Family Christmas Cruise

My parents decided to try something different for Christmas this year. Instead of exchanging gifts, we would all go on a family vacation together. I loved the idea but when I found out we were going on a cruise I had a lot of apprehensions. If you have never cruised, you are in VERY tight sleeping quarters and the cruise focus is not on families with children. I was pleasantly surprised. Grantham had a great time and even did well at the formal dinners in the evenings. The pictures below are just a few of from each day:

Day 1 Leaving the port of New Orleans

our boat and our room

Day 2 A day at sea

Towel animals were a big hit but the mints on the pillow made his night (notice in his hand)

A Formal Dinner

Day 3 A rainy beach day in Costa Maya

You would never guess that it was rainy and cold on this first day at the beach. Grantham had so much fun playing in the sand and wading in the cold water.
Uncle Chip had a blast burying Grantham in the sand!

Day 4 Exploring the Waterfalls in Guatamala

Grantham's first swim in a waterfall. He and his papa loved exploring the rocky terrain.

Day 5 A stop in Beize City - We took a day to relax on the boat while Papa zip lined throught the jungle.

That night after dinner we went to a "club" on the ship to enjoy the music. Grantham was so interested in the drums behind the singers that they invited him to play with them!

This became a regular event each evening!

Day 6 Another beach day in Cozumel

Swimming

Snorkling

Playing in the Sand

Strawberry Daquiries

Pina Coladas

Pina Coladas

And YES More Pina Coladas.

Grantham loved Virgin drinks!!!

Day 7 Another day at sea

Wait to see what I have in store for my Uncle Josh :)

Told you, "wait and see" now he is all wet

Two very wet boys trade hats

A water slide on the boat who could ask for more

Here come Papa and I

Day 8 Leaving the boat (how did it end so soon?)

The "watching" elevators - Since there were 13 levels on the boat we took the elevators a lot to get around. Grantham was parcel to the elevators that allowed you to see what other people were doing on the boat. Hince the "watching" elevators.

Christmas Cookies

We have been enjoying Christmas so much this year. Grantham is starting to understand Christmas (Santa, giving, and even Jesus’s birth). We started by adopting a family with a group here in MS, something we love to do and would encourage everyone to try. It is always a little overwhelming buying undershirts, coats, and clothes for an unknown family. But it is such a blessing to know that they will get to experience a little of the Christmas spirit because God has blessed us with so much. This year we threw a little Christmas party for the neighborhood kids. The pictures are of us making cookies for the party. The kids enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate while making ornaments for a local nursing home. If you read our previous blog you know that we visited Santa (pretty successfully- without tears), but somewhere along the way Grantham realized that he forgot to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. After a few days of him being very concerned that Santa would not know what to bring him, I took him to see the Santa at the mall. Grantham was not so warm to this Santa as the one at Bass Proshop but insisted that I tell Santa for him what he wanted. I did and we began to leave Santa’s “designated” area. A tantrum began??? What is wrong we just saw Santa and now we are having a meltdown. Grantham began begging to see Santa again but there were other people behind us that I did not think would appreciate us returning to Santa’s chair. I bent down and asked him what was the problem? He started saying "I need to tell Santa I want a basketball. He didn’t know that I wanted a basketball." Then I realized that Grantham thought that Santa would give him his gift right then and there. After explaining that Santa would bring his gift in a few days on Christmas the meltdown ended and we continued our mall shopping. Oh the things we never think about as parents!
Enjoy the Christmas cookie pictures:

Notice that John is home for the baking of the cookies, even though he didn't get to participate in the icing and decorating. For those of you still in residency, life does get soooo much better:)

Grantham's cookie creation

But two of the greatest blessings have been watching Grantham understand the true meaning of Christmas (in his own two year old way). About a week before Christmas I realized that I still needed to purchase a few gifts and so we returned to the craziness of mall shoppers. At lunch we stopped at a pizza shop for a quick bit to eat and then to the cookie shop right across the mall walkway. While waiting in line for our cookie Grantham said, “I think that Santa likes to eat pizza too Mommy!” I told him that I was not sure if Santa liked pizza. And Grantham insisted “yes he does,” while pointing to the pizza shop we had just left. I laughed and said, “I guess he does.” Santa was in line for lunch at the pizza shop we had just eaten at. G said “Santa likes pizza like me, I think he would like a cookie too.” I replied, “would you like to get Santa a cookie?” And that is just what we did. Grantham took the cookie over to Santa, handed him the bag and said, “Happy Christmas!” Santa got the biggest grin on his face and said, “thanks I will eat it after I finish my lunch.” (side note I made sure that Santa realized we just bought the cookie at the shop across the way and told him about the above story) I think my son made Santa’s day:) Secondly, Grantham has begun to ask a lot of questions about Jesus. And hopes to receive a Bible for Christmas (how could any parent say no to a Bible?) Mostly he has been asking questions because of the songs we sing. Like Away in a Manger – “Why was there no crib for Jesus?” (no crib for a bed) or Crucified – “Why did the people stomp on Jesus?” (like a rose tramped on the ground, he took the fall). We have had the opportunity to explain ideas about salvation that I never thought a two year old could understand. God is so good! I am so glad that as Christmas becomes an exciting time with presents and Santa that it has also become a time that we can explain the true meaning of the season! Hope you all had a very merry Christmas.

