Jake's Last Preschool Christmas Show

Saturday, December 13, Jake had his very last preschool Christmas performance. We have been attending these shows since our Goddaughter, Allie, was about 3 so it was kinda sad to say goodbye to the old "VK Christmas," but exciting because it means we are one step closer to saying hello to "daycare financial freedom." :-)

Jake's whole class did great. We were so proud of them all. But, not surprisingly, Jake loved the stafe and loved playing to the audience.

 

He's into it, I tell ya...

"Mom and Dad, I want a Jack-in-the-box for Christmas!"

A Shout Family Christmas!

Our kids were totally spoiled with "cousins" and Christmas fun last weekend. After the Carolina Christmas, the next day on Sunday the 14th, we celebrated with our Shout church family. 11 kids in this group, too. :-)



It's fun to see how they have changed in 365 days...
(Though sorry, Madelyn. My staircase apparantly makes you cry.)

"Smile if you want a present!"

Complete chaos but we love every minute of it...
I'll say it again...I pity the youth leaders in charge of this group of crazy kids in a few years. :-)

The 15th Annual Carolina Christmas!

After Jake's rather entertaining Christmas performance (pics and video coming soon), we headed to celebrate Christmas with the "Carolina Cousins."

It's so sweet seeing all our kids play together and see how much they have grown each year...and how many more kids we add each year. :-)


11 kids this year...and all future Tarheels for sure! :-)
While I was a bit disappointed in the Harris Teeter baker's penmanship, we got the point across to the kids about the reason for the season.
And McKenzie planned this cute craft where the kids decorated ice cream cones as Christmas trees.

Later that night, we all dispersed our kids to various grandparents and headed over to Loryn's house for some adult time.
And my "adult time" involved caramel vodka, pumpkin beer, and caramel sauce.

It was a wonderful night of fabulous food, playing "guess that 90's song intro," gifting our "Favorite Things" of the year, and just laughing and being together.
While 2014 has not been an easy year for several of us, there were some that experienced great joy and celebration. We continue to pray for each other, love on each other, cry with each other, and cheer for each other. I cherish this group of friends- my Carolina girls and their hubbys- and thank God for 15 Christmas's with this family.

A cold day at the beach is way better than a cold day at home...

Sometime around September/October I started thinking about getting out of town. I knew the holidays were right around the corner, and I knew they would be tough and probably a bit overwhelming. So, I talked to my parents and my in-laws and asked them if they all wanted to escape to the beach for the weekend. My mom and I checked out some vacation rentals by owner and found a cute oceanfront duplex that was definitely affordable in December.

So, on Friday, December 5, we loaded up the family, a fair amount of stuff, a Gramma and a niece, and drove to Carolina Beach.


Sadly, my parents arrived Friday night, received the call about my grandmother's deteriorating health on the way down, and then left again Saturday morning after breakfast. We were so sad to see them go but knew that was where they needed to be.

Saturday morning after breakfast, the kids had some good beach time outside. The weather was mild- maybe 60 degrees and overcast.






Drew caught a sting ray...maybe about 25 pounds and unbelievable to see out on the beach. And it took two grown men to send it back home.




Then he caught a puffer/blow fish. Completely filled with water when it came out and then deflated itself. Pretty neat to see.






And while Uncle Drew's catches were quite entertaining, we did take a trip down to the Ft. Fisher Aquarium that afternoon to see more sea life.

On the way, Chad and I showed the kids where we used to take trips as youth with the church youth group. We were very nostalgic...the kids were not impressed. :-)



The aquarium was neat. Kinda small, but big enough for the kids. Jake loved this three month old sea turtle.


And Chad and Molly loved the touch tank.


I loved the seahorse.


And all the kids loved the outdoor playground.




We left the aquarium and stopped by a donut shop that was recommended to me by a friend. Wake-n-Bake Donuts was AMAZING.


So many choices to take home, but this Snickers Bar donut had to be eaten immediately.


Those donuts went quite well with our homemade Gramma fried chicken Saturday night.




My samplings...just a bunch of deliciousness right there.


The cousins had a great time together. Claire is growing up so fast and just gets a kick out of chasing after Jake and Brooklyn. They are all so sweet to each other and I love how they get to spend this time together.


Oh, and I cannot forget to talk about the house's elevator. Drew and Brooklyn LOVED it.


I think I am all on board for making this an annual get-a-way.



Thanks, Carolina Beach, for a fun weekend. Though Jake was very sad that you did not have a slushie cart on the beach Saturday morning, we did enjoy the escape from reality for a few days.