Day 3 - Christmas with The Chosen in the theater. Ryan and I absolutely love this show and see so much value in it. They produced a Christmas concert with so many incredibly talented well-known musicians; we all enjoyed it tremendously.
Day 4 - A who feast on our new Grinch themed plates for dinner while we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Our feast included who beast (New York strip), who hash (hash browns), who pudding (vanilla pudding), and who peas (simply fun to say). We also had a grinch drink for a tasty treat; it was sprite mixed with lime sherbet. A delicious and fun meal!
We also enjoyed a raspberry swirl cheesecake from Juniors for dessert. Doesn't it just look Christmas-y?!
Day 5 - Our church hosted its annual Remembrance Service. Our family served as volunteers to help guests find their way from the sanctuary to the fellowship hall. This was a lovely evening.
Day 6 - Assemble our Christmas cards for mailing. I really liked this year's design.
Day 7 - Mia got to plan today's activity, and she chose Ryan and me brining Chick-fil-a lunch to her and Lily at school. What a delicious idea!
Day 8 - Girls choose charitable causes to support with their own funds from Samaritan's Purse. Both chose items that will help children.
Day 9 - Stonehaven's Christmas program.
Day 10 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas musical at The Fox Theater. This was such a fun event!
Day 11 - Christmas shopping for Decker. Side note, we were pretty excited to get to eat inside Chick-fil-a again as it finally reopened after being closed since March, 2020, due to the pandemic.
Day 12 - Light of Christmas program at church. It was beautiful!
Day 13 - We did a Name That Tune game quickly one evening with no pictures. The winner would get to open the first present on Christmas Day. Way to go Ryan!
Day 14 - Read Max Lucado's book "The Crippled Lamb." That's what was supposed to happen. However, some giggling fits overtook us somehow, and we just couldn't have the right attitude to read it this evening. Instead, we just laughed and had a good evening together. Then, later on in the evening, I read it by myself with my favorite view because I love this book.
Day 15 - We were supposed to go see Leslie Odom Jr at Symphony Hall, but he had to cancel due to Covid issues. We hated that happened, but what can you do. We then actually scheduled to have a nice family dinner together at Canoe that evening, but then we realized the girls were exhausted and in the middle of exams. We scrapped that plan, went to Willy's for dinner, then drove through some of Smyrna looking at Christmas lights for a few minutes. It was an easy, peaceful evening which turned out to be exactly what we needed that night.
Day 16 - We were supposed to tell our favorite Christmas jokes this evening, but between Mia studying, Lily going to her Yule Feast progressive dinner, and Ryan and me going to small group, it just didn't happen. No big deal because Ryan sends us his favorite dad joke each day to make up for it!
Day 17 - Bama's Christmas party in Birmingham; it was great to see this side of the family all together!
Day 18 - Encanto with Bama at the theater. Such a cute movie!
Day 19 - Meme's Christmas party at Jodi's house. Both Ryan and Lily were under the weather and unable to join us, but it was still a nice evening with family.
Day 20 - Campfire night. We always love a good a good hot dog cooked over an open flame. Of course we had s'mores for dessert. It was a beautiful evening for this!
Day 21 - Lily's day to choose the activity, and she wanted to go see the new Spiderman at AMC.
Day 22 - The girls and I went to see West Side Story with Granna, McKayla, and Molly. We forgot to get a picture of all of us, but we still had fun! This used to be one of Granna's favorites growing up, so she was excited to take us. It was a little different than the one she grew up on, but it was still a good one with some beautiful music.
Day 23 - The girls and I made some no-bake chocolate chip cookie dough balls. They were sweet but pretty tasty.
Day 24 - Christmas Eve started by having Granna, Papa, Wayne, McKayla, Molly, and Zac over for brunch. I can't believe it, but we didn't take any pictures at all! I was off my picture game this year apparently. It was a wonderful morning of being together. We always have a delicious meal, and then we enjoyed each other's company while opening gifts. I am so thankful for my family. We rested in the afternoon, and then in the evening, the four of us went to church for the Christmas Eve service which was lovely.
After the service, we went home to get dinner, and then we have a tradition of letting the girls each have a gift on Christmas Eve. We usually give them new pjs or something along those lines but this year it was a little different. We used the Cameo app to have each receive a really cool personalized message from a celebrity. Mia received a message from Olesya Rulin who is the actress who originally played Kelsi in High School Musical. She wished Mia good luck as she also plays Kelsi in her upcoming role for High School Musical Jr. She was so encouraging about being an actor and having fun with this. Lily received a message from Joe Tessatore who is one of the commentators on Holey Moley (and Monday Night Football host); this is a favorite extreme mini-golf show that Ryan and Lily watch together almost every Saturday morning. Joe wished her a Merry Christmas and noted what a cool dad she must have since he watches the show with her, and they share matching Holey Moley socks and mugs. He also told her he hopes she'll be a contestant someday so he can commentate while she goes down the zip line on Ho Ho Hole, her favorite part of the coarse. They both seemed pretty shocked to receive these videos; they were awesome gifts!
