Christmas Eve with Mommy & Daddy!

We were originally going to have my parents, brother and grandmother down to our house on Christmas Eve but due to the flu, that was cancelled.  It was sad not to get to have our regular Christmas Eve celebration, but it just meant that we got to spend the evening as a family of three.  We opened gifts and watched Elf and ate chinese, lol.  It was a very relaxing evening.

Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Reed was literally excited about everything, the lights, the presents, Santa, everything.  He makes this time of year even more special than it was before.  Unfortunately, both my dad and brother got the flu around Christmas, so that cut back on our Christmas festivities.  Thankfully, they were both feeling well by Christmas day.  Unfortunately, I came down with the flu just a week later.  Ugh, it didn't make for the best Christmas break ever, but I am so thankful that Chris was at home to be with Reed and to answer every text and call from upstairs, lol!

The great-grandkids on the Hardeman side.

All the grandkids with Grandmother.  We were so glad she made it to our Christmas party this year.  She was too sick to come last year.

The great-grandkids with Grandmother.

Reed playing with Uncle Jeff.

Showing off his new backpack that Griffin and Gavin gave him.

Trying to help Granddaddy open a gift.

He was actually interested in unwrapping presents this year, which was much better than last year when he had no interest.  Here he is pulling out Jo's gift.

His new monkey hat from Nana and Granddaddy.

He was being totally silly at picture time.  This was the best one I got.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Disney Highlights

We had an awesome albeit exhausting trip to Disney last week. There were two moments of our 5 day trip that stick out as highlights for us. The first is when Reed first saw the Walt Disney World sign. He threw his hands in the air, you know, like Rocky once he reached the top of the steps, and said 'yeah'. It was precious!

The next completely adorable and shocking thing happened at the Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom.  We somehow got picked at the entrance of the park to sit front row at the show.  We were a little unsure to begin with, because Reed hadn't been the biggest fan of shows but we said what the heck and went with it.  He got called up to help prepare the audience for the entrance of the Lion King pals.  We were lions in our section.  Check him out.  We were so proud that he went out there and actually participated.  Sooooo unlike him.

San-ta, San-ta, Ho, Ho, Ho!

We saw Santa today at Baby Braithwaite in downtown Atlanta.  It is such a cute little store and I love that they do this appointment only Santa thing.  It makes for easier in and out.  Our appointment was at 4:30 and I made a bad decision to let Reed take a nap on the way.  We had to wake him up to go in.  Needless to say, it took lots of convincing to get him up there with Santa, and it wasn't without a tantrum or two.  In the end it turned out okay.

This is how it started.  Chris in Santa's sleigh with Reed and me being overly excited about Santa reading Reed's letter of what he wants for Christmas.

To this, with all of us smiling at the camera.

We finally got him to sit with Santa by himself, but he was a little unsure.

"I'm not going to smile.  I'm not going to smile."

This is probably the best one.  Too bad she cut into Santa's head.