A little Dirty Santa!

 Last night was one of my most favorite times of the year!

I am SO sad that we are in a stupid pandemic................and the fact that I didnt get to have the normal big shindig and invite alll my favorites but I just couldnt go without having my Dirty Santa party so I kept it small and we had a blast! Next year is going to be HUGE...and COVID better be loooong gone!

Always a memory maker and full of food, laughs and fun!

 This year I did....my favorite things....Dirty Santa and it was a hit! With the way the world has been lately, bringing a smile to everyone doing their 'favorite thing(s)' was so fun!

Alllll the food! LOVE!

I love how I did the butcher paper this year with fun writing...decor on it! Love changing up how I do things each year! :)

This was SOOOO funny! Soooo...the theme was to wear your comfy clothes and most festive socks! The person with the most festive socks won a gift. Well......Crissy won HANDS down! SOOOOO funny! She had my face on her socks! She then took them off and gave them to me to keep! CRACKED me up!! There was NO question she won the prize! haha!

LOOK at these! They are AMAZING!!!

SOOOOO fun! With games and trivia galore! Laughs and friends.....is what it is all about...even if we kept our distance and wore masks!.....that didnt stop us! SO.much.fun.

2nd basketball games!

 I titled this.......2nd basketball games....

because...

it is their 2nd night........but actually 6th game(3) last night!

Crazy! 

These girls are rock stars and the fact that they will cheer a total 9 games in a week is just madness! 

The girls and boys on the basketball teams get to play their game and go home. Eat, shower, study, do homework...ya know...sleep...rest....

but those cheerleaders.....

they are there from the time they are out of school all the way until 9! Last night Alexis didnt get home until 9:00pm because of the games and them going into overtime. 

But....she loves it and she is with her friends and she is still doing amazing in school...

so hats off to her......

and the rest of them...

and let them be rock stars!

Big games last night........against a big rival Alexandria! The 7th grade boys won and the 9th grade boys but the girls took a tough loss. All exciting games though!

Cheering their teams on!

Love my cheerleader!

The Purple Pants

 SOoo......

 the Purple Pants. 

The Purple Pants gets a capital letter at the beginning because they deserve it. They are important. 

Want to know about the Purple Pants? 

Let me tell you a story about the Purple Pants.

See.

Lily.

Well, she is my child that she will swear to you that she cleaned and that her room is 'picked up' yet it still looks like a disaster zone though...she did actually straighten it up, the problem is, her skills are just not great at knowing what is a disaster and what isnt! ha!

So, I went through her pants and saw a pair of cute purple pants that she has not worn yet and told her to sit them on her dresser and that she could wear them at some point this week.

Well, the very next morning, I go into her room and tell her to find a sweater to match the purple pants to wear.................

and the purple pants are nowhere to be found.

Lily and I are having a good 10 minute conversation of.........WHERE are the purple pants. They for sure did not make it to the dresser as I had told Lily. Oh no, she said she left them in the floor............right where I had last put them. We looked under her bed. Under the dresser. All to no avail. The purple pants were nowhere. We were both scratching our head going......the purple pants could not have just got up and walked out of your room....

 soooo.....

where did they go!?!?!

Well, Alexis {during this whole commotion} is walking by going to the bathroom....hearing all of this...getting ready for school.....

so I ask her....Alexis have you seen Lily's purple pants?!?!

WELL....she simply goes...yes, as she is TAKING THEM OUT OF HER DRAWER!

She had them the WHOLE time. Never mentioned that she had them. Knew we were looking for them and yet they were in her drawer sitting there.

OH yeah, I was not a happy camper.

Nonetheless, she didnt even think that MAYBE........oh so MAYBE....that Lily wears a size 8 and she wears a size 12/00 {00-double zero} so the purple pants would NOT fit her...

but she grabbed them {out of Lily's floor} and put them in her drawer because she thought they were cute and wanted them.

Oblivious to even thinking..................they DO NOT FIT!

SO...............

Alexis..............since she so badly wanted Lily's pants....stole them...didnt mention it....

GOT TO WEAR them to school even though she was begging not to because they were not going to fit her like she thought they would!

She was mortified. 

But......maybe it taught her a lesson!

She wore those babies all day and could barely button them!

OH me!

Just OH me!

Never a dull moment!

So, the story of the Purple Pants......dont take your younger sister's clothes that are 5 sizes too small for you and claim them.

