They Saw Mommy Kissing Santa...

And boy, did they tell us about it!

Saturday was Jake's preschool Christmas program. The class did a GREAT job, and we were all so proud. Our class rocks!

My videos won't upload but as soon as they do, I'll be happy to share. :-)

A Christmas to "Shout" About!

As I mentioned here, we celebrated Christmas with our Shout church family last Sunday.

When the "family" was a bit smaller (circa 2006-2008), we were able to purchase presents for all the kids, but as we quickly multiplied (hey, doesn't the bible say go forth and be fruitful and multiply? :-)), we quickly realized that our bank accounts were not multiplying at the same rate as our offspring.

So, last year we decided to do the Secret Santa name exchange with the kids, and it worked well so we did a repeat.

The kids had a great time at our party, and with two kids' bedrooms, a playroom, and toys in our house ranging from age 1-10, we pretty much had every kid entertained (and sequestered upstairs- holla!).

We enjoyed a great lunch of baked spaghetti, salad, garlic cheese bread from Great Harvest (yum), and an Oreo cream cheese dessert (double yum!).

Truly a fabulous time of fellowship and fun with our church family.






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It's a Carolina Christmas!

This is most definitely not the first time we have discussed my Carolina Girls. They are also mentioned here and here and probably a dozen more places on this blog, but you get the idea.

This year, we had a genius plan. A rented clubhouse + all the kids together for some of the time + babysitters for the evening + a catered dinner + fabulous presents + a hilarious new game = One of the greatest nights ever!

At, surprisingly, a very affordable price.

We started the day with lunch at an apartment complex clubhouse. We were able to rent the Clubhouse for $50 for the day. Perfect and no one had to stress about cleaning/decorating their house. We are in Pinterest-avoidance mode.

The kids were able to run around freely, play with each other, eat a picnic lunch on a tablecloth, and even do crafts!



The Nativity Gingerbread Houses by Aunt Loryn were a hit with everyone!







We had an electronic Secret Santa name generator email us names in November, and that afternoon, we had the kids do a gift exchange.


We broke up the kids' party around nap time (they pretty much let US know when they were done with the party). We cleaned up lunch and snacks and all headed home for quick rests and to drop the kids off at their various babysitters.

Then, Chad and I picked up our Italian take-out, and we all met up again for a very yummy dinner of baked ziti, chicken parm, salad, and bread (that no one had cook- holla!).

We also did a gift exchange at our adult party. Each girl purchases 5 gifts- the same 5 gifts- but something(s) (valued around $5) that they consider their "favorite thing(s)" for the year (a la Oprah). The guys do the same thing in their group. Then we take turns "presenting" and all get to go home with fabulous gifts! It's super fun!

And of course we took our requisite girl pic.
And attempted a group picture.

I swear taking one of the 9 kids was easier.

We ended the night playing "Cards Against Humanity." It's very similar to Apples to Apples.

But more PG13/R rated.

My question for these cards: "Years down the road when currency is no longer the same, how will people pay for goods and services?"

My two favorite answers (and pretty much the only two cards suitable to post on this blog):

I'm already in post-party withdrawal. I need to see these people again soon but 6 families' schedules are hard to organize.

We are already planning a summer time "group birthday party" for all the kids. :-)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...and my apologies for the most un-creative blog title ever. I think I've documented about 6 holiday seasons on this blog. Not a tremendous amount but enough that I just don't have enough creativity to spruce up "loading the family up in coats and driving 3 minutes down the road to snag a tree."

(And Kristie, don't feel bad. We've done the Lowes Christmas tree a few different times. Sometimes you just gotta do it.)

This year, as I mentioned, we did a step "up" from Lowes and did the tree lot down the road on the side of Wendover Ave. Quality stuff. Fabulous memories.




Christmas had to happen fast in our house because we hosted a party the first weekend in December. The kids were a great help, and I gave them free range for two days with the ornaments.




Then on the evening of the 3rd day, I rearranged them all to my liking and they were all none the wiser.

Tis the season for mama's Type A to rear its head.

Little Pookie's birthday wrap up

Though we did celebrate Jake's birthday while we were in Disney, I just KNEW that I would get the "crappy mom award" if I tried to pass all that off as "the" birthday party. 1st birthday? yes. 2nd? sure. 3rd? possibly. 4th? Not a chance. These kids talk.

So, we planned a birthday party for Jake at the Children's Museum for the Friday we got back. We invited our church family, his "Carolina Cousins" and just a few friends from school to make a nice manageable group. Having just come back from our vacation, it was all I could do to muster up the energy to walk into Walmart and buy a cake.

But, Jake had a great time, I got "good mommy points," and all is well.



Jake is all about Monsters, Inc. these days...a great 2001 classic. It was so nice of Pixar to come out with the pre-quel this year so I could get this cute Monsters U cake for the party.

Target, however, is on my s---- list because they decided to not have ANYTHING Monsters U party related until the week AFTER the party. Jeez.

This was baby Claire's first trip to the museum and her first cousin birthday.
She loved the celery.


Our annual Big Red Chair Family Picture...

Cousins!



Thanks to my mom I actually got some pictures of Jake playing since I was a bit tied up in the party room. :-)


Carolina Cousins unite!