December in a Flash...

As most of us, December flew by in a flash.  I will not complain because every last bit of it was entertaining, family fun.  Regrettably, I have to look back at my photographs to remember what we actually did this month.  Hey, so much for a photographic memory....

Olivia surprised us all as she sang Christmas carols with her Daisy Scout troop at the Smyrna Tree Lighting and also at Delmar Gardens for the senior citizens.  It truly gets you in the spirit of Christmas to see your shy, little girl  stand in front of a crowd singing the Twelve Days of Christmas....it was a long one, let me tell you.

All within days we attended the Smyrna Tree Lighting (which was rained out, so Santa lit the tree before we all arrived, bummer),

 the Vinings Tree Lighting (see Santa, Jen and Kobe photo), 

a Daisy Scout holiday party,

 hosted a baby shower for my dear friend Liz (she's due Jan. 2nd), 

celebrated my 38th birthday...got a new iPhone 4 (I love it), homemade ribs and cake from Dave, and was taken to lunch and dinner multiple times thanks to my friends and topped it off with a dinner at Canoe with Liz and Amy....nice!!! 

visited Santa at The Vinings Club,

 celebrated Dave's 37th birthday,

 horseback riding (that's Spoon and he's huge)

attended Dave's Porsche holiday party,

enjoyed our annual holiday dinner with our neighbors, the McCurry's

Zach and Mrs. Muller (K teacher)

 and attended Olivia and Zach's school holiday parties and raced to the last day of school.  

Whew!  Oh yes, there was a little homework, holiday shopping, wrapping, playing and attending to regular life mixed in there somewhere.  Yes, it was all fun.  We are grateful to have the holidays to slow down a bit and enjoy our time together.  The beautiful and calming snow helps.  Our kids are at such wonderful ages, 7 and 5.  They each had a bucket this year for slips of paper with their 'good deeds'.  We set their buckets out for Santa to see and he wrote a note saying "Wonderful job, Olivia & Zach".  They were very proud of themselves and we have to say, they were very good this year.  Finally.....!  Well, there was a small episode of Olivia 'running away from home' the last day of school as soon as we got home.  I think all of the activity and lack of sleep caught up with her, so we'll give her this one.  She didn't actually run away, but she needed some time alone.  She was upset that I made her walk the dog.....the dog she begged for six years to get.  We will let bygones be bygones....
With all of the White siblings in town, we left the kids in the care of grandparents and Aunt Barbara and went to see Cirque de Soleil - Ovo.  We all had a fabulous time together, we loved the show and the lights at Atlantic Station.

Christmas Eve was spent with the White family at my sister, Karen's in Suwanee.  We have one new baby, Heath, and I've said it before, he is such a good baby.  With Gavin, Olivia and Zach, well, they are so grateful to see each other, we didn't see much of them :-)

Santa was very, very good to the kids.  We have played non stop with all of the cool toys he brought and also ones gifted from our family.  LEGOs can keep kids busy all day long.

Our big present this year is a trip during the kids' Winter Break in February, to Sun Valley, Idaho.  We are going skiing as a family.  I cannot wait!
We didn't' have to wait for snow, it arrived Christmas Day in Georgia.  The day was absolutely beautiful.