Christmas Trip to Richmond

After our Raleigh wake-up and delicious Christmas breakfast complete with eggs, bacon, breakfast burritos, and NY Crumbcake, we packed up and headed to Richmond. Christmas afternoon we had Christmas part deux, celebrating at Nay-nay & Pop-pop's house with them, Memo & Augs, and Lucy. Here's a general sense of the chaos.

Memo & Augs looking festive!

Our festivities were not over. On Boxing day we headed over to Gramby & Su-su's house for Christmas celebration part three! On the drive over we spotted two red-tailed hawks hanging out.

Our new camera! Gramby & Su-su want to make sure we have the proper equipment to keep the blog up and running. :)

Jack opens his gifts.

Meghan is busy coloring with her new crayons.

Love the snowman dress.

Clara's new hat.

After exchanging gifts and visiting all day, in the evening we went over to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens to check out their Christmas lights display. The kids are taking a rest in the gazebo with Grambles.

Check out the sweet peacock behind me.

On Saturday night we went over to the Schaeffers house for dinner and family get-together. Here's a cute video of the third wave aka Meghan & Hal chasing each other around the dining room table.

Uncle Jack & Dy spent Christmas in Florida with Dy's family, but Jack was able to stop off in Richmond the weekend after Christmas en route back to NYC. It's all fun and games hanging out with Uncle Jack!

The kids got roller skates from Nay-nay & Pop-pop for Christmas and were really excited to try them out at the blacktop at Tuckahoe.

Jack opts for the old reliable scooter.

Look at that lightning speed!

See-sawing under the watch eye of Pop-pop.

Clara does the cork screw.

Clara joins in the see-sawing fun, and Pop-pop gets a leg workout.

Kids see-saw on their own.

Jack climbs up and back.

Last but not least surely, putting another gift, a hair care kit, to good use, Nay-nay gets pampered.

Christmas Day 2013!

Christmas Day!

It looks like Santa Claus came to town...

Clara digs deep to see what treasures her stocking reveals.

Nerds rope!

A stuffed cat!

Jack feelings towards Christmas changed for the good once he dug his Nerds Rope out of his stocking.

Clara already perused her Santa gifts and was ready for under the tree presents.

Cecile's pajamas.

Jack was all about his present wrapped in blue star paper.

Post-present apocalypse Jack and Meghan had a picnic with their new set.

Jack tries out his new big wheel with a hair bow to match.

Nothing better than a snuggle with Bitty Baby in a box.

Next up... To Grandparents house we go!

Beauty Parlor

Pausing from our Christmas catch-up to bring you something from St. Patty's Eve: after dinner the kids were fixing each other's hair. Here's a clip from the action.

And the final hair styles.

Don't they look mah-velous, dahling?

Christmas Eve 2013

Finally after a long hiatus that I can only blame on HBO's excellent TV show, The Newsroom, (if you haven't seen it, go watch it, but if you don't like it, don't tell me about it), we are back! As always after a long break, this one's dedicated to Pop-pop & Gramby. Enjoy!

By Christmas Eve our house was ready for the impending insanity! Look at all those presents under the Christmas tree. Wrap central has been hopping.

Meg-a-tron-trick-a-doo in her star PJ's.

After breakfast we headed over to Lacy to run off some excess energy. The weather was decidedly more seasonal than it had been over the weekend with crisp temperatures and lots of wind. Look at that winter sky!

Clara had some fun playing soccer for a bit.

Then we moved down to the playground equipment. Time for the "spinny things".

After playing we headed home for lunch and nap time which was especially crucial on this day because of our extensive plans for the evening. We attended church for the first time as a family with some of our friends from Clara's school and then had Christmas Eve dinner with other long time friends. It was almost too bad it was Christmas Eve because everyone was getting along so well after dinner that we hated to leave, but we knew the night had to come to an end because we still had miles to go before sleep!

After all of our evening's festivities we returned home and let the kids open one present each. Shocker of shockers... Christmas PJ's! Meghan absolutely loved her nightgown. She was so excited to be just like Clara.

Jack shows off his sweet "T'was the Night Before Christmas" PJ's. (On a sad note his adorable reindeer socks are no longer a pair, as one of them fell victim to Sydney this past weekend - thankfully working its way threw her digestive tract and out the other side).

Christmas Eve Dance Party

PJ Fashion Show

And now after all that fun, it was time to actually get the kids to settle down for bed with "T'was the Night Before Christmas", what else?

And finally before other duties commenced I was busy baking Christmas breakfast, a New York-Style Crumb Cake a la Foster's Market.

Stay tuned to see if Santa Claus visited!

Brec's Birthday Weekend (Dec. 21 - 22)

Back, better than ever with our continuing coverage of Christmas 2013!

Following the typical wintery weather of gloom and rain we experienced the first several weekends in December, Brec's birthday weekend greeted us with unseasonably warm 70 degree temperatures and sunny skies. A part of us lamented that such weather didn't feel very Christmassy, but after being cooped up in the house earlier in the month, we were excited to be outside and enjoy the weather.

Meghan enjoys a morning snuggle with Fluffy in our bed.

Later on hanging out on the swing set. She really wanted to be on the monkey bar and of course not to have her picture taken.

Jack's turn to do some tricks. He was pretty smart to shut his eyes to avoid the dirt falling from his feet.

Peanut butter Hershey kiss cookies gone awry. I think the peanut butter was too dry.

Brec's birthday dinner at Beaseley's. Anything is better than last year when we all came down with the stomach flu on his birthday.

Everyone cuddles with the birthday boy for a bedtime story.

Sunday morning Jack is ready to head outside. He gets his sense of style from his Daddy.

To optimize in this glorious weather, we dined on the patio at Player's Retreat for lunch.

Back in the backyard after lunch.

Yes, that is Clara reading in her hideout in just her underwear on December 22nd. We all enjoyed the extra dose of Vitamin D knowing it would be short lived.