O Christmas Tree 2017

One of the first things we do to start the Christmas season is to choose and cut a live Christmas tree. We have done this every year we have been married, except the year Rachel was scheduled to arrive 2 weeks after Christmas and Brent wouldn't have me that far from the hospital that year, in case she came early. This year we were in the Greensboro area for a couple of days and we headed over to the North Carolina mountains for a morning to pick out our tree.

This year was really a tale of two trees. First, it should be noted that our girls name the tree every year. Yes, it's tradition and just something fun and cute that they do (last year was Frank the Frasier) Well, they decide on the way up the mountain that this year's tree will be Fiona. So off we go to look for Fiona. We look maybe 10 mins and the girls are all asking if they can get a tiny tree just for their room. Suddenly, Bethany stops right where she is and announces that this little tree is Fiona. Well, I tried "how about this one, it's a little taller" or "this one has more branches, wouldn't this be a nice one." Of course, no, nothing else would do but THIS Fiona. So I went to the old standby " you will have to ask your Daddy, sweetheart." Well, she asked sweetly and looked her Daddy with those big brown eyes and Fiona the Frasier was going home with us.

 Now the big girls had a dilemma...what to name the bigger tree for the den. Meet Freddy Frasier. Rebekah was helping measure him.

 This cutie loved helping pick out her first Christmas tree!

So we got the trees baled and tied securely on top of the car for the ride back down the mountain.

 We made several different ornaments and were gifted with some ornaments as well.

 We finally got our tree inside.

 and sure enough, Fiona is just the right size for her!

Fiona is finally fully decorated and they are thrilled having a little tree in their room too!

 It looks us a couple of evenings and Bethany even napped through tree decorating one evening, but we did finally get this one decorated too.

 Nana came over one night while we were decorating too.

 Love, love, love their first Christmases! It is such a special time!

 " O Christmas Tree 2017"

Beautiful Beach Days

 The first weekend in December we had our first first few days off in several weeks and we were able to spend a couple of days of rest at the beach. This little cutie was in my tummy last year when we came to the beach right after Thanksgiving. It was surely great to have her here to enjoy this year at the beach.

 She thought sitting on the beach was pretty great!

She seemed a like her sun hat too. It was a bright December day and about 63 degrees too!

 We did some crafting and ornament making in the evenings. All our Christmas ornaments and other Christmas things are still in storage right now so we are handmaking some,ornaments this year.

 The candy cane hearts and button snowflakes will go on our tree and the crosses will be painted to go in the girls room

IWe saw the Christmas lights on the Island.

 We spent some more time on the beach

 With great photography helpers like these (yes, they are all 3 carrying the tripod), we even got to see and photograph the December supermoomes!

 Sometimes, you just have to get in the water to get the image you want!

Ballet Watch Day

In early November, we had ballet watch day at the Performing Arts School for Bethany, Bekah, and Rachel. We loved getting to see them dance!

Bethany dances first on Tuesday. Look at the joy on that little face!

She loves dancing with Mrs. Suzi!

Bekah dances next.

She takes an acrobatics class with Mrs. Suzi and Ms. Eileen. 

 Ms. Eileen works with the class a lot on stretching and ways to move correctly with their dance moves.

Bekah's class also worked on tumbling and acrobatics to show us all. She is doing great with her cartwheels but she moves so fast that I didn't manage to catch a picture.

 Rachel finishes out our dance days with her ballet days.

 She and her class did a great job of showing us all they are learning too.

 Since they all have Ms. Suzi as one of their teachers, I did get one picture of all 3 of the big girls with her.

These girls love to dance and they are definitely enjoying their time and all they are learning at The Performing Arts School.

Liberty Hall 2017

 Last year, for the first time, we attended the candlelight tour of Liberty Hall. Liberty Hall is an 1800s Era mansion in Kenansville, not too far from where we live now. This year as I was looking into upcoming Christmas events, I realized the Liberty Hall tours were coming up this weekend. I talked with the girls and they definitely wanted to go again this year.

 We begin in the visitors center where we got to hear the dulcimer and sing a few Christmas carols. This was really neat since they had a courting dulcimer which requires two people to play it together.

We then headed over to Liberty Hall for the Candlelight tour. Of course, there is no photography in the house, but it is really neat to see the house decorated with all the decorations including fruit, pinecone and greenery that would be used to decorate during that time period.

 Here is Bekah knocking on the front door to let them know that our group was ready to come in for the tour.

 Once we finished the tour of the house, there are several stations outside the house where they demonstrate different chores and skills of the 1800s.  They even gave the children cloth dolls like they would have had during the 1800s.

We enjoyed the candlelight tour and all the decorations at Liberty Hall for Christmas. I think it made us ready to get all our Christmas decorations up soon too!