This post will cover the rest of December, including some lazy days at home, our Christmas celebrations with family, and Brooklyn’s first Auburn football game. Yes, she’s still an Auburn fan ;) Here’s the recap:
The girls all made their own rocket ships and had fun playing with them on December 18th. We certainly had a plethora of boxes by this point in the month! ;)
Brooklyn inspects the wrapped presents under the tree more than either of the other girls. We frequently catch her looking at the labels and trying to guess what’s inside. It kills her to have to wait to open them!
Abigail sure looked cute in her snowman dress and hairbow on December 19th. If I’m remembering correctly, she refused to wear the bow to church, but I told her I at least wanted a picture of it before we took it off. It’s one of my favorites that Cici made!
We went back to see the Woodard Family Lights that night! The word has definitely gotten out about their lights because it was much more crowded this year both times when we went to see them.
All of the Grant ladies (including Gabby!) on one couch together :)
“Let’s curl up like Gabby does!”
Savannah made her own Christmas wish list…
…and Brooklyn helped Abigail make hers. I liked how Brooklyn wrote down “pet dog” and circled it at the bottom…haha. Brooklyn has been really wanting to get a dog lately, so that conveniently made its way onto Abigail’s list as well :)
I led a ladies class on patience on December 21st, and this quote that I found online really stood out to me.
We drove down to Paw and Rae Rae’s house on December 22nd, and Savannah brought two of her favorite monkeys along :)
We went to church with Paw and Rae Rae that evening, and afterward we drove through a couple of neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights. This house blew us away, and this picture only shows a small portion of their yard.
We spent some time outside on December 23rd. Brooklyn enjoyed walking Charlie on his leash while the other girls scootered around the neighborhood.
That afternoon, we got ready to go see the Christmas lights at Noccalula Falls in Gadsden. Rae Rae bought tickets for us and Jenn and Chandler to all go together.
We had never seen the lights there before. The only time we had been to Noccalula Falls at all was in summer 2014 with Paw and Rae Rae (when Brooklyn was a toddler).
It was packed with a lot of people, but we had a lot of fun! The lights were really pretty all over the park.
We stood in line for about 30 minutes to ride the train when we got there…
The girls enjoyed the train ride a lot. It was a good way to see most of the lights in the park without walking everywhere.
We walked over to see Santa after that and only waited a few minutes to see him. When we got up to the front of the line, Abigail acted really shy like she didn’t want to talk to him at all. Brooklyn and Savannah spoke to him, although neither one sat in his lap.
Santa asked what they wanted for Christmas, and Brooklyn replied, “For Auburn to win a national championship”…haha. Savannah said she couldn’t remember what she wanted ;) Afterward, Abigail said, “I only wanted to talk to the real Santa…not that Santa.” I asked her why she thought he wasn’t the real Santa, and she said, “I just knew he was just another Santa.” :) Savannah said she thought he was the real Santa though ;)
We walked around for a few more minutes and looked around. It was neat to see the waterfall at night!
Brooklyn and Abigail wanted their picture taken with the tigers since they are our resident Auburn fans :)
The elephants made some of us happy and others not so much ;)
It was a really fun night! After we left, we drove over to Blackstone Pizza for supper. It was late–almost the girls’ bedtime by the time we got to the restaurant. The pizza was DELICIOUS…some of the best I’ve ever had. The girls did great for it being such a late night. We had fun!
The next day was Christmas Eve, and the girls couldn’t wait to open gifts. But first we had to eat some of Mrs. Dobbs’ sausage bread…an annual tradition :)
We also took the opportunity to get a few pictures before the madness ensued…
We loved Paw’s Darth Vader Christmas sweater!
Champ even had his festive sweater on for the big day :)
We always start out the gift opening by looking in our stockings to find our scrap of special wrapping paper. Rae Rae doesn’t label her gifts anymore…we all get a different wrapping paper pattern, and that’s how we know which gift belongs to which person.
Abigail was excited to find M&M’s in her stocking!
Brooklyn was her usual animated self tearing into her gifts as fast as she could. She asked for lots of books this year for Christmas…she has really turned into a big reader. She was really excited about getting the newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book and read it in between opening her gifts for the rest of the morning.
