Happy New Year . 2015 (Holiday recap)

December was full of Christmas activities.  However... one thing that did NOT happen was baking.  This was unusual for our household, but working and grading papers consumed free time... sleep time... consumed a lot of time!  But - it's all right.  (It took me awhile to not fret over it / be OK with all that did NOT get done.)  This is not the "season" in our lives to bake.  

In looking back, we did some things that were nice / we did some things that were new / and did some things that were important.  

Here is our Christmas card photo... It's hard to spot Isabella behind flailing arms and a fluffy dog.









And a really nice photo of Mercer with Santa (look at those front teeth coming in!):

Visiting Santa was "interesting" again because Isabella is still afraid of the big guy.  We tried a couple of different angles to get a nice shot, but to no avail.  He is really patient and sweet - trying to give her a candy cane to calm her down, but she grabbed it and escaped!















The nature center where I worked had a "reindeer day" event for kids complete with crafts, nature exhibits, and reindeer!  This is their 4th year hosting this event, but our first time to go.  It was kind of cool!  

(Then, of course, there was time spent climbing on things at the nature center.) 









































Isabella's "school" Christmas party.... we don't give her candy at home, but when she got her hands on some there - immediately it went into her mouth.  She did actually decorate with some, but.... she got a taste of candy -- and -- she likes it!

Mercer's school Christmas party was pretty low-key compared to Isabella's "decorating" and candy-fest.  A class parent read a book and the kids ate cupcakes then posed for a class photo.  

Mercer wanted a picture with his teacher too.

We had an addition to our elf family this year!  "Lizzie" joined in the fun with "Fred."  (I think his name keeps changing year after year?)  What a surprise we found one morning... let's see if she comes back for a visit next year too.





A "random" shot... after a basketball game -- we went to a birthday party... then we were headed to a neighborhood Christmas party afterwards.  At the birthday party, Mercer was painted up as a "Christmas tiger" instead of a regular tiger to keep with the Christmas theme of the later event.  We did not get photos at the neighborhood party because we were quite busy chasing the children.  We did go on a caroling horse-drawn cart ride through the neighborhood, though!  

The next weekend, we rented a minivan and headed up the east coast this year.  (Somehow we put 10 less miles on the van this year -- 1950 instead of 1960.) Isabella was really really unhappy one leg of the trip (which meant that we were too).  But overall, when we were at each destination - some very nice memories were made.  Our first stop:  visiting family in North Carolina.  We continued up to New Jersey.  Then headed back through North Carolina on our way home. 

Here are some photos from both destinations:

Mercer got to decorate a gingerbread house with grandma.























  

We visited (great) grandma and (great) grandpa a couple of times while in town.  We also, visited with Eddie, Rhonda, and Michael (who was home from college) - but did not snag a picture of that.  Working around nap-time prohibited us from going too far from mom's house.

Christmas Eve bowling and

Christmas Eve conversations with brothers:

9 of the 10 grandkids were in New Jersey:

Tara, Ryan, Zach, Meagan, Sam, Nathaniel, Marley, Mercer, and Isabella.  (Rory Jr is working on a fishing boat off the coast of Florida and was not able to make it home.)  

Mercer wrestled with all of the boy cousins at one point or another... wearing each of them out!  
























Isabella was doted on by the girl cousins, especially Marley who carried her around everywhere.


  







Here's a typical shot -- Isabella pointing and demanding to be carried.  "This way" was a common command.









And here are some other shots of the family.  Thankfully a few people grabbed the camera and snapped some candids. 

And a cool panoramic shot Jimmy captured (click to enlarge~):

One interesting thing... on Christmas morning, Santa left a note for Mercer and Isabella with a photo of two large items that he left for them back in Georgia:  a "personal-size" trampoline for Isabella and an orange bicycle for Mercer!  













There was a gap felt in North Carolina as this was our first Christmas not goofing off with Aunt Sandra.  There was also thoughts of Todd's dad, Bob, shared (as Jimmy donned Bob's reindeer shirt as we spent the second "last" Christmas in the Mountain Lakes home.  

As already mentioned, there were parts of the 10-day trip that were tough travel-wise.... but overall we made a lot of nice memories AND we spread around a lot of 2-year old and 6-year old "joy."