Football & Fairy Tales The McSwains

Florida

We headed out the Monday after Christmas for the last stop on our holiday adventure - Florida! It was nice to be in warmer weather - it got up to 70 degrees 2 days we were there. We took Madison Claire to the beach (which she continues to love), did some shopping, spent time with my family, saw a movie, and just relaxed. As usual, it was a great trip!

Christmas Day!

Madison Claire slept with us on Christmas Eve and woke up bright and early on Christmas morning. We woke up the buddy who was pretty out of it wondering what was going on and went out to see what Santa had brought. Madison Claire was pretty overwhelmed - she just stood there silent and then said after some time, "this is for buddy" to one of the gifts that was for Mac. Once she came around a little bit, she loved all of her princess dolls, dress up outfits, and the doll bed. We played with the gifts from Santa, had breakfast, and then went to the McSwains church. It was great to be able to go to church and celebrate the birth of our Savior on Christmas Day!

After church we came home (after finding an open gas station so I could get a fountain diet coke...I am my mothers child :)) and put the kids down for a nap. After naptime we opened more gifts and had an amazing Christmas day meal thanks to Cheryl. Madison Claire continued to be a bit overwhlemed with everything - so much so that she left 3 presents wrapped in princess paper under the tree. She had no interest in opening them so Cheryl is going to hang on to them and bring them to Memphis for her birthday. Nice!

Madison Claire's favorite gift may have been the card that I got for her, which had Rapunzel from the movie Tangled singing to her when she opened it up. She did not want to part with that card. I think she would have slept with it if I would have let her. Note to self - next year, no presents, just a singing card!

It was such a great day and was the last of the 7 days we spent in Nsahville with the McSwains. Madison Claire got to spend some good time with Nana & Papa, the buddy loved the dogs, and Ryan and I got to have a few nights out just the two of us, eating at some of our old Nashville favorites, and spending time with our Nashville friends.

Family, friends, food, and celebrating the birth of the savior of the world...what else could we ask for?!?

Goodmorning & Merry Christmas!!

The 3 presents that remained unopened :)

Christmas Lights

I wrote earlier in December that Madison Claire loves Christmas lights and it broke my heart that we didn't have any Christmas decorations up at our house because they are all packed amidst all of our other things. Well...Gary came through in a big way! Check out the McSwain house this Christmas:

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we headed out to Stoney River with the McSwains for dinner and then came home to wait for Santa! Madison Claire said goodbye to Howie (who made the trip with us to Cincinnati and Nashville) and we tried to explain to her that she wouldn't see him until next Christmas. She doesn't quite understand that and still wakes up some mornings asking where Howie is :). We got all of the gifts out in front of the tree and I had a few moments of feeling overwhelmed at how much "stuff" there was. We truly are so blessed. My kids have more toys than they could ever play with, more clothes than they will ever be able to wear, and yet here was more. I said a prayer that night that my kids would have grateful hearts and that they would learn to be good "sharers" and "givers away" (I'm sure that's not a real word, but you get my drift). How do you teach about the birth of Jesus amidst all of the "stuff"? I'm not really sure yet, but Madison Claire has been able to digest that we celebrate Jesus's birthday at Christmas and that his mom is Mary. She will also tell you pretty quickly after that "my teachers say it's not my birthday" which leads us to think that when they were celebrating Jesus's birthday at school, Madison Claire made some comment about it being her birthday too and the teachers telling her it wasn't. Too funny. Hopefully next year she will be able to comprehend a little more than that :)

Cookies for Santa

Madison Claire made cookies for Santa with daddy and was so proud of them! We set them out that night and she made sure we all knew that there were crumbs left in the morning :)

Girls Day Out!

I told Ryan that over Christmas break I wanted to spend some good one-on-one time with Madison Claire. I was in need of a pedicure, so I decided we'd make a date of it! We hit Sonic first and I ordered Madison Claire her own drink - what she calls a Cherry Mermaid Slush (aka a Cherry Limeade Slush) and my typical Diet Coke. Then we hit the nail salon where I had a pedicure and she had her toenails & fingernails painted. I let her pick whatever color she wanted and she chose purple polish with sparkles. She did a great job staying still on my lap & was obsessed with the fluorescent light dryer. It was so much fun...I hope we can do it more often!

Trip to Cincinnati

We took a trip up to Cincinnati the weekend before Christmas to visit with Ryan's extended family. It was a quick trip, but a great one. The kids made the trip well and we got to see both sides of the family. I made a trip up to the outlet mall near our hotel and scored a great deal on a North Face jacket for Ryan for Christmas. Sunday afternoon we headed over to the Terry's to visit. They loved the kids -- especially meeting the buddy for the first time. He was a little charmer!

Grandma Terry & the buddy

4 Generations :)

The buddy got his first toy of his own from Grandma & Grandpa Terry!

On Monday, we met up with the McSwain crew. Grandpa McSwain loved seeing the kids too, and we had a lot of fun with all of the little second cousins. Madison Claire called them "my friends" and talked about them for several days! So fun!