Christmas... on the road

Ok, let me start by saying this post is rather long as it includes the story and lots of photos from our trips to Cullman and Atlanta for Christmas.

Brock and I decided to be the "visitors' this Christmas and travel to visit each of our families. So we loaded up the SUV with two kids, one dog, eight Christmas movies and lots of snacks and juice boxes. The luggage and all of the presents went in the box trailer (a must when traveling with two kids and one dog, whose crate takes up the entire third row seating). We left Florida on Tuesday afternoon (after Audrey finished school) with temperatures at a very pleasant 85 degrees! We drove to Birmingham to stay the night at my brother's apartment and arrived around 2:30 (yes, that is AM) to temperatures right around 36 degrees or so! Freezing!!! I was ribbed about my lack of tolerance to the cold temps because we had lived in Colorado and were used to much colder temperatures, but as I said to my brother, "That was FIVE years ago! We are Florida people now!" My teeth did not stop chattering even though I was clenching my teeth together as tight as humanly possible. It probably didn't help that I failed to pack a 'heavy' winter coat but I honestly thought the coat that I packed would be sufficient. Well, I was wrong! We unloaded the necessities and went to bed thankful for the warm accommodations.

McWane Center with PawPaw and Grandma Becky

The next morning we met my dad and stepmom for breakfast before visiting the McWane Center in Birmingham. The hands-on children's museum had just opened right before we moved to Colorado, but we did not have the opportunity to visit before our move. It is a very cool place. The girls loved it. There was something for all ages. We spent the entire day there and saw every single exhibit. It was really fun to see my dad "playing" at the exhibits with the girls. He is a great PawPaw! They had a hard time choosing one, so Audrey's two favorite exhibits were Vulcan's Dream Machine and the High Cycle and Claire's two favorite exhibits were the Dig Pit (archeological dig site) and Just Mice Size, especially the water part. They loved every exhibit and had great day! Here are some photos from the day...

The Virtual Tornado with Mom

And again with Grandma Becky

Audrey and the Bed of Nails

They built the arc...

...then tore it down!

PawPaw "playing" at the Pin Wall

I have some video that I will add to the post soon.

Christmas with the Schuman family

The next day the girls and I went with my mom to have our nails done - it seems this is becoming a tradition as we usually do this when we come to visit. Audrey wanted red fingernails and green toenails (very much the Christmas spirit) so that's what she got. I have to admit that the colors were a bit darker than I prefer on an 8-year-old, but the white dots that we added to each nail toned down the "darkness" and was super cute so Claire and I followed suit with the white dots. It was very festive and as I said before, very much the Christmas spirit! You can see glimpses of the nails in some of the photos below.

That evening we celebrated Christmas with my mom (Gramma), my dad (Pops), my brothers and their significant others. It was fun and crazy all at the same time. The girls were the center of attention and they ate it up! Below are some photos from the night...

Photos by Brock! :)

Claire is excited... Presents are FUN!!!

Wrapping Ripping by the Pro

Monsters vs Aliens... Yeah!!!

Do you think she is excited? Oh yeah! This was the first thing on her list after the iPod!

You can see Audrey's nails in this shot... Cute and Festive!

Helping Gramma

Helping Pops

Something was quite funny...

On Friday, we visited with my Aunt Roxie, who just turned 93! She is in good health and is still as funny and charismatic as I remember from my childhood. The girls really liked our visit with her. Audrey was disappointed that she wasn't able to play the piano for Aunt Roxie because there was a Christmas party going on in the dining hall where the piano is located. But she promised Aunt Roxie that she would play all of her compositions for her this summer when we come for our visit.

Audrey & Aunt Roxie

Aunt Roxie with Audrey & Claire

That evening we had our Schuman Christmas at my Grandma Schuman's (or "Great" as the great-grandchildren call her). It was a lot of fun to visit with family and enjoy Great's traditional spaghetti/lasagna Christmas dinner. She always said that people are tired of turkey and ham by the time you have eaten so many family dinners and everyone likes spaghetti. Well, she's right and I love it every time! My cousin, Carmen, her husband and daughter were there too. So there were three little kids running all around the house. It was almost like looking into a portal to another time when Carmen and I were that age playing at Great's house. All in all, the night was full of family and good food... it doesn't get much better than that!

Christmas with the Parker family

The next day we visited with my dad's family at my Grandmother Parker's, but not before the girls got to meet Howie, one of my dad's goats. He bought a female goat back in the summer and Audrey and Claire got to pick out her name. They went with "Madamoiselle" but they wanted to call her "Maddie" for short. I thought it was a very cute name and my dad did too. So Maddie had two kids, one of which is Howie.

Meeting Howie

Holding Howie

Then it was off to Grandmother's house...

Audrey and Claire with Grandmother Parker

We visited with most of my dad's family and got to meet Carson, my cousin Jennifer's new baby boy. He was so sweet and cuddly and simply perfect. I have to admit that he smelled heavenly. My grandmother said if they still smelled good to me then I might not be finished, but trust me, we are done! Two perfect angels makes our family complete! Anyway... We visited and ate another great meal of fabulous barbecue with all of the fixings.... then it was time for presents...

Audrey got a new keyboard!

She has the piano at home but this will go in her room where she can practice with headphones when things need to quiet.

Claire's Dress Up costumes and trunk

Princess Claire

Dad opening his autographed book by Glenn Beck

After a day of fun with family, we loaded up everything and headed east to Atlanta.

Christmas with the Ballard family

We arrived in Atlanta just in time for another family dinner... at this rate we have probably gained at least ten pounds each, but Christmas calories don't count, do they? LOL... So we had our traditional Christmas dinner with Brock's family including his grandparents (Grandmother and Papa). Claire is the youngest grandchild on that side of the family so she likes to show everyone that she is big (not a "baby"). Well, she did just that. Barbara (my sister-in-law) was stuffing the celery slices with cream cheese mixtures (one is with olives and the other is with marichino cherries) Claire, proving her "bigness", wanted to help. She did a great job for an almost-four-year-old.

Helping with the cherries and cream cheese

We enjoyed the amazing meal and then Grandmother played the piano for everyone. This is always a treat as she is very talented! At 91 and 90, she and Papa are in good health and even better spirits. Audrey played a few of her own compositions for Grandmother and then Grandmother played Audrey a few songs on her new keyboard.

Before they left, we got a photo of all of the great-grandchildren with Grandmother and Papa.

L to R: Sarah (5), T.J. (11), Papa (90), Claire (4), Grandmother (91), Audrey (8) and Lucy (8)

Early in the evening, carolers from the neighborhood came by and sang songs for us. They invited Audrey and Lucy to go with them for the last few houses. Audrey was very excited about this since she was supposed to go caroling with her friends in Florida but couldn't due to our travel plans. The big girls bundled up and joined the carolers. They returned with hot cocoa and cookies and huge smiles on their faces. Audrey said she had the best time! Later that evening, it was present time! With five grandchildren who are all fully capable of opening presents on their own, present time becomes quite chaotic. It is fun but proves quite challenging to capture the moments on film as everyone is opening toys and paper and bows are flying everywhere. Here are the photos that were captured...

Art Supplies... for our budding artists

A camping set is perfect for our camping family

Claire got new luggage... with her name and a BUNNY on it! Perfect!!!

We had a great night and then we went to my in-laws' lake house for a few days which was very nice. It is a peaceful location on Lake Lanier. With a raging fire in the fireplace (thanks to my brother-in-law, Bill), everyone was warm and cozy and we all had a great time!

We left Atlanta on Wednesday, the 23rd, for our drive back to Florida! It was a long day but it was wonderful to be back home in time to get ready for Santa!