Holidays 2013

Since I haven't really been blogging much aside from monthly updates on Allie, I thought I would back up a little and give the overview of my holidays this year.  Obviously this was an important Christmas, since it was Allie's first!  As per usual, Christmas was celebrated multiple times because of family schedules.  Normally my brother picks a weekend in between Thanksgiving and Christmas to come visit, and this year, we actually picked the weekend before Thanksgiving to do sort of an early Christmas get together (Confused yet?  Yeah, me too).

Our visit was fun as usual, but two little ones in the mix made for a different visit than past years.  Much more planning around naps, and less time out exploring and doing other kinds of activities.  We did a bunch of lunches out, scheduled around naps, and had all our dinners and breakfasts in.

My mom had the idea to have the girls do a cooking class at The Liberty, so we did do that, while the guys watched the babies.  It was pretty awesome to be out enjoying food, wine, and good company.

The theme of the cooking class was Thanksgiving and everything was delicious!

Most of the weekend revolved around Allie and my niece.  They were pretty cute interacting.  At one point they were sharing Puffs!  We all can't wait to see what their relationship is like as they grow up.  They are exactly a year and a half apart in age, so we all think they could be close!

One of the highlights of the weekend was when my friend Lindsay took pictures of us.  She got some great shots of everyone, including the first in this post, plus this one of the girls...

A bunch of good ones of my little family...

Our Christmas card picture!

Also some cute ones of Allie and I...

I love that Lindsay got so many cute shots of everyone!

Next up was Thanksgiving, which I spent in Hilton Head, as usual.  Last year I didn't run the Turkey Trot because I was pregnant, but this year I decided to do it, even though my running could be described as pathetic at best this past year.

I actually surprised myself and pulled out a time of slightly over 28 minutes, which isn't too far off of my PR for a 5K (a little over 27 min).  I think I tend to run 5Ks when I'm really not trained to do any other distance, so my PR is not great.  Anyway, I was glad to keep the tradition alive, but I can't say that it was one of my better races.  I've resigned to the fact that I'm just not in a place where I have time to dedicate to my once beloved hobby.  I hope eventually I'll get back to it.

The rest of the Thanksgiving weekend in Hilton Head was spent doing the usual walks, shopping, and eating.

I thought Allie would be into some of the Thanksgiving foods, but most of them were not a hit.  She did have fun though.

Fast forward to Christmas.  In early December, I met Kelly at the mall for pictures with Santa!

This is a picture of a picture, but Allie did okay.  They took four pictures, and the first three were complete deer in headlights.  This was the fourth shot, which most resembled a smile.  She melted down and started to cry in the fifth shot!

We actually did a second attempt the following weekend with less professional pictures and a smaller setting.  She did much better, but I still kind of like the first picture better.

Greg was off from Saturday, December 21st til Monday, December 23rd.  I took the 23rd and 24th off to watch Allie since daycare was closed, so we ended doing our family of three Christmas on the morning of the 23rd.

This year we set up our tree in our "formal" living room instead of the family room, because it's an area less traveled by Allie and since we have a play yard set up for her in the living room where the tree normally goes.  It worked out pretty well having it there, although I probably did kind of miss seeing the tree from the kitchen and other parts of the house since the family room is more centrally located.

Allie wore a Christmas themed outfit for the occasion.

Then settled in to opening presents.  We didn't time things very well, as she had already been up a couple hours before we started.  She did well during the stocking opening portion though, and really loved the rubber ducks she found in there (she's very into ducks right now).

We ended up taking a break and putting her down for her morning nap and then resuming things later.

Clyde enjoyed his presents too.

That rubber chicken was a hit with both kids.  Allie keeps trying to steal it.

The lamb in this picture of us was a big hit.  It tells nursery rhymes and was sent to Allie by my in-laws.

Allie is pretty fascinated with it...  It was a low-key, but nice Christmas for our little family.  Greg was gone on Christmas Day, but my parents were here and we got to do the whole thing again.

Ok, I think this is officially the longest holiday recap ever.  Anyway, I think Allie enjoyed her first holiday season.  I'm sure every year it'll get more and more exciting as she starts to understand what's going on.  Even so, it was fun to watch her experience it and it definitely made the holidays more special for me and my family having her here with us this year.

Early Christmas With My Family

For a while now, we have been celebrating Christmas early in December with my family.  My younger brother lives up in New Jersey and we find that's easier for him (especially now that he has a daughter) to travel during non-holiday weekends, and plus it allows him to spend the holidays with his wife's family, who live near them.

