Yuletidal

Christmas is FUN.  

Parties.  School performances.  Gifts.  Giving.  Decorations.  Christmas Lights. (Aside: Christmas lights make everything look amazing: homes, trees, your face.  WHY are they reserved for only a month or so out of the year?  They are white, so they're not season specific. Anyone feel me on this?)

Christmas is ROUTINE.

There you are again.  At the office party.  In the same house as last year.  You're talking to someone's husband.  You don't know his name.  Then you think, "Oh shoot. I'm pretty sure I wore this same outfit last year." So you say forget it and eat another sausage ball.

Christmas is SACRED.

God gave us His Son.  It's His birthday.  Yet that gets lost in the shuffle, doesn't it? 

Christmas is NOSTALGIC.

Even though you're married and have your own family to bake and buy for, you still think of your family back home.  You wonder what they're doing at the family get togethers.  You're jealous that they're likely wearing sweaters because they actually need to.  Meanwhile you're making your own tradition of building a sandman instead of a snowman.  

Christmas 2012 was all of these things and more.  We couldn't ignore the blessings we were given, big and small, and we will always look back with fondness of the memories we made.  

Here are a few.  Just so we can remember!

Finn was especially into the Christmas spirit this year.  He proudly showed this picture he colored and said: 

"I totally Gangnam styled this tree, Mom."

The proverbial terrible Santa photo.  

Poor Charlie looks like he has been hypnotized.

When Finn learned that Santa was making an appearance at school, he disappeared into his room and returned with this outfit.  

Well played, my friend.

Santa #2:  Bluffton Academy.

Charlie came out of his hypnotic state and peeked.

The boys and I traveled to Greensboro for a few days before Christmas.  

This was the first time in years that we have been home for our family gatherings.  

I have always missed attending these.  I just hadn't realized how much.

One afternoon, we swept cousin Ava up for some Christmas crafting and Krispy Kreme-ing.

At one point, she looked up at me and with little emotion simply stated, "I'm having fun."

No smile. No frills.  Just the plain ol' truth. 

Love that girl. 

Mantle posing with the cousins. 

Yes, Charlie wore suspenders.

Uncle Matt transformed into a human train for all of the cousins.  

Every family needs an Uncle Matt.

I can't remember him leaving a family event where he wasn't drenched in sweat.

Santa #3: 

This Santa surprised the cousins on Christmas Eve at Gigi's house.  

He didn't mess around.

He showed the kids a pretty detailed list of their Naughties and Nicies.

The car ride home was the best behaved all year.  They weren't quite sure where the chips would fall.

And finally, the event we've all been shopping for:

CHRISTMAS MORNING!

(This is where I would have put the photo of the boys waking up and being surprised, but they beat us to the chase and we missed it.  #Christmasmorningphotofail)

This was one of Charlie's gifts.  

It looks like a circus on wheels.  

Pretty ridiculous(ly cute).

 It was a fun morning. 

Seeing their smiles.

Their newfound manners that are a result of pure giddiness.

Two thumbs up.

John's favorite gift of the day was his Stamey's shirt.  

And yes, he is still smokin'.

Jack lost his two front teeth.

And don't worry.  His face did not melt this Christmas.

It's his favorite party trick.

One of the few cool things that comes with wearing glasses.

Holiday Hammocking with cousin Austin. 

His personality matches his cuteness.

New Years Eve was pretty lame. 

I wasn't aware that the boys even knew what was going on, so I took the easy way out and didn't plan a thing.  Around noon that day, Jack asked, "So what do you have planned for tonight since it's New Year's Eve?"

Uh?

Thankfully I purchased some brownie mix months ago and Return of the Jedi happened to come on that night. 

Crisis averted.

Happy New Year.

So, 2013, what's in store?!?!?

I Still Want a HUUULA HOOP...

I love some lyric confusion.  Like REALLY love it.  (i.e. Hold me closer Tony Danza as opposed to Hold me closer, Tiny Dancer.)  Well...

(Just in case you needed a visual.  Can't you just hear him saying, "Angeluh?" or "Sumanthuh?)

Finn and I were driving down the road last week, rocking out to some Alvin and the Chipmunks.  I'm not sure of the exact song title, but it's the one that goes, "I still want a huuuula hooop....We can hardly stand the wait. Please Christmas don't be late." The song was on repeat and we had listened to it probably 3-4 times at this point.  Long enough for my throat to be a little sore from trying to sing like the Chipmunks.  Finn graciously took over so I didn't have to break out the Chloraseptic, and here is his rendition:

"We can hardly stand the wait. Please Christmas Dongey Day."

E: "Finn.  Dongey Day?"

F:  "Uh...yeah. (Eye roll to signify idiot mom.)

