Christmas in VA

We traveled to VA for a couple of days to have Christmas with my family. Here is Zachary with his present from Aunt Mel...it was as tall as he is!

Someone always reads the Christmas story from the Bible at my family's Christmas get-together and this was Elaina's first year reading it: Elaina & Zachary with Papa (don't worry, no one beat Papa up...he had surgery on his nose shortly after Thanksgiving): Mandi & sleepy Alexandra with the gift Ryan and I gave them, one of Alexandra's newborn portraits: The Keesee clan (me with my dad, brothers & sisters):

With the "outlaws" (minus 1): Papa with his grandchildren (minus 1) and their spouses (minus 1) and great-grandchildren (minus 2): Loving sisters: With my dad: The Goodman fam:Ryan annoying me (as usual):Me & "Puke" (yes, you read that right)...this nickname has stuck since we were little...it actually started out being "Pook", but I had to change it up a bit! :-) Alexandra's First Christmas:

Zachary's 18 month checkup

December 17, 2007:

2 Santas in 1 Day!

December 13th was a busy day. Elaina got out of school for Winter Break, so she only had to go to school for half a day, so Ryan took the day off, since he wasn't able to take Christmas off. Elaina's class Christmas party was that day, so I spent the morning at school and then we headed home to pick up Ryan and Zachary and then we all went to the mall for the annual Santa picture. I was expecting to get the same screaming picture of Zachary that I have of myself when I was 1 and then of Elaina when she was 1. I figured it would be a tradition, but no, Zachary was completely happy on Santa's lap! He cries with family members, but he loved Santa! (Sorry Uncle Tim!) Even Santa commented on how surprised he was with how Zachary reacted for his age...he said he was a "rare find"! ;-) After a little Christmas shopping, we went to the Roper Mountain Holiday Lights later that night where we ran into Santa again...and again, no screaming! Is it weird that I was a little disappointed that I didn't get the screaming Santa picture?! ;-) Santa's "reindeer"...miniature horses that both kids WERE afraid of:

Elaina's Class Party

Another thing that kept me busy at the beginning of the month was helping organize Elaina's class Christmas party. Of course, I had to take some pictures."Christmas Scramble" was a hit! This was the game that I organized for the kids to play where they had to take scrambled letters and figure out the Christmas words that they spelled. The kids really seemed to enjoy it. I was afraid that it might be over their heads, but they were really good at it!

Elaina shared her Christmas stocking and favorite ornament with her class:

Elaina with her 2nd grade teacher:

Christmas Tree Shopping

At the beginning of December, we took our annual trip to the local Christmas tree lot to pick out our Christmas tree. Zachary slept through it, but woke up in time for the family picture (although a little grumpy).

The Cutting of the Curls

After too many instances of people saying, "Aww, look at that cute little girl!", I knew it was time to cut the curls, so Aunt Mel did the honors while we were in VA for Thanksgiving. It was tough for me to see those luscious locks get chopped (Zachary wasn't too happy about it either), but boy what a cutie he was when she was done! :-)