Another good day yesterday. We had planned on all six of the grandbabes being here for the day, but June woke up running a fever, so she and Mason went to stay with their other grandmother so she wouldn’t be contaminating all her cousins. It’s still Christmas week for us – we’ll all be partying together Saturday evening – so we spent a rainy morning doing some baking. Here is Clara taking a turn sprinkling on the sugar.

Apple rose buns were a hit – both the making and the eating 🙂

What a special day we had today. Lesley got home for Christmas vacation at midnight Christmas Eve; Liz was through York County for a few hours this afternoon with Andy & Amy, as they were on their way driving to spend a few days with Nathan and Diane. So today we all met for lunch at our house to celebrate them being here, as well as Charlie’s 10th birthday, and to watch the Panthers game together. Great time. Here is a shot of the kids’ table – our youngest Panther fans!

Char opening his presents – with a little bit of photobombing by Mason :-).  Special day, for sure.

Clara got a new fish tank from Santa, along with a note saying that she could go to Pet Smart and pick out a beta fish.  Yesterday Lindee & I did a little bit of day-after-Christmas shopping while Mallory & Clara hung out at Gran’s, & then took her to pick out her fish on our way home.  She says his name is Van Gogh 🙂

Our Christmas celebration actually started out with the midnight Christmas Eve service at our church, when Meg and Mike joined our church.  I’m not sure we’d ever had anyone join the church during that service before, and it was very cool.  Here they are afterwards with our Pastor Tommy.

Christmas Day we made the rounds to visit all of the kids, and see what the grandbabes got from Santa.  There is nothing like a little boy and a new Christmas bike.  Another awesome day.

We had a beautiful evening last night. Jeff & I went to Rock Hill to Woodlands UMC’s 5:00 pm Christmas Eve service. That was when Charlie and Adam were participating in their Christmas pageant – Charlie as one of the narrators, and Adam as the inn keeper. We were sitting pretty far back, so couldn’t see great, and didn’t get many good pictures, but at the end, all of the characters in the play – not the narrators, though – came up and kneeled down around the manger, which was pretty sweet. You can barely pick Adam out in this picture – he’s kneeling down at the foot of the manger, in tan and white, in front of Joseph in the blue.

The boys with their proud daddy afterwards.  It was a special evening.

Finally got our tree put up this week. We won’t be celebrating with our kids & grandkids until the Saturday after New Years, so we didn’t want to get it too early. Charlie & Adam were here Monday, so they went with us to cut one down. Penlands, where we always get our trees, was closed for the season (!) so we tried a new place, Lutz’s, on the other side of town. The boys had a great time, and then we stopped and picked up June and Mason in town, & they were here to help decorate it that afternoon.

Then that evening my friend Sherry and I took our grandsons to go on a camel ride at Narroway Theater in Fort Mill.  Alas, when we got there the camel handler had called in sick, so we didn’t get to do that.  I think Sherry & I were more disappointed than the boys were.  Here they are before we loaded up the cars and headed back to McDonalds:  Adam, Sherry’s grandson Will, Mason, and Charlie.  It was a good day.

On Sunday mornings during Advent, I have been helping out when Rev. Dick Gibson presents the children’s moments during church. My role is strictly in crowd control, and since the kids have all been really good, that hasn’t been much of an issue. Here we are this past Sunday morning – the fourth Sunday of Advent.

This afternoon Jeff & I headed over to take in the matinee performance of the York County Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker, and cheer on our favorite member of the Tea Corps.  Just as we were getting ready to walk into the building, who should be walking up but Boo and Elise – what a fun surprise!  Here we are afterwards with our star.  Special afternoon…

When Alex came and picked Kimbrell up Wednesday afternoon – her last day to be staying with us before Christmas break – she brought me this precious gift they had made – a platter, with Kimbrell’s footprint as the manger.  It is so, so sweet.