Rudolph Puppet Show

We always manage to have an annual Christmas get together with one of our favorite families - the M family!

This year (the first Sunday in December) we all went back to one of our favorite Christmas venues - the Center for Puppetry Arts. We saw the Rudolph puppet show once again.

Bri was dressed in her favorite Christmas dress...

They have Kermit and Miss Piggy in the waiting area...

Two of my very favorite girls...

Waiting for the show to begin...

We got there a bit early, so the girls had to wait a little while for the show to start. They decided to put their feet up...

Audience members are not allowed to take pictures during the performance, so I snagged the following two pictures off of the internet...

 The performers do such an amazing job each year. It's like you are watching the show on TV!

 And there is always a fun craft after the show...

After the show, we love to take the girls to Joe's Crab Shack.

The ladies all exchanged gifts...

For dessert, the girls got to paint (with syrups) Rice Krispies Treats in the shape of crabs. They thought it was awesome...

They got pretty sugared up before they went home. Heh.

It's always a super fun time with the M family. Can't wait to figure out what we will do next year. :)

Happy New Year 2015

Happy New Year everyone!

Before I start blogging about my December, I want to wish everyone a very Happy 2015!

We had nice and quiet New Year's Eve evening. We have been so busy this December, we decided to have it just be the three of us for New Year's Eve.

We went to eat some BBQ for dinner and then headed to the movie theater to see "Into The Woods."

Miss B was dressed for the evening...

At the movie...

We got to the movie theater before the previous showing was letting out. As people started leaving the theater, we overheard a few of them saying they didn't like the movie. We were a bit concerned. Then we started to realize that many of those people (mainly men) didn't realize it was a musical. I guess the movie trailer doesn't really reveal it is a musical. I knew "Into The Woods" was a Broadway show and I had seen a bunch of promotion for the movie, so going in, I knew what to expect. I guess if you are not expecting a musical, you could be pretty disappointed. Luckily, my family really likes musicals, so we weren't disappointed in the movie at all.

When we got home, I helped Bri light some sparklers...

Bri had slept until 11AM (yes, 11AM) on New Year's Eve day, so she was still raring to go at midnight. 

Here we are waiting for the ball to drop...

Happy New Year 2015!!!

Hope you all are having a wonderful January 1st!

Ok, get ready to read about Christmas again because I have a lot of those posts coming soon!! LOL!

Happy New Year!

Goodbye 2014

I cannot believe it is New Year's Eve, and I cannot believe 2015 is almost here.

It definitely has been a year of ups and downs for us...

Some of our ups included:

 Amazing trips to Disney World, Clearwater, Blue Ridge and Chattanooga

Briana's 1st communion (including a great visit with my BIL and SIL)

Briana's 8th birthday and her wonderful birthday party

3rd grade starting for Miss B (and she has been doing great)

Doug's coaching of Bri's soccer team and me continuing on as team mom

Lots of fun holidays ~ Chinese New Year, Halloween, Christmas

Briana running her first 5K

A super fun-filled summer break

Lots of quality time with family and friends

Doug doing amazing in his job

Me still loving my time as a stay-at-home mom

Some of our downs included:

The passing of my grandmother (Bubbie)

The passing of my fur baby Asia

Snowpocalypse in January (and my 7 hour journey to get Briana home from school)

My battle with bronchitis in March

My stuggle with an unusual bug bite on my leg that caused me to be on antibiotics for 3 weeks

Doug's super abundance of travel for work

 Watching several friends lose a parent this year

 I still have a ton of things to blog about when it comes to December. December was crazy busy for us - which is why I didn't have a chance to blog about it yet. But I will.

Looking at my year ahead, I already see a couple of trips in the future. We are planning on getting a new kitty in the new year. Doug will be coaching Bri's soccer team again in the spring and I will stay on as team mom. I am sure Briana will continue to rock 3rd grade. And I pray we stay happy and healthy.

I'm so blessed to have such an amazing husband and beautiful daughter, a wonderful family (including the best mother and father a girl could have) and so many awesome friends.

Thanks to all of you that still check in with my little blog from time to time and continue to follow my life and the amazing people in it.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2015!

Merry Christmas From Our Family To Yours

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Eating And Shopping In A Quaint Town

I am sure that you are not surprised that I had booked up our first weekend of December back in November. Unfortunately though, our good friends that were supposed to come over for dinner that Saturday evening were sadly not able to come due to their daughter getting sick. :(

So, Doug decided to take Briana and I to a little town near where we live to do some shopping and have dinner. We went to the same town last year around the same time and loved it. I'm so glad we were able to go again this year.

Above you will see Briana standing in front of the tall decorated Christmas tree. She was wearing my jacket because she was chilly.

This is our favorite shop in the town...

Somehow Miss B came out of the store with this very pretty scarf...

The store/coffee cafe is just so adorable...

This pretty tree below is actually in an antique shop...

We went into another store and I found a package of these adorable camper air fresheners. I bought a pack for my friend Kathy. She got a "new to her" camper earlier this year and I just had to get them for her..

Doug, B and I then had dinner at this grill...

The food was amazing...

And the atmosphere was so rustic and quaint...

I'm sad we didn't get to spend time with our friends that evening, but we had a great evening despite that. I love spending quiet evenings with my guy and best girl. It really puts me in the Christmas spirit!

Elf Adventures

Our Elf On The Shelf Red showed up the day after Thanksgiving. He has been making life quite interesting since he arrived. Briana absolutely loves finding him each and every morning, and she is so sad he will be leaving soon.

He's been all over our house.

With our K-cups...

Hiding in kettles...

Standing at attention...

Enjoying our Christmas trees...

Playing jungle gym with Briana's tinker toys...

Just hanging around...

Hiding in a stocking...

 Sitting in a manger...

Riding reindeer...

Sitting in a Charlie Brown tree...

Building marshmallow snowmen...

And he even staged a brown paper bag race...

Briana decided to leave Red a note one night a couple of weeks ago...

It was so adorable. She asked him if he had a girlfriend. And she drew a picture of her and me being surprised finding him in her bedroom (hanging with her beanie boos)...

She also threw me under the bus a bit. She wanted to buy Red a girlfriend and I nixed that idea. So, she ratted me out to him. Heh.

She drew a picture for him as well...

Red returned the favor by writing Bri back thanking her for writing and letting her know what he does when he is not with us and that he has a crush on a girl elf named "Twinkles"...

She thought that was so awesome...

And last night, Briana informed me that she made a skirt for Twinkles (for Red to take back to the North Pole to her). She is really trying to encourage their relationship...

This correspondence is getting a bit more complicated than expected. Heh.

Twinkles made Red bring a thank you card to Briana...

Briana's priceless reaction this morning...

 Red will be returning to the North Pole in a few days. Briana will miss him dearly.

{Me ~ I'm kind of ready for our visitor to head home soon. ;)}