Christmas 2010: Visiting Santa and the Royal Park Gingerbread House

We had such a great experience with Santa at The Village in Rochester Hills last year, that we decided to visit him again.  Ava wanted to write out a list for Santa, as well as draw a picture of Frosty for him. 

As with any Georgia Peach, the first thing on her list was snow.  :)  She also requested a tent (hmm...she already has one?), Barbie, a car, Dora and robots (?) ;-)

Ava and Grandpa Carey heading to visit Santa.

It was SO COLD that day, Doug's Mom and I went to The Children's Place to pick up some gloves for Liam.  His poor little hands were freezing!

BRRRR!

Waiting for Santa

It is incredibly too sweet to watch Ava with Santa.  She falls for him hook, line and sinker.  It is nice and warm (and quiet!) in the pavilion, so it was quite magical.  She was so anxious to show him her picture of Frosty, along with her wish list. 

Santa checking out her Frosty picture.  :)  Magic.

Last year Liam sat on his lap because Ava did.  This year?  Not so much...

Me giving Santa a high-five, to show Liam that Santa was cool.  We tried!

Phew!  I was a little concerned I wouldn't get ANY "terrorized by Santa" pictures of our kids.  Quota met.
After visiting Santa, we headed to McDonald's for a quick lunch with Grandma and Grandpa.  I had heard that the Royal Park Hotel had a very cute (although large!) gingerbread house display.  I told the Careys I thought it might be fun to visit.  I think they probably thought I was crazy, mentioning I wanted to go see a gingerbread house.  THEN we arrived.  Holy gingerbread house!  It was gorgeous!

Royal Park Hotel's life-sized gingerbread house!  Made with real ingredients.

The recipe:

The kids clowning. 

Peace, love and a plate-sized gingerbread cookies!
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

Christmas 2010: Snowsuits After Breakfast?

Ava LOVES the snow.  So much so, that most mornings when we were in Michigan for Christmas, she would head out after breakfast, onto the Careys' deck in her snowsuit.  She would put her snowsuit on over her pajamas, don her boots, hat and gloves and head outdoors.  This cracked me up.  She is a little heater...

 

You would think that any child, who has grown up with Georgian summers of humidity and near 100-degree heat, would prefer tropical destinations.  Not this one.  She is in heaven when on her Grandma and Grandpa Carey's back deck, making snow angels.

Peace, love and Chilly the Willy,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

A Very Lawson Christmas

More Christmas celebrating.  I love October, November and December.  October for the fall (helps to have a birthday in there, as well?), November for Thanksgiving and December for the many, many celebrations (that include family)!

This year we celebrated separately with just Mom's immediate family of my family and Sherry's family.  Sherry came directly from work to join in on the celebration.  The living room was FILLED with fun toys for the kiddos (that included two collapsible tents).  Daymian and Jordan's toys took up a little less space, but they seemed happy with their gifts, as well.  :) 

Peace, love and all-things-Lawson,

Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam



And of COURSE I had to include this sweet picture, of Uncle Danny and Cali.  He is entirely smitten with her.  Who wouldn't be?  :)

Christmas at The Lighthouse Academy 2010

Ava and Liam's day care had their annual Christmas luncheon.  This year the program was held in the sanctuary of the East Cobb United Methodist Church.  It was adorable.  Ava was an angel this year, although she was originally "Mary."  She mentioned to the teacher that she didn't want to be "Mary", so she decided an angel might be fun. ;-)

Even Liam's class got in on the fun.  Liam wore reindeer antlers, although by the time his class got to the stage, only ONE of his reindeer antlers actually stuck up.  It was so funny, Doug and I couldn't stop laughing!  Liam had no idea how funny it looked!   We took some video of Liam with his antler ;-) 

Ava's friend Tommy-Elyse was the angel Gabriel.  She memorized an unbelievable amount of lines for a little girl her age!  She did a great job.  So did Ava!

Here are some pictures after we all headed into the fellowship hall for lunch, as well as the kids' professional Christmas pictures from school.  I brought some homemade truffles and Aunt Linda's pumpkin torte to share.  We gave out gifts to the teachers after the festivities.  Ava and Liam also got Christmas gifts from the day care.  Incredibly sweet!  They have been our family, since we're geographically far from our own families.  Thank you, Lighthouse!

Peace, love and kid-Christmas carols,

Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

Ava's bestie: Tommye-Elyse.

Girls just wanna have fun.

 O.M.G. This picture cracks me up.  Liam didn't want to keep his dress clothes on after the pictures were taken in the morning.  The day care staff assured me they would change him back into his dress outfit.  Check out the tie.  He looks like a monkey's uncle!

Buddies

Alana and Mekhi have been longtime friends of Ava's in our small group. As you can see, they have so much fun together! These are just a few of the friends with whom we've been blessed in our small group at church.

Peace, love and friends forever,

Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam