Christmas Day

We went to the Bristow's house on Christmas Day. We arrived at their house at the same time as Cole and his family. Jane was busy in the kitchen cooking. The kids had lots of fun playing together. They counted all of Thom and Jane's Santa Clauses, which took some time.

The Bristow's

We were able to get a group shot. Unfortunately, someone had to take the picture, so Thom is missing from the picture.

The Bristow boys

The kids all had a great time playing together. The house was full of motion with four kids. Kate hung right in there as the lone girl.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas at Our House

After we got home from Mom and Dad's Christmas Eve, we exchanged gifts as a family. The boys have been wondering what was in these packages for weeks now.

Hunter and Jordan

They were very excited to finally get to open them. Inside was a gaming chair for each of them. I'm glad they both liked them since they had been wondering about them for so long. They would have been so let down if the boxes were full of socks and underwear.

The Missing Present

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Mom and Dad this year. We arrived at their house for a late lunch. Then we went to the Christmas Eve service at their church. They were serving Communion at the front of the church as we walked in. So we were able to take Communion as a family, which was very special. After church, we opened Christmas presents. After all the presents under the tree were opened, Mom presented the boys with clues for their Missing Present.

Hunter and Jordan with their missing present clues.

Each of the boys had separate clues. They read their own clues which lead them to their present.

Jordan finds his Missing Present

Jordan's present was hidden in the guest bedroom under the pillows. It was a bike helmet which was to stay at Grandmom's house.

Hunter finds his missing present

Hunter's present was hidden in the dryer which is one of the last places Hunter would ever look for something. It was a great jacket he could wear over short sleeved shirts and there were some pants.

The boys had a great time on their treasure hunt!

Merry Christmas

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas! Take the time to enjoy Christmas. Treasure all the small joys that Christmas can bring if you take the time to look. Do something you enjoy and be with the ones you love.

Merry Christmas!

The Big Chill

All the second graders at Jordan's school appeared in a Christmas/Winter performance called The Big Chill. The funniest part is that it was 80 degrees outside the day of the performance. Our seats were not the best. Jordan is on the far left side about 4 rows back. (which is on the right side of the video) He is the only red head boy in the second grade. There are two of sections of kids behind Jordan's sections that you can not see in this video. He did a great job and was very excited.

Merry Christmas

Laura took this awesome family picture of us on the beach. The weather was wonderful. I thought we were going to freeze on the beach in December. But it was not cold at all.

Nights of a Thousand Candles

During our visit with The Lee's, we went to Brookgreen Gardens. Brookgreen Gardens is a National Historic Landmark with a huge collection of sculptures in a lovely outdoor setting. It also has a great zoo. We went to their holiday event called Nights of a Thousand Candles. There were candles everywhere. It was beautiful!

Hunter and Jordan in front of the lion

When I would visit Brookgreen Gardens when I was little, we would always get a picture taken with the lion. The theory was that when you compared the pictures you could tell how much you had grown. I have tons of the pictures taken with this same lion. Since we were there, I made Hunter and Jordan get their picture with him also.

Trees

This was a Grandmom's favorite poem at Brookgreen. She would read it to me every time we visited it. I love it.

Hunter, Anna, Henry, Jordan, Arthur and Thomas

Laura and Sean's friends, Beth and Dan Bacon, were in town the same weekend. So we were able to meet them. They are currently touring the US this year in a RV. They are visiting a state a week for 50 weeks. They have an amazing website that tracks their adventures. They even gave us some cool "Bacon Across America" t-shirts. (Get it.. their last name is Bacon.)

I thought this looked cool. How many other states are as proud of their state flag and symbols as South Carolina?

There were candles and lights everywhere... floating in the water around the sculptures, on the walkways and even inside the walls.

Hunter and the poinsettias

Visiting Laura's Family

This weekend we went to Pawley's Island to visit my cousin, Laura and her family. They just moved into their beautiful new house Monday and still let us come and stay with them... boxes and all. :)

Hunter, Jordan, Thomas and Anna

The kids had a great time playing together. Anna hung in with the boys but we also had some "girl time." Anna would get Laura and myself and we would look at jewelry. Little girls are great!

This is the view from the back of their house. It is a tidal cedar swamp. Luckily I did not see any alligators or snakes. :)

Happy Halloween

This year for Halloween, Jordan wanted me to dress up with them. So I did. Here we are right before we left to go trick or treating. Hunter was a painter (he used in the paint bucket for his candy), Jordan was Old West Sheriff and I was an Egyptian complete with black hair.

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween

Jordan's class celebrated Halloween by carving all these wonderful pumpkins. They also weighted, measured them and counted all their seeds. Jordan is in the back in front of his teacher. Being a redhead, he is pretty easy to spot.