Anne Louise’s FIRST Christmas!

We have over 500 pictures from Anne Louise’s first Christmas.   And that’s after deleting the duplicates or “not so good” ones.  Wow – total parent overload, I’m sure.  We will be posting a link to the pictures on Shutterfly soon, but in the meantime, here is a recap of our WONDERFUL Christmas holiday.

Christmas Eve was full of excitement as Anne Louise got dressed up to go meet Santa!  The “house” was all a flutter with “Would she like him” or “Would she not” conversation.

After waiting almost an hour at SouthPark mall, we got our answer – not a fan.  She was literally clinging to Patrick’s jacket as he tried to put her in Santa’s lap. 

As soon as Patrick walked away, the meltdown began.  We got a few “good” (use that term loosely) shots before it was total breakdown.  

After that, we whisked AL away and headed to have Christmas Eve lunch, which is a tradition that Patrick and I started a while ago to make time for our own little family amidst all the hustle and bustle of the season and other family dinners.  Anne Louise had a blast eating fancy mac-and-cheese at Roosters, but her favorite (no I’m not joking) was the roasted beets.  She couldn’t get enough.  After lunch, we finished up some last minute shopping and headed up for naps and wrapping. 

We met Joan and Caroline at church for a wonderful Christmas Eve service, and then headed to Mama’s for a delicious dinner.  The Ross Wilsons joined us, and it was a very special family time.  Mama made the main course (yummy turkey, roast beef, mashed potatoes and green beans), while Joan made my fave Yorkshire Pudding.  The icing on the cake was Ross’s homemade chocolate custard with fresh whipped cream – this stuff puts jello to shame (in fact, I feel guilty even putting the two in the same sentence). After dinner (and a little bit of present opening), we headed home to put AL to sleep and wait for Santa. 

Sure enough, Santa came – BIG TIME!  Anne Louise got her first laptop, cell phone, and keys . . . in addition to some puzzles, PJs, clothes, socks (which for some reason, Santa ALWAYS brought to the Wilson sisters, so I guess the tradition lives on), blocks, drum/music set, and some other good stuff!   Her favorite was the laptop FOR SURE – she kept saying “oooooo” and just chatting away. After opening our family gifts, we packed up the car (and of course the laptop) and headed to Nana’s for more presents and Mama’s traditional cinnamon rolls. 

After getting our fill of Nana-love (in the form of hugs, gifts and breakfast), we hit the road for the six hour trip to Virginia Beach in pouring-non-stop rain (that Patrick said felt like 6 hours of Chinese water torture).  We finally arrived to a warm greeting by the Magees – and not just a few of them – all of them!  Kevin, Leslie and Harper (we like to call them KLH) had been “snowed out” of West Virginia (they were headed there to see Leslie’s family), so we got to see them Christmas night.  It was such an AWESOME surprise, and the little cousins had fun playing together.  The rest of the time in Va Beach was VERY special – Patrick and I got some time alone (thanks Grandi – guest blog coming next).  We also got to spend some time with Patrick’s dad and Jan (and her granddaughter Alyssa), too, at their house and then went to watch the sunset at one of their favorite places, Dockside.  

Like I said, lots and lots and lots of pictures – way too many to put here, so we’re uploading them to Shutterfly and will post the link soon!   But as you can tell from the little sampling here, it was a wonderful Christmas!