Each year my college roommate and sorority sister, Alicia, hosts a gingerbread house building party. Unfortunately we were only able to stop by for about 30 minutes this year as we had to head out for Max's school holiday concert. We wanted to take a photo of the boys and they struck this pose, so of course the moms followed suit! (Side note: I'm feeling incredibly old in realizing Alicia and I have known each other for almost 20 years! How in the world did that happen....)
Max got really in to drawing portraits one day!
Dressed up for the Christmas Eve service at church!
Letter to Santa
Max wrote out his "to do" list on the board and I snapped this photo to remember the sweet "P.S." message at the bottom!
Max and I have a tradition of going to Waffle House for breakfast (and sitting at the counter) then going to shop for Daddy's Christmas gift. We both love it, and I look forward to it all year!
After Waffle House we went to the Home Depot Kids Workshop and made a Christmas countdown craft.
Santa!
We went to see "Elf" the musical at a local high school and Max was pumped to sit between his cousin Olivia and her boyfriend Austin.
While his face doesn't show it here, Max was really excited to meet Buddy the Elf after the show. The kid who played Buddy did a GREAT job talking to the kids and stayed in character the whole time.
Working on holiday gift crafts for all the pets in our extended family!
Snapshots of the holiday concert at school. Max is on the front row in a green reindeer sweater.
Cub Scouts hosted a "Sock Wars" event. Each scout had to bring 10-12 pairs of mens socks balled up, and then they had competitions throwing the socks back and forth. At the end of the event all the socks were collected and donated to a homeless shelter. They even had a "parents vs. kids" round which was a blast. Good fun (aka - total chaos!) and a good way to give back!
Grammie sent paper Star Wars figures in the mail that Max and Ben had fun building. We ended up packing them away with our Christmas decor so we can use them on our mantle each year!
Christmas party with the Winiarski's and Kruger's! Max, Saskia, and Abby (the dog) sure do like each other!
Baking homemade chocolate chip cookies for Santa!
Handsome guys ready for Christmas Eve at church!
Max took this photo - he did a nice job!
He also wanted to take a photo of us holding the Christmas gifts he gave us! :-)
Pretending to be a Christmas present!
Santa came!
Since Max's room is upstairs and he can see the tree / gifts when he comes out of his room, Santa leaves a note and a bell in his room when he delivers gifts on Christmas Eve. At the end of the letter there are instructions to ring the bell loudly and yell, "Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad!" This give us a chance to wake-up, get lights turned on, camera ready, etc. before comes downstairs.
Excited to check out gifts from Santa, mom and Dad, and our gifts from New England relatives!
Max got the "big" gift he wanted from Mom and Dad - a skateboard!!
We headed to Grammie's house mid-morning and spent the afternoon celebrating with Grammie, Erich, and Heather.
It ended up being a relatively warm day, so we were able to play outside.
After Chattanooga it was over to Hiawassee to celebrate Christmas with the Lilly's and Hedges' the next day.
Max has his first pinewood derby for Cub Scouts coming up, so Grandaddy (an Eagle Scout), John (a talented woodworker), Ben, and Max all worked on the car.
Max made Christmas ornaments for all the pets!
Max had fun playing with Olivia's dog Ivey, and Austin's dog Piper (also a German Shepherd).
Max ADORES Austin. :-)
Annual photo of Max putting the star on our tree!
On a wintery walk with Dad!
Santa! Max was more excited than he appears. Haha
Mom and Dad made the good list, too!
Our annual tradition of going to little, quiet Chinese restaurant after the Christmas Eve service at church. We always sit in the same booth and order the same food!
Ignore the squinty 5:30AM faces... :-) Sweet boy picked out a knife sharpener for my gift because he's heard me mention I need one, and knows I love to cook!
Max picked out a running shirt, salsa, and M&Ms for Dad, because those are all things he enjoys!
Ben saved his Star Wars action figures from his own childhood and gave them to Max for Christmas. Max was excited to get it, and there have already been some battles!
Birthday party for Jesus on Christmas morning! Max blew out the candle for him. ;-)
Celebrating Christmas with the Kruger's and Winiarski's!
We started playing a game with the kids called "Headbanz," and after a while we realized all the kids had left to go play elsewhere and the adults were still sitting at the table playing. Haha! We had fun!
Outtake while Walter was trying to get the camera tripod and timer set-up. :-)
