Let The Holidays Begin

With Christmas just around the corner, and me behind on my blogging, I decided to add this post before starting with the Christmas activities. This year we kicked off the beginning of the holidays by spending Thanksgiving with Brett's family in Conway. The first holiday without PaPa Ed was sad for all of us. Especially remembering how much he loved to be with his family and having all of us together. Eddie, Brett's older brother, made reservations for all of us at the Dunes Club for lunch. It was a beautiful day and the food was amazing (especially the desert table). Later that night, MaMa Anne cooked a huge meal and we gathered once again to eat!

Anne and Crystal at the Dunes Club.

After lunch we gathered outside and snapped a few pics.

Later that night, Robert and Brett and I decided to do a little midnight shopping. Actually it started at 9pm with Toys-R-Us. I seriously thought we'd be the only ones there. Was I wrong!

We stayed out until 2 in the morning bargain shopping and you would have thought it was early afternoon the way the roads, and even McDonald's, were hopping at that early hour.

The next day we shopped a little more, and the Wild West store had this interesting people pleaser out front. Of course, we could not resist. A camel at a Wild West store??? Only in Conway!

Holiday Performance Recap

Each of the kids showed off their hard work at their holiday performances right before school ended for the holiday's. Eli's school had a holiday singing. Here he is pre-performance, hanging out with the boys in his class.

And as you can see, his class his ALL boys! Nine of them are wonderfully managed each day by the sweet and lovely, Ms. Haynie (pictured to the right). I am so happy that Eli enjoys his school and his friends.

The assembled performers, Eli is right in the middle.

And my heart just melted when I saw my big man sing at the top of his lungs and do all the hand movements that went along with the songs. I couldn't believe this was the same little boy who used to stand still and look very uninterested in group participation.

Chapel had her dance club performance and was absolutely beautiful as a star. She has the most poise and grace - did not get that from her mama.

And finally, my babies showed off their hard work and talent at their Dance Moves recital. They go once a week and are always very eager to learn and show us what they've learned. Jude is the only boy in the class so of course he was a big ham during the recital.