Thanksgiving and Photos with Santa

Okay I know that I just posted Halloween pictures but I am trying to catch-up:) We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. John was on call so we had to stay in the Jackson area. That meant no traveling home to see family. At first we were a little disappointed but we decided to make our own special day. I wish I would have taken pictures but the thought did not cross my mind until after the day was over. We chose to serve meals with a downtown church. But since they did not need help serving the meal, we helped prepare beforehand. I was not sure how much help a fellow with a constant buzzing pager and a mom with a two year old would be but we were determined to do something special on Thanksgiving day. We had a great time cleaning tables, tearing up turkeys into servable portions and wrapping up plastic silverware in napkins. When the crew showed up to serve lunch and the craziness began (we found ourselves more in the way than helping), we excused ourselves to have our own lunch of BLTs.

The weekend continued to be a lot of fun. John even on call as an Allergy/Immunology fellow does not have to spend the nights at the hospital so though the pager goes off John is at home with Grantham and me. After three days of rain, we decided to brave the crazy shoppers and go to Bass Pro shop Outdoor World. We had heard that you could get free Santa pictures and there were holiday activities for kids. We brought a small sack lunch and had a picnic in the back of the mini van (it was raining). Then we explored the store. They had a great set-up for Santa and we were very happy with the pictures we were able to get. If you have a Bass Pro Shop near you, this was so much better than the mall Santa's and the crazy lines that go with it. Don't forget to bring your own camera- you get what you pay for (and these pictures were free). Hope you like the pictures we took with our camera:

Waiting to see Santa

A little Santa Dance

Helping the Elves

Playing with snow

A little more dancing

Not so sure about this Santa character (Santa was so patient while we convinced Grantham to sit in his lap)

Sitting in Santa's Chair

Trying Santa's milk and cookies

Halloween- Better Late than Never :)

I think that is going to be my new life moto "better late than never." I know that many of you who are stay-at-home moms feel the same way. Before I stayed at home, I could get an endless amount of "work" done. But now I am happy if Grantham and I are dressed and the kitchen table has been cleaned off from the last meal:) I have been attending a group called Mom to Mom and so far I love it. It puts a smile on my face each month when one of the moms says something about the endless pile of laundary that needs to be done or never getting "the check list" completed. Last month we talked about things we were thankful for both in the past and at that very moment: one mom said that she was thankful for someplace to be other than home so she had an excuse not to attempt the huge pile of laundary. Don't you have a smile on your face too! In this group we talk a lot about the myths and frustrations we allow the devil to plant within us. I am trying to grasp hold of the idea that each day is God's NOT mine so my check list is just that a check list and not a "I will kill myself and anyone else who gets in the way of me completing my list" list. So right now there is blue tape all over the baseboards of my kitchen (even after 2 weeks) and the face plate for the light switches in the bathroom are still not on the wall (we have lived here for over four months now) because I have not found the time to complete all the painting jobs on my check list. But I have enjoyed having a few friends over, Grantham has mostly stopped hitting, I have been to two stamping/scrapbooking activities and we have had the opportunity to serve as a family, I believe God's list is so much more fulfilling than mine. I pray that I can look back on this blog and remember on the days that I am at my wits end because the list has not been checked off that God has so much greater a plan than we could imagen for our lives.

Okay I have gotten a little off task for this blog post, but going with the theme "better late than never." Here are some fun pictures of Grantham at Halloween. It was his first year to Trick-or-Treat and although we had a terribly pathetic turnout (only fifteen pieces of candy collected) Grantham had a wonderful time. (I ended up being thankful for the lack of candy in the end-after a few days there was no more candy to beg for!) Are you seeing that God's plan is always better than ours? Why do we so easily forget that lesson? Anyway we were in Indiana for Halloween so Grantham got to Trick-or-treat with his cousins. Enjoy the photos!

Grantham loved telling everyone he was going to be a pirate "Ahrrr, Ahoy there matie!"

It wouldn't be Halloween if we didn't all dress up. "Ahrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

Our first stop . . . we learned to take turns ringing the doorbell. Who knew it was so much fun?

How sweet; it makes me want to have a dozen;)

The whole crew

Pumpkin Patch

Today was a great day for discovering the fun of fall. Grantham had his first experience with a hayride and picking pumpkins. Even though the temperature was over 80 degrees, we had a fun day with some new friends at a pumpkin patch. Grantham picked out his very first pumpkin which was so big he could barely pick it up. He also ran through a "hay" maze (something he has been wanting to do since we read the book, Go Dogs Go), and proudly climbed a huge bail of hay, then jumped off. What more could a young boy want from a day?