Merry Christmas 2025!

We had a fabulous Christmas celebrating with Grammy, Gran Gran, Gia and Aunt Wyllene!  Not every day that we get the whole crew together for the holiday, but it meant so much to us and the kiddos.

But before the 25th, we had a wonderful Christmas Eve, celebrating with our church family, our Ford family and Santa. :)

Christmas morning came early, with three kiddos racing down the stairs to find electric scooters (JB and M) and a bigger dirtbike (W).  So much fun!

We had a nice spread for lunch and enjoyed so much time catching up and playing outside.  The weather was perfect - really warm, even for Coastal Georgia.

Guess what - none of the grandparents got sick this year!! (The past few years the grandparents have had covid, stomach bugs, and all the things.)  BUT, we did lose a few of the children to the cold (JB, on Christmas Eve) and flu (Maryn, day after Christmas).  Thankfully everyone was feeling their best on actual Christmas day.

For unto us a Child is born.... Merry Christmas!

Our Advent Season

Throughout December I participated in a lovely Advent study with some wonderful, Godly women, and we sought to quiet our hearts - in this busy, busy season - in anticipation of the Christ child and reflect on what He means for our lives and our world.  I'm so thankful for that underlying calm this season, as we celebrated and traveled and ate with family and friends nearly every weekend of December.  It kept me balanced!

We started off the season with our annual book club Christmas dinners (with husbands!)  Since the Clubhouse is under renovation, we hosted it at our house. And how much fun that was!  I love a good house party! (Especially when we decide to cater and I don't have to do anything to cook and clean up.)

Our dear friends invited us to Elizabeth's annual caroling dinner, and what a treat!  I hope this becomes an annual tradition because the wine, the food, the caroling - all so wonderful!  But nothing beat the company :)  we had so much fun and laughed so much.

Maryn is in her first year of chorus and loves it. They did a lovely Christmas concert during the Arts night at Carver.

Another dear friend (we are blessed with so many!!) celebrated the big 4-0, and we took a quick weekend trip on Royal Caribbean's Utopia.  We don't have much by way of comparison (this was James' and my first cruise), but we had a blast!  Again, top notch companions made the trip.

We made in home in time for our J.A.M. Christmas concert and the school Christmas parties!  Then they released these kiddos to us for a full 2 weeks and 2 days!

James and I took JB and his friend, Eli, to see the Savannah Philharmonic's tribute to John Williams.  I cannot say enough about the fantastic show.  It made you want to go back and watch all these iconic movies!  And definitely look at season tickets to the Philharmonic.

Aunt Shawntel sent her annual Nutcrackers (which I failed to get a picture of, but they are SUPER cute HEB nutcrackers) and Snowflake sent his annual Christmas PJs. Which we lounged in quite a bit over the season. 

I know there were so many other things leading up to Christmas, with dinners and parties and such. But it just seems that I have a million pictures of the dogs to close out the month!  So...that is how I'll close out the post.  The doggos had a fabulous December :)

Other than poor Tessa, who had her spay surgery right before we left for Christmas with the Atlanta Sassers at the Farm. She didn't have the best December, but Santa made up for it with extra treats.

Almost Christmas.... :)

Long lay the world in sin and error pining
'Til He appeared, and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

November - you were FAST

Good grief, November went by fast. I had to actually look at pictures to remember what all happened!  And this was even with a later Thanksgiving, which closed out the month.  

Of course, we spent a lot of time at the Farm, and all the kiddos (and James) spent a lot of time in the deer stand.  No monsters this year, but Wesley did get back his nice buck from last year (which is now in his room!)

After closing out the tennis season with a Regional win, JB attended his first sports banquet!

We did forgo hunting one Saturday so that I could attend my favorite Ford event: the Wild West Party!

Lots of things happened at school, and I always took advantage of being there when I could.  We had lunch week AND PE week!  Plus, since tennis season ended, JB is now helping me with the preschoolers at J.A.M. (Jesus and Me) - and I love it!

Speaking of little loves, Wesley and I have a breakfast date every Tuesday morning after dropping his sister off early for chorus practice. It's one of the highlights of my week. He is the absolute sweetest thing, who loves his hot chocolate with a splash of coffee.

On one (warm) Saturday afternoon, our Naturalist and her biologist husband caught and tagged an alligator in our backyard. While it wasn't the BIG one they are trying to tag (and discourage from getting onto our dock, where he/she likes to hang out), the smaller one allowed the kids to do a lot of hands-on learning. 

It's a girl!

The SEC Volleyball Championship took place in Savannah the weekend before Thanksgiving, and we got to take in TWO Texas matches - including a big semi-final match against Texas A&M.  Happy to say that Texas won both of them, and we got to sing Texas Fight and The Eyes of Texas to our hearts' content.  

We wrapped up the month with a wonderfully warm and active Thanksgiving down at the Farm. First, we had our annual neighbor brunch (with two families who will always be our neighbors, no matter where we live!

And then we celebrated actual Thanksgiving Day with the Atlanta Sassers. I failed to get too many pics - other than this wonderful picture of Gia with her grandkids that she used for her Christmas card!  (I also got a few candids while we were looking for the best lighting for the Christmas card pictures.  Such cuties.)

Not shown: I also fully decorated our house for Christmas the week before Thanksgiving (which I never do) in order to prep for the kick-off of the Christmas season with a Christmas party at our house on November 30th. But I'll save that for the holiday post. :)