So Much Fun!

We had an awesome holiday spending time together on a farm for our Christmas celebration with my mom's side of the family.  We played "Dirty Santa," sat by the outdoor fire, and went to an amazing lights show at Callaway Gardens (ALL of us)!  Leaving time came too soon, but we did manage to get a family picture and we even got one of our little family (which is really hard to get these days). 

Before Christmas we found time to make gingerbread houses with So So and the Nashville cousin! 

Christmas day was wonderful.  Present opening time was really fun this year since the kids could read the boxes to know what was in it and really be excited that Santa "remembered."  They loved their gifts, but also really enjoyed the days off of school (and us working) to play with toys new and old (Lance's grandfather made blocks for his children and eventually Lance and his brothers to play with and they were passed down to the kids this year and they played with them nonstop)!  We had a blast at So So's on Christmas Eve and with more of Lance's family on Christmas Day.  Despite suffering a real loss this year and really missing Ray Ray, this holiday was certainly one to be remembered - so fun and not even done!  This week we go to Gatlinburg (and our first visit to Dollywood) to spend some time with my Dad and family.  Should be even more fun times! 

Our other big, exciting happening in December was Tyler's loose tooth finally falling out.  Since then he has lost another and has yet another loose one, but that top one held on for a while and it was pretty big news when he could finally wait for a visit from the Tooth Fairy! 

We are waiting for them to finally go to sleep (yes, it IS almost 11:00 - hopefully we can get back on a schedule once school starts - even though we do make them go to bed at a reasonable hour, unfortunately can't make them go to sleep) so we can make sure the Tooth Fairy visits again tonight.

We decided against letting Katie join the gymnastics "pre-team" she was invited to - just too much commitment at this point.  Basketball starts soon and soccer will follow right behind that and we will see if she has any interest in anything other than gymnastics before we let it take up so much of our time and attention.  Competitive gymnastics can be very expensive and time consuming and we aren't opposed to it eventually if it is what she loves, but for now we think she should be exposed to other things in case she likes them more.  They both really loved the basketball camps they did over break and we would love to have a basketball goal at our house for them to play on - which was just one teeny, tiny reason we also made an offer on a house today - eek!    We were really nervous earlier in the day just after the offer was submitted but since we haven't heard back at all (it is for sale by owner before going on the market) we are thinking it isn't good news.  He had multiple people interested in the house and even though it is a great house for us and the first one to prompt us to make an offer since buying this one 7 years ago, we know that if it doesn't work out we are fine right where we are, too!  We really do like our house and neighborhood, but there were so many pluses in favor of this one for what we want and where we would like to be when the kids get older, that we had to give it a go.  If it doesn't work out I will probably be very glad that we don't have to keep the house in shape to show with two royal mess-makers, not to mention the hassle of packing and moving, and new school districts, etc., etc....