Christmas day

We spent Christmas eve at the Perlis' house with friends and family- Beth, Alan, Laura, Larry, Sam, Sandra, Mom, Dad, Katie, Charles, Rivers and me (Bernie & Indie too).  We were sad that Mindi and Stephen were not there- it was not the same without them.  We had Alan's yummy game hens for dinner and spent the rest of the night opening gifts and drinking coffee & hot chocolate.

Christmas morning we had "santa" at our house and then went out to the Halla's for breakfast- yum! (there are pics from Christmas breakfast but I will spare everyone!)

Christmas night we went over to mom and dad's to exchange gifts and have dinner.  Mom made a delicious beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes.  Rivers spent the night trying to get into all of Jackson and Tate's toys.  They are very sweet with him-he adores them and cries every time we have to leave them.

a few pics from Christmas day...

Santa brought Rivers a little people race track

he loved it

kiddie table

kiddie room

Ryan & Julie

Katie-typical

a few of my favorite things...

I am copying Julie and posting some of my favorite Christmas things.  There are waaay to many to document so I just chose a few...

My Christmas gift from Rivers this year- love it!

My Christmas gift from Rivers last year- love it!

This nativity was always my favorite of mom's and when I got married she let me take it.  Julie and Katie didn't know about this until they saw it at my house...too bad, so sad :)

These snowmen were made by my mother in law, Beth.  She made them from Thanksgiving pumpkins.  I hope I remember to save my pumpkins again next year!

The frame is cute but it is the picture that I love.  Jackson was about 4 and Tate was about 2.  Notice what they are doing :)

Leave it to Beth, again.  This is painted on an old tile.  I have several Christmas painting by Beth and I could not choose which one was my favorite.

An ornament from Rivers' first Christmas.  I hope I remember to get one for Harper next year!

This ornament came from Nana's trip to Germany.  I remember it always being on our tree growing up. 

Charles' gig

 The difinition of gig according to the Online Slang Dictionary:

gig- noun

• any job. Derived from the musical industry sense.

Alpha Whale is the name of the band.  There are four members: Charles on guitar, Bobby does vocals and bass, Drew on keyboard, and Blake on drums.  They had their second gig a couple of weekends ago at Blackwells in Cahaba Heights.  They cover a bunch of 90's and modern alternative.  It was a lot of fun-even though they didn't even start until after my bedtime.  Rivers, of course, had to spend the night with mom and dad but Jackson and Tate did manage to make it and stay for 3 songs...they were troopers.  Anyway, here are a couple of pics!

it doesn't take long

I was standing at the sink, cleaning out ONE container.  How long does it take to clean out one container?  Maybe two minutes?...  That is how long it took Rivers to empty an entire bottle of baby powder onto the floor.  Did he stay in one spot?  No.  He started, I'm guessing, behind me in the kitchen and made his way around the dining room table, into and back out of the den, and was on his way to the hall when he ran out...which was about the time I caught him.  He was still shaking the bottle but nothing was coming out.  He managed to empty the whole thing!

Finally...a little turkey day

Hopefully I won't wait over a month to blog again.  I stepped on my iphone several weeks ago :( and do not have internet access regularly. 
Anyway, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family (we missed the Hallas but didn't feel too bad for them since they were in Disney World). Charles' family came over (minus Stephen and Mindi...sad) and Gran,
Papa, Charlie, Mark, Ellen, Molly and James all came up to celebrate.  We ate and ate and ate and continued eating leftovers for days...at least I did. 

Molly, James & Rivers... James is charging .50 cents per head rub.

Beth & Charles

The kiddie table

Dad & Katie

Bicka & Gran

Mark & James

Charlie & Molly

Mom & Papa