Christmas at Bee Gee and Papa's

Christmas at Gigi and Grandy's

Pictures from Christmas at Mimi and Papa's

Christmas Morning

Christmas at Mimi and Papa's

Pictures will be added later. :)

Making cookies for Santa

On Christmas Eve, Carlysle and I made cookies to leave for Santa. I intended it to be a fun activity filled with excitement, laughter and eventually beautifully decorated cookies. However, that is not what happened. Our Christmas Eve service lasted waaaay longer than we anticipated. So Carlysle was in the nursery for almost two hours and not happy about it. We didn't think they would have childcare so we pumped her up all day about how she would get to sit in "Big Church" with Mommy and Daddy. When we got to church we found out they had someone in the nursery so being the horrible parents she apparently now thinks we are, we left her there with a creepy monster who then placed her in a pot of boiling water. Actually, it was a very nice lady, who handled the task of peeling Carlysle off of me limb by limb, very well.

After church we did not have time to go have dinner like we intended to do so we ended up at the McDonalds drive-thru along with the rest of Lexington. I should mention this McDonalds is brand new and clearly has not yet set a good "system" of moving people through quickly. We spent 30 minutes waiting in the drive thru line. Needless to say, by the time we arrived home, it was way past Carlysle's bedtime and we were 3 very grouchy people but I did not want to skip the cookie making. So my idea of fun and laughter was replaced with, "No Carlysle, you can't have the sprinkles yet", "Carlysle, you just pressed the snowman cookie cutter on top of the stocking cookie", "Carlysle, please stop pressing the cookie cutter on the already cut out cookies", "Carlysle, put the sprinkles down", "Carlysle, do you remember that I just asked you not to press the......Carlysle stop......Carlysle are you listening.....one more time and........Ok you're going to bed". Nope, not how I planned but the cookies were made and nobody got hurt!

We managed to get a few pictures before she got sassy and I got impatient.

Carlysle's Santa

Ok, here's why Carlysle is officially spoiled when it comes to Christmas. Somehow, we kept forgetting about things we bought for her. I guess because I wrapped her packages and then hid or shoved them under the tree with all the other gifts. As Joey and I started putting out her "Santa" stuff, we realized we may have gone a little overboard. Ooops! Hopefully she won't remember next year. :) But we had a lot fun setting everything up!

Lights and Presents with the Guytons

We went to the Holiday Lights at Saluda Shoals with Kyle, Sara, Gavin and Madison. The lights were incredible and the kids loved them! We also got to ride a train through part of the lights which Gavin REALLY enjoyed. After the train ride, we attempted to get the kids pictures made with Santa. Unfortunately, Carlysle and Madison wanted nothing to do with the man in the big red suit. Carlysle did however snag a candy cane from him while she wailed and refused to sit in his lap. Maybe next year.

We went to Chick-fila for dinner before the lights....yummy!

After the lights, we did our gift exchange.

Swofford Christmas

We had the Swofford Christmas in Charlotte at my aunt Sharon's house. We had a great time visiting with family that we don't get to see very often. Right now Carlysle and Tucker are the only little ones but two more are on the way!

Carlysle and Uncle Robbie

Mana with Carlysle and Tucker