Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I don't have time to write separate blog posts for these two events, so I'm wrapping them together, tying them up with ribbon and sprinkling on some confetti.

I'm looking forward to 2013 - 13 is such a great number in our home. I was born on the 13th, married on the 13th and gave birth to my amazing daughter on the 13th. How can 2013 not be awesome for us?

And while it is already in the recent past (it came and went so quickly), I want to wish you all a belated Merry Christmas! We did not get to travel home to see any family as I had hoped we'd get to this year, I haven't spent Christmas with my family since 2005 and never with my hubby's family, but we did get to spend some great time with our new neighbors of six months.

Christmas Eve was spent with one set of neighbors and their four kids. Georgia played hard while my hubby and I enjoyed some adult conversation (and beverages!). The Sunday before Christmas we spent at church with our next-door neighbors and their three daughters. They also invited us to share Christmas dinner with them. It was a great time getting to know great neighbors.

And Georgia had a fabulous Christmas morning with way too many presents - a high she is still coming down from.

So here's to another year of wonderfulness. Happy New Year and many blessings!

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Dad, If You're Reading This...

... I figured out your trick.

You figured out how to get out of the Christmas toy assembling that I know you mastered for all those years of having us four kids.

Become a grandpa!

While I know Georgia will LOVE this doll house you sent her for Christmas, the hour I spent putting it together and sticking on every last sticker was not so much fun. :)

But I can't wait to see her open it on Christmas morning. Thanks! (this post obviously written before Christmas, I just forgot to post it)

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My Baby's a Singer!!

OK, OK, actually Georgia likes to sing non-stop these days, especially now that's it's Christmas time and there are SOOOO many Christmas songs. But on this night, my little girl sat on a stage for the very first time and sang in front of a room full of people.

It's her first recital... I'm so proud!!!!!

And just like any true kid, she went from singing to looking around to being a ham.



I wish we would have arrived earlier so I would have been closer to take pictures (lesson learned for next year), but thank God for my Nikkor 70-200mm! It got me close enough.

And then in true Georgia-style, when her class was done, she couldn't let it end there. She proceeded to dance in the aisle to the other songs by the other classes. Always the center of attention, this one!

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Here Comes Santa Claus... There Goes Georgia...

A couple weekends ago, we did what's becoming our annual trip to "Breakfast with Santa." OK, it's only our second year of doing it, but hey, it's only our second year living here. It's at our local convention center and it benefits our local hospital's foundation, and it's an all in all good time.

This year was no exception. After eating breakfast, in which Santa comes around to each table to say hi to the kids, it was then time to visit the big man himself up on the stage. This year, as opposed to last, Georgia was ready with her list of desires to relay to Santa when he asked.

But just like last year, when we walked Georgia up onto the stage where Santa sat, as soon as she saw Santa, she took off running to him.

She then proceeded to go through that well-rehearsed list.



After our visit with that jolly man, we made an ornament, beaded a bracelet, decorated a cookie and wrote a list to Santa so that he wouldn't forget what Georgia had told him just minutes before.



After breakfast, we went for a walk around downtown.



And Georgia found a poster in a store window with her name on it! She and I were leading a "Mistletoe March" through downtown a couple of weeks after this morning.



A great, Christmas-filled morning for all!

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Forget Halloween - Christmas means CANDY!

Eastern North Carolina has to be the Christmas Parade capital of the world. No, I'm serious - I have never lived in a place with sooooo many Christmas Parades. Every little town here has its own line-up of beauty queens, high school bands, boats (there's always a boat in parades here), car dealerships and Santa to meander down main street on almost every Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The town might only have a population of 500, but residents will throw a parade for thousands.

And most of these parade entries throw out candy... lots and lots of candy. That makes my daughter one happy and hyper little girl.

At the end of November, Georgia, my hubby and I were actually in one of the larger parades around here. We got to ride in a car on behalf of the TV station I work for, and man, did Georgia like that. I thought she find it cool waving to the crowd for the first 15 minutes or so, and then get bored and require some entertainment by the hubs and me. But no, that little girl waved out the window for the entire parade route, about an hour's worth, and she never stopped smiling. It was awesome!

But this past weekend was the time for us to sit back and watch another parade go by and catch and chase and pick up the candy. Georgia was ready, patiently waiting for the start and wearing what would become candy-blocking sunglasses.



And here it comes!!



And my little girl just soaked it all up as she kept her eye on the candy!

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My Litte Reindeer... or is it Rein-dear?

Now that my friends and family members should be receiving their Christmas cards in the mail, here's a look at some of the fun Georgia and I had shooting some pictures to use for them.

Love this girl...

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I Know You're Here.

I was not raised in what I would call a religious family. It was more like we flirted with religion. My parents were married in a church, the kids were all baptized in that same church, we had a nativity under the Christmas tree and we talked about it being Jesus' birthday - but that's about where it ended. We knew about God and Jesus and they were never denied, but we didn't say grace before each meal, we didn't read the Bible and we didn't go to church. But starting in kindergarten and lasting through the eighth grade, I was sent to a variety of religious-based schools. Kindergarten was a Lutheran school, first and second grades were in a Catholic school and third through eighth grades were in what was simply called a Christian school - very similar teachings to a Methodist church. It is these years when I can say I developed a better understanding of religion, God and church and where I began to have a relationship with God and faith. But a little more than three years ago, what I had always thought was a pretty strong faith in God was shattered - if God is all knowing and doing then the jerk killed my mother - and let's just say we haven't been on the best of terms since. And it doesn't help that no matter how much I want to go back to that faith of bygone years and believe my mother truly did go to Heaven or something beyond here, the fact remains I simply don't feel her anymore. I haven't (much) since she died. But then came Thursday of this past week. My mom, it had to have been my mom, was watching over me and more so, Georgia. I know it was her. I want to believe it was her. The night before, Wednesday, I had been moving some stuff around in my car and unbuckled Georgia's car seat in the process. To get it out of my way, I moved it up to the front seat. When I finished what I was working on, it was late, so I put her car seat back in its normal position in the back seat and told myself I would buckle it down in the morning before Georgia and I went anywhere. You might see where this is going... The next day, Thursday, I was running late to work because Georgia had napped later than normal. We hurried out to my car, I buckled her into her car seat and back out of the garage. I reached up to the visor above the passenger seat to the place where my garage door opener typically rests so I could close the garage door - no garage door opener. Crap - what the hell happened to it? I jump out and run over to the passenger side to look on the floor, thinking perhaps it had fallen off. No garage door opener. Then I remember putting Georgia's car seat in this same front seat the night before then moving it to the back seat - maybe that knocked the garage door opener to the back seat. I rush back there to look on the seat, but instead of finding a garage door opener, I find my child strapped into a car seat that is not strapped to my car's seat. Holy S***! I almost drove all the way to her daycare without her buckled down. I proceed to buckle the car seat to the car's seat and the EXACT moment I finished, I saw the garage door opener sitting on the floor of the back seat. And then I felt her. It was a little overwhelming. Call me crazy, but my mom was right there. She was. And she made sure that grandbaby of hers was safe. This past Thursday, a little bit of my faith came back to me. I found it on the floor of my car's back seat.

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