handsful

We live about 30 minutes north of Charlotte, and the motto of our little town is “Race City USA”.  We’re home to about 60 different Nascar teams, with many of them having their homes on Lake Norman.  We have the largest collection of retired race cars, and Dale Earnhardt’s museum is also here.  It’s all Nascar, all the time.

Funny thing is…we don’t care for any of it.  Never been to a race, and we never watch them on TV.

But, this is the second (and won’t be the last) year we’ve driven over to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to check out “Carolina Christmas”.

It’s a drive-through light show…and, the route goes ONTO the actual racetrack.  And, yes, Randy always drives up on the bank to scare us to death.

See the tilt?

It’s also a petting zoo, mini carnival complete with fair-type goodies to eat, Bethlehem scene, pics with Santa, and a little shopping just to make it more fun.

And, we did it all…

Randy made me feed the calf…huge tongue, eating verrryyy slowly.  Ick!!

I spoke to the woman at the petting zoo…turns out she’s local and has a HUGE amount of goats, all kinds.  She gave me her contact info so I can contact her in the spring.  Have I mentioned we’re thinking of getting goats?  Thought I did…

After this, we went inside for some treats, shopping (the same incense guy is there every year and I love it…), and pics with Santa.  They insisted that we ALL get in the shot, and he got us all looking in the same direction AND smiling in one take.  Nice.

We barely had time for the carnival, they were almost closing!  The bigs rode the spinny thing that you couldn’t PAY me to get on.  The littles chose a tilt-a-whirl ride (think teacups at Disney).  Come to think of it, I wouldn’t get on that either.  I’m getting old.  Spinning makes me woozy.

We had a blast, and it’s now officially on our “gotta do” list every Christmas!

Lots going on here, as I’m sure it is with everyone else…

We’ve done two parades, a Walk Thru Bethlehem event, went to the Charlotte light show at the raceway, the bigs have had 3 Christmas concerts (so far), and we’ve decorated inside and out.

Oh, and did I mention it’s 12/12 and I’m done with shopping?  Yes, I’m that good.  (this is not usual, folks)

I even did a craft with the littles!  I know, right?  It’s so unlike me.  I used to be very crafty, but that has waned big time as I’ve gotten more OCD…uh, I mean older.  The mess and clutter that crafting makes drives. me. nuts.  But, this one was quick, easy, and fun.

I poked holes in the tops for hanging after taking this picture.  The littles hand prints will be dry by Saturday, ready for painting!

I still have to get our cards out in the mail, and do our usual (and some new recipes I’m excited to try) baking/cooking done.  And, enjoy my 40-something birthday in 5 days.

Since our picture taking is in warp speed lately, I’ll just post our “putting up the tree” shots for now.  We bought our tree at the usual spot, a local farmer’s market in town.  Same place we get fresh apples, local honey, amazing chocolate pecan pies, etc.  Since our ceilings are really high in the house, we weren’t bound by height, only price :)

Tradition calls for us to all decorate the house, while Randy (with Marley’s assistance) wrestles with the lights.  He’s VERY particular about how they’re done, so it’s off limits for me.  I’m quite okay with this.  We’re a non-garland family, just lights and ornaments.  We do have about 30 tin icicles that we’ve had for years and they always go on last, right on the ends of the branches.

When we’re ready for the ornaments (which we have scads of…), I sit beside the bin  and pass them out to eager big and little hands ready to hang…with Randy’s guidance on where.

It’s also mandatory that I get a shot of each kiddo hanging their “baby’s first…” ornament.  (It usually takes me a few seconds to decide which baby is Marley, Payton, or Ethan).

Decorating mayhem…

and cuteness.

Someone was trying to avoid a photo.  Bah humbug.

Final touch…adding the beautiful angel that Randy and I bought early in our marriage, to the top.

Christmas tree, 2012, complete.

Gotta get the Thanksgiving photos up…we’re already full-out into Christmas, but I’m behind.  Been sick…yucky!  So, excuse me for not being as wordy as usual, and enjoy the shots…

Homemade brine, simmering.  If you’ve never done it before, you have to try a brined turkey next year.

Thankful Tree, yearly tradition since forever ago.

Master carver

Abbey being…Abbey.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.  Psalm 100:3-5

Having both “bigs” and “littles” makes for interesting costumes this time of year.  Thankfully, Lainey and Dylan are still happy to be cartoon characters and sweet little fairies.  The other kids are….interesting.

We’ll begin with the cute.

Sticking with his superhero theme (Spidey last year), Dylan was the big, bad Batman.

I told him to give me his best Superhero pose :)

Lainey went with Silvermist, one of Tinkerbell’s fairy friends…and, she was adamant that she was NOT Tinkerbell.

The big kids were a little different.

Marley actually found what she wanted to be on an internet video last year.  It took Randy quite a bit of planning and building to make it happen, and then the girls got busy with fabric and sewing.

Any ideas on what this will be?  Give up, you won’t guess.

The Superhero is SUPERvising…see what I did there?

Finishing touches…I’m still not sure what “it” is, but it turned out exactly like she wanted.

Abbey wanted to be a zombie princess Belle.  She designed her dress out of yellow t-shirts.  The fairy is helping her with her fingernails.

