Georgia On Our Minds

Merry Christmas to Grandmother, Papa Jim, Aunt Judy, Uncle Bruce, Granny, Pop, and Grandma! We miss you very much, but as you can see, Caroline has been busy "helping" her family here prepare for Christmas. We can't wait to see you all next week!

Oh, you better watch out.

You better not cry...

You better not pout...

I'm telling you why--Santa Claus is coming TO-MORROW!

As soon as she finishes her bottle.
Good night, everyone We'll let you know what Santa brings in the morning!

A White Christmas

Our annual White Elephant Gift Exchange party with our friends from church was at our house on Saturday night, and it was quite a different party than it was a few years ago before we had kids! I think there was a total of 15 kids here at some point during the evening. Caroline was thrilled to have so much action in her playroom!Tabitha stuck right with Caroline the whole time she was here, and that couldn't have made Caroline any happier.
And, of course, she loved playing with her buddy, Carson.Could anything be sweeter than these little sugarplums?
The grown ups had a good time too--some of the best treasures at the White Elephant gift exchange were John's light up, cat themed Christmas tree,
Spencer's three pairs of underwear...only one pair has been worn, but the gifter didn't specifiy which pair,
Merrit's very large remote control (I actually bought this as a real gift last year for my grandfather.), and Carson's shiny new PCI adapter.

But bad gifts or not, we loved celebrating Christmas with these great friends.

Christmas Trees, Candy Canes, and Carriage Rides

Last weekend, we met some of our nearby friends to welcome Santa Claus to town at the lighting of the Historic Norcross Christmas tree. I underestimated the cold and didn't have Caroline (or myself) properly bundled so everyone chipped in with extra blankets, gloves, and handwarmers to keep us warm!
It was still pretty frigid, though, so as soon as we had our pictures snapped with Santa, we made our way to the coffee house to warm up with hot chocolate and Cheerios.
There were some high school kids playing music, and Will was a big fan. He rushed the "stage" and was the center of attention on the "dance floor".
The next morning Will was still dancing (this time to the children's choir with Megan joining him) at our church's Candy Cane Breakfast.

After our family pictures,
we decided to get a picture of all the kids in our Sunday School class.
Hmm.
We finally decided we better include the adults for restraint purposes.
That evening we headed back to Historic Norcross for dinner and carriage rides with the Braley family. Once again, we ended up escaping the cold with hot chocolate at the coffee house.

Dear Santa,

Did you lose an elf? Cause I think I found her.Only this one unwraps presents instead of wrapping them.

This Little Piggy Went...

crazy with our pink pig themed day. Caroline woke up this morning and took a bath with her favorite pink pig squirties...

and we read her pink pig bath book. Then, after naptime, we headed to Lenox Square to ride
Some of our friends rode too!
Tressa and Will

Julie and Madeline

Valerie and Megan

Katherine, Alexander, and Abigail

Leslie, Riley, and Colter

Amy and Bryce

Alexander and Shelby (I think Shelby and her mom, Missy, and her brother, Jackson, were taking a potty break when I was taking pictures of the mamas and their kids!)

Caroline watched as the pig headed her way...

and then we were on our way! She looked like such a big girl sitting in her seat by herself. I wish I could have gotten a picture from outside the train!

Right down to her snack container,

it was a pink pig kind of day!

The Lighting of the Trices' Great Tree

Caroline and Daddy examine the tree before Caroline heads to bed and the "real" fun begins...two tries at stringing the lights, one trip to Target, one tipping over of the entire decorated tree, a few broken ornaments, and many hours later, Caroline got to examine our handiwork...

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Thankful

We had much to be thankful for this year...

• Gogo came to visit.

• Caroline got to help make the pumpkin pies. I have been helping Uncle Bruce make them since I was 3 years old...and now he's teaching Caroline too!

Caroline didn't get to eat any of the pie, but we let taste some of the pumpkin right out of the can...and she went back for more.

• Our families. We spent Thanksgiving Day at my Aunt Sandy's with some of the people we love most. Caroline had six grand(and great-grand)parents, five aunts and uncles, and lots and lots of cousins to play with.
  

Gogo helps Caroline get to Luke.
Judy and Bruce volunteer for dish duty.Aunt Sandy always has lots of toys to play with!
The bride and groom-to-be. This is Jill's last Thanksgiving as an Elliott. She will be Jill Tereshinski in less than two months!
Everyone pitches in in the kitchen.

Aunt Annie shares some wisdom with Caroline.

• And, of course, I'm thankful for this...Post-Thanksgiving festivities are almost as much fun as Thanksgiving itself...
  

Caroline saw her first Christmas tree light up, but was far more interested in Aunt Judy's glasses.
Then Grandmother helped her to "see the light".

And then they went on her first pony ride.

Caroline got to go to the hardware store to visit Papa Jim and help get the Christmas tree in her True Value t-shirt.Caroline and Gogo found Santa at the hardware store...Caroline, is your Gogo really Mrs. Claus??And, before we left, Caroline and Papa Jim had to take care of a little business.

It's me...Caroline!

Sometimes Mommy's blogging stinks worse than me after I have prunes and pears for breakfast...so I'm gonna tell you what we've been doing for the last few weeks since she fell off the blogging wagon.

After Halloween (when we last left you), my WHOLE family on Mommy's side got together to remember my Uncle Evan. Mommy said it was a big deal to have all these people together at once and that we are really lucky to have such a great family.That night, Aunt Heather joined us at Granny and Pop's for dinner. See, that's me in the blue shirt in front.The next day my friend Will came over so we could celebrate his daddy's 40th birthday. Will and Jacob played trains on our coffee table, but that was before I could stand up at the table...

so I just hung out by my toy basket and watched.

A few weeks ago, I upgraded my ride at the grocery store.

No more stroller--now I ride up in the cart close to Mommy, and I like it so much more. I can see everyone and everyone can see me! While Mommy shops, I spend my time crinkling up my nose and making faces at people so they will tell me how cute I am. If they don't, I lean toward them and grunt and make noises until they acknowledge me. Sometimes even grumpy people smile at me. (By the way, Mommy realized after she took this picture that she could pull the cart cover over the handle bar so I don't touch the germy handle.)

I also took a couple of spins in Riley and Colter's ride. I'm cracking up because Colter tells funny stories like his daddy.

I don't know if you heard, but my friend Sydney is getting a new little sister soon so my mommy had a party for her mommy. We were supposed to spend the day with our daddies, but they got Falcons tickets, and we got ditched! So...we got to go to the party!I got to visit with my friends Jackson and Julia from Cincinnati, and Jackson played my favorite game with me.Also, if you can't tell from the pictures, over the last few weeks, I've gotten a lot bigger...and so have my bows...

A couple of weeks ago, Riley came and spent a couple of days with us. I LOVE Riley, and get so excited when she comes over. But sometimes all that fun wears a couple girls out...

Another good thing about Riley's visits is that it's a little easier to be sneaky. One time when Mommy was busy, I got to pull about half of the wipes out of the box before she noticed. And just so you know, they don't taste very good--not any of them. I tasted each one to be sure.

One night, Papa Jim and Grandmother came over to visit. They brought Bogey, and Papa Jim bought me a tiny snow globe. It turns out that one medium sized dog and one tiny snow globe are all it takes to make me one happy baby!
So, as you can see, we've been busy! And Mommy just said I don't have to write my own blog anymore...she'll tell you all about our Thanksgiving herself so stay tuned!

This message has been approved by Caroline

"Way to go, Saxby!"

Looks like that secret advice I gave you finally paid off!