Santa sure was busy! He left lots of goodies at our house for Campbell and after we had breakfast we went over to Honey & Papa’s where he had left even more!!
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday celebrating Christ’s birth with their families.
Campbell hosted a Christmas party for all her friends at her Honey & Papa’s house. Well, our friends too! We are always looking for fun ways to socialize with our friends but involve the kiddos, too. We had a hayride (complete with Christmas lights and Christmas carols) and even sang a little karaoke! Here was the email invitation:
Campbell is Inviting Her Friends for a Christmas Hayride!
Tuesday, December 23 | 6pm | The Campbell Barn
The Christmas season is crazy so we don’t want mean to add anything new
But tis’ the season to celebrate and we are so thankful to have friends like you
So grab the kids, get your blue jeans on and lets have some good ol’ fashioned fun
We’re gonna grill hot dogs & go hayridin’ so bring some warm stuff to pile on
Honey & Papa are in charge so we’ll have to sing and act like kids again
No gifts, no holiday ties & sweaters--just a gathering of our little friends!
The pictures from the hayride didn’t really show up and I didn’t get any of all the kids together but here are the few I managed to get, mostly from the Christmas-carol-karaoke-sing-a-long:
Jingly Bells! Papa got out his guitar a lot and sang Christmas carols with Campbell. Her favorite song is Jingle Bells and she would bang on the piano actually in rhythm with Papa. She entertained all of us Christmas Eve with Jamie’s parents. 
Aunt Katherine helped Campbell & Clairee cook Aunt Helen’s famous banana nut bread.Today was Campbell’s Christmas Party at school. The kids got to wear their pjs to school, swap gifts and Santa came for a visit.
Miss Amy’s Class
Campbell is in the pink pajamas, bottom right (not looking at the camera). Thanks Miss Amy for sharing this picture!
I have these Christmas stockings I ordered from Pottery Barn a few years ago. Everyone has their own, even the dog. And they are personalized with our name.
Last week I told Matt he needed to open one of his Christmas presents early. It was a little stocking that matched ours. But its not personalized….yet. Wanna know Why?????
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That’s right, I am expecting! I wanted to desperately wait until Christmas Eve/morning and come up with a really creative way to tell Matt and our families but I had to spill the beans early.
I have been feeling so sick and missing some work, skipping Christmas parties and pretty much felt like doing nothing so the night Matt brought home Chicken Noodle Soup and Nyquil and was so desperate to get me to feel better….well, I just had to tell him the truth. So I handed over the Pottery Barn package that had just arrived.
I’ve known since December 2nd. I was in Montgomery for Jury Duty and had pretty much figured it out but had no time (or privacy) to get a stick so while I was in town I called my doc’s office and asked if I could come by for a test. Sure enough-it was positive!
During our Thanksgiving beach trip Matt’s mom asked us if I was pregnant and we both said No, of course not. Which I thought was the truth. But then I started thinking. And realizing that although I felt really good (got up every morning and was running, in a great mood, shopped ‘til I dropped) I was doing some strange things (snacking in the middle of the night out of the refrigerator, ordering jalapenos on my hash browns at Waffle House, had crazy anxiety& thoughts about accidently dropping my child or someone falling off our high rise condo balcony) so I started thinking hmmm…..
I was feeling so great that I knew I could hold out until Christmas and make it so special. But alas the typical symptoms set in and I finally had to tell at least my family so they understood why I didn’t feel like doing much, particularly during this busy holiday season, and could help me out with some excuses.
So I about 7 weeks along which calculates to a due date in late July (sound familiar!).
The Troy Junior Women’s League has an annual Breakfast with Santa pancake breakfast, kids activities and of course pictures with Santa. We went last year but of course Campbell really wasn’t into the crafts, was too small for most of the games and then screamed when we put her on Santa’s lap. So I was interested to see what this year would hold. She did great! She talked to Santa so much that we could hardly get her to look straight ahead and smile for the camera!
Honey went with us and she had fun doing a lot of the crafts with Campbell. Our little girls is getting so big and I can tell that Christmas is going to be so fun for her and all of us!
Matt has established a new tradition. Whether I like it or now…the tree is going up the day after Thanksgiving. Now he doesn’t dictate that it has be to decorated. No, he wouldn’t demand that. But he, on the other hand, will have the tree put together, in place with all 3,000 twinkling lights blazing in the corner of my living room with all the decorations out of the attic and in the floor. So his job is over and now I can get started. You know, whenever I feel up to it….
I love having my house decorated but for some reason I just want to put off the whole dragging everything out and making the big mess. Doesn’t sound very much in the Spirit of things, does it? Once I get started I am okay. And Matt is such the little elf that he puts on Christmas music, has some cocoa or cider on hand and at some point will have National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation playing (and quoting every other line). So it is fun and when its all done I am excited.
So here’s a glimpse into the Baker house this Christmas…
Campbell and I collected sea shells, so many different colors & sizes & shapes. I had never seen so many! And Campbell wanted to bring some home to show Teresa.
It was a great way to spend our Thanksgiving Day!! Thanks Papa Q, Clairey, Sid & Edie for a great time at the beach with you. We look forward to next year!
Matt spent many of his traditional Thanksgivings at the beach with his family. This year, Matt’s mom decided it was time to start a new tradition of going back to the old tradition and taking a beach vacation the week of Thanksgiving. She rented a condo that was large enough for all of us in Gulf Shores and we had a great vacation and holiday with the Quarles.
I got a lot of Christmas shopping done at the nearby outlet mall in Foley, we went into Pensacola one day for some specialty boutique shopping, ate lots of seafood and played on the beach. All in all, it was a great week just relaxing. I got every morning and went for a little jog and had some great quiet time. The condo had an indoor pool and gym so that was nice to have but mostly, I appreciated having the time to recover from the Summit and I’m thankful that Matt’s family encourages us to just be lazy and do whatever we want to do without having a schedule of planned events.
Here are pics from our vacation week:
Papa Q took Campbell to the beach every morning.
Papa Q is a serious castle maker. Gotta dig until you hit water! Campbell was more interested in kicking the sand back into the hole after all his hard work.
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