The whole crew.  Ethan had the help of his friend, Kailee…they both went goth, with black hair, makeup, etc.  Kylie was Marley’s “assistant”, since it was hard to walk up to the houses on those stilts!  And, Payton?  He just couldn’t come up with anything he wanted to be, so we stopped by Target on the way to our friend’s neighborhood and picked up a white sheet.  Old school dress-up.

After a night of candy-hunting, we headed home for the tradition of trading for favorites.  The kids are already talking about what they might be next year.  We’re thinking of throwing a party for the big kids, since they’re nearing the age of being too old to T or T.  Whatever we do, it’ll be fun.

It’s that time of year again. The time to remember the sacrifice our Savior made for us, and to rejoice in the knowledge that He is, indeed, risen!

Not nearly as important as that, but not to be left out…it’s the time to gather at Gram and Pa-Paul’s house for the egg hunt extravaganza :)

21 total people, lots of eggs, even more silliness, great food. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday!

Ready, Set, Go!

This year, all our big kids were “hiders”, so we only had the two “finders”.

And, they worked it!

The big kids were helpers…big bro Ethan shakes down the egg from the tall branch. See it falling?

Gram’s egg hunts are involved…she has exactly the same number of eggs per kid, and puts a certain color/symbol on each egg. As the kids hunt, they dump their finds into big baskets. Then, we all gather inside to divide up the eggs. Here, Dylan is emptying his basket so he can head back out!

A lot of what goes on at Gram’s involves laughing. Being goofy. Randy and Tony have this part down pat.

And, one of the best parts is hanging out with our family.

Gram always does a scavenger hunt for the big kids…a series of clues that leads them running around until they find their giant, treat-filled eggs. Here, Payton reads the first clue.

All the kids. We were missing Samara, she was still back at college. Caleb wasn’t supposed to be there, but he surprised everyone when he walked in the door.

As usual, it was a fantastic day. Caleb brought 3 friends with him, and our good friend Amanda enjoyed the day with us, too. Sadly, I got no pictures of us with her! Oh well, we were having too much fun to worry with posing.

Thanks, Gram, for a wonderful day! We know you put tons of work into it :)

I believe you pronounce that something like “gong, she, fa, chai”

Happy Chinese New Year! We have lanterns hung, we’ve read our CNY books, and tonight we celebrated with friends. Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in China, and lasts this year from January 23rd – February 6th. Because we’re blessed with our sweeties from China, it’s important for us to celebrate the holidays of their heritage. Not to mention it’s just plain fun.

We live near Davidson College, and their Asian Culture and Awareness Association sponsored a wonderful CNY event tonight. We gathered at the Student Union and were treated to some yummy Chinese food, a great program full of dancers and other entertainment, the traditional dragon dance, and some amazing fireworks!

Mia, Anna, Dylan, and Lainey

We had a nice view of the entertainment from the second floor.

When the dragons and their…uh…helper came upstairs, the little kids clung hard to us!

Mia, Hollyn, Dylan, Anna, and Lainey….we decided to pose all of our Chinese kiddos and look what we found? A Red Couch! (quick note for those that don’t know…it’s a tradition in China to pose all the newly adopted children on the red couches at the White Swan hotel)

After all the fun indoors, we headed out into the COLD to watch a fireworks display. CNY always ends with fireworks! I’ve never been that close to fireworks before, it was just amazing…

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

It’s confession time…

I was reminded today that I over-looked posting one of our Christmas celebrations. I think I missed doing it because there aren’t many pictures of that day.

I did so well in the beginning…taking our camera to everything even remotely “Christmasy”. Then, somewhere along the way, I just wanted to enjoy the moments without looking through the view-finder. Which is why I have ZERO pictures of our get-together with Randy’s extended family last Thursday, and my extended family today.

I’m sure others will share their pictures with me. But if they don’t, I’ll just think back to the moments…Randy and Tony trying to out-do each other with “when we were kids” stories; the conversation I had with my sweet Grandmom as we sat together on the couch; reminiscing with my cousin about a special Christmas present given years ago.

Back to the original problem…I never wrote about my parents coming here to spend Christmas Eve with us. There aren’t many pictures of that day (guess I was enjoying myself…). But, in the spirit of fairness (heh), here goes:

Given we were going to be a bit rushed on Christmas Day, my parents decided to come spend Christmas Eve with us. I roasted a turkey breast and we had yummy sandwiches and fixings for lunch. Afterwards, we passed out presents…

The kids took turns opening first…the boys got a slew of new shirts.

We all loved this sign for Marley – Abbey keeps threatening to steal it.

Can you tell what Dylan opened? A MONSTER truck. This is his best monster face. Payton joined in as well.

She was one happy camper…she forgot totally that she had asked for a HK backpack (to replace her Dora backpack which she now can’t stand!).

Randy got a really cool Steelers shirt. Which he immediately had to smell (have I ever mentioned he LOVES the smell of new clothes??)

Abbey got some shirts, which she loved…she really wanted clothes this year! Sadly, there are no pictures of her. Or me, for that matter. Like I said, I wasn’t focused on the pictures, people!

Granma and Granpa also gifted the big kids with some cold, hard CASH which they quickly pocketed. I know Marley plans to buy some new English riding boots. Not sure what the others have planned. I think Abbey has already spent some of hers on…yep, shirts.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention something on this post, but I’ll take my chances and hit the “publish” button. We really enjoyed having my parents over and hope we can do the same thing next year. Maybe I’ll take more pictures? Or, maybe not.