Year-End Summary Via Headers

Here is a summary of our year (including last December) in header form . . .









2010 has been quite a memorable year. Here's to a happy & healthy 2011!

A Visit to NASA

Post Christmas, we drove down to Florida for a quick visit with Mimi and Papa . . .

With Hayes's current interest in space, we decided to seize the moment and take all three kids and Papa to visit the Kennedy Space Center up in Cape Canaveral for the day. We've always wondered whether or not our kids were old enough to appreciate the Space Center, but this first time proved to be the charm.

We started off seeing an incredible 3-D IMAX movie about the Hubble telescope. The movie was good enough that it even kept Ben's attention for 35 minutes out of its 45 minute length! We then saw replicas of many of the former rockets of the space program as well as a life-sized version of the Space Shuttleand its external tank engine and solid rocket boosters. I also had to treat the kids to some freeze-dried, astronaut ice cream, one of my few childhood memories from past visits to NASA. Eleanor chose a Neapolitan flavor and gave it a thumbs-up while Hayes and Ben selected Cookies-n-Cream and gave it mixed reviews.

All in all, it was a worthwhile visit, and one that we might have to make again a few years down the road.

White Christmas

Who would have thought that we would have the first white Christmas in Atlanta since 1882? We knew that snow was in the forecast for Christmas Day, and we kept our fingers crossed that the forecast, for once, would be correct. So throughout the day, I kept one eye on the radar while we celebrated Christmas Day . . .

On Christmas Eve, we gave Eleanor and Hayes specific Christmas morning instructions. They were not to come downstairs until we came up to get them at 7am. We could hear their footsteps above our room shortly after 6am, but they adhered to our instructions and remained upstairs until Thomas went up to meet them at 7:00. Thomas then woke up Ben before the four of them all came racing downstairs to see what Santa had left at our house. After we went through Santa's gifts, Daddy made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, grits and toast before we then moved on to opening presents.


Beginning in the early afternoon, the snow finally started to fall, and it continued intermittently for the next 24 hours or so. Since we live close to downtown, our house only got a nice dusting (actually taken on Dec. 26th). Grandmommy and Granddaddy's house, where we headed Christmas afternoon, saw a couple of inches hit the ground when it was all said and done. Once the kids all finally agreed that it was too cold to stay outside, they came inside to exchange gifts with their Carroll cousins.
As the snow continued to fall outside into the night, we stayed warm inside, enjoying the company of family as we all gathered to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus many, many years ago.

Christmas Eve

We had been counting down to this day over the entire month of December. . . Christmas Eve was finally here! We had Grandmommy and Granddaddy as well as Uncle Michael, Aunt Ivy, Cate and Everly over for a quick dinner before we ran to church for the 6:00 family service. This year, as with last year, Eleanor and Hayes both had roles in the church's nativity. For the third year in a row, Eleanor was an angel. I said a quiet "Praise the Lord" when Hayes learned that he would not be a barnyard animal again this year because he had been promoted to a shepherd. (I am fairly certain that if Hayes had been assigned the role of "cow" or "pig" this year, he'd revolt.) We even felt comfortable enough to have Ben join us for the service. I must admit that he was mesmerized. Hayes did an excellent job of consciously hiding from my camera during the service but I know that he fulfilled his role with pride. Eleanor did a great job of reciting her "Glory to God in the Highest . . . " lines. It is hard not to be moved during the candlelight part of the service, especially when you glimpse moments like this. After the service, we captured a few, quick family shots before moving on . . .
One of our final Christmas Eve traditions is for the kids to each open up one present, usually some new pajamas. Here they are post-present-opening as we begin to try to wind them down for the night. Until tomorrow . . .

Ted's Last Night

Poor Elf Ted! I think he must have been going a little crazy after spending the entire month of December in our household. The kids woke up to find their Christmas tree decorated a little differently than it had been just the day before, as this morning it had Eleanor's and Hayes's underwear and Ben's diapers hanging on its branches. They did get some good laughs due to Ted's antics this month, and we will miss him. Hopefully, he will find his way back to our house next December 1. Merry Christmas, Ted! Give Santa our best -

Eleanor's Christmas Recipe

Eleanor brought home this Christmas recipe on the last day of school this month as her gift to us. Her teacher told the class to make up ingredients and then create directions for how to mix the ingredients together. This recipe is what E produced. I think it is a cute creative writing assignment, especially given the amount of activity our kitchen has had this holiday season!

Preschool Ornaments

Every Christmas, the Preschool gives each child a Christmas ornament with their photo incorporated into the design. Past years' ornaments that we have hanging on the tree include the following:


This year, with only one child remaining at the Preschool, we added this ornament to our Preschool collection: