Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve! We're relaxing and getting ready for the big day tomorrow. We enjoyed a fun dinner at the Super China Buffet this evening. :)


Maggie appropriated my wonton soup and loved it!


Here's a little video of Maggie enjoying her soup:



After dinner, we drove around looking at lights and then headed home, where Maggie checked her stocking to make sure it was all empty and ready to be filled by Santa:


And put out a cookie for Santa!


After a good night hug for Munga...

...Maggie declared that "Maggie ready bed now" (!!!) She was also insistent that everyone else go to bed right then, too, so Santa could come. :) I can't wait to see how excited she'll be tomorrow morning!

Visit with the McFadden family!

Last week we enjoyed a great visit with our friends, the McFaddens. Frankie and Dex are 2 1/2 and 3 3/4, and Maggie seemed to really enjoy having some other kids her age staying at our house. While they were here, we had a fun trip to the Greenville Children's Museum. A few highlights including: milking a cow, climbing this cool climbing structure, playing in the farmhouse kitchen, and in Alice's Wonderland:






Girls relaxing with a snack and video after the excitement of the museum:


We also baked and decorated (and consumed!) Christmas cookies. Rather messy, but tasty and lots of fun!









Silly Frankie!


We had a great time! Thanks for coming, Jenny, Frankie, Dex and Grazi. Hope to see you guys again soon!

Jingle Bells

For your listening pleasure, a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells:




I especially love her "hey" at the end!

Christmas preparations

We've been very busy getting ready for Christmas! Maggie is obsessed with her Christmas dresses and wears them all the time. Luckily, she has several, so she can wear one nearly every day!


We were out running errands one day, and it turned out that she was properly attired for appreciating the Christmas tree at the library....


And a Christmas cookie from the bakery!


Opening a pre-Christmas package from Aunt Patty and Uncle Tom:


This year, she has some idea of who Santa is, so she was pretty excited about this Santa t-shirt!


Maggie loves her advent calendar. It took a little while for it to sink in, but now she asks to open her stocking first thing in the mornings.


Each day she gets a toy or a treat, as well as a tiny ornament to put on her table-top tree:


Maggie's been a big help this holiday season, as usual. Here she is "helping" Patrick put up our Christmas lights:



Getting our Christmas tree -- they had these awesome huge Santas at the Christmas tree lot:


Maggie's been enjoying wearing her Santa hat, and she especially loves the little ball on the end:


Looking for the perfect tree:

Helping her daddy set our tree up:


Very festive!

Christmas parade

I have lots of pictures to post of all of the pre-Christmas preparations and festivities we've been enjoying! Last week, Maggie and I went to the Clemson Christmas parade. It was freezing cold, but lots of fun! We both appreciated the free hot chocolate they were giving out.

Can you spot some on Maggie's face? :)

Maggie loved waving to all the people and characters in the parade:


The grand finale was Santa on this fire truck! Maggie was so excited.

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year at Aunt Judy and Uncle Eddie's. There were lots of fun things to do, like feeding worms to the fish:


Playing on this great bridge that Uncle Eddie built:



Wearing this enormous leaf as a hat:


Mom and Uncle Eddie got in on the fun, too:



Clapping and marching over the pond bridge with Aunt Judy:


And driving the golf cart with Uncle Eddie:


Oh and eating delicious food, too, though I didn't get any pictures of that -- I was too busy. :) We had a great time!

Cranberries

Maggie was a big help making the cranberries for Thanksgiving dinner!


Trying to fish one out...


...which of course she had to taste! She thought they were much better after they'd been cooked. :)