in NC. My parents sang in a Christmas program at their church, and it was so good! It was neat to see this part of their lives and to know that they love it so much. Jack really enjoyed watching it, and not to disappoint, he very audibly would announce "Great job, Poppy!/Mimi!" after the end of every song. He was a little confused watching some of the nativity parts and seeing a real baby playing the part of Jesus. That may explain why he likes to tickle the baby Jesus that is in our nativities at home. "Tickle, tickle, tickle, little baby, Jesus." I figure that any interaction with Jesus is always a good thing.

We exchanged presents with some of the fam while we were there. Jack's favorite gift by far was his awesome Tarheel's football uniform. He's very excited to announce to anyone that "My name's Jack and I'm a football player." This changes based on whatever shirt he's wearing that day. It's either a football, baseball or fireman shirt. He becomes what he's wearing. It makes dressing for church and nicer events really difficult. The other morning we convinced him to wear a button down because we told him Uncle Jeff (his new favorite person) gave it to him.

And last but surely not least, our firstborn stole the show yet again at his Christmas performances. Recall last year's CBS performance where he laid on the ground while all of the other kids sang and stood on stage. This year we made it one step closer to normalcy. He did stand on the stage. He also picked what must have been the world's most hard to reach booger for the majority of the CBS performance. Not to mention, he was the only child who walked in with a stolen item from his classroom: a hard hat. The other children sang while my little construction worker dug for gold.

And did I mention that the digging just wasn't enough? Jack has the gift of encouragement AND completion. He had to finish the job. He didn't recall the Pick n' Flick technique we taught him. This picture was taken at CBS and the above was taken at his preschool performance. Both performances warranted pickage. Hopefully this isn't proving to be his nervous habit. If that's the case, middle school dances are going to be a blast.


If I don't get the chance to blog before Christmas, I hope you all are blessed by the celebration of Christ's birth!