This year it happened really early- the very first weekend of December, which meant that only a week after Thanksgiving, Christmas was happening.  This caused a little bit of panic in me since everyone was coming to my house this year (we did it at my parent's house last year), and I had a week to get our tree up, clean the house, and make some Christmas cookies before their arrival.  Greg got crazy with house projects too- like working on our kitchen grout, installing under cabinet lighting, putting a child proof thingie on our chemical cabinet (my niece is now mobile), and putting the icicle lights on the front porch.  It all ended up going off with out a hitch though, and the visit was really fun.

The other good news was that we are way more equipped than ever before to host guests with a baby.  My niece, Avery, was able to sleep in our crib, use our crib, our convertible car seat (Greg's sister gave us one), toys that we have, our stroller, and all sorts of baby stuff.

Everyone arrived in Charlotte around lunchtime on Friday.  After briefly regrouping at the house, we decided to head to lunch.  Our weekend plan was to have lunches out and dinners at the house because it worked better with Avery's schedule.  Greg and I had recently tried out a restaurant that I actually heard about via Twitter.  It's called Local Dish.  I actually didn't take any pictures on this visit, because I was too busy chatting it up with my family, but last time we got the pimento cheese fondue, which was amazing, so we had to get an order for the table this time too.

Like many Southerners (in our case transplanted Southerners), we've become addicted to pimento cheese, and we have a hard time not ordering it when we see it on a menu.  Local Dish's is really yummy.  We think there's some garlic or something in there.  It was a hit with the table.  My mom and I split a spinach salad with chicken and the sweet potato gnocchi and both were really good.  I will say that the burger I had on my last visit, topped with MORE pimento cheese, bacon, and spinach, was also really amazing.

My brother got chicken and waffles, and the chicken was crazy delicious.  I might have to get that next time I go.  Anyway, Local Dish is on our radar as a great eatery now.  We'll definitely be back.

After lunch we headed back to the house for a bit, before venturing out again for a little holiday tree lighting happening in the area.

We heard there were pictures with Santa, and my sister-in-law really wanted to get one of Avery with Santa.  We were among the first in line and she did great- no crying or freaking out, which is more than I can say for the kids after her!

Avery liked the band music playing, so we hung out for a few minutes so she could dance around, but didn't stay for much of the festivities beyond that.  We headed home to have dinner instead.

My mom made her shrimp with pasta with Hilton Head shrimp for us shellfish eaters, and my dad and Greg split a frozen pizza.  Mom also made these cute festive little Santa hats for dessert.  You just take those round brownies you can buy at the grocery store, top with white icing, a strawberry, then a little blob of white icing on top.  So cute :)

By the end of the day we all pretty much looked like this...

Saturday morning we got up and decided to do our Christmas morning then.  My mom made waffles and I made a huge bowl of fruit.  Yum!

We all gathered in the living room and the present frenzy began.

The best part was watching Avery open presents.  I think it's true when they say Christmas is more magical around children.

I got Avery a couple outfits, a book, and these mini Ugg-like boots, which were a huge hit with my brother and sister-in-law.

My mom gave her this super cute purple fleece hat.

I got so many great things- new Asics, baby outfits, diaper bag, and our Ergo carrier.  I decided to try it out with Clyde.  He actually seemed to like it!

We all went to Cowfish for lunch.  My mom has seen me feature it on the blog a bunch of times and wanted to try it.  After my last visit, I'm hooked on the Neon Dion Roll.  I like that everything in it is cooked so I can have it while pregnant.  The tempura coconut shrimp is crazy good.

After lunch we quickly headed to meet my friend Lindsay, who is awesome and agreed to take some family pictures of all of us.  My mom really wanted some good family pictures. We don't have a lot of all of us other than at weddings.  Check out her work...

They came out so great!  Lindsay is really talented.  My mom is planning to use one for a Christmas card this year.

Saturday night we kept it low key and order pizza for dinner- a veggies and a pepperoni.

Sunday, unfortunately, Greg, my mom, and my Dad all got kind of sick with some kind of stomach bug or something.  Luckily, Mark, Ashley, Avery, and I didn't get it, but it was still a major downer in our weekend.  I can't figure out how they got it, because I pretty much ate all the same things they at the day before, so I don't think it was food poisoning.  It must of been some germ they picked up somewhere.

The non-sick kids stayed close to home, but went on a lot of walks and checked out the local playground.

  

We also went to lunch at a local pub to get out of the house a little.

Clyde provided Avery with a good deal of entertainment in the afternoon.  They played fetch for a while, and she laughed hysterically.

Around dinner time, the crew decided they felt a lot better and were up for cooking up a holiday feast.  We made a filet of beef, green beans, mac and cheese, and butternut squash/leek/apple gratin.

 
It was a delicious end to a great weekend with my family.  Next year should be even more exciting with our little girl in the mix!