Brooklyn loved getting so many new books, but one of her favorite gifts was an over-the-door basketball goal. She couldn’t wait to get it hung in her room.
Savannah said her favorite gifts were a set of plastic soccer players with goals and a ball…
…and a Raggedy Ann type doll with “Savannah” monogrammed on the dress. (Rae Rae had gotten Abigail a doll like this one with her name on it for her birthday, and Savannah had been wanting one ever since).
Abigail was really excited about everything she opened! It took her a little while to get the hang of tearing into the wrapping paper, but she got faster as the morning went on.
She got a unicorn soccer ball that came deflated in the package and she thought it was a new helmet at first…haha.
Rae Rae always likes to give Travis a hard time since he either doesn’t make a wish list or he doesn’t put much on it, so this year she gave him some “lump of coal cookies” ;)
Brooklyn and Savannah missed their holiday shopping day at school this year because they were quarantining, so I took them to Dollar Tree later so they could do their shopping for family and friends. Abigail wanted to go shopping too, but I wasn’t sure I could manage money for all three girls at one time when they were trying to pick out things for each other too. It gets a little crazy trying to help them all at the same time. So…I convinced Abigail to just color some pictures as her “gifts” to others, and we wrapped them in Walmart bags ;)
When someone would open one of her gifts, she’d say, “You need to give me a big squeezing hug after you open it.” Haha. I thought that was cute.
Champ was exhausted by the end of it! After gift opening, the Palmer family came over for lunch, and Rob brought his girlfriend, Rachel, over later in the afternoon. It was really nice to finally meet her! Mom made a delicious supper of prime rib, mashed potatoes, green beans, slaw, and rolls for supper. It was a great day! That night, as Abigail was lying in bed waiting on Daddy to tuck her in, I heard her singing… “Baby Santa…hurry down the chimney tonight! Baby Santa…hurry down the chimney tonight!” on repeat :) You just can’t make this stuff up!
Speaking of Santa, here is what he dropped off that evening…
When Santa comes to Paw and Rae Rae’s house, the tradition is that the girls have to wait at the bottom of the steps until the grownups can get into position with cameras ready. Then, they sprint to the living room as fast as they can when we say go :)
Since Santa doesn’t wrap, it usually takes the girls a second to figure out which pile belongs to which girl…
Brooklyn was SO excited about the drone she got, and Savannah and Abigail loved their bikes! Savannah had outgrown her hand-me-down bike, and it wasn’t in good enough shape to be passed down to Abigail. Perfect timing for some new ones!
Brooklyn also got some new books and a Mosasaurus (dinosaur) that she picked out from a catalog ;) Apparently Carter has one just like it. She was especially excited about the Dog Encyclopedia!
Savannah got some books and a Star Wars toy. She seemed especially excited about the American Girl sticker book and the cat encyclopedia.
Abigail had been asking for Elsa and Rapunzel dolls, and she got those along with an Ariel doll and some drawing paper.
Proud to finally have her very own bike!
Rae Rae made pancakes for breakfast, which the girls always love.
Brooklyn and Paw played checkers after breakfast :)
Rae Rae made these reindeer shirts for the girls and one for herself, so we had to get a picture of them all together…
Abigail with her new princesses :)
Brooklyn couldn’t wait to try out her drone and flew it off and on for the rest of the day. It didn’t take her long at all to get the hang of it.
We took Savannah and Abigail out to ride their new bikes later that morning, and Abigail couldn’t figure out how to work the pedals. She kept braking instead of pushing them forward.
We all tried to help her (including Paw who set her bike up on some wooden boards to show her how to pedal it forward), but she decided she would rather just scooter instead. Just like with potty training, until she decides she wants to learn how to ride her bike, there’s no point in pushing her. I was surprised she had trouble pedaling since she has pedaled tricycles before, but I guess it’s been a while.
Savannah loves her new bike and rode it up and down the street several times. It’s a very pretty color!
Brooklyn found me by myself later that day and said, “Thank you for the drone. I was worried now that I know about Santa that I wouldn’t like him coming, but I was still excited and liked seeing what he brought” ;) She did a good job playing along, although, as her mom, I could tell the same level of excitement wasn’t there from previous years. She’s growing up!