E:  "Do you mean Donkey Day?" (not that this changes things too much, but donkey definitely trumps whatever dongey is, and knowing Finn he would somehow link it to the census in the Bible and how it's possible that Mary had to ride a donkey to Bethlehem.)

F:  "No.  That wouldn't make any sense."

E:  "Then please explain Dongey Day to me."

F:  "Easy.  It's like when they say 'We can hardly stand the wait please Christmas Dongey Day."

E:  "OK"

I then went on to explain to Finnster that he reminded me a little bit of Alvin.  The characteristics I chose to tell him about were his leadership abilities, creativity and enthusiasm.  The parts I left out may or may not have included the word mischief.  Because that would have thrilled him.  After laughing on the inside at the fact that Finn can drive me mad sometimes...I kind of love the fact that he is an Alvin type.  Every family has an Alvin, and while you'll complain how nutty the Alvin-type can make you...you wouldn't have it any other way.

Then it dawned on me.  Oh. my. word.  Not only had I given birth to an Alvin, but a Simon:

The guy who keeps us all in line, sees the world in black in white, is pretty dang smart, and if our kids were performing artists like the Chipmunks, he would be the one to get us to the concerts on time.  Just like Simon.

Oh, yeah, and he's tall and wears glasses and coincidentally a lot of blue.  

And we can't leave out Theodore.  

The chubby little guy who waddles along behind the gang.  Sweet spirited and loves to eat.  Hates wearing pants.  Our sweet sweet Charlie.

This discovery led to several other thoughts:

1.  Am I Dave?  Is John Dave?

2.  WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS AT HALLOWEEN!?!?

3.  Is this our future?.....

( I can already tell you, I'm not going to like that sassy one in the pink. )

  

John and I love to talk about our boys' differences.  We experience their uniqueness on a daily basis.  Several days ago, Jack came to us and asked us to spell "eternally" for him.  He was writing a love note to his kindergarten teacher from last year.  Finn came to us less than a minute later and asked us to spell, "bomb exploding".  He was creating a crime scene and thankfully explained that he was the cop who would save everyone from harm. Whew.

Thank you, Lord, that we're not all the same.  That would be a disaster.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Oh, and Happy Dongey Day.  Obviously.

And if you were curious, the amazing pictures of our boys were taken by Janet Powell of

Silly Goose Photography.  If you hail from Bluffton, you likely know her, but if you ever visit the area, she's a great one to call for some fun family photos!

Man, I'm the worst.  At many things (like home decorating, meal planning and admitting I'm wrong to name a few), but today I'm talking about blogging.  Today as I was searching google for "Christmas presents for parents" because I'm so creative and into the desires of others, the lightbulb turned on!  The tiny little Christmas tree light-sized lightbulb that now serves as my brain said, "Turn the blog posts into a book again!"  I did this for our parents a few years ago, and they loved it.  Why reinvent the wheel, right?  So, here I am, signed onto Blogger.  And I think I might have 20 posts to share since I printed the blog book a few years ago.  Twenty posts wouldn't make a book.  Not even a good children's book.  It would make pamphlet.  Maybe.  Not a tri-fold, but a front and back only.  Ugh.  

Family, I am so sorry.  I know it's hard living away from the boys and not seeing them very often.  I know you want to hear and remember their funny stories.  Truth is....I want to remember them, too.  So, here it is.  My 8th attempt at rekindling this blog fire.  I see you 2013, and I'm beating you to the resolution punchline.  It's December 12th, and I'm going to blog again.  Because if one more person tells me I should "write these things down" I want to look them in the eye and say, "I. AM."  

You'll notice the last post was titled something about Summer Catch Up 1 or something like that.  That would lead you to believe that there are more posts coming about summer, wouldn't it?  Yeah.  Me, too!  Sorry, though.  I'm not catching up.  I think that has led me to stop blogging in the past.  So many months to catch up.  So many things we did that were fun.  Let's face it.  Blogging about Summer vacation while sitting next to your Christmas tree is about as fun as watching The Polar Express in July.  From now on, those are the "lost months".  Instead of individual posts, here is a photo recap of the lost months.  And this will just have to do.  

We had a Staycation in Bluffton this year.  My family came for the week, and we had a blast.  We found the perfect beach spot and the perfect little beach bum to share it with.  (Ava-my niece, 2.5yrs when this was taken during the lost months)

I rode a mechanical bull.  

There may or may not have been a championship that night. 

I may or may not have won it. 

My UNC Sr. year roommates gathered for a reunion in June.  

7 ladies. 14 babies.  

Bazinga.

We celebrated the 4th.  That's Jack at the top of the climbing wall.  

Anna (my 1st cousin) visited for a week in July.  She is amazing and sweet and beautiful and a volleyball player and fun and hopefully planning on returning in 2013. :)

Jack was on the swim team this summer.  He loved it.  

He came in first in the city swim meet in the 25 yard backstroke. 

