Florida is Far

Last week, on a whim, we decided to jump in the car and drive to Jacksonville, Florida to visit friends and family.  It was a looooong drive but we did take a break overnight in Franklin, TN.  After nearly 20 hours of driving, we finally arrived and it was well worth every minute spent in the car. 

We stayed with our friend, Eddie, who was so kind to let us bring the chaos to his otherwise quiet and calm life.  I can't even describe how wonderful it was to be around friends of 20+ years, family, and to feel the warm sunshine on our shoulders at the end of December. 

We spent the first half of our first day in town with Uncle Steve.  He wanted to take the kids to a local arcade so that's what we did.  We all had a blast. 

That night we went to Heather & Brian's house for an amazing dinner.  We got to hang out with the Cornwells, Erica & Mikhala, Uncle Keith, and Eddie.  Such a perfect night!

The following day we took advantage of the amazing sunshine and went to the beach.   

These are my three favorite photos of the day: 

Christmas Morning

We were all so excited on Christmas morning.  Surprisingly Reese slept until 6:30 but we had to wake Talan up to go downstairs.  We always make the kids wait at the top of the stairs for a few minutes so that we can take pictures and get the cameras set up.  I know it pains them to wait because I used to hate it, too, as a kid. 

We realized right away that Santa had made it to our house.....and he liked the cookies we left. 

Reese's loot:

Talan's loot:

It was finally time for the big reveal:

And then it was time to open the piles of gifts that had accumulated under the tree:

It was such a fantastic day.  Time like this make me want to stop time and keep them young forever.  Such precious moments. 

Twas the Night Before Christmas

On Christmas Eve we got such a great surprise.  Santa made a house call and showed up at our front door! 

Reese was a little suspicious and thought Santa resembled a friend of ours. But her suspicions were laid to rest when we found out that the friend was actually out of town AND when we came to realize that Eric, our elf, was gone and had left a note and gifts on the front porch.  We suspect that it was Eric dressed as Santa.  How crazy is that???

Every Christmas Eve our elf leaves PJs for the kids to be worn that night. 

Eric really did good this year.  Super cute PJs! 

Some neighbors invited us over for appetizers that evening.  I had fun cooking some fun Christmas-themed food. 

We got home late so we had to rush off to bed so that Santa wouldn't pass up our house.  

T's Chrith's'maths Song

Talan learned more words to "Santa Baby" during all of Reese's practicing than I thought.  He asked me to tape him singing this morning.  His lisp has to be the cutest thing in the world!

'Stache Attack!

Last night was Eric's last night in the house.  To say he went out with a bang would be an understatement.  Reese was the first one up (per usual).  She ran downstairs to see what he had done and found this:

and this....

and this.....

and this, too:

He didn't leave a single picture untouched.  From there she went to the bathroom and was shocked to see that he had put a mustache on her face!  She was racing up the stairs and heard me coming down.  She said "Mom, you are not going to believe.....oh my gosh!  You have one, too!".  We both ran into the bathroom and burst into laughter at what we saw.  We both had a mustache!  We ran in to check out Kevin and sure enough he had one as well.  We were sure that Talan was safe because he sleeps with his door closed.  But no.  He, too, had a 'stache. 

Fortunately we all have a good sense of humor and thought it was super funny. 

Normally I'm ready for the Eric to head back to the North Pole but this year I'll really miss him.  He's been a lot of fun to have around.  Bonjour, Eric!  Until next year.......

Fun with Toilet Paper

Oh my.  Just looking at this picture gives me anxiety so you can imagine how I felt waking up to find it in our kitchen.  Something tells me that Eric has TP'ed a time or two before.  He's pretty good at at! 

They love hamming it up for these pictures. 

It didn't take them long to find the culprit who was hiding atop the light fixture.

We found two empty rolls so it was quite a bit of toilet paper.  The kids had a blast playing in it.  It's the simple things in life, I guess. 

Talan's Tunes

Hooray for proactive people!!!!  Just as he promised, Talan's classmate's dad sent us the videos from the Christmas show.  Talan is on the right side of the screen in a cute little green vest.  He's in the back hidden behind other kids for some of the video but his teacher eventually moved him up front.  I live for these moments!