I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Christmas of 2012 we dreamed of a white Christmas.
No traveling hundreds of miles to celebrate with family...(wiping a tear away as she types).
We stayed home because of this... 

 

Our kitchen renovation finally began on December 10th.  That's a whole 'nother blog post or two or five.  Suffice it to say we needed to stay close to home.  Stuff had to be attended to.

But before the renovation started a couple of other great Christmas joys occurred.  I'm sure you are dying to know what those are, right?  Well, of course there was the Clinton Christmas Parade.

 

And this year, Anna was in the parade with Dance South where she takes gymnastic lessons.

 

And the second joy is seeing dear friends.  My and Patrick's college friends gathered for the 25th year in a row to celebrate "Friends' Christmas". Twenty five years does not seem possible.  I am still a Spring Chicken...in some circles.  Here we are posing...we love to pose.

Strike a pose...

 

We rented a cabin in Brown County.  The same one we rented for year 20.  Not much has changed except we are a tad more creakier and a bit wrinkly.  Except for me...I am still a Spring Chicken. 

Sadly, Patrick didn't join us.  Logistics were not on his side and he was gracious to be Daddy to the kids while I got to laugh at the same jokes, dance to the same tunes and kiss on the same people. So I knew that he had to be included.  That's when I remembered Flat Stanley.  I needed a Flat Patrick. He was coming to Friends' Christmas!

Now if you look closely in the pictures above he is in every one of them.  In fact he was all over Nashville.  That guy really gets around.  Baby Jesus never looked better.  If you want to see the "Flat Patrick Series head on over to my Flickr account.

 

When I got back home we decorated the tree.  Just by looking at the beautiful Christmas tree you'd think decorating was a blessed memorable event.  Memorable... yes.  Blessed...no. Nothing says Merry Christmas like fighting kids and a screaming mom.  Next year I'll decorate the tree with a spiked mug of hot cocoa with Ollie gazing at the lights and my favorite Christmas tunes playing in the background...ahhhh.

 

Winter break in Clinton is not complete with trips to Sonic.  Especially when our Pittsburgh friends come to visit.  I'm sure Martha is jealous about right now.

 

The yearly gingerbread house was made and eaten.

 

And then finally Santa arrived...

 

This was Gavin's first year of being in on the magic.  I'm pretty sure there was some grieving going on in that stinky middle school boy's heart.  But he didn't let the "cat out of the bag" for Anna.  That was our little Christmas miracle.

Christmas morning was full of joy...

 

There was Christmas Ball Frenzy thanks to Gramma Cece.

 

And how do you ring in 2013 when you have no kitchen to cook in?  Fondue, of course.

 

It was a sweet quiet holiday season.  Next year you all are invited to come spend Christmas with us.

Auld Lang Syne 2011

I've been a bad blogger in 2011.
Very Spotty.
If I may be frank, dear readers (those of you who have stuck around), I do not multi-task very well. I'd like to think that I do. Heavy sigh. But I don't. What I do well is hyper-focus. Let's give a shout out to Attention Deficit Disorder!

So here I am trying to give you a Reader's Digest version of the past year or so. And with my homage to RD it will also be sanitized to avoid dwelling on those parts of 2011 where I or others were not performing at our best. Ugly bits will be left out on purpose. Whining is not an attractive quality. So fasten your seat belts.

Here we go...

In August Gavin entered 5th grade and Anna became a first grader. They both are having a stellar academic year.


Gavin-10 years old
First Day of 5th Grade


Anna Mae-6 years old
First Day of 1st Grade

In September our artist in residence created a treasured birthday card. She truly gives my heart wings.



In October the holiday season commenced with our annual Halloween Party. It kinda surprised me...



But we managed to throw a good "pre-kicker" to Trick or Treating.




Because if you have enough vampire teeth, any party can be a success. Just ask these adorable party goers...


Love, love, love, the owl in perched on her hat.


Gavin and his crew made quite the statement


Anna and her bff, Rachel.

For one Halloween party, Anna went dressed as a Mexican Sugar Skull. Did I mention I love Halloween?



In November we adopted a geriatric dachshund. He's somewhere between the age of 6 and 10 according to the vet. The kids are in love. He's growing on the adults. Anna and Gavin named him Mr. Ollie Wienerkins but to friends and family he's just Ollie.



We traveled to Indiana to be with family on Thanksgiving. This is what traveling in the car for nine hours will do to you.




Thanksgiving day we were with the Kileys. And this pretty much sums up what we did all Thanksgiving Holiday. If only someone were to feed me...and I looked so cute doing it. But currently, sweet Miren has the corner on cuteness.


The Kiley clan's Thanksgiving Feast


Aunt Shannon gave early Christmas gifts to the girls. But the best gift from her was the day before...


I tell you, there was no happier girl in the state of Indiana that day.


The cousins stood still just long enough for me to prove they were all together

Mostly this is what they looked like...


Then it was on to the Gallagher's for Feast #2.

Shenanigans ensued...


And bites of dessert were sneaked...



Great Aunt Libby told the best "knock knock" jokes.


And handsome Phillip and his momma, Aunt Cindy (along with all the other kids) laughed at 'em all.