I screamed like an idiot. (think Howard Dean circa 2006)  

Jack had eye surgery on John's birthday (July 23rd).  They had to cut and tighten the outer muscles of his left eye in hopes to straighten it to improve his vision and depth perception and ultimately help his eyes to work together as they should.  So far, so good. 

He was a stellar patient.

On the same day, my sweet uncle, Tim, went home to heaven after a long battle with cancer.  He was a fighter.  He was so funny, so giving.  Christmas is coming, and I know he will be missed more than ever.  But I'm trying to focus on the fact that he's celebrating the birth of Christ with...well, Christ!  Please pray for peace and comfort for Adam and Lisa as they face their first Christmas without him.

The Ussery/Smiths gathered for the annual vacay at Lake Tillery.  

Cousins.  Nothing like it.

Jack turned 7.  Finn turned 5. 

We celebrated with the Gardner/Kincaid/Williams families at Lake Tillery.

Their favorite place on Earth.

My Dad turned 60, so we partied with his two favorite things: grandkids and UNC.  This was the boys' first college football game.  They felt so cool high five-ing the football team during their march to campus, and we felt so old being on campus with our three children.

Jackie got married.  (John's baby sis.)  We added Stephen Lee to the family as our new brother in law, and we couldn't be more excited.  The wedding was almost as beautiful as the bride:) Almost.

Charlie turned 1!

We went to Disney!  Gigi and Poppy Johnny were with us, and all had a great time. 

On December 1st, this hunky guy started a new job at Palmetto Bluff.  He's the newest member on the sales team.  Whenever you visit SC again, you have to visit Palmetto Bluff.  There's no place like it.  You will fall in love with it (and hopefully pick up a lot/house or two, right?:)

So there they are.  The lost months.  Here's to moving forward.  

Summer in Review - Part I

We had a great summer. 

It was so great that it's taken me two months to recover from Summer Hangover.

Some families like to stay on school schedule during the summer.  

You know the type.  Anti- sleep late.  Anti- stay up late to watch Wipeout.  Anti- icy pops.

(They're also the families who transition nicely back into school and don't have a two month hangover.)

Not us.

We do Summer.  

We started off with a bang by picking Jack up from his last day of school with the car packed and ready for a surprise weekend trip to the lake with the Rowe's.  

Charlie entertained himself in this box most of the weekend.  

Geez...he's so high maintenance and fussy. 

:)

So maybe we're not as outdoorsy as we thought....

Don't judge.  WiFi is your friend if you're in 800 sq ft. with 9 people, and you need a little down time.

Mattie was the only chick of the kid bunch.  

It didn't slow her down a bit.  

Love these little faces. 

Lifelong buddies.

A little breakfast picnic.  

Probably at 10:00am.

Because that's how we roll.

Here are the men returning from battle. 

What kind of battle?

Man vs. water rat, of course!

We spotted a large water rat across the cove, so we clearly determined that the right thing to do was bomb it with water balloons. 

In addition to doing summer well, it seems that we do redneck equally well.

Thanks, Matt and Dana for making the trek to NC with us and getting the Summer off to the right start!

Peanut and Cracker Jack

Finn was FINALLY old enough to play an organized (term used very loosely) sport this Spring. 

Darn those September birthdays.

Even though he was our unofficial T ball player last year, he knew it wasn't legit. 

This year, however, Finn knew he was on the roster, and that he was included "FOREALS".

He loved the hitting.

He loved the running.

Fielding?  Not his forte.  That's why there isn't a picture.  Slouchy Finn = no fun.

And the snacks?  He loved those, too.  Duh. 

Who wouldn't want some pre dinner Oreos?

The level of cuteness in Finn's team was redonk.  So stinkin' cute.

The only uniform I could imagine being cuter would be a teeny, tiny little hockey uniform.

Which Finn will likely never wear considering he thought carrying his glove to the field was too much work.

First trophy.

:)

On to Cracker Jack...

Second year as a Red Sox player, but his first year of coach pitch.  

And pretty cool that the coaches were his Dad and his Poppy Johnny!  (And Coach Larry and Coach Reese)

I'm melting.

Mostly because of this pic below.

Partly because it's July, and I live in South Carolina.

Jack really did a great job with hitting this year.  

So proud of my boy.

Always a hard worker and focused on the task at hand.

Unless it involves cleaning his room.

Or doing school work during the summer (insert mean mom comments here).

Well, hello there, Lord Helmet...

This baseball season was a great one.  The families were so fun and laid back.

No crazy screamers or dads acting like fools because their son was or wasn't the best. 

I'm happy to say that we survived our first season of two kids in a sport.  There were several schedule overlaps and a handful of times I misplaced a hat or something else, but we did it!

Cubs and Red Sox 4LIFE!  

Well, until next year when their team name changes.