We spent the rest of the day playing Christmas bingo and just being lazy around the house.
Savannah was excited to get out her new soccer set and start playing with it!
That evening, Rae Rae and I drove the girls around to a few houses with Christmas displays that Rae Rae wanted us to see. I especially liked this one with all of the wooden decorations…I think they may have been handmade! We had a great day together.
December 26th was a Sunday this year, so we went to church with Paw and Rae Rae before heading back to our house later that afternoon.
We really enjoyed our time at Paw and Rae Rae’s!!
Brooklyn couldn’t wait to try out her new basketball goal in her room! It has gotten a lot of use since Christmas…she plays with it just about every day.
On December 28th, Travis surprised Brooklyn by taking her to the Auburn bowl game in Birmingham. They were playing Houston at the new Protective Life stadium, and he thought it would be a great opportunity to take her to her first college football game. She was so excited, and I was happy that they could do something like that just the two of them.
I loved the sign she made :) Unfortunately, we had to tell her that they probably wouldn’t allow her to take it inside the stadium since she’d taped skewers to it…haha. But her enthusiasm is contagious!
The timing worked out perfectly because the game was at 11 AM, so they could drive down and back in the same day without getting home too late. They ended up with pretty good seats, and the weather was cloudy but pleasant and not too cold!
Brooklyn really liked watching Auburn’s marching band perform on the field.
They had a great time! (Travis even wore a blue shirt even though he threatened to wear a red one…haha). He said Brooklyn really enjoyed watching the game and did a good job paying attention. She was sad that Auburn didn’t win, but she still had a fun time. We are definitely raising little sports fans in our house. I have a feeling this won’t be the last football game they go to together!
Back at home, Savannah, Abigail, and I looked for Travis and Brooklyn on TV, but we never saw them. We also went on a bike/scooter ride around the neighborhood.
Savannah is reading so well these days! Very proud of her :)
We had Christmas at Cici’s on December 30th! Brooklyn told me beforehand that Christmas at Cici’s is one of her favorite Christmas traditions because she gets to spend all day with her cousins. So sweet.
The kids opened their gifts after we ate brunch. Cici made all 6 kids their own aprons, which was such a sweet and fun gift.
The girls all got lots of books and sticker/activity books. Abigail has really gotten into Pete the Cat lately, so I figured she would enjoy having her own Pete book instead of always having to borrow Savannah’s.
Brooklyn was excited about the Pokemon cards from the Loveless fam :)
Savannah was especially excited to get her own kids’ cookbook…Cici picked it out and found a great one!
Savannah spent a long time afterward flipping through it and looking at all the recipes. Our future baker/chef!
Abigail had been saying all month that she wanted a Star Wars book like her sisters, and she ended up getting some Star Wars easy readers today. She was very happy!
The kids spent the rest of the day playing, including outside for a while. We’ve had very mild weather all week, with many days warm enough for shorts and t-shirts.
For supper, we fixed multiple charcuterie trays ;) Cici bought enough food to feed an army…haha. It was fun preparing it…and snacking on it while we worked. We had a great day together!
The next day, December 31st, Savannah spent some time assembling a Millenium Falcon Lego kit that she got as a gift. This was her first time to put Legos together, and I was impressed by how well she did just looking at the directions and figuring out where the pieces went. She needed a little help on some parts, but she did a lot all by herself.
Notes and Quotes from December 18-31, 2021:
- 12/22/21 – We went to look at Christmas lights tonight, and there was a stretch limo ahead of us in the neighborhood. (I guess they were looking at the lights in style?). Brooklyn saw it and exclaimed, “Wow, they must have a REALLY big family!!” :)
- 12/26/21 – We were eating lunch after church at Rae Rae and Paw’s and started talking about foods we did and didn’t like. Travis asked Abigail, “Do you like lemon pepper chicken?” and she didn’t miss a beat, saying, “Of course yucky not!”
- 12/29/21 – I leaned down to kiss Abigail goodnight, and she said, “You smell like something! You smell yummy! But I’m not going to eat you.” :)
Thanks for reading!!