It was a beautiful autumn full of family, laughter, and life.


Then Christmas sneaked up on us...

There was a Clinton Elementary PTO Winter Wonderland Dance. Pulled off fabulously by fantastic volunteers! Think "controlled chaos". Then the next weekend I had the pleasure of flying to the Windy City to celebrate Christmas with dear old friends from college. Much drinking and inappropriate behavior occurred...and laughter, lots and lots of laughter. So good for the soul, old friends laughing together about the same things they have laughed about for 24 years.

Because nothing says Christmas like anti-diarrheal medicine.

Then came the annual Clinton Christmas Parade...

I'm not sure what they were going for here. Marie Antoinette would be horrified.

And we made what I think will be Gavin's final visit to Santa.

If he's a good big brother it won't be Anna's last.

Christmas arrived.

Santa didn't disappoint.

And we had ourselves a 21st Century Christmas Morning. No eyes were shot out this year. Well, there's always next year.

Then the kids and I packed up and headed to Indiana.


We were given a white Christmas. Sweet gift, Mother Nature. Thank you, dear.

And here we are, 15 days into the new year.
Once again playing catch up with myself. But I wish you all great and wonderful things for 2012.
May you find joy in small things and laugh often.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Or otherwise titled: "The Slacker Blog Writer Finally Gets Christmas 2010 on Her Blog".

This brings a whole new meaning to "I'll tell you later, Betty"...like a lot later, it seems.

"Who's gonna read it? Who cares now? It's a waste of your time!" -Patrick Kiley

And I reply, "It's the principle of the thing...I've just gotta get it up...uh, I mean posted".

I'm imagining when my children are sitting by the fireplace, reminiscing about their childhood to my grandchildren (leaving out all the ugly dysfunction, of course) they'll say, "Oh, hey, what fun it would be to read mom's blog...a trip down memory lane!" Then they get to Winter 2010/2011 and wonder if Santa forgot about them that year...or perhaps Gavin never really turned ten in January 2011.

So here I am in the Spring of 2011 typing a post about Christmas 2010. Lame, really. But necessary to my psyche. So please indulge me, dear readers. I'm sure at least one of you can relate. The rest of you can make fun of me. But please do it behind my back so I can keep what dignity I have left intact.

Of course, the Clinton Christmas Parade, now the third one we've attended, continues to be a train wreck that I can't seem to turn my head from. I must capture this crazy thing they call a Christmas parade.

Let's start with the Shriner Hill Billies...always a hit...but I'm skeptical about the clownish nature of the whole thing.



This year, Wendy and her girlfriends were in the parade...dear lord, that is one ugly Wendy or a straight man in drag (my apologies to the local "Wendy" should you read this and, indeed, are a girl)


This float is in the parade every year and every year it takes me by surprise...note: the Shriner is not a mannequin.


Cute high school boy holds snowman's head in the land where snow rarely falls.


Somebody call the DSS...CPS...



I guess one of us considers themselves a "Clintonian"..."Clintonite"...from here...and she looks like she's having a heck of a time throwing candy at the locals.


And then, finally, nothing says Christmas like the Clinton High School Mascot, The Red Devil...not to be confused with the Pink Devil or the Chartreuse Devil.


It would be remiss of me not to challenge you, my friends and family, to come up with some captions for these photos. Really, I didn't do them justice. So in the comments sections leave your captions to my photos. There's sure to be a winner.


That concludes this long over due pictorial of the 2010 Clinton (say it with me: klin-uhn) Christmas Parade. Alas, our ancient Mac Book that had all our Christmas photos died before I could upload them. But now we have a shiny new iMac this makes me very happy.


But I did manage to upload to Flikr these two little video clips...variations on a theme.

Variation One: The North


Variation Two: The South

Christmas in Clinton 2009

The spirit of Christmas is alive and well in our little house this season.
Here's some proof that we're no scrooges around here.

Anna & Gavin the night we decorated our tree.

Hillbillies on Parade
(Otherwise known as the Clinton Christmas Parade)


Anna, our artist, drew a manger scene complete with lady bug.
Because everyone knows any self-respecting manager scene has to have a lady bug!

The Professor got his own Snuggie as a gift from the French Club...awwww.

We went to Roper Mountain Science Center in Greenville
to see a fabulous light display.
While we were there the kids got to see Santa, rosy cheeks and all.
Curious who our other child is? No, we didn't adopt.
It's Gavin and Anna's friend, Henry, who came along.

I made the cutest reindeer pops, from none other than moon pies, for Anna's class party.

Anna was a "heavenly host" in her preschool Christmas pageant.
Her future husband, Shane, was a shepherd.

And, while the kids and the Professor were on vacation,
they made the annual gingerbread house.

So here we are on Christmas eve. Our first Christmas spent in Clinton. Elfie has defected back to the North Pole leaving behind Christmas pajamas for all who wanted them plus "Santa Buddies", a movie which the kids had been dying to see. Santa's cookies have been baked and are cooling. All the presents are under the tree wrapped. All that's left is to sit and watch "A Christmas Story" and wait for Santa to make his magic at our little house in our little town in South Carolina. Merry Christmas ya'll.