The Christmas Round Up

Yes, yes, I know it is almost a month past Christmas, but I still wanted to share our activities.

We celebrated St. Nicholas Day with Philip for the first time this year.  St. Nicholas brought him a car and two clementines.

He thought it was super cool to find oranges in his shoes!

One day I took Philip to a local garden center where I knew they would have great decorations.  I was hoping to get a good shot for our Christmas card.  He was so distracted by everything that I couldn't get him to look at the camera.  After about ten minutes, both my battery died and my memory card was full.  I had left my camera bag at home, so I didn't have any back ups!  We had fun anyway.  Philip liked playing with some of the decorations, looking at the train display, and chasing birds.

We used this as our Christmas card picture instead:

A couple other cute pics of our little reindeer:

I have been collecting figurines for our nativity set for years.  I put them all in a basket and each day let Philip pick one out to put in the manger. 

Hmmm, which to choose?  This water trough tastes good!

We went to the Gaylord one night for their Christmas celebration.  They put on a music/light show with their fountains each evening.  Afterwards we went out to dinner.

This tree is made of glass

Philip loved seeing the reflection of the lights on the floor

Before Christmas, Philip and I took a trip up to Connecticut to see my cousins and aunt.  One of my cousins has been living in Europe for most of the last six years.  The last time we saw her was when Andy and I took a trip to Italy in 2007.  The timing worked out that Philip and I could go up for a two day visit the week before Christmas - unfortunately, we had to leave Andy behind so he could work.

My cousin and aunt

We had brunch with all of our cousins one day. 

I got to meet their newest daughter for the first time. 

For Christmas we went to Andy's parents house.  We stopped to visit family in North Carolina on the way up and back.  My parents spent Christmas in Texas with my sister, but they stopped through Atlanta and we got to spend a day with them on their way home.

Opening stockings with our brother and sister-in-law

Andy's parents

We were having so much fun that, believe it or not, we didn't get any good pictures of Philip opening presents.  He had a great Christmas though and enjoyed opening presents and playing with his cousins.  He is having fun playing with all his new toys.

My Mom made this great quilt with favorite pictures from Philip's first year. We love it!