She has no idea I took this picture as she was trying to squeeze herself in these! OH my goodness! The {bad part for me but good part for her} thing is........though they were super tight...and she could barely button them....they just look like tight capris on her.She also wore a long and baggy black top over them so no one knew anything...BUT... the funny thing, though, is that even though most other people would not have known that she is wearing pants she shouldnt be, she knew and she had to enjoy them all.day. :)

So, after I washed them and before they were put up, Lily actually got to wear her pants this morning! ha! They look so much better on the correct body! Gracious! :)

Getting in the Christmas spirit!

 Last night we kicked off Christmas with a Christmas tour at Fiddler's Green with the Mobbs crew!

We had dinner and then went and toured the beautiful home and area and it was so neat to see how the antebellum time period experienced Christmas!

I had no idea this beautiful place was right down from Jacksonville. I have never been! I didnt know that I know the owners as well so such a small world! They have tons of weddings and even Civil War reenactments here! So neat!

They have built a beautiful chapel!

A cute little shop with cute Christmas decor!

Inside the home was decorated so pretty. Each room has a Christmas tree!

We had a great girls night!

These three love to hang out!

We saw Santa!

Santa told Alexis she needs jeans without holes in them! :)

Always have fun with this family! The night got us in the Christmas spirit!

It is December 1st!!

 Lily has been on the countdown for weeks.....................for when Ella Jingle is coming to our house!

Literally everyday....she is coming in 5 days. She is coming in 3 days.... she is coming TOMORROW! 

I for sure have not had a chance to forget to come up with something for her arrival! 

The first thing out of Callie's mouth this morning {to Lily} was..............where is your elf!!?!?!

They went straight to her!

At 5:15 THIS MORNING..........Lily came crying {waking me up} in my room sad because Ella Jingle didnt come.......................

Well....back story.......usually Ella Jingle brings alllll of her friends along with a goodie and is in the girl's hallway out in front of their doors to greet them and show she has arrived......

well....this year........

 Ella Jingle is quarantined............and I didnt want her quarantined in the hallway {for Soccer to knock all the 'friends' around and them end up stuck under our couch or somewhere} so Ella Jingle landed in the playroom.............

and Lily didnt know to look there........at 5:15 in THE MORNING........... so she was SO upset!

As soon as I told Lily to go check other places.........like the playroom {hint hint.....go away so I can sleep more! :) :)} she took off...............and found her!

2020 is sooooo trying to redeem itself...............so thank you Santa....Ella Jingle has to stay put until Monday to quarantine..............since she has flown over New York City.............{and we alllll know how bad COVID is in NYC} soooo.....quarantine it is! :)

Whew........I am excited, I do not have to worry until Monday with moving her around until the rest of Christmas! :)

Welcome Ella Jingle...and allll her friends! {I just LOVE how excited Lily still gets with this......even though it is hard to remember to come up with things and move her every night!} :)

The BEST and it wouldnt be 2020 without this! ha!

 

Her 1st basketball game!

 Well...we were not supposed to have a basketball game....or should I say games {3} today but late yesterday night, we got a message that we did. So, instead of her first game being Thursday, it was this afternoon!

Alexis said that she loved cheering for her games! The Eagles looked great and the 7th grade boys and girls won but the 9th grade didnt pull a win against Saks. It was fun watching them and weird cheering against my alma mater!

We will do it all again...Thursday...............and Friday too! :)

Here's to basketball season!

Gosh...how grown does she look!

Cheering and cheering!

Go Eagles!

This squad is a great team with each other! Love watching them!

Great job!

Back in the grooooove

 Well..our Thanksgiving break is coming to an end. It has been a great week off and we had much needed relaxation time and family time!

The girls and I had a fun shopping and 'girl' day to Douglasville Mall the other day, we have watched a ton of Christmas movies, we have spent time with friends and family too during our week!

Last night we enjoyed catching up with the Rays and the Messers........all the while.......Auburn got their butt kicked by Bama. My goodness it was really bad so thank goodness I really didnt watch any of it to have to endure the pain because I was too busy chasing kids and chatting! :) To top it off and make it worse, Saban tested positive again for COVID {apparently the 1st time was a false positive} so this time...he really couldnt coach so not only can those Bama fans say that they beat Auburn...they are also saying...yep...even without our Coach...they won. 

