Christmastime is here!!!!

You know this song. The precious little tune that has Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and all of the gang singing along!
As I listened to this song today, I just couldn't believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve! The build up to the "big day" is about to be over. I really can't believe it. It's been a busy holiday season, but seriously, if it weren't, it just wouldn't feel right. I love making the treats for the kids school parties, the handmade goodies for the teachers and neighbors and shopping for just the right gift for the family. So, come Dec. 26th, the sadness starts to set in.

This has been one of those short Christmas seasons, where the calendar only gives us three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I look at all that we've done in this time and it seems longer! Here, take a peek...
The kids had a great visit with Santa and made sure they relayed their list of wants to him! (A loooong list of wants!)


We had a fun night with Aunt Janet watching the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and a fun evening downtown!
I had fun waiting in line for the coveted Zhu-Zhu pet for Lily Clare! (I guess I'm glad that she can't read this!)



Our neighborhood held it's annual ladies ornament exchange and it was as fun as ever! Plenty of food and an overabundance of fun! What a great group of ladies!
Lily Clare discovered a new way to smile!
Have any of you seen reindeer in person?!? They are so magical!



This past weekend we had a super Givens family Christmas gathering!



Sam and Lily built gingerbread houses. And I'm not sure if the houses or their stomachs received more candy. But they had a blast and the results are beautiful! Oh, did I mention who was the brains behind the engineering of the houses.......

(John and Tony, please don't be mad!)

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and it's "THE" night of magic! We will host some of John's family and then we will head to Chattanooga on Saturday for the Moore gathering! So, I do get to stretch out my celebration through the weekend.

Until I catch you up on the last of our Christmas fun, I will leave you with this...



Taking it in~
Laurie

Darn those Sappy Commercials...

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for sappy commercials, movies, greeting cards, etc. And now that it is the holiday season, it seems that all of these things are twofold. Every time I turn on the t.v., it's a Christmas movie, a Hallmark commercial, hey, even those coffee commercials can make me choke up! So with the garlands hung and the lights twinkling, my emotions are on a roll.

One of my favorite Christmas movies (albeit not sappy) is Christmas Vacation. You know the one with the wacky Griswold family, with the house glowing all the way to China and the lovely relatives with the RV!??! So anyway, this movie makes me laugh out loud (lol!), but there is one scene that makes my tear ducts go to work. It's the scene where Clark gets closed up in the attic and finds the box of old family movies. He sits there for a few hours watching his favorite family memories play out - even old Clark gets teary-eyed in this scene.

This reminds me of when my dad would bring out the projector and our old 35mm home movies. I loved the nights we would all sit on the floor, eat popcorn and watch past vacations and Christmases roll on the "big screen". As I think about those old movies, it makes me think about my current life. And makes me really hope that I'm living my life worthy of being filmed. O.K., so maybe the times when I grumble under my breath or roll my eyes at something the kids are doing, I hope my back is towards the camera, but otherwise, I hope I'm leaving some precious memories worthy of a good family night in front of the video screen.



Smiling for the camera~
Laurie

P.S. This is the song playing while Clark Griswold is watching his family movies...by the way, it makes me cry, too! Merry Christmas!

Thanks, I needed that!

Every day, Lily Clare comes home from school with some great crafts! Today was no different! This precious little wreath is made from 100's of little Lily Clare fingerprints!

So cute!

And how did her teacher know that I needed to read these perfect words!?! (You can click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Some things just hit close to home! Thanks Mrs. Jeri and Mrs. Diane for this perfect piece of artwork for a mom who needed it!

Trying to get out of my dither~
Laurie

It's official,.....

the Christmas season is here!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Alabama with tons of food and some great family time. And this year, we threw in a little flag football, as well! Who knew we had such skilled athletes in the bloodline?!?!

Sam provided the centerpiece for the Thanksgiving meal!

Tony, was this the "Statue of Liberty" play?

Once we made it back home, we were ready for the Christmas decorations to shine!!! So we worked all weekend and now the house is ready for Jesus' birthday celebration and a much anticipated visit from Santa!

December 1st marked the arrival from our elf, Tweet. The kids put out graham crackers and water in hopes to lure him in; and low and behold, Tweet was on our mantle Tuesday morning! (He's journeyed into the kitchen today.) This little elf will help keep an eye on the kids and report his findings to Santa. Yay Tweet!!!!

(I just love how Lily Clare whispers when she's around the elf. She doesn't want him to hear everything she says.)

As for me, I'm off to do some Christmas shopping and start thinking about all of the Christmas treats that need to (I'm not sure that "need" is the correct word!) be baked!


Ho, ho, ho~
Laurie

P.S. I have an awesome video of my mom and me performing a cheerleading stunt. I need to work on making it into a photo... more to come! Go team!