Uggh!! :)

Our last day, today, has been spent at Church and lunch before the storms roll in and before it turns down right COLD this week! Yeah...not looking forward to how cold it is supposed to be. I HATE winter! :)

They were contained for a little bit so I had to take a picture! ha! They always love to hang out up there. They think they are cool to get to crawl through to this area!

My Christmas model today before Church!

Ready to go to Church! My beautiful Lily!

Her 1st school picture as a 7th grader in HIGH school!

 This has been a big year for Alexis. She has loved being 'big' and in 'high school!'

She is just growing up so fast!

As we are gearing up to go back to school, this week, she found her picture proof that will be in the yearbook! 

Alexis as a 7th grader!

{I dont think this child has had an 'awkward' picture YET to be made of her! MY goodness....some of my school pictures are embarrassing!  ha!}

Christmas at home...

 I looooveee when my home becomes sooo cozy with Christmas decorations! It is my favorite!

Welcome!

to...our living room!

I just love changing up this tree each year! I am loving this look this year!

I LOVE this gold tree! It is perfect in this spot!

I wanted to have a green..cozy..warm...feel for the mantle this year!

I love how it turned out!

Changed up this tree....too...and I love it!

This tree has my most favorite ornaments on it! I just love each ornament for its own reason!

Dining room is always one of my favorite rooms! I just love the little Christmas town that Nannie gave me several years ago. It's Lily's favorite too! She loved helping me set it up!

My model that usually takes pictures by everything with me....was being lazy this morning! Caught her curled up on her IPAD!

See another model in this picture! Aubie! :)

And...our newest model in the family! He blends in with the basket! :) Our home feels so Christmas and I just love it!

Thanksgiving 2020

 There have been government people telling us Americans to cancel Thanksgiving. To not gather in large groups. To not do your traditional Thanksgiving memories.

Yep...

that is the times we are in right now.

There are actual memes on Facebook that say: 

Soooo....ya know...2020 has come with some crazy times and just days that plain stink. I have to say, I feel this day and time that everyone should realize that we for sure are not guaranteed tomorrow and should make those memories and have that family time but..{all while still keeping a distance and being safe}...it just hasnt been that easy these days...

We didnt get to have our normal 'big' Thanksgiving with everyone {LaLa, her crew, Pam, her crew, etc} but hopefully it will happen Christmas!

I didnt take many pictures...I didnt even think about it....but we enjoyed a yummy Cracker Barrel meal with Gran, Ben and Andrew last night for Thanksgiving. It was SO good! We sat around and chatted, 'hung out' {in Alexis' slang} before heading home to crash!

Then today was Thanksgiving! We enjoyed watching the Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC. It was just SOOOO crazy watching the parade knowing how NYC is right now. It just breaks my heart! I just love NYC and to know that it is basically a closed down deserted place just is horrible! Thankfully NYC still held the parade {pretty sure against NYC's governor choice} but it was just so different watching it this year! No huge crowd. No huge groups of people pulling the giant balloons along. Not university or high school bands. BUT...they made the best of it. Had local NYC action that participated. They had some balloons {flown/tied to trucks/trailers}  Everyone shown had on masks. They social distanced and made the best out of the situation. Thankful that it was still something to bring happiness and some type of 'normalcy!' 

We got cleaned up and ready and enjoyed eating at Nan and Pawpaws. Brandi and Ted's sister came to eat with us. It was good to catch up with them and eat Nan's good cooking. We spent the rest of the day at home just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful day it turned into!

I am SO thankful for my little family and though 2020 has brought some trying times, I am thankful for what good changes and down time it has allowed. There is always...always..always...something to be thankful for!

My 'pumpkin' cheese ball! Yeah....it needed a little longer to 'set' before making it into the 'pumpkin' so it looks a little flat....but hey, it was still delish! ha!

Alexis....yeah, her eyes are bigger than her stomach! ha! Look at that spread!

I thought to grab a living room shot! ha!

My 'littlest' pumpkin and me!

Daddy asked.....if they wanted a 'Thanksgiving s'more!' They didnt care they were already in their pjs...close to bedtime! :)

Lily was tooooo busy eating to stop and smile! Thankful for the memories and great Thanksgiving..even if we are in a pandemic!

Wordless Wednesday!

 A little great prayer on this Thanksgiving Wednesday!